freebird

freebird

Status: Experimental, Unstable

About the Logo

TBD

Table of Contents

1. Overview
2. Features
3. Installation
4. Basic Usage
5. APIs and Events
   • Basic methods
   • Network management
6. Freebird Base Classes
   • Netcore class
   • Device class
   • Gadget class
7. Advanced Topics
   • Remote process communication (RPC)
   • How to add a transport for RPC
   • How to add a plugin
8. Appendix
   • Device Data Format
   • Gadget Data Format

1. Overview

freebird is a Node.js framework that can building a heterogeneous network, such as BLE, ZigBee, CoAP and MQTT Protocols. It easy to deploy in many platforms like PC, Raspberry Pi, Beaglebone or other embedded device. This framework also provides a uniform interface for developers to operate the various protocols device at the same time, and as the Infrastructure of the IoT/WoT. With freebird, you can make Front-end, Cloud and Machine that simply connected with each other.

The freebird framework has three basic classes of Netcore, Device and Gadget that are represent the network controller, remote device and resource of the device, respectively. For the RPC interface, you can create your own transportation to communicate with freebird, like TCP socket, RESTful APIs, WebSocket, and so on.

2. Features

• Cross protocol, such as BLE, ZigBee, CoAP and MQTT.
• Hierarchical data model in Smart Object (IPSO) .
• The local network management center and application gateway.
• Based-on node.js that can easy to integrate machine applications with other services or frameworks, e.g., http server, express, React.js, Angular.js.
• Handle the most basic part of internet of things and help front-end developers build any fascinating GUI and dashboard.

3. Installation

$ npm install freebird --save

4. Basic Usage

var Freebird = require('freebird'),
    bleCore = require('freebird-netcore-ble'),
    mqttCore = require('freebird-netcore-mqtt'),
    coapCore = require('freebird-netcore-coap'),
    zigbeeCore = require('freebird-netcore-zigbee');

var freebird = new Freebird([ bleCore, mqttCore, coapCore, zigbeeCore ]);

freebird.start(function (err) {
    console.log('Server started');
});

freebird.on('ready', function () {
    
});

freebird.on('devIncoming', function (dev) {
    
});

freebird.on('gadIncoming', function (gad) {
    
});

5. APIs and Events

Basic methods

• new Freebird()
• .findById()
• .findByNet()
• .filter()
• .addTransport()

Network management

• .start()
• .stop()
• .reset()
• .permitJoin()
• .remove()
• .ban()
• .unban()
• .ping()
• .maintain()

---

new Freebird(netcores[, options])

Create a instance of the Freebird class. This document will use freebird to denote the instance.

Arguments:

1. netcores (Object | Array): Should be a netcore or an array of netcores.
2. options (Object): Optional settings for freebird.

Property	Type	Mandatory	Description
maxDevNum	Number	optional	Capacity of the device box of freebird, which is the maximum number of devices that freebird can store. If not given, a default value 200 will be used.
maxGadNum	Number	optional	Capacity of the gadget box of freebird, which is the maximum number of gadgets that freebird can store. If not given, a default value 600 will be used.
dbPath	Object	optional	This object has fileds of device and gadget which is used to specify the file path to tell freebird where you'd like to keep your device or gadget information.

Returns:

• (Object): freebird

Examples:

var Freebird = require('freebird'),
    bleCore = require('freebird-netcore-ble'),
    mqttCore = require('freebird-netcore-mqtt'),
    coapCore = require('freebird-netcore-coap'),
    zigbeeCore = require('freebird-netcore-zigbee');

var options = {
        maxDevNum: 100,
        maxGadNum: 500
    };

var freebird = new Freebird([bleCore, mqttCore, coapCore, zigbeeCore], options);

---

.findById(type, id)

Find a netcore by name, or find a device/gadget by id. If you like to find a device/gadget by address, using .findByNet().

Arguments:

1. type (String): Only accepts 'netcore', 'device', or 'gadget' to find a netcore, a device, or a gadget, respectively.
2. id (String | Number): id is the netcore name when finding for a netcore. id is a number when finding for a device or a gadget.

