Service introduction
The IoT Digital Twin Engine is a Platform as a Service (PaaS) offering from IoT Platform. It helps you build digital twin solutions for complex scenarios, such as energy management and manufacturing. This topic describes the core values, key concepts, and usage flow of the IoT Digital Twin Engine.
Background information
The IoT Digital Twin Engine connects to data from various heterogeneous platforms without requiring system modifications. You can use the drag-and-drop model editor to quickly build digital twin models that map to the physical world. The powerful 3D scene editor lets you link real-time twin data with multiple data panels to generate ready-to-use digital twin applications. These applications help you monitor device and business status in real time, optimize business strategies, extend device lifespan, and improve device performance and efficiency.
Limits
The IoT Digital Twin Engine service is only available for Enterprise IoT Platform instances in the China (Shanghai) and China (Beijing) regions. You can choose from the following editions:
Free trial: Provides a free quota for you to try out basic features. For more information about the trial process, see Alibaba Cloud Free Trial for IoT Platform.
Enterprise Edition and Ultimate Edition: These editions offer larger quotas for commercial use. For more information, see Purchase an Enterprise or Ultimate Edition instance.
In the IoT Digital Twin Engine, digital twin entities and scenes are designed independently. The structural hierarchies of the digital twin entity graph and the 3D scene do not need to have a one-to-one correspondence.
Example
For example, you can create a digital twin space for a campus. The campus is the digital twin entity. The buildings and sensors in the campus are the digital twin nodes. You can use the digital twin nodes and Thing Specification Language (TSL) models to map the temperature and humidity status of office areas. Then, you can create a scene for this digital twin space, build 3D models for the buildings and devices, and associate them with the TSL models of the digital twin nodes. This displays the temperature, humidity, and alert information for the campus. You can use the device operational data and alert information to predict faults and perform timely repairs.
The following figure shows an example of a campus digital twin entity graph used to build a business model for temperature and humidity statistics. You can configure TSL model properties and twin rules for the digital twin nodes. The data mapping feature helps you monitor the temperature and humidity data at different locations on the campus.
Terms
Concepts | Description |
Digital twin space | The top-level container for a digital twin application. It includes application information, a digital twin entity graph, data source input configurations, 3D model resources, and 3D scenes. |
Digital twin entity graph | Also known as a digital twin entity. It consists of multiple digital twin nodes across multiple levels. It is used to build business scenarios, processes, and models of the physical world. |
Digital twin node | A node that makes up a digital twin entity graph. It is used to map real devices and their TSL model data. |
Digital twin template | A reusable structure for a digital twin entity. You can select one or more digital twin nodes in a digital twin entity to generate a template. New digital twin nodes in the template copy the relationships, TSL model definitions, and twin rules from the source nodes. You can modify the information of the new nodes independently. You can reference or copy a digital twin template into a digital twin entity graph to quickly build complete business processes and models. |
TSL model definition | In digital twin entities and templates, you can configure TSL model properties for digital twin nodes. Property data can be mapped from physical devices or calculated by twin rules. For more information about TSL models, see TSL models. |
Data source | The data entry source for a digital twin entity graph. Use the data mapping feature to process and transfer data from device-reported topics and API data sources to the TSL model properties of target digital twin nodes.
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Scene | A 3D interactive page in a digital twin application that corresponds to the digital twin entity graph. It displays the real-time business status of the digital twin entity in the form of a 3D model. You must upload 3D model resources to the IoT Digital Twin Engine console to build a scene. |
Widget | A visualization widget. It includes status data cards, dashboards, progress charts, charts, and water level charts. It associates modules of a 3D model with data from digital twin nodes to display real-time data, status, and alert information of the digital twin entity. |
Feature differences between editions
The features available in a digital twin space vary based on the IoT Digital Twin Engine edition. The following table lists only the features that differ between editions.
