SenML
Introduction on the SenML data representation
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Introduction on the SenML data representation
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For Freemium projects, the way KPN Things processes device data to SenML changed (per December 13th 2022). Read all the details about the .
SenML is the default data format for device data in KPN Things. Currently KPN Things only supports SenML in JSON. We plan to support SenML in CBOR in the future.
A SenML message is officially called a SenML pack. One SenML pack consists of one or more SenML records. One SenML record expresses a single measurement. That way a SenML pack expresses a set of measurements
The first record in a SenML pack always contains base information. Base information expresses from which device the measurements are from (base name) and the moment the measurements were taken (base time).
There are different type of SenML records:
Number record - for communicating a number measurement
Boolean record - for communicating an on/off measurement
String record - for communicating a string measurement
Data record - for communicating raw data measurement
Below you find a non-exhaustive example of a SenML pack:
Line nr.
Explanation
2
First line with base attributes, stating measurement source and timestamp.
3
Number record
4
Number record with relative time
5
Boolean record
6
String record
7
Data record
This section explains the attributes you can use to express your measurements in SenML
urn stands for unique resource name.
dev means we are identifying a device.
DEVEUI is the type of device identifier used to identify the device.
01234567890ABCDEF is the DevEUI, the device identifier.
In the example above we identify a LoRa device by its DEVEUI. If we would have an M2M device, we would identify it by its IMEI and the base name would be as following: urn:dev:IMEI:0123456789012345:.
A base name always ends with a colon :!
Name of the individual measurement.
Unit of the measurement. Write your u-values in camel case, so start with a lower case character.
The timestamp of an individual record relative to the base time in seconds.
You have a SenML pack with "bt": 1600185600 (2020-09-15T16:00:00+00:00) and the pack contains a measurement with "t": -60.
The timestamp of that measurement is then 2020-09-15T15:59:00+00:00, so one minute earlier then the base time.
Value of the number measurement.
Boolean value for a boolean measurement. Should be true or false.
String value for a string measurement.
There are more attributes in the SenML specification, but these values are not used by KPN Things. You can read about them in the Sensor Measurements Lists specification:
For easier integration with KPN Things we have created client libraries in C and Python for you to use in your devices.
When the and/or values are present in the pack, they are available in the first measurement of the pack and applicable for all the measurements in the pack.
The base name of a SenML pack states which device the measurements are from. It should contain a . The parts of the base name, which are colon separated, are as following:
The timestamp of the measurement in format. If KPN Things receives a measurement without base time, the time of receiving the measurement is taken as base time. SenML being sent by KPN Things will always contain a base time.
The (..) name MUST consist only of characters out of the set "A" to "Z", "a" to "z", and "0" to "9", as well as "-", ":", ".", "/", and "_"; furthermore, it MUST start with a character out of the set "A" to "Z", "a" to "z", or "0" to "9". - The SenML spec,
When designing your SenML measurement format for M2M and Internet devices, you should take into account our . By using as much name and unit pairs from that list, you achieve higher compatibility with current and future data processing features.
Data value for a data measurement. Should be a encoded string.
To make SenML more suitable for communication over LoRa, we have introduced . ThingsML is a valid extension of SenML that introduces measurement indices. We have , allowing you to only send the measurement index number instead of sending the complete name and unit of the measurement. .