Returns:

• (Object): Found component, otherwise undefined

Examples:

// find netcore by name
freebird.findById('netcore', 'foo_netcore');        // netcore instance
freebird.findById('netcore', 'no_such_netcore');    // undefined (netcore not found)

// find device by id
freebird.findById('device', 88);    // device instance
freebird.findById('device', 999);   // undefined (device not found)

// find gadget by id
freebird.findById('gadget', 120);   // gadget instance
freebird.findById('gadget', 777);   // undefined (gadget not found)

---

.findByNet(type, ncName[, permAddr[, auxId]])

Find a netcore, a device, or a gadget by network information.

• To find a netcore: findByNet('netcore', ncName)
• To find a device: findByNet('device', ncName, permAddr)
• To find a gadget: findByNet('gadget', ncName, permAddr, auxId)

Arguments:

1. type (String): Only accepts 'netcore', 'device', or 'gadget' to find a netcore, a device, or a gadget, respectively.
2. ncName (String): Netcore name.
3. permAddr (String): Permanent address of the device which is required when finding for a device or a gadget.
4. auxId (String | Number): Auxiliary id of the gadget which is required when finding for a gadget.

Returns:

• (Object): Found component, otherwise undefined

Examples:

// find netcore by name
freebird.findByNet('netcore', 'foo_netcore');       // netcore instance
freebird.findByNet('netcore', 'no_such_netcore');   // undefined (netcore not found)

// find device by its network info
freebird.findByNet('device', 'foo_netcore', '00:0c:29:3e:1b:d2');       // device instance
freebird.findByNet('device', 'no_such_netcore', '00:0c:29:3e:1b:d2');   // undefined (not found)
freebird.findByNet('device', 'foo_netcore', '00:00:00:00:00:00');       // undefined (not found)

// find gadget by its network info
freebird.findByNet('gadget', 'foo_netcore', '00:0c:29:3e:1b:d2', 'humidity/2');     // gadget instance
freebird.findByNet('gadget', 'no_such_netcore', '00:0c:29:3e:1b:d2', 'humidity/2'); // undefined (not found)
freebird.findByNet('gadget', 'foo_netcore', '00:00:00:00:00:00', 'humidity/2');     // undefined (not found)
freebird.findByNet('gadget', 'foo_netcore', '00:0c:29:3e:1b:d2', 'no_such_auxId');  // undefined (not found)

---

.filter(type, pred)

This method returns an array of netcores, devices, or gadgets which contains all elements of pred returns truthy for.

Arguments:

1. type (String): Only accepts 'netcore', 'device', or 'gadget' to find netcores, devices, or gadgets that meet the prediction, respectively.
2. pred (Function): function (obj) {}, the function invoked per iteration in a netcores, devices, or gadget collection.

Returns:

• (Array): Returns the new filtered array of components

Examples:

// filter for netcores
freebird.filter('netcore', function (nc) {
    return nc.isEnabled();
});

// filter for devices
freebird.filter('device', function (dev) {
    return dev.isEnabled();
});

// filter for gadgets
freebird.filter('gadget', function (gad) {
    return gad.isEnabled();
});

---

.addTransport(name, transp[, callback])

Add a transportation to freebird for RPC messaging. Please refer to freebird-transport module for more details.

Arguments:

1. name (String): Transportation name.
2. transp (Object): The instance of transportation.
3. callback (Function): function (err) {}.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

var http = require('http'),
    fbRpc = require('freebird-rpc');

var httpServer = http.createServer().listen(3000),
    rpcServer = fbRpc.createServer(httpServer);

freebird.addTransport('rpcTransp', rpcServer, function (err) {
    if (err)
        console.log(err);
});

---

.start([callback])

Start the freebird server.

Arguments:

1. callback (Function): function (err) {}. Get called after started.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

freebird.start(function (err) {
    if (!err)
        console.log('freebird is up');
    else
        console.log(err);
});

---

.stop([callback])

Stop the freebird server.

Arguments:

1. callback (Function): function (err) {}. Get called after stopped.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

nc.stop(function (err) {
    if (!err)
        console.log('freebird is down');
    else
        console.log(err);
});

---

.reset(mode[, callback])

Reset the freebird server.

Arguments:

1. mode (Number): 0 for a soft reset and 1 for a hard reset.
2. callback (Function): function (err) {}. Get called after reset is applied. When freebird restarted, 'ready' event will be fired.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

freebird.on('ready', function () {
    console.log('freebird is ready');
});

freebird.reset(0, function (err) {
    if (!err)
        console.log('freebird starts to run its reset procedure');
    else
        console.log(err);
});

---

.permitJoin(duration[, callback])

Let the freebird allow devices to join the network.

