Our KPN Things platform is your environment to start working on IoT Solutions and manage in a single environment. This guide will help you get started. Before we dive in, make sure you have a subscription and you're able to sign in.

Account types

There are two types of accounts. For both types the authentication is managed in our GRIP platform developed by KPN. This provides you with a secure and easy access to your KPN applications. With the GRIP portal you can manage your subscriptions and perform user management.

KPN Things Freemium

Once you have registered you have a developer account. With this account you get a Freemium project. Here you can test LoRa and M2M connectivity for a limited number of devices for free.

Follow our step-by-step guide to further set up the environment.

KPN Things Explorer

You can easily upgrade this registration to a paid subscription later. This is our low threshold Explorer solution and suitable for even a couple of devices.

KPN Things Modular

An account will be created for you and you will receive an email to create a password. This is out dynamic solutions based on standard building blocks suitable for high-volumes.

KPN Things or Tailored

Accounts will be created for you and you will receive an email to create a password. This is our customized connectivity focussed solutions suitable for high-volumes.

Want to learn more about our propositions

KPN Things is available in four distinct propositions.

KPN Things offers flexible building blocks with which you can easily build complete IoT solutions. You can build a solution for virtually any use case. Do you want to know how full a waste container is, or where it is physically located? You can connect your Solution with our KPN Things platform.

Building blocks are available for each part of the chain that can easily be used together.

Thanks to standard connections, you can also use your own Device or Data platform. And with the KPN Things Portal, you have full control over your solutions.

KPN Things Portal Introduction

Learn why we built Things Portal and how it will benefit your IoT business

Quick reference instructional videos

For a kickstart, watch our instructional videos. They say more than a thousand words!

Look for the icon in the menu for more Quick reference videos.

This page explains about Getting started by creating an account and logging in for the first time.

Flexible Building Blocks

KPN Things offers you a flexible package of building blocks that you put together yourself. This allows you to set up and manage all your IoT solutions quickly and easily. You manage these building blocks in our KPN Things Portal.

Device Management

With KPN Things Device Management you have the insights and control over all your devices. ​

• Manage all your devices in one overview - From sensors to complex IP gateways and routers

• Device Twin - Insight in the status of every device

• Bulk actions - Manage solutions in bulk to control solution of any size​

• Firmware over the air - Update your devices remotely

Connectivity Management

Manage all your LoRa, LTE-M and M2M connectivity in a single platform.

• All your connectivity in one view - Manage LoRa, LTE-M and M2M connectivity in one view

• Manage connectivity for your device - Provide your devices with a connection

• Extensive network information - Have insights in your solutions all the time

• HTTP and MQTT protocols for M2M devices - You decide how to connect your devices

Destinations

A seamless integration of IoT data with any platform for maximum value.

• Platform Independence - Easily connect any data platform to the KPN Things environment, regardless of which platform you use or want to use

• Easy-to-Use Tools - We provide simple tools and extensive documentation to help customers create links and modify data.

• Extensive Functionalities - Access to a wide range of functionalities and additional services, allowing customers to use a platform that directly suits their specific use case

Customer and User Management

Provide your customers and users with a easy access to IoT solutions.

• Customer Management ​​- Manage IoT solutions of your customers

• Data Segregation - We provide in secure separation of data between your customers

• Customer Insight Overview - Have an overview of the different IoT solutions per customer

• Self Service - Provide your customers access to the Things Portal to manage their own solutions

• User Management - ​​Decide which users have access and to what functionality

Follow the steps to create your Freemium account.

The Devices Landing Page in the KPN Things platform provides an overview and management interface for all your registered devices.

Device Management

• Search and Filter: At the top, there’s a search bar that allows you to quickly find specific devices by name or other attributes. You can also apply filters to narrow down the devices based on type, status, or other criteria.

• Add a New Device: You can manually add a new device by clicking on the "Add new Device" button. This will guide you through the process of registering a new device with details such as its type, unique ID, and configurations.

• Bulk Management Options:

  • Bulk by CSV File: This is a key feature that allows you to upload multiple devices at once using a CSV file. You can use this feature to save time when you need to add or manage large numbers of devices at once.

  • Firmware Management: This option lets you add new firmware version on your devices. Keeping firmware updated is important for security and functionality improvements.

We are happy to help you on your way as best as possible. Nothing is more fun than seeing a visible result in your account quick. Follow our tutorials to get of to a good start.

An IoT Gateway is a device that connects sensors, IoT modules, and smart devices to the cloud. Gateways serve as a wireless access portal to give IoT devices access to the Internet. This way not all devices have to be connected by M2M or LoRa, but can work using options like Bluetooth (Low Energy) solutions. Making your solution more power efficient and it is easier to make a conclusive business case.

1. Check contents of the delivery

First, let us check if you received everything correctly. There should be two KPN Things SIM cards in the package.

2. Check KPN Things Portal

Then, the SIM cards should be visible in your KPN Things Portal on the All Connectivity page.

3. Obtain a Device

You now have a KPN Things SIM card in your possession, a SIM card that can be put in a programmable device to grant it direct access to KPN Things through a secure channel.

This SIM card supports connection to the following networks of KPN:

• LTE-M

• 2G

• 3G

• 4G

• 5G

Don't you have a programmable M2M Device yet? You should get one! We have some tips for you:

1. We have the most elaborate documentation on getting the SODAQ SARA AFF R412M to work with KPN Things, so getting such a device will provide you the best getting started guide that we have.

2. Other SODAQ SARA devices, like the SFF R412M or devices with a different modem should also work with our developer kit guide. You should only take into account some different settings.

   • For instance for SARA SFF devices, you should use Board type SODAQ SFF.

3. Our Device SDK also contains example code for the Arduino MKR GSM 1400, laying the basics for all Arduino based M2M devices.

4. If you want to use non-Arduino based devices, you would need to write your own code to interface with KPN Things. This M2M interface is explained in the Things M2M documentation.

KPN Things Portal Introduction

Learn why we built Things Portal and how it will benefit your IoT Business

User interface

This video explains how the User Interface and main navigation works.

Tables

This video explains how Tables work.

Bulk by multiselect

This video explains how Bulk by multiselect works in the User Interface.

Bulk by file

This video explains how Bulk by file works in the User Interface.

Now your Device is linked to the Flow!

With a Flow you configure the way your IoT data should flow through KPN Things, from device to destination. Learn more about flows.

1. Your first Flow

We have already created a first empty flow for you named My first flow. You can create new flows using the Add flow button on the top right.

2. Link Device to Flow

Click on Add Devices in the Flow overview page.

Now you see all Devices you can add to this Flow. Click on your Device to link it to the Flow.

Now your Device is linked to the Flow!

3. Activate a Decoder

Open your Project, open your Flow, and then click Data Processing.

Click on the Device type for which you want to activate a decoder (#1 in the screenshot below). At this moment you probably have only one type of device linked to the Flow, so open that one. All available decoders are now shown (#2 in the screenshot below).

Here you can toggle on and off what (decoded) data you want to receive in your application (like indicated with #3 in the screenshot below). If you want to know more about the decoder, click on the link in the description.

Note that the "Add new Decoder" button and "Edit" button are only visibleif this is your own device type. Own Device Types and Decoders can be created using the Things Creator app.

All downlink communication is requested on and managed by the Actuator API. Optionally a Destination can request and manage downlink communication as well. See Destination types to learn which destinations can support downlink communication.

After a downlink is requested on the Actuator API it is encoded. Meaning the downlink is translated to a message the device will understand. After encoding the downlink is send over the selected network to your device.

The network (and the device) will report feedback about the delivery of the downlink to the Actuator API. This information can be retrieved by the application, or the Things Connector fetches this information into your system.

Actuator API

Using the KPN Things Portal, you can request downlinks, and check their progress.

Since December 2020 it is also possible to directly call the Actuator API. Head on over to the API access documentation for more information!

Encoder

Using our encoders the downlink request is translated to a device specific message. All available encoders are listed on the Supported devices page.

Network support

Currently the following networks are supported for downlink communication:

• LoRa downlink

• HTTP response downlink for M2M devices

• HTTP response downlink for Internet-connected devices

Downlink via Destinations

Some Destination types also support sending downlinks.

The Contact info page provides you with all methods to contact us for questions and in case of an incident.

1. Click on Contact info in the menu to see all options to get in touch with us

2. We will always be there to help you, contact us if you have any questions

3. Support methods avaible for Modular and Tailored subscriptions

Note that for this tutorial you need to use a LoRa device.

1. Request downlink

Go to the All Devices page and click on the device you want to send a downlink to.

Open the Send Instruction tab. There you will find the input fields to send a downlink to your LoRa device:

• FPort: is the LoRa application port on which to send the data. If you don't use application ports on your device, you can just use 1.

• Payload: is the data you want to send to your device, written in hexadecimal characters. You could use for instance 010203.

Click Submit to request the downlink to be sent to the device.

