Overview

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When you develop products with Android, use the Android software development kit (SDK) from IoT Platform to simplify development and quickly connect devices to IoT Platform.

Instructions

The Android SDK is available in two series: Paho-SDK and Link SDK.

  • The Paho-MQTT Android SDK is based on the open source Paho-Android project. It provides basic connection and messaging features. This SDK is suitable for older Android system versions, smaller AAR package sizes, and basic feature requirements. You can integrate advanced features as needed using the Alink protocol.

  • The Link SDK implements all the basic features of IoT Platform and several advanced features, such as Thing Specification Language (TSL) models, over-the-air (OTA) updates, and device shadows. The following sections focus on the Android Link SDK series.

Features

Type

Feature module

Description

References

Device connection

MQTT connection

Connects a device to IoT Platform over the Message Queuing Telemetry Transport (MQTT) protocol. This enables communication between the device and IoT Platform.

Important

To have IoT Platform push messages to a device, connect the device over the MQTT protocol.

Communicate over MQTT topics

Message communication

RRPC

Supports revert-RPC (RRPC) calls from IoT Platform to a device. RRPC is a synchronous communication method.

RRPC capabilities

Broadcast communication

A device can receive broadcast messages from the server without subscribing to a broadcast topic.

Broadcast communication

Device management

TSL model

Manages devices based on TSL models, eliminating the need to handle data formats between devices and IoT Platform and reducing development costs.

TSL model development

Device tag

Defines custom IDs for devices to manage them with more flexibility.

Device tags

Device shadow

Caches the device status. An online device can get instructions directly from the cloud. An offline device can pull instructions from the cloud after it comes back online.

Device shadow

Gateways and sub-devices

Connects a device gateway to IoT Platform, allowing devices without an IP address to connect indirectly.

Gateways and sub-devices

File upload

Uploads files to an Alibaba Cloud IoT Platform server for storage.

File upload

Monitoring and O&M

OTA upgrade

Upgrades devices through IoT Platform.

  1. A device gets an upgrade message from IoT Platform and downloads the upgrade package.

  2. The device writes the downloaded package to its Flash or ROM. This completes the OTA upgrade.

Device OTA development

Remote Configuration

Remotely updates configuration information, such as system and network parameters, without restarting or interrupting the device.

Remote Configuration

Device reset

Clears the configuration on a device and restores it to factory settings.

Device reset