Arguments:

1. duration (Number): Duration in seconds for allowing devices to join the network. Set it to 0 can immediately close the admission.
2. callback (Function): function (err, timeLeft) {}. Get called when freebird starts/stops to permit joining, where timeLeft is a number that indicates time left for device joining in seconds, e.g., 180.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

freebird.permitJoin(180, function (err, timeLeft) {
    if (!err)
        console.log(timeLeft);  // 180
});

freebird.permitJoin(0, function (err, timeLeft) {
    if (!err)
        console.log(timeLeft);  // 0
});

---

.remove(ncName, permAddr, callback)

Remove a remote device from the network.

Arguments:

1. ncName (String): Netcore name.
2. permAddr (String): Permanent address of the device to remove.
3. callback (Function): function (err, permAddr) {}. Get called after device removed, where permAddr is permananet address of that device.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

freebird.remove('mqtt-core', '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', function (err, permAddr) {
    if (!err)
        console.log(permAddr);  // 00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c
});

---

.ban(ncName, permAddr, callback)

Ban a device from the network. Once a device is banned, it can never join the network unless you unban it.

Arguments:

1. ncName (String): Netcore name.
2. permAddr (String): Permanent address of the device to ban.
3. callback (Function): function (err, permAddr) {}. Get called after device banned, where permAddr is permananet address of that device.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

freebird.ban('mqtt-core', '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', function (err, permAddr) {
    if (!err)
        console.log(permAddr);  // 00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c
});

---

.unban(ncName, permAddr, callback)

Unban a device.

Arguments:

1. ncName (String): Netcore name.
2. permAddr (String): Permanent address of the device to unban.
3. callback (Function): function (err, permAddr) {}. Get called after device unbanned, where permAddr is permananet address of that device.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

freebird.unban('mqtt-core', '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', function (err, permAddr) {
    if (!err)
        console.log(permAddr);  // 00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c
});

---

.ping(ncName, permAddr, callback)

Ping a remote device.

Arguments:

1. ncName (String): Netcore name.
2. permAddr (String): Permanent address of the device to ping.
3. callback (Function): function (err, time) {}. Get called after ping response comes back, where time is the round-trip time in milliseconds, e.g., 16.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

freebird.ping('mqtt-core', '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', function (err, time) {
    if (!err)
        console.log(time);  // 42
});

---

.maintain([ncName,][callback])

Maintain the freebird server. This will refresh all devices information by rediscovering the remote device.

Arguments:

1. ncName (String): Netcore name. freebird will maintain all netcores if ncName not given.
2. callback (Function): function (err) {}. Get called after maintained.

Returns:

• none

Examples:

freebird.maintain('mqtt-core', function (err) {
    if (!err)
        console.log('freebird is maintained');
});

********************************************

Events

Event Listener: function (msg) { ... }

• Event: 'error'

  • Emitted when freebird occurs error
  • msg: error object

• Event: 'ready'

  • Emitted when freebird is ready
  • msg: { netcore: 'mqtt-core' }

• Event: 'ncEnabled'

  • Emitted when a netcore is enabled
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core' }

• Event: 'ncDisabled'

  • Emitted when a netcore is disabled
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core' }

• Event: 'ncStarted'

  • Emitted when a netcore is started
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core' }

• Event: 'ncStopped'

  • Emitted when a netcore is stopped
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core' }

• Event: 'ncPermitJoin'

  • Emitted when a netcore is now allowing or disallowing devices to join the network, where timeLeft is number of seconds left to allow devices to join the network.
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', timeLeft: 60 }

• Event: 'devIncoming'

  • Emitted when a new device is incoming
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', id: 5, device: device }

• Event: 'devLeaving'

  • Emitted when a device is leaving
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', id: 5 }

• Event: 'devReporting'

  • Emitted when a report message of certain attribute(s) on a device is coming. data property is partial changes of devAttrsObj
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', id: 5, data: devAttrs }

• Event: 'devNetChanged'

  • Emitted when network information of a device has changed. data property is partial changes of netInfoObj, _data property is the old netInfoObj value that before changed
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', id: 5, data: netInfoObj, _data: oldValue }

• Event: 'devStatusChanged'

  • Emitted when status of a device has changed. The status can be 'online', 'sleep', 'offline', and 'unknown'.
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', id: 5, data: 'offline' }