2. Check status of downlink

After requesting the downlink, under Status Downlink your downlink will have appeared. Maybe you first see your downlink with the PENDING status, meaning it is still being processed, but if you hit the refresh button (#2 in the screenshot) you should see it switching to EXECUTING.

Queuing At most one downlink can be in EXECUTING at a time. When you submit more downlinks, they will stay in the PENDING state and they will be processed "first in first out". You can have at most 5 downlinks in PENDING. As long as a downlink is in PENDING mode, you can cancel it. If you do so, it will not be send anymore and the status will change to CANCELLED.

Learn more about .LoRa Downlinks sent through KPN Things are always Confirmed downlinks. That way we trigger an Acknowledgement (ACK) from the device in the next uplink, and with that information we can determine whether a downlink was received or not.

Click on the refresh button (#1 in the screenshot) to refresh your Data History table. There should now be an uplink record following your downlink record that contains an ACK (#2 in the screenshot).

• If the uplink containing the ACK was not received by the network, you will see your downlink is still in EXECUTING. When a next uplink is received we conclude the downlink as FAILED, since we do not know for sure whether the downlink has been received. You could state that the quality of service for downlinks through KPN Things is "at least once".

If you switch back to the Send Instruction tab, you should see that the status of your requested downlink has switched to DELIVERED. That means the acknowledgement has been received by the network.

Optional: send your data to Azure SQL

• Green bordered blocks are objects provided to you.

• Green filled blocks are objects you can create and manage.

• Grey bordered blocks are objects globally managed by the system.

Customer

If you have an account on KPN Things Data Management, it belongs to a . All main objects in the KPN Things Data Management belong to a Customer: Projects, Devices, Destination and Network subscriptions.

A Network subscription contains information for network types for a specific client. .

Project

Each Project defines a solution you buy or build in KPN Things. Learn more about .

Flow

With a Flow you link one or more devices to one or more plugs. So, if data is received from a device in a device group, its data will be forwarded to the plugs that are in the same device group.

A project has one or multiple activated decoders and encoders. These decoders prescribe which decoders should be used when data is received by a device that is in a device group that belongs to this project. Learn more about .

Device

A Device represents a single physical device that can send data to the platform. When creating a device you tell the system the device specification it belongs to.

A Device specification has one or multiple supported network types. For all our supported device types, go to.

For a device, you can create a Network info for each supported network type of the given device specification.

Destination

A Destination allows you to forward the data from your devices to an external system. For detailed information go to .

The support page provides access to all service related items. Here you can submit a request for information of report a service disruption.

1. These support items are available for everyone

2. Support tooling avaible for Modular and Tailored subscriptions

3. We will always be there to help you, contact us if you have any questions

Contact Support

When support is needed, click on the Contact Support tile. This opens the General inquiries form.

Next to the device list, you will see options for bulk actions, like activating or deactivating your M2M devices, or editing device settings in batches. These actions can be initiated by selecting multiple devices from the list or by uploading a CSV file that contains the necessary device information.

Exporting to CSV

You can easily download the Devices - Data result set by clicking the Download icon just below the Search icon.

This will generate CSV file, containing all devices in the current selection. The CSV file will contain the measurements accompanied with the timestamp of that specific measurement.

Click on the Bulk by CSV file button.

This step opens the process for uploading multiple devices at once via a CSV file. This saves time since you don’t need to add each device individually.

You are asked to upload a CSV file with the device data. Ensure that the structure of the file matches the template exactly, which you can download. Use a comma (,) as the CSV separator.

After uploading the CSV file, it will be validated.

This screen gives you feedback on the validation. All devices with valid data are displayed, and devices with errors won’t be processed. The system checks fields such as IMEI, ICCID, and other required fields.

After validation, choose the target project and flow where the new devices should be added. You can also specify the device details, such as the device type.

Here, you define the project and flow in which the new devices will be processed. You can also choose the type of devices being added, for example, M2M devices or another type.

Click on Add new M2M Devices to start adding the devices.

The system will now begin adding the devices. You can monitor the process by following the progress in the Bulk reports where you can see if all devices were successfully created.

User interface

This video explains how the User Interface and main navigation works.

Tables

This video explains how Tables work.

Bulk by multiselect

This video explains how Bulk by multiselect works in the User Interface.

Bulk by file

This video explains how Bulk by file works in the User Interface.

Look for the icon in the menu for more Quick reference videos.

The documents page provides you with documentation and manuals about our services.

1. Click on Knowledge Base in the menu for an overview of the available documentation

2. The highlighted documents contain important information and are shown in tiles

3. All other documentations about a topic are listed below the tiles

4. Every header indicates another topic, scroll down to check for more subjects

5. Use the search field to look for specific topics

6. This online KPN Things User Guide can be accessed through this link

Each company has a . You can create multiple within this Customer Account.

describe your commercial plan and available features. One Customer Account can have multiple projects.

Manage your customers

Upon request we can create a 'Reseller account' account for you, so that you can manage IoT solutions for your customers. Learn more about

KPN Things Data Management is a data processing platform that enables you to connect all your KPN Things devices to all supported destinations through one standard way of data processing. This principle is visualized in the diagram below:

Device support

Read more on device support:

Network support

KPN Things Data Management supports multiple forms of connectivity to receive data from devices. When you have a KPN Things device it is already configured to work with KPN Things Data Management.

Read more on connectivity support here:

Processing

Decode

During the optional decoding phase the device specific data protocol is transformed to the universal language of . This is called decoding. Decoding for KPN Things devices and custom devices that use the KPN Things client libraries is taken care of automatically. Therefor there is automatic compatibility with the enrichment phase.

Enrich

In future releases KPN will introduce data enrichment functionality in KPN Things Data Management.

Destination support

After processing your data will be forwarded to one or more Destinations you have configured.

The Release Notes page provides you with all new features and items we fixed or improved.

1. Click on the Release Notes links on the News page

1. All releases come with a version number as reference in case you have questions

2. The items of changes and fixes in the according release are stated below every version number

3. This is the date the article is published

4. Use the search field to look for specific topics

5. In case Cisco Control Center is used you have the option to select for Release notes Cisco to see the information related to the platform

In the KPN Things Portal it is possible to perform certain actions in bulk, meaning a single actions is performed on multiple objects at the same time. The following operations are currently supported as bulk action:

• Add Devices to a Flow in the .

• Add Devices to a Flow in the .

• Remove Devices from a Flow in the .

All Bulk reports page

All historical bulk operations can be found on the Bulk Report page, directly accessible through the side menu in the KPN Things Portal. This page shows you all executed bulk operations and their results.

By clicking on a specific Bulk report you open its details.

Bulk report detail page

The Bulk report detail page shows you every operation of the bulk action and whether the result was successful or not. This allows you to review past bulk operations and maybe fix some things if necessary.

Further reading

If you are interested in automating an administrative operation in the KPN Things Portal, you could also look in to , allowing you to write your own scripts to perform certain actions in your KPN Things account.

You can use to forward your device data to any supported platform or destination. The tool Webhook.site is used for this tutorial. Although we have good experience with this tool, KPN is not responsible for the proper working of the tool.

1. Create test HTTPS endpoint

Go to . Webhook.site is a service with which you can easily inspect incoming HTTP requests. When vising the site it will automatically create a unique HTTPS endpoint for you. Use the Copy to clipboard button that is highlighted in the screenshot below to copy the URL of your new endpoint.

2. Create your first Destination

Go to the Flows > My first flow and click Link destination

Choose Create a new Destination.

Select HTTPS endpoint as destination type.

3. Fill in your Destination Information

After selecting HTTPS Endpoint, fill in the following information:

• Destination name: you can think of a good recognisable name for your first destination, like My First Destination.

• URL: this should be the URL you just copied from webhook.site.

• Shared secret: this is a kind of password that an application should use to verify that KPN Things sent the data to the endpoint. It should be at least 32 characters long and should contain at least an uppercase character, lowercase character, digit, and special character.

4. Test connection with test message

Send a test message, e.g. by using the . You should see incoming information on your webhook.

Congratulations! 🎉

You successfully set up your first IoT solution!

To continue learning you can continue with:

The Invoices page provides you with a copy of your invoices. This is a click out to MijnKPN Zakelijk portal to allow you to download invoices as Adobe PDF files.

Need your invoices now?

Click the tile below to open MijnKPN Zakelijk right away.

Invoices

Invoices can be accessed via the following options.

1. Click on Invoices in the menu

2. Click on the Invoices tile

How to read the graph

If data history is enabled for your account and device type, you can find a graph of the configured metrics on the Data graph tab of your devices details page. If available, two metrics can be selected to show 2 graphs simultaneously.

The "Zoom" button can be used to focus more on the range of the metric values. The "Table View" button gives access to the underlying data of the graph:

The displayed data can be filtered, sorted, and exported according to your needs, just like all other data tables in KPN Things.

The data-graph is configured for most device types to show battery related characteristics, like batteryVoltage and batteryLevel.

