Documentation

Listed below are the two primary documents that support this release:

■ Cisco IoT Field Network Director User Guide, Release 4.1.x

■ Cisco IoT Field Network Director Installation Guide, Release 4.1.x

Please refer to the Cisco IoT Field Network Directo r data sheet for an extensive list of the product capabilities.

Be sure to refer to the following related NMS system documentation:

■ Cisco IoT Device Manager, Release 5.x

■ Cisco Industrial Operations Kit User Guide, Release 2.0

■ Cisco Connected Grid WPAN Module for CGR 1000 Series Installation and Cisco Resilient Mesh Configuration Guide (Cisco IOS)

Organization

This guide includes the following sections:

Conventions

This document uses the following conventions.

Note: Means reader take note. Notes contain helpful suggestions or references to material not covered in the manual.

Caution: Means reader be careful. In this situation, you might perform an action that could result in equipment damage or loss of data.

Warning: IMPORTANT SAFETY INSTRUCTIONS

Means danger. You are in a situation that could cause bodily injury. Before you work on any equipment, be aware of the hazards involved with electrical circuitry and be familiar with standard practices for preventing accidents. Use the statement number provided at the end of each warning to locate its translation in the translated safety warnings that accompanied this device.

SAVE THESE INSTRUCTIONS

New Features

New Features Introduced in IoT FND 4.1.0 and Supported in 4.1.2 lists new platforms and features that are managed by IoT FND 4.1.x releases.

IoT FND 4.1.x Software Subscriptions

IoT FND Perpetual Product IDs

Summary of IoT FND Perpetual Product IDs provides a summary of perpetual product licenses supported on IoT FND, Release 4.1.x. Contact your Cisco partner to obtain the necessary licenses.

About Cisco IoT FND

The Cisco® IoT Field Network Director (FND), the operating system for a multi-service Field Area Network (FAN), is a software platform that manages multi-service networks of Cisco industrial, connected grid routers, and endpoints.

Features that distinguish the IoT FND are as follows:

■Ease of deployment at scale with Zero-Touch Deployment (ZTD) of gateways and devices

■Secure and scalable end-to-end enrollment and management of these gateways and devices

■Optimized for operation in constrained bandwidth network

■Ease of use with an intuitive web interface and GIS map visualization and monitoring

■Rich set of northbound APIs for third-party integration

IoT FND is essential to the success of Internet-of-Things (IoT) solution deployments: Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI), transportation, Distribution Automation (DA), fleet management, asset tracking, and LoRaWAN infrastructures. It is a proven system on which many of our customers rely every day for their operation to deliver critical infrastructure services to millions of their customers.

Cisco IoT Field Network Director is built on a layered system architecture to enable clear separation between network management functionality and applications in fleet management, asset tracking, and utility, such as a Distribution Management System (DMS), Outage Management System (OMS), and Meter Data Management (MDM). This clear separation between network management and applications helps customers to deploy IoT projects incrementally, for example, in utilities with AMI to be extended into DA by using a shared multi-service network infrastructure and a common network management system across various utility operations. Further, a northbound API from the IoT Field Network Director allows various applications to pull appropriate, service-specific network communications data from a shared, multi-server communication network infrastructure.

Through the IoT FND browser-based interface, you can manage and monitor the following devices:

■Cisco 1000 Series Connected Grid Routers (CGRs), also called pole-top or DIN-rail-mount routers. These devices are identified by model (for example, CGR1000, CGR1120, or CGR1240) on the Field Devices page.

■Cisco 800 Series Industrial Integrated Services Routers (IR800s) are ruggedized small-form factor cellular routers for mobile/vehicle applications. IR829 includes WiFi providing connectivity in non-carpeted IT spaces, industrials, utilities, transportation, infrastructure, industrial M2M application, asset monitoring, Smart Grid, and utility applications. These devices are referred to as FARs in this document and identified by product ID (for example, IR800) on the Field Devices page. You can use IoT FND to manage the following IR800 models: IR809 and IR829.

■Cisco 800 Series Integrated Services Routers (C800s) are used in most networks as edge routers or gateways to provide WAN connectivity (cellular, satellite over Ethernet, and WiFi) to an end device (energy-distribution automation devices, other verticals such as ATMs, and mobile deployments). These devices are referred to as FARs in this document and identified by product ID (for example, C800 or C819) on the Field Devices page.

You can use IoT FND to manage the following hardened Cisco 819H devices:

–C819HG-4G-V-K9

–C819HG-4G-A-K9

–C819HG-U-K9

–C819HGW-S-A-K9

–C819H-K9

–C819G-B-K9

–C819G-U-K9

–C819G-4G-V-K9

–C819G+7-K9

■Cisco 500 Series Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN) Industrial Routers (IR500) supply RF mesh connectivity to IPv4 and serial Internet of Things (IoT) devices (for example, recloser control, cap bank control, voltage regulator controls, and other remote terminal units).