Feature classification | Feature | Free trial | Enterprise Edition | Ultimate Edition |
Digital twin entity graph | Twin rule | Not supported | Support | Support |
Data ingestion | TSL model property reporting | Support | Supported | Supported |
Custom topic | Not supported | Supported | Supported | |
API: ImportDTData | Not supported | Supported | Supported | |
DataService Studio: Data parsing | Not supported | Supported | Supported | |
DataService Studio: Custom storage table | Not supported | Supported | Supported | |
Data forwarding | Data forwarding to other cloud services | Not supported | Supported | Supported |
Scene management | Scene sharing | Not supported | Support | Supported |
3D resource file format |
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System 3D resources | Not supported | Not supported | Supported |
Resource limits
Limitations | Description | Free trial | Enterprise Edition | Ultimate Edition |
Digital twin space | The maximum number of digital twin spaces per instance. | 1 | 3 | 30 |
Digital twin node | The maximum number of levels in a digital twin entity, including the main node. | 3 | 10 | 10 |
The maximum number of digital twin nodes per digital twin entity. | 30 | 300 | 1,000 | |
The maximum number of digital twin nodes per digital twin template. | 10 | 10 | 10 | |
TSL model property | The maximum number of properties per digital twin node. | 10 | 50 | 300 |
Twin rule | The maximum number of twin rules that can use a single property as an input parameter. | Not supported | 10 | 10 |
The maximum number of twin rules per digital twin node. | Not supported | 300 | 300 | |
The maximum number of input parameters per twin rule. | Not supported | 5 | 5 | |
The Transactions Per Second (TPS) for rule calculations in an instance. This is the number of rules (parent, child, and self) that can be triggered per second. The TPS is determined by the purchased specifications. The limits on the right are the available specification ranges. For more information about how to purchase, see Purchase an Enterprise or Ultimate Edition instance. | Not supported | 100 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 | |
Data ingestion | The maximum number of data mappings per digital twin space. | 20 | 20 | 20 |
The maximum number of output parameters per data mapping. | 3,000 | 3,000 | 3,000 | |
The maximum number of key-value pairs per upload for an API data source. | 300 | 300 | 300 | |
The maximum number of device names per upload for an API data source. | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
The data ingestion TPS for an instance. This is the number of times the ImportDTData API can be called per second for data mapping. The TPS is determined by the purchased specifications. The limits on the right are the available specification ranges. For more information about how to purchase, see Purchase an Enterprise or Ultimate Edition instance. | Not supported | 100 to 2,000 | 1,000 to 2,000 | |
Data forwarding | The TPS for forwarding data from the IoT Digital Twin Engine to other cloud services within an instance. The data forwarding TPS is determined by the purchased specifications. The limits on the right are the available specification ranges. For more information about how to purchase, see Purchase an Enterprise or Ultimate Edition instance. | Not supported | 100 to 2,000 | 1,000 to 2,000 |
Scene | The maximum number of scenes per digital twin space. | 1 | 50 | 100 |
Widget | The total number of widgets allowed per instance. This is determined by the purchased specifications. The limits on the right are the available specification ranges. For more information about how to purchase, see Purchase an Enterprise or Ultimate Edition instance. | 5 | 50 to 5,000 | 1,000 to 5,000 |
The maximum number of model modules that can be associated with a single widget. | 10 | 10 | 10 | |
The maximum number of data panels per widget. | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
The maximum number of status styles per widget. | 5 | 5 | 5 | |
The maximum number of alert identifiers per widget. | 3 | 3 | 3 | |
3D resource | The maximum number of 3D models that can be uploaded to a digital twin space. | 5 | 20 | 50 |
There is no limit on the number of 3D models in a scene. The limit is based on the scene size. | 100 MB | 300 MB | 600 MB | |
The maximum size of a single 3D model file. | 20 MB | 150 MB | 500 MB |
Usage flow
The IoT Digital Twin Engine provides a demo digital twin space by default. The demo space includes a pre-configured digital twin entity graph, data sources, scenes, and 3D resources to help you quickly familiarize yourself with the features. For more information, see View the default digital twin space.
(Optional) Purchase an Enterprise or Ultimate Edition instance: The free trial of the IoT Digital Twin Engine provides only basic features. To implement more complex IoT digital twin business scenarios, purchase the Enterprise or Ultimate Edition.
Create a digital twin space: Add a digital twin space to manage resources such as digital twin entities and scenes.
Add a digital twin node: Add digital twin nodes to the digital twin entity graph to build a business model that describes devices, processes, and systems.
Configure the digital twin entity: Configure feature definitions for the digital twin nodes to describe the TSL model properties of the devices.
(Optional) Configure a twin rule.
(Optional) Set a digital twin template.
Add a data source: Configure data mapping to map data from real devices to the TSL model properties of the digital twin nodes.
(Optional) View the operational logs of a digital twin entity: After the real devices are running, you can view the operational logs of each digital twin node in the digital twin entity.
Configure a scene: Add a scene and build a 3D model. Associate the model with digital twin node data to display the real-time data, status, and alert information of the digital twin model.