Typical Battery Voltage levels behavior

In the current portfolio KPN uses 2 types non rechargeable batteries, 3.0 Volt and 3.6 Volt. There is 1 type rechargeable battery, the 3.7 Volt.

Non rechargeable batteries 3.0V and 3.6V Both the 3.0 and 3.6 type battery will be around the voltage of 3.0V or 3.6 Volt for a long time during their lifespan.

The course has a stable behaviour during the discharge process.

Slight fluctuations in voltage are caused by changes in the internal impedance of the battery which arise when the battery is in rest and becomes active when transmitting data and the power consumption by sensor readings. The ambient temperature is also a factor of importance in these fluctuations.

In the final phase of the battery life, the fluctuations to lower values will be more severe because the battery has more difficulty recovering from the passive to active state when the internal impedance of the battery is increasing.

In the final phase also the stable character will disappear and once the decline has started, it will proceed relatively faster.

How long a device will be able to work on a battery at the end of its lifespan depends on the number and current use of messages and sensor readings initiated by the device per day.

And here too, the ambient temperature is an important factor. Rechargeable LiPo The rechargeable battery has a voltage range from 3.7 Volts to fully charged around 4.2 Volts.

During consumption, the voltage will decrease and with this rechargeable type the degree of discharge is also influenced by the load and the ambient temperature.

A rechargeable battery has a slightly greater drop in voltage in the first phase of the discharge process and more as the battery reaches the end of its lifespan. Between those two phases the drop will be gradual.

If the battery reaches a voltage below 3.6 Volts, it is advisable to charge the battery to ensure proper functioning of the device.

The Support tickets page provides you with an interface to our IoT Service Desk. This is a click out to ServiceNow to allow you to raise and edit tickets.

Need support now?

Click the method that matches your subscription below to contact us right away.

Like to read the Contact Support manual first? Click on the Support link below.

Support tickets

Support tickets can be accessed via the following options.

1. Click on Support Tickets in the menu

2. Click on the Support Tickets tile

The news page provides you with all relevant information.

1. Click on News in the menu to see all news items under All News

2. Click on the title of a news item to open and read the full article

3. Use the search field to look for specific topics

4. This is the date the article is published, in case of maintenance check for the execution date in the full article

One of the main use cases in the Internet of Things is tracking of assets. Therefore KPN Things has location data at the core of its design, especially if you take into account the wide variety of tracking hardware we sell.

We consider two different types of determining the location of your Device:

• Localization: really determining the absolute location of your Device on the world.

• Detection: detecting the presence of your Device with an anchor in the world which has a known location. With this you can safely say your Device is close to the anchor.

Localization

Using multiple measurements in a single domain to try to approximate the location of the device.

The following measurement values are outputted by KPN Things:

• latitude

• longitude

• radius (if available)

• source

GPS

The device determines location using GPS. An implementation works for a given device and decoder.

• Device: Should have a GPS module and send GPS location.

• Decoder: A decoder for each device type that sends GPS data (unless a Things protocol is used)

LoRa Geolocation

The LoRa network determines the approximate location of the device using three or more fine timestamps calculated by the gateways. An implementation works for all LoRa devices.

• Network: Should be KPN LoRa with a geo-enabled connectivity plan

• Decoder: LoRa Geolocation decoder should be enabled.

Wifi localization

There should be WiFi infrastructure, dense enough for a device to pick up multiple access points. A device should scan for available WiFi access points and send their MAC-address and received signal strength to Things DM. Things DM should then decode the payload whereafter an external service can be called to resolve the measurements to a latitude and longitude.

• Device: Device should be able to scan for WiFi access points

• Decoder: A decoder for each device type that scans for WiFi access points (unless a Things protocol is used)

• Processing: A WiFi Localization processor should translate incoming WiFi MAC+RSSI measurements to a latitude, longitude and radius using an external service.

Detection

Trying to detect another identifiable object with a known location and using the location of that object as approximate location of the device.

• detectedBeacon

• source

LoRa On Premises Gateway detection

The LoRa network forwards the identifier of the best receiving gateway. Using the user-administrated location of this gateway the general location of the device is determined.

• Network: Should be KPN LoRa.

• Decoder: Metadata embedded in the DevEUI_uplink message from Thingpark should be accepted as information to be processed in Things DM.

• Processing: One LoRa Metadata decoder for location detection using LoRa Gateway ID

Bluetooth beaconing

There should be managed infrastructure of Bluetooth beacons that transmit their identifier in a known manner. The locations of these beacons should be administrated in an (out-of-scope) application. There should be devices being able to detect the beacon and send the beacon identifier to Things.

• Device: There should be a beacon device transmitting a Bluetooth beacon. There should be another device picking up the beacon and sending its identifier to Things.

• Decoder: A decoder for each device type that sends a bluetooth beacon ID (unless a Things protocol is used)

• Processing: trancelate beacon to coordinates.

Guide: Adding a New Device Type and Creating a New Decoder

Step 1: Adding a New Device Type

Open the Things Creator Application: Log in to the KPN Things application with your credentials and using the top-level menu, navigate to Things Creator. If you don't see this menu option, you're not authorized to access the Things Creator. Access is provided via the roles in KPN Grip. In order to gain access, send a request to the administrator of your Grip tenant.

Device Type Overview

Within the Things Creator application navigate to Device-Type Management: Click on the new main menu item "All Device Types". View the overview of all available device types.

Create New Device Type

Click on the "Add new Device Type" button. Fill in the required information for the new device type, such as name, description, and any specific properties. Click "Add Device Type" to add the new device type.

Edit or Delete Device Type

If needed, you can edit or delete your own device types through the device type overview. Select the device type from the list and in the device type detail page, click Edit or Delete.

After creating your own device-type, this device-type can be selected in the Things Manager when adding new devices to your project.

Step 2: Creating a New Decoder

Decoder Overview

Navigate to Decoder Management: Click on the menu item "All Decoders". View the overview of all available decoders.

Create New Decoder

Click on the "Add new Decoder" button. Select the device type for which you want to create the decoder. Note that you can only add a decoder for one of your own device types. Be sure to create your own device type first. Fill in the required information for the new decoder, such as name and description. Click "Add Decoder" to add the new decoder.

You can add as many decoders as you like for your device-type.

For more information on creating your own decoders, please refer to this page.

Edit or Delete Decoder

If needed, you can edit or delete your decoder through the decoder overview. Select the decoder from the list and in the decoder detail page, click Edit or Delete.

Create and Test Decoder Script

After creating a decoder, the decoder script must be created. In the decoder detail page, click the "Create" button in the Script section. Write and test the script using the designated editors. Click "Save" to save the script.

The decoder scripts can be tested using the provided sample payloads, or you can create your own test payload. The Click "Run script with test payload" to test your decoder script. The output and log can be used to validate your script.

For more information on creating your own decoder scripts, please refer to this page.

Edit or Delete Decoder Script

If needed, you can edit or delete your own decoder scripts through the decoder detail page. Click "Edit" to edit the script and in the edit script dialogue: Click "Delete" to the delete the script. Click "Save" to store any changes to your script.

Step 3: Activating the Decoder in Flow

You have successfully created your own device type and one or more devices of this type have been added to your project. Then the decoder of your choice must be activated in your flow. This is done in the Things Manager application.

Activate Decoder

Select the flow in which you want to activate the decoder and click "Data Processing". In the Data Processing overview, select the device type for wich the decoder shall be activated and toggle the decoder of your choice. Alternatively, you can click the "Add new Decoder" to create a new decoder in the Things Creator application.

The KPN Things Platform is the bridge between IoT Devices and IoT Applications. It offers a unified way of connecting Devices at the one side, and applications at the other side, making Devices and applications completely interchangeable in every IoT solution that uses KPN Things.

Device integration

Devices can communicate with the platform using one of our networks, LoRa or M2M (2G/3G/4G/LTE-M), or a Device using another network can get its data to and from KPN Things over the Internet.

Communication from your Device is called uplink communication. When data or instructions are sent to your Device, it is called downlink communication. The communication within KPN Things Platform uses the SenML data protocol. Devices using other languages can be translated from and to SenML using decoders and encoders.

Application integration

KPN Things will connect to your application through a dedicated connection layer. To connect your application to KPN Things you can use one of the available Destination types. We support connecting plain HTTPS endpoints to KPN Things, but if you are developing in Microsoft Azure, you can connect directly to the Azure Event Hub.

The Destination types that support 'management' connect on a platform level and can also manage objects in the application. The Cumulocity destination for instance will create Device objects in the Cumulocity tenant for each Device that KPN Things sends data of.

KPN Things Portal

The KPN Things Portal is the web application through which you can manage and monitor almost all parts of the KPN Things solutions. You can manage each part of the KPN Things solution, from Device to Destination, to bring your IoT data from the real world to the digital world. You are also able to use KPN Things API's directly to manage your IoT solutions.

The KPN Things Portal is the visual interface with which you configure your solutions on the KPN Things Data Management platform.

