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MAP IoT Entities – Introduction

MAP IoT Entities – an Introduction

MAP IoT Entities give you control on how to turn raw data from a sensor, device or …anything, into the analytics you want. Entities include Raw Items and Calc Items and both are contained in an Entity Template. This Entity Template is called as often as you want by importing configuration files. These config files include names and properties of the Entity and the properties for the Raw and Calc Items. On import, the Entity Template creates the Entity and the Raw and Calc Items and immediately starts processing any raw data that is available.

This is the first of several articles that we will write on how to use MAP IoT Entities to deliver your IoT application.

What are MAP IoT Entities?

Raw Items
A Raw Item contains the raw data that you upload into MAP. Raw data contains any Data Type that you want. If we don’t support the Data Type already (we support quite a range) then you can create your own Data Type – article on Data Types.

Calculated Items
A Calc Item contains the metrics that you want to create using your raw data. Rather than create all your analytics in one complex algorithm, our experience is that it it is easier, more flexible and quicker to create a number of seperate Calc Items that each do a specific part of the analytics.

A core module of MAP is the Invalidator. This continually monitors the calculation time of all Items in MAP and dynamically builds a dependency tree of all Items. By defining the type of invalidation relevant to your Calc Item, you control when and how frequently your Items are updated and re-calculated. The default mode is to invalidate on change of latest calculation time. So, if the latest calculation time of a Raw or Calc Item in the Dependency Tree changes then other Calc Items that are dependent on that Item will automatically recalculate.

What this means in practice is:

  • Step 1. New raw data is uploaded into a Raw Item in an Entity
  • Step 2. All Calc Items that depend on the Raw Item or any child Calc Item are also recalculated
  • Step 3. This all happens in seconds
  •  

    Why use MAP IoT Entities – what are the benefits?

    The key reason is simplicity. They are easy to use, easy to set up and offer a lot of flexibility.

    MAP is an integrated stack so we do all the complicated plumbing required to deliver the calculated metrics you want. So, all a developer needs to consider is:

  • 1. How to upload raw data from their device to MAP (API call or file drop are the best)
  • 2. How to extract data from MAP for use in their application/dashboard/UI (API call is best)
  • That’s it – MAP takes care of everything else!

    What is MAP?

    MAP stands for the Meniscus Analytics Platform and is MAP is our IOT Analytics Platform for delivering solutions at scale and at speed. It is an Integrated Analytics Stack so you can develop your solutions quicker and easier.

    More information on MAP IoT
    More information on MAP

    New MAP IoT Gateway device

    Our new IoT Gateway device makes it easier for developers to connect to MAP directly from devices.

    The gateway runs as a Windows Service on the IoT device or on a Raspberry Pi or a micro PC. It uses a MAP importer to push and pull data from the device directly into MAP. So, the gateway allows bi-directional flow of data making it possible to send instructions from MAP back to the IoT device.

    Within MAP, making use of our IoT Entity model, developers can create templates containing Items and Properties and add any calculation they want.

    For more information on MAP then click here

    Section 19 Investigation Information

    MAP Rain is our high performance, flexible and scalable cloud-based solution for rainfall and flood monitoring analytics. MAP Rain delivers location specific rainfall analytics for any point and any area of interest.

    MAP Rain – Analytics for Flood Investigations

    Predicting Flows in Sewers to Reduce Energy Costs

    MAP Sewer, Sewer Network

    PREDICTING FLOWS AND ENERGY SAVINGS IN SEWER NETWORKS – HUNDREDS OF CATCHMENTS IN REAL TIME

    MAP Rain and MAP Sewer are two real time data analytics solutions that help Water Companies improve quality of service whilst reducing operating costs. MAP Rain lets you integrate historic, current and predicted rainfall analytics into your solutions. MAP Sewer is an add on to MAP Rain to predict flows into pumping stations and sewers. 

    Our solution helps to:
    • Improving operation of the Wastewater Network by predicting hydraulic overload
    • Reducing Future Flood Risk by predicting sewer flooding
    • Reducing Category 1, 2 and 3 Pollution Incidents by predicting flooding in sewers, pumping stations and CSOs
    • Providing historic radar rainfall and Environment Agency rain gauge data for any location or catchment
    • On Demand calculation of rainfall Return Periods (using FEH99 method) for any location
    • Reducing Energy Costs with real time Demand Management to reduce Distribution Time of Use (DUoS) charges

    sewer network

    Helping Water Companies to improve Outcome Delivery Incentives (ODIs) and reduce energy costs using advanced real time analytics

    Meniscus has a comprehensive understanding of the Water Industry and in delivering process based energy, chemical and a range of real time analytics solutions based around integrating real time rainfall data with operational asset information. These case studies demonstrate how MAP is used to predict Bathing Water quality, identifying where CSOs are discharging and sewer levels are high in dry weather conditions, predicting pumping station flows in the sewer network and delivering a range of complex process based energy and chemical monitoring solutions.

    Meniscus provides analytics solutions for over 2,000 water and wastewater treatment assets sites.

    These solutions process a range of different operational datasets from hours run data, flow, chemical tank level, energy and many more. We are delivering these solutions using our core MCE and MAP analytics platforms. These solutions include a range of visualisations in the form of customised dashboards, widgets and scheduled management reports. Both MCE and MAP have comprehensive RESTful APIs so that developers can readily integrate both platforms directly into their own analytic solutions.