Note: CGRs, C800, IR800s, IR500s and other types of mesh endpoint devices can coexist on a network, but cannot be in the same device group (see Creating Device Groups and Working with Mesh Endpoint Firmware Images) or firmware management group. Refer to the following sections in the IoT Field Network Director User Guide for more information: “Creating Device Groups”, “Working with Mesh Endpoint Firmware Images” and “Configuring Firmware Group Settings”.

■The Cisco Wireless Gateway for LoRaWAN (IXM-LPWA-800, IXM-LPWA-900) can be a standalone product that connects to Ethernet switches or routers or connects to LAN ports of the Cisco 800 Series Industrial Integrated Services Routers. This product can be configured as a radio interface of the Cisco Industrial Routers 809 and 829. One or multiple gateways are connected to the LAN port(s) of the IR809 or IR829 via Ethernet or VLANs with encrypted links. Through this configuration, it provides LoRaWAN radio access while the IR809 or IR829 offer backhaul support for Gigabit Ethernet (electrical or fiber), 4G/LTE, or Wi-Fi.

■Cisco Interface Module for LoRaWAN is an extension module for the industrial routers, Cisco IR809 and IR829, and serves as a carrier-grade gateway for outdoor deployments. The module provides unlicensed low-power wide area (LPWA) wireless connectivity for a range of Internet of Things (IoT) use cases such as asset tracking, water and gas metering, street lighting, smart parking/building/agriculture, and environment monitoring. There are two models supported, which are differentiated by their band support (863-870 MHz ISM or 902-928 MHz ISM). The module is identified by product ID (for example, IXM-LORA-800-H-V2).

■Cisco 800 Series Access Points are integrated access points on the Cisco 800 Series Integrated Services Routers (C800). These access points are identified by product ID (for example, AP800).

Note: Both the C819 and IR829 have embedded APs and we support management of those two APs.

■Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers (ASRs) and Cisco 3900 Series Integrated Service Routers (ISRs) are referred to as head-end routers or HERs in this document.

■Cisco IPv6 RF mesh endpoints (smart meters and range extenders).

Note: CGRs, C800, IR800s, IR500s and other types of mesh endpoint devices can coexist on a network, but cannot be in the same device group or firmware management group.

The software features enterprise-class fault, configuration, accounting, performance, and security (FCAPS) functionality, as defined in the OSI Network Management reference model.

Cisco IoT Features and Capabilities

■ Configuration Management – Cisco IoT FND facilitates configuration of large numbers of Cisco CGRs, Cisco C800s, Cisco ASRs, and endpoints. Use Cisco IoT FND to bulk-configure devices by placing them into configuration groups, editing settings in a configuration template, and then pushing the configuration to all devices in the group.

■ Device and Event Monitoring – Cisco IoT FND displays easy-to-read tabular views of extensive information generated by devices, allowing you to monitor your network for errors. Cisco IoT FND provides integrated Geographic Information System (GIS) map-based visualization of FAN devices such as routers and smart meters. Use IoT FND to create CGR-specific work orders that include the required certificates to access the router.

■ Firmware Management – Cisco IoT FND serves as a repository for Cisco CGR, Cisco C800s, Cisco IR800 (which has a different group for firmware management) and endpoint firmware images. Use Cisco IoT FND to upgrade the firmware running on groups of devices by loading the firmware image file onto the Cisco IoT FND server, and then uploading the image to the devices in the group. Once uploaded, use IoT FND to install the firmware image directly on the devices.

■ Zero Touch Deployment – This ease-of-use feature automatically registers (enrolls) and distributes X.509 certificates and provisioning information over secure connections within a connected grid network.

■ Tunnel Provisioning – Protects data exchanged between Cisco ASRs and Cisco CGRs and C800s, and prevents unauthorized access to Cisco CGRs to provide secure communication between devices. Cisco IoT FND can execute CLI commands to provision secure tunnels between Cisco CGRs, Cisco C800s, Cisco IR800s and Cisco ASRs. Use Cisco IoT FND to bulk-configure tunnel provisioning using groups.

■ IPv6 RPL Tree Polling – The IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy Networks (RPL) finds neighbors and establishes routes using ICMPv6 message exchanges. RPL manages routes based on the relative position of the endpoint to the CGR that is the root of the routing tree. RPL tree polling is available through the mesh nodes and CGR periodic updates. The RPL tree represents the mesh topology, which is useful for troubleshooting. For example, the hop count information received from the RPL tree can determine the use of unicast or multicast for the firmware download process. IoT FND maintains a periodically updated snapshot of the RPL tree.

■ Dynamic Multipoint VPN and Flex VPN – For Cisco C800 devices and Cisco IR800 devices, DMVPN and Flex VPN do not require IoT FND to apply device-specific tunnel configuration to the HER during tunnel provisioning. HER tunnel provisioning is only required for site-to-site VPN tunnels.