IoT solution in KPN Things Portal

To manage your IoT solution you use Flows and in a Flow you link Devices, configure Data Processing and set up Destinations together. See how these components relate to each other in the Management Data model. Since network configuration, or Connectivity, is part of the Device in KPN Things, a Flow expresses the complete way how IoT data should be received, processed and forwarded, from the Device to the Destination and vice versa.

With this tutorial you will create a simple web application showing a map showing your tracked LoRa data. This runs an in-memory data store, so on restart the store will be reset and all recorded data will be lost. The application runs on Next.JS

As an optional step the IoT web application can be deployed to Azure Web App.

1. Install the IoT web application

1. Get all the files needed for this tutorial at https://github.com/kpn-iot/c3y and save these in a local folder

2. Go to the folder 'c3y' and install: npm i

3. Build: npm run build

4. Start server in production mode: npm start

5. (optional) Seed with dummy data: ./postDummyData.sh

2. Redirect your webhook to localhost

Enable XHR Redirect in your webhook (tested in Firefox & Chrome, does NOT work in Safari):

• Target: http://localhost:3000/api/lora

• Content Type: application/json

• HTTP Method: POST

3. Test connection with test message

1. Send a location message using the device simulator.

2. Go to http://localhost:3000/ and click UPDATE.

You should see the location update with the location you have sent via the device simulator.

4. (optional) Deploy as Azure web application

1. Install azcli: brew install azure-cli ((https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/install-azure-cli)

2. Log into Azure, where ??? is the tenant ID from Azure Active Directory: az login --tenant ???

3. Deploy: az webapp up --sku B1 --location westeurope (takes about 5 minutes)

4. After deployment the URL is logged

5. Modify the URL in the HTTPS destination created in Connect a HTTPS destination to the URL returned by Azure CLI:[generated URL]/api/lora

6. Inspect logs: az webapp log tail

7. Open [generated URL] in the browser to see the web app

With Customer Management, you get the possibility to manage your own customers using separate customer environment in KPN Things. It is an extra administrative layer in the KPN Things Portal.

If you have Customer Management enabled in your KPN Things license, you will have an additional link in your side menu: All Customers (as indicated in the screenshot below). Click on it to open your customer list.

All Customers page

After clicking All Customers in the side menu, you will get an overview of all your customers.

In the screenshot the following elements are highlighted:

1. The number of Customers in your current view and your total number of Customers.

2. The company name of your Customer.

3. The name of the primary contact of your Customer.

4. The number of Projects your Customer has.

5. The number of Devices your Customer has.

6. The number of Destinations your Customer has.

7. A quick link to the All Devices page of your Customer.

8. Clicking on a row in the table will direct you to the Customer details page of the selected Customer.

9. A search bar to search for a specific Customer name.

Switching to Customer environment

After opening one of your Customers, your submenu will change. The top part will stay the same and will provide you a way back to your own Customer environment (#1 in the screenshot below). The bottom part of the side menu will now show you navigation for the environment of your Customer (#2 in the screenshot below), allowing you to open and/or manage the objects in the environment of your Customer.

Add new Customer

Adding new Customers will be added later. For now, if you want to add a new Customer, you should contact our service desk.

Customer overview

The Customer overview page provides you with a quick overview of the environment of your customer.

On this page you find:

1. A summary of the properties of your Customer.

2. A link to the Customer details.

3. The number of Projects of your Customer and a link to those Projects.

4. The number of Devices of your Customer and a link to those Devices.

5. The number of Destinations of your Customer and a link to those Destinations.

6. Quick links to add new objects to your Customer (buttons are disabled if you do not have rights)

Customer details

After switching to the Customer environment, you see the Customer details page. This page gives you a quick overview of the Customer details, like name and email address.

Users with an Explorer or Modular contract can view their contract and costs per billing cycle in the KPN Things Portal. To view the costs and contract, enable access by assigning the Finance Read-only role to your users in GRIP. See Roles and Access Levels on the Customer accounts & users page.

Starting point

To see an overview of the costs per billing cycle, click on your Customer name in the menu on the left. The Account card should show an item called Costs overview if at least one of your projects has an Explorer or Modular contract.

Costs overview

Click on the item Costs overview to navigate to the Costs Overview page. This page shows the costs that will end up on your invoices in a table and a chart. The costs are split per type; one time costs such as hardware, recurring costs, and usage. The costs are shown with any applicable discounts subtracted.

Costs details

Click on a row in the Costs table or on one of the bars in the chart to navigate to the Costs Details page of that billing cycle.

Under Base details, some information about the billing cycle is shown. The items and discounts are shown under Items and Discounts. The costs for the current month are a forecast of the next invoice and will be updated periodically during the billing cycle. Keep in mind that the actual invoice may contain additional costs and/or discounts not visible on this page.

The buttons Previous and Next above the card on the right allow you to navigate to the previous or next billing cycle.

Contract

Each project can have a contract linked by an operator of KPN. Navigating to the Project Overview page of that project shows the Project card with an item with the name of the contract.

Contract details

Click on the contract line to navigate to the Contract Details. Under Base details, some general information about the contract is shown.

Under Implementation, it is shown to which project the contract is linked. The items and discounts are shown per charge type, which can be one time, recurring, or usage. The items are subsequently grouped per product family. The regular price of each item is shown in the column Unit price in each row with a bold name. Optional tiered discounts is shown below each row to which it applies. The actual discount depends on the quantity, whose range is shown in the columns From and To. These columns are visible only if the contract has at least one item which has tiered discounts.

For all your services you use our GRIP authentication solution. By default we require a username and password combination. But of course it is possible to choose two-factor (2FA) or multi-factor (MFA) authentication.

These settings can be changed by an admin user in the MijnKPN portal.

1. Choose for Identity in the menu

2. Select Directories in the submenu

3. Select GRIP

4. Select Authentication in the tabs

You are now in the Authentication menu of your GRIP environment.

Standard setting

Scroll down in the Authentication menu for the Authentication Level settings.

1. The Required authentication Level score determines the level you need to reach before you can successfully log in

2. In this example (standard settings) the points for Credentials (username/password) match the points (20) needed to successfully log in without further authentication methods

Multi Factor setting

Scroll down in the Authentication menu for the Authentication Level settings.

1. The Required authentication Level score must be a higher number then for Credentials (username/password) alone

2. In this example (standard settings) the points for Credentials (username/password) don't match the points (25) needed to successfully log in, and another authentication method is needed

3. Provide points higher than 0 to enable the SMS authentication method, add 5 points to match the required level of 25 in combination with the credentials that provide for 20 points

4. Provide points higher than 0 to enable the Email authentication method, add 5 points to match the required level of 25 in combination with the credentials that provide for 20 points

Multi Factor login

The login interface for all users has been updated to the view shown below. Users can select their preferred option to log in successfully.

The Service reports page provides in an overview of the availability of our service per month.

1. Click on SLA Reports in the menu for an overview of the availability of our services

2. Click on the calendar icon to choose another month to see report history

3. Click on the info icon for a brief explanation of the key performance indicator (KPI)

4. Click on a specific service for more report details on performance history

5. Shows the service level of a specific service for the selected month

Report details

The report details show more report details on performance history.

1. Choose a from date and to date to present the graphs for a certain period

2. The KPI Value is the measurement of an availability for the specific month

3. The KPI Norm is the standard we strive for and use as minimum availability standard

4. Click SLA Report overview to go back to the Service reports page

If you have a proposition that supports routers and you have a routers subscription, then you can view the status of your routers by clicking on Routers in the menu.

Routers page

The router page shows a list of your wireless routers. The data shown, is retrieved from the Router Management Platform (RMS). The actual router management is done in the RMS, which can be reached using the break-out buttons in the list.

Elements on the page are:

• The name of the router

• The name of the KPN Things project, this router belongs to

• The router model name

• The router status (Online, Offline, Pending)

• The ICCID of the (primary) SIM-card that is inserted in the router

• The IMEI of the the router

• The signal strength that is measured by the router (in dBm)

• The version of the routers firmware

• Information on credits for this router:

  • Credit Type

  • Credit Expiry Date

This is an old development board which is no longer available for purchase and should not be used for new designs.

The LoPy4 is a quadruple bearer MicroPython enabled development board (LoRa, Sigfox, WiFi, Bluetooth) perfect enterprise grade IoT platform for your connected Things. With the latest Espressif chipset the LoPy4 offers a perfect combination of power, friendliness and flexibility.

1. Setup your LoPy4 device

Use the from the Pycom documentation to get started with your LoPy4. Make sure you setup both the and . You should be able to when continuing this getting started.

2. Determine device identifiers

The LoPy4 is a LoRa device, and to register a LoRa-device to a network you need three values: DevEUI, AppEUI and AppKey. These values must be registered in KPN Things and in the device. For more information on these three values you can read in the LoRa documentation.

3. Register your LoPy4 to KPN Things

Open the KPN Things Portal

Open the . Go to the All Devices page and click on Add new Device.