• Event: 'devPropsChanged'

  • Emitted when meta-property(ies) of a device has changed. data property is partial changes of devPropsObj, _data property is the old devPropsObj value that before changed
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', id: 5, data: delta, _data: oldValue }

• Event: 'devAttrsChanged'

  • Emitted when attribute(s) on a device has changed. data property is partial changes of devAttrsObj, _data property is the old devAttrsObj value that before changed
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', id: 5, data: delta, _data: oldValue }

• Event: 'gadIncoming'

  • Emitted when a new gadget is incoming
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', auxId: 'magnetometer/0', id: 5, gadget: gadget }

• Event: 'gadLeaving'

  • Emitted when a gadget is leaving
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', auxId: 'magnetometer/0', id: 5 }

• Event: 'gadReporting'

  • Emitted when a report message of certain attribute(s) on a gadget is coming. data property is partial changes of gadAttrsObj
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', auxId: 'magnetometer/0', id: 5, data: delta }

• Event: 'gadPanelChanged'

  • Emitted when panel information of a gadget has changed. data property is partial changes of panelInfoObj, _data property is the old panelInfoObj value that before changed
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', auxId: 'magnetometer/0', id: 5, data: delta, _delta: oldVal }

• Event: 'gadPropsChanged'

  • Emitted when meta-property(ies) of a gadget has changed. data property is partial changes of gadPropsObj, _data property is the old gadPropsObj value that before changed
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', auxId: 'magnetometer/0', id: 5, data: delta, _delta: oldVal }

• Event: 'gadAttrsChanged'

  • Emitted when attribue(s) on a gadget has changed. data property is partial changes of gadAttrsObj, _data property is the old gadAttrsObj value that before changed
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', auxId: 'magnetometer/0', id: 5, data: delta }

• Event: 'bannedDevIncoming'

  • Emitted when a banned device is trying to join the network
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c' }

• Event: 'bannedDevReporting'

  • Emitted when a banned device is trying to report its attributes
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c' }

• Event: 'bannedGadIncoming'

  • Emitted when a banned gadget is trying to join the network
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', auxId: 'magnetometer/0' }

• Event: 'bannedGadReporting'

  • Emitted when a banned gadget is trying to report its attributes
  • msg: { ncName: 'mqtt-core', permAddr: '00:0c:29:ff:ed:7c', auxId: 'magnetometer/0' }

6. Freebird Base Classes

freebird-base includes base classes of Netcore, Device, and Gadget that are used in the freebird IoT network and application framework. These classes are abstractions of the network controller, network device, and real appliance, respectively.

Netcore Class

Netcore is a network controller which equips with freebird-defined methods to accomplish operations of network transportation and management. In pratice, the netcore may be a zigbee coordinator (TI CC253X), a BLE central (TI CC254X).

APIs findById(), findByNet(), filter() can help you find the instance of this class. The instance which is denoted as netcore in this document. Please see NetcoreClass.md for more detail about this class.

Device Class

Device is a wired/wireless machine in the network. For example, a zigbee end-device, a BLE peripheral, a MQTT client, or a CoAP server(LWM2M client).

APIs findById(), findByNet(), filter() can help you find the instance of this class. The instance which is denoted as device in this document. Please see DeviceClass.md for more detail about this class.

Gadget Class

Gadget represents something specific and functional in our life. For example, a temperature sensor, a light switch, or a barometer.

APIs findById(), findByNet(), filter() can help you find the instance of this class. The instance which is denoted as gadget in this document. Please see GadgetClass.md for more detail about this class.

7. Advanced Topics

Remote Process Communication (RPC)

freebird is a underlying construction that helps you manage your machine network of different protocol in the same time, like BLE, Zigbee, MQTT or CoAP. With freebird, it is easy and quick to implement IoT webapps.

In the process of establishing webapp, due to the communcation between the web client and the web server is remotely, so you need to build a RPC channel to do Remote Process Communication. There are many ways to implement RPC channel, you can use TCP socket, RESTful APIs, WebSocket, etc. And Developers should define RPC interface according to their application type.

How to add a transport for RPC

There is a module freebird-transport for developers to create their own transportation for RPC, please see the document of how to create the transportation to communicate with freebird framework. After the transportation is created, you can call freebird.addTransport() to add the transportation to freebird for RPC messaging.

