Span
Span is a backend that helps you manage data and devices in a Cellular IoT network.
Devices
Devices represent - not surprisingly - the devices you have. There are two required fields for devices: IMSI (in practice the SIM card ID) and the IMEI (the hardware identifier). If the IMSI value isn’t set correctly the device won’t be recognized by Span when it tries to connect.
Collections
Devices are grouped in collections. A device must be created in Span to get access. If the device isn’t registered in Span it will be rejected when it tries to connect.
Outputs
Outputs forward the data from devices in a collection to an external recepient. You can create multiple outputs for each collection. When the data is forwarded the device and collection settings are included with the payload.
Firmware
Firmware images are used to manage firmware-over-the-air updates for devices. Each firmware image have a version and an ID. The ID is only used internally while the version is used to keep track of what version the different devices run. All firmware images in a collection must have a unique version number.
Firmware images can be associated with an entire collection, ie all devices in that collection should run a particular version or per device, ie you can set which version the device should be running individually.
A note on teams
Teams are set as owners of collections, ie. indirectly the team owns the devices, outputs and firmware images. Team members that have the administrative role can add and remove devices from collections. Regular team members have only read-only access to the collections, devices, outputs and firmware images.
Tags
Devices, collections, outputs and firmware images can be tagged with metadata. This is useful f.e. when you have additional information that you need later in your processing pipeline such as calibration data particular for a device, identifiers for internal systems, environments (“production”, “staging”, “test”) or just to keep the resources organized.