Fill in your device information

1. Select the Own LoRa device (preset connectivity) device type

2. Enter a name for your LoPy4

3. Click Add Device to continue

Provide Network Information

Fill in the three values you determined in the previous step . Then click Add Network Info to save the network information and then Finish to continue.

Check your newly created Device

You are now on the Device Detail Page. In the LoRa tab you will see the network status. This can temporarily be Pending creation, but if you refresh the page it should switch to Active. This means your device is correctly registered to the network.

If the network status sticks to Pending creation, you could try to delete the Device and register the device again.

5. Program your device

Use the example from Pycom to get your device connected with our LoRa network and have it send data to KPN Things.

Check incoming data in the Portal

Now your LoPy4 has joined and is sending data, you could visit the LoRa data tab on your Device Detail Page in the Portal. You should see your Join request and Join accept appear like in the screenshot below and at this point you will see more data as well.

Read more information about what you see on the tab.

Setup data flow in KPN Things

You now successfully connected your LoPy5 device to KPN Things! To further setup your data flow in KPN Things, you can go to the next step:

The Real-time status page provides you with the current operational status of our platforms.

1. Click on Incidents in the menu for an overview of the status of our platforms

2. If Overall status is OPERATIONAL all underlaying items are functional

3. All major incidents are shown in the overview with one of the statuses below

Investigating

Under investigation but no cause has yet been found

Identified

We found the cause, we are going to apply a fix

Monitoring

We applied a fix and monitor if the platform remains stable

Resolved

Everything is working fine again

Closed

All operational actions are done, we have taken up the learnings to improve our services

1. This is the date and time of the last update of the incident

2. The information on this page is also available on in case the Things Portal itself is inaccessible and also more detailed updates on the incident are available

Subsytem details

Below the KPN Things Incidents overview more details are available to show which service has been affected.

Cisco Control Center API

There is a disruption to the API, please use Cisco Control Center as a workaround when possible

Cisco Control Center Portal

There is a disruption at the Cisco Control Center portal, please use Things Portal as a workaround when possible

KPN Things API

There is a disruption to the API, please use KPN Things Portal as a workaround when possible

KPN Things Engine

There is a disruption of the KPN Things backend that results in not receiving data for customers that use Flows

KPN Things Portal

There is a disruption to the user interface of Things Portal, please use the KPN Things API when possible or wait with making changes until the incident is resolved

LoRa Connectivity

There is a disruption of the whole or a large part of the LoRa network

M2M Connectivity

There is a disruption of the whole or a large part of the M2M networks of KPN in the Netherlands

M2M Roaming Connectivity

There is a disruption in the roaming domain or with a roaming partner.

RSS feed

The RSS feed (Really Simple Syndication) makes it possible to automatically receive status updates. You will need an RSS-feed reader or plugin in applications like Slack or Mattermost to be able to recieve the updates.

The RSS feed for status updates is located at the following URL:

Also known as StreamLineTM-2000/P1A3.

• Supported network type(s): KPNLORA

• Device Specification ID: kpn-locationtag-iii

• Device Specification UUID: 3df8f443-5b48-43f6-b2bf-2f0ea2ee68a8

+ Location by LoRa On Premises Gateway reception

• UUID: eaf38fe3-e136-436e-9f47-10c8375d871f

• Description: Add location data to messages that are received by known .

• Exchange: decoder.lora.lrr.exchange

Expected SenML outputs

Unknown

+ LoRa Geolocation data

• UUID: d4c55333-bb8d-4002-91f8-8e4e428207c0

• Description: Add data to messages where location could be calculated.

• Exchange: decoder.location.data.kpn.actility.exchange

Expected SenML outputs

Unknown

Lora location data

Add data to messages where it could be calculated and data received by known :

See for more information.

‹ Encoded device send interval

• Protocol: LoRa downlink

• Description: Change the send interval of your Device.

• Multiple commands in one downlink: No

Input mapping:

• Name: interval

  • Value: 2h (translates into → 1500b402201c1500b802201c16)

Connect your own M2M Device that communicates over the Internet. Useful when only Device management data is sent to KPN Things. Part of the Device Management + Connectivity only proposition.

• Supported network type(s): MQTT,INTERNET,KPNM2M

• Device Specification ID: own-m2m-with-internet

• Device Specification UUID: cf872c9e-9343-47db-b972-35dc4df340c8

› Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data

• UUID: c876bac7-c664-4297-a954-2666eb6aae54

• Description: One decoder to forward raw SenML data and decoded ThingsML data sent by the device.

• Exchange: decoder.thingsml.json.exchange

Expected SenML outputs

Unknown

› Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data (v2)

Decoder that forwards raw SenML data and decoded ThingsML data sent by the device.

Example SenML

This is completely dependent on the SenML or ThingsML input and could output almost any SenML. The decoded ThingsML below is just illustrative of what is possible.

= SenML data encoding

• Protocol: HTTP response

• Description: Send SenML data to your device.

• Multiple commands in one downlink: No

• No input mapping

A device specification for the Things Device phone App.

• Supported network type(s): INTERNET

• Device Specification ID: own-phone-qr

• Device Specification UUID: 3f77934a-2310-4504-89d7-08f40a25c2b8

› Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data

• UUID: 55e10f0f-23e6-40c3-a1f0-1e468f9cca1c

• Description: One decoder to forward raw SenML data and decoded ThingsML data sent by the device.

• Exchange: decoder.thingsml.json.exchange

Expected SenML outputs

Unknown

› Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data (v2)

Decoder that forwards raw SenML data and decoded ThingsML data sent by the device.

Example SenML

Example SenML

This is completely dependent on the SenML or ThingsML input and could output almost any SenML. The decoded ThingsML below is just illustrative of what is possible.

= SenML data encoding

• Protocol: HTTP response

• Description: Send SenML data to your device.

• Multiple commands in one downlink: No

• No input mapping

The LoRa Connectivity configuration page gives you the opportunity to choose the communication profile that best suits your application.

The Devices overview provide you with a list of all devices als the connectivity used.

1. Click on Devices to show the device overview on the Things Manager tab

2. Search for a device Name of DevEUI to find the device and click the icon to open the Device and Connectivity details

3. Or click on the icon to open the Device and Connectivity directly in your device overview list

1. Click on the Connectivy Plan name to go to the LoRa Connectivity configuration section

2. Or open the LoRa tab and scroll down to the LoRa Connectivity configuration section

1. Click Edit LoRa Connectivity configuration

2. The page show an overview of the current connecivity settings for this device

3. Want to learn more about the different settings how they work then click the link to go to the about LoRa connectivity configuration

Edit configuration

The connectivity plan can be updated here, by selecting the Connectivity plan selection box a new dialog opens In this dialog all available connectivity plans are shown, it shows per connectivity plan if it includes geolocation.

The LoRa Connectivity configuration page gives you the opportunity to choose the connectivity profile that best suits your application.

The Devices overview provide you with a list of all devices als the connectivity used.

1. Click on Devices to show the device overview on the Things Manager tab

2. Search for a device Name of DevEUI to find the device and click the icon to open the Device and Connectivity details

3. Or click on the icon to open the Device and Connectivity directly in your device overview list

1. Click on the Connectivy Plan name to go to the LoRa Connectivity configuration section

2. Or open the LoRa tab and scroll down to the LoRa Connectivity configuration section

1. Click Edit LoRa Connectivity configuration

2. The page show an overview of the current connecivity settings for this device

3. Want to learn more about the different settings how they work then click the link to go to the about LoRa connectivity configuration

Edit configuration

The connectivity plan can be updated here, by selecting the Connectivity plan selection box a new dialog opens In this dialog all available connectivity plans are shown, it shows per connectivity plan if it includes geolocation.

In KPN Things the Device type is used to express the connectivity and data capabilities of a Device, like whether it is a LoRa or an M2M device, and its compatibility to Data Processing components such as decoders and encoders.

KPN Things supports the devices as shown in the subpages of this page.

KPN Things Devices versus Supported Devices

We have two categories of Device types, namely KPN Things Devices, when you buy a Device from us, and Supported Devices, when you bring your own Device to KPN Things. Each categorie has its own set of Device Management features in the Portal.

Legenda ✅ - Available for this device type. 🟡* - Configurable for your own device, coming soon. ❌ - Not available for this device type.

The Smartrak M2M GPS tracker is a device produced by Streamline and used for demo purposes. When you push the button the device will send its location to KPN Things.

Check contents of the test device box

The first step is to check if everything is present in the box:

Contents:

• Battery (1)

• Logic board (2)

• Bottom part of the casing (3)

• Top part of the casing (4)

• KPN M2M SIM card (5)

• Wireless Charger (not shown)

1. Insert SIM and assemble device

Assemble the device

Step 1: Insert the SIM-card and write down the IMEI (1), we need that later.

Step 2: Connect the battery.

Step 3: Connect the vibration motor. This can be a bit of challenge, but you can do this. The connector has to be pushed on the terminal from above instead of sliding

Step 4: Connect the bottom part. This is the wireless charging circuit.

Step 5: Put everything together.

