Inline Data Processing

Soracom Orbit is an inline data processing service that lets you write custom programs that transform device data as it passes to and from the cloud.

With Orbit, your devices and cloud services can speak in their own separate languages, while Orbit provides translation in between.

In many IoT applications, differences between hardware requirements and cloud architecture considerations often lead to situations where devices and backend services speak different languages. For example, your hardware engineers may want to reduce power consumption by transmitting data only in raw binary without any additional processing. At the same time, backend developers may want to handle data in a more universal format like JSON to better integrate with cloud services.

Usually, some amount of compromise is required, such as formatting the data on the device before sending it, or implementing additional server functions to parse device data.

Orbit lets you build a translation layer so that data is seamlessly transformed between different formats, which allows you to keep device and cloud concerns separate and maintain a highly scalable architecture.

Soracom Orbit Capabilities

Apply new data formatting to devices in production without rolling out new device firmware or software updates

Minimize power consumption and data usage by formatting data in the cloud rather than on the device

Use third party devices that send data using proprietary formats, without changing any backend code

Mix and match devices types that each use different protocols, while ensuring that all data is conformed by the time it reaches your servers

Reduce reliance on external tools or services that may be required to convert device data from one format to another

View Soracom Orbit Developer Documentation

A Bi-directional Service

Data transformation can happen both from device-to-cloud as well as cloud-to-device. In addition, Orbit gives you the power to customize the transformation applied in each direction.

Soracom Orbit Components

• Soralet – A containerized WebAssembly (WASM) runtime environment on the Soracom platform that proccesses data
• Module – A WASM module containing your code for processing data

With Orbit, you first develop a module on your local machine, implementing the actual code that transforms device data into a format understood by your servers, or vice versa. Then you create a Soralet and deploy your module into this environment.

For full documentation, SDKs, Tools and Limitations, please see the Soracom Developer Site.