This post is largely about adapting the output of The Things Industries(TTI) MyDevices Cayenne Low Power Protocol(LPP) payload formatter so that it can be injested by Azure IoT Central. The Azure function for processing TTI Uplink messages first deserialises the JSON payload discarding any LoRaWAN control messages and messages with empty payloads.
[Function("Uplink")]
public async Task<HttpResponseData> Uplink([HttpTrigger(AuthorizationLevel.Function, "post")] HttpRequestData req, FunctionContext executionContext)
{
Models.PayloadUplink payload;
var logger = executionContext.GetLogger("Queued");
// Wrap all the processing in a try\catch so if anything blows up we have logged it.
try
{
string payloadText = await req.ReadAsStringAsync();
try
{
payload = JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<Models.PayloadUplink>(payloadText);
}
catch(JsonException ex)
{
logger.LogInformation(ex, "Uplink-Payload Invalid JSON:{0}", payloadText);
return req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
}
if (payload == null)
{
logger.LogInformation("Uplink-Payload invalid:{0}", payloadText);
return req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.BadRequest);
}
string applicationId = payload.EndDeviceIds.ApplicationIds.ApplicationId;
string deviceId = payload.EndDeviceIds.DeviceId;
if ((payload.UplinkMessage.Port == null) || (!payload.UplinkMessage.Port.HasValue) || (payload.UplinkMessage.Port.Value == 0))
{
logger.LogInformation("Uplink-ApplicationID:{0} DeviceID:{1} Payload Raw:{2} Control message", applicationId, deviceId, payload.UplinkMessage.PayloadRaw);
return req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.UnprocessableEntity);
}
int port = payload.UplinkMessage.Port.Value;
logger.LogInformation("Uplink-ApplicationID:{0} DeviceID:{1} Port:{2} Payload Raw:{3}", applicationId, deviceId, port, payload.UplinkMessage.PayloadRaw);
if (!_DeviceClients.TryGetValue(deviceId, out DeviceClient deviceClient))
{
...
}
JObject telemetryEvent = new JObject
{
{ "ApplicationID", applicationId },
{ "DeviceID", deviceId },
{ "Port", port },
{ "Simulated", payload.Simulated },
{ "ReceivedAtUtc", payload.UplinkMessage.ReceivedAtUtc.ToString("s", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture) },
{ "PayloadRaw", payload.UplinkMessage.PayloadRaw }
};
// If the payload has been decoded by payload formatter, put it in the message body.
if (payload.UplinkMessage.PayloadDecoded != null)
{
EnumerateChildren(telemetryEvent, payload.UplinkMessage.PayloadDecoded);
}
// Send the message to Azure IoT Hub
using (Message ioTHubmessage = new Message(Encoding.ASCII.GetBytes(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(telemetryEvent))))
{
// Ensure the displayed time is the acquired time rather than the uploaded time.
ioTHubmessage.Properties.Add("iothub-creation-time-utc", payload.UplinkMessage.ReceivedAtUtc.ToString("s", CultureInfo.InvariantCulture));
ioTHubmessage.Properties.Add("ApplicationId", applicationId);
ioTHubmessage.Properties.Add("DeviceEUI", payload.EndDeviceIds.DeviceEui);
ioTHubmessage.Properties.Add("DeviceId", deviceId);
ioTHubmessage.Properties.Add("port", port.ToString());
ioTHubmessage.Properties.Add("Simulated", payload.Simulated.ToString());
await deviceClient.SendEventAsync(ioTHubmessage);
logger.LogInformation("Uplink-DeviceID:{0} SendEventAsync success", payload.EndDeviceIds.DeviceId);
}
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
logger.LogError(ex, "Uplink-Message processing failed");
return req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.InternalServerError);
}
return req.CreateResponse(HttpStatusCode.OK);
}
If the message has been successfully decoded by a payload formatter the PayloadDecoded contents will be “grafted” into the Azure IoT Central Telemetry message.
The Azure IoT Central Location Telemetry messages have a slightly different format to the output of the TTI LPP Payload formatter so the payload has to be “post processed”.
private void EnumerateChildren(JObject jobject, JToken token)
{
if (token is JProperty property)
{
if (token.First is JValue)
{
// Temporary dirty hack for Azure IoT Central compatibility
if (token.Parent is JObject possibleGpsProperty)
{
// TODO Need to check if similar approach necessary accelerometer and gyro LPP payloads
if (possibleGpsProperty.Path.StartsWith("GPS_", StringComparison.OrdinalIgnoreCase))
{
if (string.Compare(property.Name, "Latitude", true) == 0)
{
jobject.Add("lat", property.Value);
}
if (string.Compare(property.Name, "Longitude", true) == 0)
{
jobject.Add("lon", property.Value);
}
if (string.Compare(property.Name, "Altitude", true) == 0)
{
jobject.Add("alt", property.Value);
}
}
}
jobject.Add(property.Name, property.Value);
}
else
{
JObject parentObject = new JObject();
foreach (JToken token2 in token.Children())
{
EnumerateChildren(parentObject, token2);
jobject.Add(property.Name, parentObject);
}
}
}
else
{
foreach (JToken token2 in token.Children())
{
EnumerateChildren(jobject, token2);
}
}
}
I may have to extend this method for other LPP datatypes
To test the telemetry message JSON I created an Azure IoT Central Device Template which had a “capability type” of Location.
For initial development and testing I ran the function application in the desktop emulator and simulated TTI webhook calls with Telerik Fiddler and modified sample payloads. After some issues with iothub-creation-time-utc decoded telemetry messages were displayed in the Device Raw Data tab
This post uses a lot of the work done for my The Things Network V2 integration. I also found the first time a device connected to the Azure IoT Central Azure IoT hub (using the Azure IoT Central Device Provisioning Service(DPS) to get the connection string) there was always an exception.
Microsoft.Azure.Devices.Client.Exceptions.IotHubException: error(condition:com.microsoft:connection-closed-on-new-connection,description:Backend initiated disconnection.
This exception occurs when the SetMethodDefaultHandlerAsync method is called which is a bit odd. This exception does not occur when I use Device Provisioning Service(DPS) and Azure IoT Hub instances I have provisioned.
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