Step 6: Rotate the two parts as shown. The on/off button has to be on the side of the vibration motor.

Step 7: Click two parts of the casing together.

Charge the device

1. Plug in your QI charging device.

2. Place the device on the QI charging device and allow it to charge for a few hours.

3. You should hear a beep when the device starts charging.

2. Configure the device in the KPN Things Portal

Open the KPN Things Portal

Open the KPN Things Portal, and log in with the credentials you received in the mail. Go to the All Devices page and click on Add new Device.

Fill in your device information

1. Select the Streamline M2M device device type

2. Enter a name for your test device

3. Click Add Device to continue

Provide Network Information

Now enter the Streamline M2M specific information of your Device.​‌

1. IMEI of your Device. This value is printed on the logic board. If you followed the assembly instructions in step 1, you have written this value down.

2. ICCID of your SIM card. This value is printed on your SIM card. Select the correct SIM card from the drop down.‌

3. Click Add Network Info to save the network information and then Finish to continue.‌

If you want, you can learn more about M2M in KPN Things.

Check incoming data in the Portal

Push the button on the device and it will send its location to KPN Things! After the push the LEDs start blinking:

1. Lightning icon: GPS location is being searched

2. Battery icon: Device is turned on / charging

3. Waving person icon: indicates the button is pressed

The first time after connecting the battery it can take up to 5 minutes to receive a message. If the LEDs do not start blinking try to push and hold the on / off button for 10 seconds. The battery LED in the middle should start blinking. If still nothing happens, try to charge the device for at least 2 hours.

You should now visit the Device Detail Page in the Portal of this Device. In the connectivity block, you should see that the last message time indicates that KPN Things just received a message from your Device!

Continue to the next step:

Our KPN Things Device simulator app for iOS or Android allows you to test KPN Things with your own mobile phone as a device. If you do not yet have a suitable device, you can use the app to still build a working data flow.

Features

• Mobile as a device - Easily add the app as a Device in your KPN Things account.

• Choose sensors - The app allows you to choose which phone metrics to use as Device data

• Choos your interval - Send the data once or at a regular interval

Requirements

You will need asmartphone (iOS or Android) and a computer. Each step of this article ses the smartphone or computer icon to tell you on what apparatus you should be taking those steps.

Add your phone

Follow the steps to add your mobile as a device.

Or connect your own test devices with out other device templates.

Choose one of the below device types to continue setting up your IoT solution.

Sim card

You can request KPN M2M sim cards at https://portal.kpnthings.com. Register for free and find the link in the M2M is now available notification to order your SIM cards.

Continue configuring your SIM cards.

Device simulator app

We recommend starting with connecting the KPN Things device simulator app. You can use this app to simulate a device and send messages whenever your want.

Continue with the Device simulator app.

Supported devices & KPN devices

KPN Things supports commonly used IoT devices out of the box. If you want to get started with one of these devices, continue with Supported devices & KPN devices.

Developer devices

Start experimenting and discover the wide range of possibilities with these developer devices.​

Old developer devices

These development boards are no longer available for purchase and should not be used for new designs.​

Other devices

To connect other devices head over to the Device SDK.

Continue to the next step:

Since KPN Things is a data platform, it prescribes with which data format your Device should communicate with KPN Things. The KPN Things Device SDK helps you to quickly connect your Device to KPN Things.

You can find the Device SDK library on Github: https://kpn-iot.github.io/thingsml-c-library/

The Device SDK is mainly based on the ThingsML data format. ThingsML is an extension of SenML created by KPN. For SenML we have also developed a library which is available for C, Python, and MicroPython. Visit the SenML library documentation.

The Device SDK is available in the following languages:

• Things Device SDK in C++

• Things Device SDK in Python

• Things Device SDK in MicroPython

Supported devices

Specifically, the Device SDK has been tested on the following Devices:

Supported devices

Specifically, the Device SDK has been tested on the following Devices:

Connect your (virtual) Internet-connected device to KPN Things.

• Supported network type(s): INTERNET

• Device Specification ID: own-internet

• Device Specification UUID: b2c5c303-4f74-4b58-95f5-b80455fdafbc

› Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data

• UUID: 16799a1c-9dea-4fc9-83b1-03d4562aba69

• Description: One decoder to forward raw SenML data and decoded ThingsML data sent by the device.

• Exchange: decoder.thingsml.json.exchange

Expected SenML outputs

Unknown

› Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data (v2)

Decoder that forwards raw SenML data and decoded ThingsML data sent by the device.

Example SenML

This is completely dependent on the SenML or ThingsML input and could output almost any SenML. The decoded ThingsML below is just illustrative of what is possible.

[
    {
        "bn": "urn:dev:DEVEUI:fe782a953c642aeb:",
        "bt": 1693136532.83,
        "n": "latitude",
        "u": "lat",
        "v": 51.90717
    },
    {
        "n": "longitude",
        "u": "lon",
        "v": 4.48940
    },
    {
        "n": "temperature",
        "u": "Cel",
        "v": 29.75
    },
    {
        "n": "batteryVoltage",
        "u": "V",
        "v": 3.59
    },
    {
        "n": "extTemp",
        "u": "Cel",
        "v": 17.22
    },
    {
        "n": "io",
        "vb": false
    }
]

= SenML data encoding

• Protocol: HTTP response

• Description: Send SenML data to your device.

• Multiple commands in one downlink: No

• No input mapping

For more information about the devices that are supported in Things portal head over to . Would you like to add your own device, head over to the .

1. Add new Device

Head to the Devices in the left menu. Click the Add new device button in the left top corner. This is the place where you register new Devices and add them to KPN Things and our networks.

If you have more than one Project, you will have to select to which Project you would like to add your Device.

2. Select your Device type

You can select an existing device-type offered by KPN Things, or create a new device type using the .

3. Fill in Device Information

• Name: Typically can be a Device ID or the name of a physical asset which the device is linked to.

• Barcode (optional): Barcode or serial number used to identify a device.

• Description (optional): Any additional device information.

When done, click Add Device to continue.

4. Provide or get Network information

This step will look differently, depending on the type of network information.

Generated LoRa network information (programmable device)

If you selected Own LoRa device (programmable) device type in the previous step, the Portal will give you the OTAA join information (DevEUI, AppEUI and AppKey). Make sure to copy-paste or write down the provided identifiers. For security reasons the secret values will not be retrievable through the Portal after closing this page.

Click Finish to continue.

Provided LoRa network information (device with preset connectivity)

If you selected Own LoRa device (preset connectivity) or a supported device type, you should provide the LoRa network information for your device in this step.

Click Add network info to save the network information and then Finish to continue.

M2M network information

1. IMEI of your Device.

2. ICCID of your SIM-card - select the correct SIM card from the drop down. If you have an Early access SIM, you choose the option "Add early access SIM" and enter the ICCID of the SIM manually in the newly appeared input field (see A in the screenshot below).

3. Shared secret

After entering the values, click Add network info to save the information, or click Finish without adding Network to continue without adding network information to your Device object.

Internet network information

1. DvnUUID - the unique number to identify incoming data from your Device. Your Device UUID is prefilled, but you can enter any UUID you like.

2. Shared secret

5. Check incoming data in the Portal

You can visit the LoRa data or M2M data tab on your Device Detail Page in the Portal. You should see messages here as soon as the device has activity on the network.

You're ready for the next step:

Get your KPN Things device data in a Azure SQL database. This QuickStart will help you set up a KPN Things flow towards an Azure Eventhub. The Azure Eventhub is used to ingest data in to the Azure platform. An Azure Streamanalytics job will process incoming data. The data will be stored in an Azure SQL database. For this QuickStart you’ll need a KPN Things account with an active device (or download the ) and an active Azure subscription.

In this QuickStart you’ll learn how to:

• Create and configure the necessary Azure resources

  • Create and configure Azure Eventhub

  • Create an Azure SQL database with appropriate data tables

  • Create and configure a Stream Analytics job

• Setup a KPN Things Flow with

Prerequisites

• KPN Things Account with active device

  • If you don’t have an KPN Things account create a .

• Azure subscription

  • If you don't have an Azure subscription, create a .

Step 1: Setting up the Azure environment

In this section you’ll be guided through the creation and configuration of an Azure event hub, a stream analytics job and an Azure SQL database. It’s advised to create a new resource group in which to bundle these newly created resources.

Creating and configuring Azure event hub

The Azure EventHub is used for the ingestion of data. Don't have an Azure Event Hub yet? Head on over to the Microsoft documentation to learn to create an Azure Event Hub:

From this point, when following the link, you’ve created everything to ingest data to Azure. You have created a resource group, an Event Hubs namespace, and an event hub.

Create an Azure SQL database with appropriate data tables

Now we have prepared the input data by creating the Event Hub. We can now proceed to the creation of the Azure SQL database for the data output. Don't have an Azure SQL database yet? Head on over to the Microsoft documentation to learn how to create an Azure SQL database:

At creation, remember to select the resource group created earlier. This way all resources for this quick start will be grouped together. Furthermore, make sure to write down the ‘Server admin login’ and ‘Password’. Under additional settings don’t select sample as we want to create our own data table later on.