Here is a example of how to create a transportation and add to freebird:

var Freebird = require('freebird'),
    bleCore = require('freebird-netcore-ble'),
    mqttCore = require('freebird-netcore-mqtt');

var net = require('net'),
    Transport = require('freebird-transport');

var freebird = new Freebird([ bleCore, mqttCore ]);

var transp = new Transport(),
    server,
    client;

// Implement a transportation using TCP protocol
server = net.createServer(function (c) {
    client = c;

    client.on('end', function () {
        client = null;
    });

    // Message received
    client.on('data', function (data) {
        transp.receive({ data: data });
    });
});

server.listen(4321, function () {
    console.log('TCP server starts');
});

// Implementaion of _send
transp._send = function (msg, callback) {
    var bytes;

    if (typeof msg !== 'object')
        return setImmediate(callback, new TypeError('msg should be an object'));

    if (typeof msg.data === 'string')
        msg.data = new Buffer(msg.data);

    if (!Buffer.isBuffer(msg.data))
        return setImmediate(callback, new TypeError('msg.data should be a string or a buffer'));

    bytes = msg.data.length;

    if (!client)
        return setImmediate(callback, new Error('No client connected'));

    client.write(msg.data);
    setImmediate(callback, null, bytes);
};

// Add the transportation to freebird framework
freebird.addTransport('tcpRpsServer', transp);

We have already implemented a transportation freebird-rpc using WebSocket protocol. It provide methods to create RPC client and RPC server for real-time remote communication. The following is a simple example of how to using freebird-rpc in freebird:

var Freebird = require('freebird'),
    bleCore = require('freebird-netcore-ble'),
    mqttCore = require('freebird-netcore-mqtt'),
    http = require('http'),
    fbRPC = require('freebird-rpc');

var freebird = new Freebird([ bleCore, mqttCore ]);

var httpServer = http.createServer();
httpServer.listen(3000);

var transp = fbRpc.createServer(httpServer);

freebird.addTransport('wsRpsServer', transp);

How to add a plugin

[TODO]

8. Appendix

Device Data Format

Network information: netInfoObj

Property	Type	Description
enabled	Boolean	Tells if this device is enabled.
joinTime	Number	Device joined time, which is an UNIX(POSIX) time in ms.
timestamp	Number	Timestamp at the last activity.
traffic	Object	The traffic record of this device.
role	String	Device role, which depends on protocol. For example, it may be 'peripheral' of a BLE device.
parent	String	The parent of this device. It is '0' if the parent is the netcore, otherwise parent's permanent address.
maySleep	Boolean	Tells whether this device may sleep or not.
sleepPeriod	Number	The sleep period in seconds. This property is only valid when maySleep is true.
status	String	Can be 'unknown', 'online', 'offline', or 'sleep'.
address	Object	The permanent and dynamic adrresses of this device. This object is in the shape of { permanent, dynamic }.

Attributes on the remote device: devAttrsObj

Property	Type	Description
manufacturer	String	Manufacturer name
model	String	Model name
serial	String	Serial number of this device.
version	Object	Version tags. This object is in the shape of { hw: '', sw: 'v1.2.2', fw: 'v0.0.8' }
power	Object	Power source. This object is in the shape of { type: 'battery', voltage: '5 V' }. The type can be 'line', 'battery' or 'harvester'.

User-defined properties on this device: devPropsObj

Property	Type	Description
name	String	Human-redable name of this device, default will be an empty string '' if not set.
description	String	Device description. Default will be an empty string '' if not set.
location	String	Location of this device. Default will be an empty string '' if not set.
Others	Depends	Other props

Gadget Data Format

Panel information: panelInfoObj

• (Object): Panel information about this gadget.

Property	Type	Description
enabled	Boolean	Indicate whether this gadget is enabled
profile	String	Profile of this gadget, can be any string, such as 'Home'
classId	String	Gadget class to tell what kind of an application is on this gadget

Attributes on the remote gadget: gadAttrsObj

Property	Type	Description
Others	Depends	Remote attributes depend on classId of gadget. For a temperature sensor, it will have an attribute sensorValue, and may have attributes like units and resetMinMaxMeaValues. The possilbe attributes are listed here.

User-defined properties on this gadget: gadPropsObj

Property	Type	Description
name	String	Human-redable name of this gadget, default will be a string of 'unknown' if not set
description	String	Gadget description. Default will be an empty string '' if not set
Others	Depends	Other props