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ThingsBoard Cloud

Choose your data region

Your data stays in the region you choose, for residency and compliance. No credit card required.

North America Data stored in North America Europe Data stored in the European Union

Rather run it yourself? Install on your own servers

Overview

ThingsBoard Edge supports several options for connecting devices. The diagram below provides a visual overview of available options to help you choose the right one for your use case.

Decision tree showing how to connect devices to ThingsBoard Edge. If the device is IP-enabled with custom firmware, use MQTT, HTTP, CoAP, LwM2M, or SNMP depending on the protocol. Non-IP devices or those using industrial protocols such as OPC-UA, Modbus, BLE, CAN, or SNMP can be connected via IoT Gateway.

Built-in transport protocols

Section titled “Built-in transport protocols”

These protocols apply to devices that communicate over standard IP transports and can connect directly to ThingsBoard Edge.

Most protocols support JSON, Protobuf, or a custom data format. This is the best option for new devices when you control the firmware.

IoT Gateway

Section titled “IoT Gateway”

ThingsBoard IoT Gateway connects devices in local networks without direct internet access, or using non-IP protocols — including MQTT, OPC-UA, Modbus, BLE, HTTP, CAN, BACnet, ODBC, and SNMP. The gateway converts device data to the ThingsBoard format and forwards it over MQTT to the platform.

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