Query the database

When the creation of the database is complete we can create the necessary table. Go to the query editor in the Azure portal as described in the documentation link:

In the query window run the query underneath to create a new data table in the database:

When completed a new data table called eventhub will be created. Additionally, two indexes will be created to enable quick searches on ‘bn’ and ‘bt’. These columns will hold the KPN Things device identifier and measurement timestamp. The newly created data table will be visible in the left view under tables.

At this point you’ve created the data input and the data output by leveraging an Event Hub and an Azure SQL database. In the next step we’ll set up the data stream from input to output by using Azure Streamanalytics.

Create and configure a Stream Analytics job

Now we have prepared the input data by creating the Event Hub and the data output by creating an Azure SQL data store. Now let’s set up Streamanalytics to tie it all together.

The following Microsoft quickstart will guide you through the creation of an streamanalytics job. The entire article describes the usage of an iothub for input data and blob storage for output. Remember in this quickstart we will be using Eventhub for input and Azure SQL database as output.

At ‘Configure job input’ select Event Hub and point to the Eventhub created earlier. Use ‘eventhubinput’ as alias.

At ‘Configure job output’ select SQL database and point to the Azure SQL database created earlier. Set the database table to ‘eventhub’ to match the table created during the previous step. Use ‘sqloutput’ as alias.

At ‘Define the transformation query’ select Query and update with the query underneath. Make sure you are using the input and output aliases as created under input and output

Now Save your input and start the Stream Analytics job.

At this point you’ve created a data ingestion point (Event Hub) a streaming data processor (Stream analytics job) and data storage (Azure SQL database) . In the next step we’ll connect KPN Things to Azure!

Step 2: Setup a KPN Things Flow with Azure Event Hub destination

Let’s put things together! Now everything is set up in Azure all we need to do is setup a data flow in KPN Things. This Flow will send device data towards an Azure Event Hub destination.

• Go to KPN Things and add a flow and give it a name and description

• Link new or existing device(s)

• Now go back to the flow and set up the data processing by enabling the decoders for the selected device

• Add a destination for the flow. Select ‘Create new Destination’. Fill in all necessary details related to the Azure event hub created in Step 1. Don’t know where to find all the required parameters? Follow

When all parameters are set the destination should be active. You should now have a working KPN Things Flow towards Azure Event hub.

Congratulations!

You’ve created your first flow towards Azure. All Data produced by the devices in the flow will now be sent to Azure, get processed by the Stream Analytics Job and will be stored in the Azure SQL database.

In KPN Things the Device type is used to express the connectivity and data capabilities of a Device, like whether it is a LoRa or an M2M device, and its compatibility to Data Processing components such as decoders and encoders.

KPN Things supports the devices as shown in the subpages of this page.

KPN Things Devices versus Supported Devices

We have two categories of Device types, namely KPN Things Devices, when you buy a Device from us, and Supported Devices, when you bring your own Device to KPN Things. Each categorie has its own set of Device Management features in the Portal.

Legenda ✅ - Available for this device type. 🟡* - Configurable for your own device, coming soon. ❌ - Not available for this device type.

Project types

The Project type determines what you can and may do in KPN Things Portal. Some KPN Things Projects provide you with more features in the Portal than others.

Depending on the subscription of your Project, one or more of the following restrictions can apply:

You can find applicable restrictions on the of a Project.

Project attributes

A project has the following attributes:

• UUID - the technical identifier of your project.

• Name - the name you give to your project.

• Description (optional) - further explanation of your project.

• Creation date - the moment your project was created.

• Subscription - the type of project you have, determined by what product you bought.

Freemium project

The Freemium Project gives you free limited access to the KPN Things Portal:

• One Project in KPN Things Portal.

• Access to our to get you started with programming your Device.

• Integrated KPN LoRa functionality:

  • Free registration of up to 3 devices to KPN's nationwide LoRaWAN network.

  • Free use of .

  • Insight in LoRaWAN network communication.

• Additionally, you can order KPN Things SIM cards to connect M2M devices to KPN Things:

  • Connect up to 2 M2M devices to KPN Things for free.

  • Data communication over HTTP (MQTT will be available in the future).

  • Access to our LTE-M, 2G, 3G, 4G, and 5G networks.

  • European roaming included.

• Optional payload decoding for supported device types.

• Forward your data to up to 3 different .

• KPN Things access is subject to your .

Your Projects

You can find your Projects by clicking on your Customer name in the left menu. If you are a free user, you will get one project named My first project.

Do you want to upgrade one of your Projects? Click on Upgrade.

Project overview

When clicking a project you go to the Project overview page. It gives you an overview of a selected Project:

• You can see the name, description and type of subscription of the selected project.

• Link to the .

• You can also see which , and are part of this project.

Project details

On this page you will find technical details of your project. At the project details page, you can edit the name and description of your project yourself.

What is Connectivity in KPN Things?

Connectivity management is part of Device management in KPN Things, just like Connectivity is part of your Device in real life.

But what if connectivity is not yet linked to a Device? For instance, you want to view all KPN Things SIM cards you have that are not yet put into a Device. For that and other overviews of your (unlinked) Connectivity we created the .

KPN Things comes with two types of integrated networks:

• Our country wide LoRa-network

• Our cellular M2M network (2G/3G/4G/LTE-M) with non-steered global roaming.

Devices that are not connected to our integrated networks can still connect to KPN Things over the internet.

Since LoRa connectivity can only exist as part of a LoRa Device, the Connectivity detail page for a LoRa device is identical to the .

All Connectivity page

This page gives you an overview of all Connectivity items you have.

The following elements can be found on this page:

1. The number of connectivity items you have.

2. An overview of your connectivity items, displaying the following information:

   1. Type - Type of connectivity.

   2. ICCID / DevEUI - Unique connectivity identifier.

   3. Connection - Whether the connection is active or not.

   4. Activated on - (only for M2M) When the connectivity was first activated.

   5. Device - The Device name of the Device the connectivity item is linked to.

   6. Bundle/Rate plan - (only for M2M) The set of applied rules for your SIM card, i.e. whether you may roam and how much data you can use.

   7. APN - (only for M2M) the APN(s) your SIM card may connect with.

   8. Clicking on a row will open the of the selected connectivity item.

3. A search bar to search in Type, Identifier and Connection.

Add new Connectivity

It is not yet possible to order more SIMs through the Things Portal. If you want to add more SIM cards to your account, please contact us:

• For Developer accounts: through

• For MijnKPN Zakelijk accounts: through the .

Connectivity detail page

On the Connectivity detail page of an unlinked Things M2M Connectivity item - a SIM card - you can see the following:

1. Information of the SIM card:

   • The ICCID of the SIM card.

   • The MSISDN of the SIM card.

   • The connectivity status - Active or Deactivated.

   • The moment the SIM card has been activated for the last time.

   • The rate plan of the SIM card.

2. Button to .

Once your Connectivity is linked to a Device, the Connectivity detail page will be unified with the . i.e. They will be identical.

Link SIM card to Device

After clicking Link Device on the Connectivity detail page, you will be given a list of Device that do not have a SIM card linked to it.

On this page you can search for the Device you are looking for using the search bar (#1 in the screenshot above). By clicking Link in the row of the desired Device (#2 in the screenshot above), you will link the SIM card to that Device.

Next, if the selected Device does not have M2M device information yet, you will be prompted to enter the IMEI and shared secret for the Device (#1 in the screenshot). If you want, you can let the Portal generate a new shared secret for your Device with the Generate button (#2 in the screenshot). After entering the values, click Save to continue (#3 in the screenshot). Learn more about .

After linking your SIM card to a Device, you will land on the .

KPN Things LoRa

of KPN Things LoRa devices.

KPN Things M2M connectivity

of KPN Things M2M devices.

Internet connected

of IP capable devices or systems.

Connect your own M2M device to KPN Things.

• Supported network type(s): KPNM2M

• Device Specification ID: own-m2m

• Device Specification UUID: 7748b913-3901-4cbd-be66-96d366e85539

› Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data

One decoder to forward raw SenML data and decoded ThingsML data sent by the device.

› Decoded ThingsML and raw SenML data (v2)

Decoder that forwards raw SenML data and decoded ThingsML data sent by the device.

Example SenML

Example SenML

This is completely dependent on the SenML or ThingsML input and could output almost any SenML. The decoded ThingsML below is just illustrative of what is possible.

= SenML data encoding

• Protocol: HTTP response

• Description: Send SenML data to your device.

• Multiple commands in one downlink: No

• No input mapping

Customer account types

There are 2 types of accounts: a KPN Developer account and a MijnKPN Zakelijk account.

Both types of account are part of our GRIP platform. Grip is developed by KPN to provide secure and easy access to your (KPN) applications. Through the GRIP Portal you can manage your KPN application subscriptions and you can perform user management. The exact functionality you have in the GRIP Portal depends on the subscriptions you have for different KPN products. Learn more about GRIP.

