Skip to content

Codec

A Codec is a piece of code that allows a payload coming from a device to be decoded as "usable" data.

This is a key element in the heterogeneous devices support.

A Codec is associated to a Device Type through its Channels.

The payload of a Device can be specific to the used Interface, so Devices that have multiple communication layers can encode the data differently for each Interface.

For example, a Device with both Sigfox and GSM interfaces can communicate with small and encoded payloads through Sigfox, and use MQTT with JSON format through the GSM interface.

Some codecs can require a configuration to function. For example, the builtin protobuf codec requires a protobuf schema as its configuration to decode the payloads. It cannot function without it.

See Channel for more information.

Codec details

  • Name: the unique name of a Codec
  • Configuration: optional configuration data required for the codec to function (e.g., protobuf schema for the protobuf codec)