KPN Developer account

If you have registered for free for the KPN Things Portal, you have acquired a KPN Developer account. With this free account you also get a Freemium Project.

MijnKPN Zakelijk account

Are you interested to use KPN Things with your company? Or do you already have a MijnKPN Zakelijk account and do you want to add KPN Things to the products you are purchasing from KPN? Please contact our sales support through [email protected] for more information. Learn more about MijnKPN Zakelijk.

Delete account

Do you wish to delete your account? Please send an email to [email protected] with the request to be deleted from the KPN Things Portal.

Please attach a screenshot of your Profile page so we have the right information to remove your credentials from our system.

Customer Account details

The Customer Details page can be reached through the account menu drop down (in the top right of the Portal interface).

This page shows you the details of the subscription you or your company has on KPN Things.

On this page you see the general details of your KPN Things account:

1. The customer details we have on you.

2. The unique Customer ID of your account. Useful when contacting support.

3. The GRIP tenant ID of your account, useful when starting to use Things API access.

Users

You can add new users and manage your users in the GRIP Portal, which is accessible through the link: https://grip-on-it.com/.

Add a User in GRIP

Log into the GRIP Portal as administrator.

• If you have a KPN Developer account, you will be administrator in the GRIP Portal.

• If you have a MijnKPN Zakelijk account, you should ask your local administrator for access.

Learn more about the account you use to access KPN Things.

2.1. Go to User management

Then, open the Admin panel using the role drop down (#1 in the screenshot), click on Identity in the side menu (#2 in the screenshot) and click on Users (#3 in the screenshot). This brings you to the User management page. Now, click Add to add a new User (#4 in the screenshot).

2.2. Create new User

In the following pop-up, fill in the details of the new User. Then click Add to create your new User.

2.3. Give new User access to KPN Things

You need to give your newly created User access to the KPN Things service before you can use it. For this, click on Services and roles (#1 in the screenshot), and click on Add a service (#2 in the screenshot).

A modal will open. Click on the checkbox next to KPN Things (#1 in the screenshot), then select the desired role(s) and access level(s) (#2 in the screenshot) for your new User and hit Add (#3 in the screenshot).

Then, click Save to finally give your User access to KPN Things.

Roles and Access Levels

When adding new User or API key for KPN Things, one or more Roles must be selected to grant the User or API Key a set of permissions. The below list shows the available roles for KPN Things and describes what levels of access each of the roles gives to the user in KPN Things.

• Supported network type(s): KPNLORA

• Device Specification ID: supported-viloc

• Device Specification UUID: 5cc004e1-3950-4d62-a9ea-34fcc6a1de0c

+ LoRa Geolocation data

Add LoRa Geolocation data to messages where location could be calculated.

= Raw LoRa payload

Forward the raw LoRa payload and port number without decoding.

Expected SenML records

= Raw LoRa payload (v2)

Forward the raw LoRa payload and port number without decoding.

The following SenML records can be present, amongst others:

Example SenML

[
    {
        "bn": "urn:dev:DEVEUI:0123456789012345:",
        "bt": 1693136532.83,
        "n": "payload",
        "vs": "4D985C495AC4D8C9682CFD"
    },
    {
        "n": "port",
        "v": 1
    },
    {
        "n": "timeOrigin",
        "vs": "NETWORK"
    }
]

= Raw LoRa payload

• UUID: 881d92e7-d3f1-4f3b-983d-daf451efad3c

• Description: Forward the raw LoRa payload and port number without decoding.

• Exchange: decoder.lora.passthrough.exchange

Expected SenML outputs

Unknown

This is an old development board which is no longer available for purchase and should not be used for new designs.

Marvin is the fastest start with LoRa and the Internet of Things. It’s the perfect introduction to IoT for your organization, and is also used in education. Marvin uses its LoRa connectivity to connect to the internet from anywhere in the world where there is LoRa coverage.

1. Setup your Marvin

This part of the getting started is based on the .

Setup your Arduino environment

• Download the and follow the installer. We'll use it later on to program the Marvin.

• Connect your Marvin to your computer.

Test your Marvin device

We will now test whether the Marvin device is working by letting a LED blink.

• Download and open it in the Arduino IDE, or copy-paste the code into an empty Arduino IDE sketch.

• From the Tools menu, under Board, select Arduino Leonardo

• Also from the Tools menu, under Port, make sure the correct COM port is selected. If you have multiple options, select the one stating Arduino Leonardo. If non of your ports is labelled that way, disconnect your Marvin, reopen the menu, check which COM port disappeared, reconnect the Marvin and choose the previously identified COM port.

• From the Sketch menu, click Upload to send the software to the Marvin. If all went well it will say Uploading complete in the bottom of the Arduino IDE and the second LED on the Marvin board will blink!

Test the LoRa module on the Marvin

The LoRa connectivity on your Marvin device is managed by the Microchip RN2483 module. With the following steps we check whether this module works correctly.

• Download and open it in the Arduino IDE, or copy-paste the code into an empty Arduino IDE sketch. With this program we can communicate directly with the LoRa module.

• Upload the sketch to your Marvin.

• Meanwhile, from the Tools menu, open the Serial Monitor

• In the Serial Monitor, set the baud rate to 57600 baud (same as detailed in the sketch) and select Both NL & CR (#1 in the screenshot below).

Now you can directly speak to the LoRa module and get a response! #2 in the screenshot above shows you where to enter commands you want to send, and #3 highlights where answers from the module will be shown.

• If you for instance send sys get ver, the module will return its firmware version back. This will be 1.0.1 with some historic date.

• Now execute the command sys get hweui to retrieve the DevEUI that is stored in the module. Store the value in a text file. You'll need it when adding the device to KPN Things.

Possible other commands can be find in the module or in .

2. Register your Marvin to KPN Things

Open the KPN Things Portal

Open the . Go to the All Devices page and click on Add new Device.

Fill in your device information

1. Select the Own LoRa device (preset connectivity) device type

2. Enter a name for your Marvin device

3. Click Add Device to continue

Provide Network Information

1. DevEUI: the value you retrieved from the LoRa module in the step .

2. AppEUI: you can use the following value: 0059AC00000FFFFF

3. AppKey: Every device should have its own unique AppKey, since it is the root security key of your device. You can generate a unique AppKey here:

Store these three values somewhere, because you will be needing them to program your device later on.

4. Click Add Network Info to save the network information and then Finish to continue.

Check your newly created Device

You are now on the Device Detail Page. In the LoRa tab you will see the network status. This can temporarily be Pending creation, but if you refresh the page it should switch to Active. This means your device is correctly registered to the network.

If the network status sticks to Pending creation, you could try to delete the Device and and provision again (Restart at step ).

3. Program your device to send a LoRa message

Download the ThingsML library

• From the Tools menu in your Arduino IDE click on Manage Libraries...

• Now, in the Library Manager, search for ThingsML and click Install. When the installation is finished, click Close.

Make a sketch

From the File menu, click on Examples.

• Now find ThingsML, then select marvin, and within that choose marvin_example, as such:

• A sketch will open. Now update the values for the variables DevEUI, AppEUI, and AppKey in the code with the values you entered earlier in the Portal.

Run the sketch

• Upload the sketch to your Marvin and open the Serial Monitor. You will see a lot of commands being send to the LoRa module to configure it and to join the network. At some point you will see the following:

This means your Marvin is trying to join the network. After some seconds the following line will appear

This means the device has joined our network!

If you see denied instead of accepted , move closer to your window or walk out into the garden to improve reception from the LoRa network. Then disconnect and reconnect the Marvin to your computer. You probably need some more coverage to be able to join the network.

After joining, your Marvin will send a message every 30 seconds containing an empty temperature measurement in ThingsML format. Read more about .

4. Check incoming data in the Portal

Now your Marvin has joined and is sending data, you could visit the LoRa Data tab on your Device Detail Page in the Portal. You should see your Join request and Join accept appear like in the screenshot below and at this point you will see more data as well. Learn more about .

Setup data flow in KPN Things

You now successfully connected your Marvin device to KPN Things! To further setup your data flow in KPN Things, you can go to the next step:

Arduino MKR NB 1500 is the fastest start with LTE-M and the Internet of Things. It’s the perfect introduction to IoT for your organization, and is also used in education. Arduino MKR NB 1500 uses its LTE-M connectivity to connect to the internet from anywhere in the world where there is LTE-M coverage.

Before you can start you need a KPN simcard. You can order 2 free cards via

On this page you will find the window below to order a simcard.

1. Setup your Arduino MKR NB 1500

To connect the Arduino MKR NB 1500 to the computer you must use a USB cable.

Setup your Arduino environment

• Download the and follow the installer. We'll use it later on to program the Arduino MKR NB 1500.

• Connect your Arduino MKR NB 1500 to your computer.

• From the Tools menu, under Board, under Arduino SAMD boards (32-bits ARM Cortex M0+), select Arduino MKR NB 1500.