■ Dual PHY Support – IoT FND can communicate with devices that support Dual PHY (RF and PLC) traffic. IoT FND identifies CGRs running Dual PHY, enables configuration to masters and slaves, and collects metrics from masters. IoT FND also manages security keys for Dual PHY CGRs. On the mesh side, IoT FND identifies Dual PHY nodes using unique hardware IDs, enables configuration pushes and firmware updates, and collects metrics, including RF and PLC traffic ratios.

■ Device Location Tracking – For CGR 1000, C800, and IR800 devices, IoT FND displays real-time location and device location history.

■ Software Security Module (SSM) – This is a low-cost alternative to the Hardware Security Module (HSM), and is used for signing CSMP messages sent to meters and IR500 devices.

■ Diagnostics and Troubleshooting – The IoT FND rule engine infrastructure provides effective monitoring of triage-based troubleshooting. Device troubleshooting runs on-demand device path trace and ping on any CGR, Cisco C800, Cisco IR800, range extender, or meter (mesh endpoints).

■ High Availability – To ensure uninterrupted network management and monitoring, you can deploy the Cisco IoT FND solution in a High Availability (HA) configuration. By using clusters of load-balanced IoT FND servers and primary and standby IoT FND databases, Cisco IoT FND constantly monitors the health of the system, including connectivity within clusters and server resource usage. If a server cluster member or database becomes unavailable or a tunnel fails, another takes its place seamlessly. Additionally, you can add reliability to your IoT FND solution by configuring redundant tunnels between a Cisco CGR and multiple Cisco ASRs.

■ Power Outage Notifications – Connected Grid Endpoints (CGEs) implement a power outage notification service to support timely and efficient reporting of power outages. In the event of a power outage, CGEs perform the necessary functions to conserve energy and notify neighboring nodes of the outage. FARs relay the power outage notification to IoT FND, which then issues push notifications to customers to relate information on the outage.

■ Audit Logging – Logs access information for user activity for audit, regulatory compliance, and Security Event and Incident Management (SEIM) integration. This simplifies management and enhances compliance by integrated monitoring, reporting, and troubleshooting capabilities.

■ North Bound APIs – Eases integration of existing utility applications such as outage management system (OMS), meter data management (MDM), trouble-ticketing systems, and manager-of-managers.

■ Work Orders for Device Manager – Credentialed field technicians can remotely access and update work orders.

■ Role-Based Access Controls – Integrates with enterprise security policies and role-based access control for AMI network devices.

■ Event and Issue Management – Fault event collection, filtering, and correlation for communication network monitoring. IoT FND supports a variety of fault-event mechanisms for threshold-based rule processing, custom alarm generation, and alarm event processing. Faults display on a color-coded GIS-map view for various endpoints in the utility network. This allows operator-level custom, fault-event generation, processing, and forwarding to various utility applications such as an outage management system. Automatic issue tracking is based on the events collected.

System Requirements

Minimum Hardware and Software Requirements for Cisco IoT FND and Supporting Systems lists the hardware and software versions associated with this release.

Note: For a large scale system, refer to Oracle DB Server Hardware Requirements Example Profiles and Application Server Hardware Requirements Example Profile for Routers and Endpoints for scale requirements.

.

Note: If deploying a IoT FND server cluster, all nodes in the cluster should run on similar hardware. Additionally, all nodes must run the same version of IoT FND.

Installation Notes

The installation procedure for IoT FND comprises several tasks, as described in the Cisco IoT Field Network Director Installation Guide, Release 4.1.0 . Contact your Cisco partner to obtain a copy of this guide.

You can also find details on upgrading from Oracle 11g to Oracle 12c for existing installations; and, instructions for installing Oracle 12c in new installations within the Installation Guide.

Important Notes

Note: In the section, Caveats,any caveats that reference CG-NMS are also relevant to IoT FND. In cases where the caveat was first posted to CG-NMS, we left the CG-NMS reference.

OpenSSH Version

Since IoT FND is supported on a variety of Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) 5 Update releases, the OpenSSH version that comes with a given release might be an older version with known security holes. Consequently, we recommend ensuring that OpenSSH on the RHEL IoT FND server is up to date. On initial installation, upgrade the OpenSSH package in the IoT FND server to the latest version (7.5 or later).

Enhancements in Release 4.1.2

■CSMP processing rate is greater than 35 ms. (CSCvh97478)

■Ability to customize line width for showing RPL links on map (CSCvk08437)

■Make the number of threads for processing metrics configurable. (CSCvk61896)

■Make ASR Polling interval configurable. (CSCvk69484)

The ASR polling interval is now user configurable. This enhancement applies to all HER types.

■Not locking DB rows for issues/events. This impacts only when there is more than one app server (CSCvk69509)

■Implement heartbeat for ASR (CSCvm36042)

FND is enhanced to implement heartbeat mechanism with ASR (HER).

■Provide a confirmation prompt to alert user about delay in listing large number of events.

When a user selects a time duration that will result in more than 50 million events, a confirmation prompt will be displayed to alert user of delay in listing the events. User can choose to proceed or cancel the selection.

Caveats

This section presents open and resolved caveats in this release and information on using the Bug Search Tool to view details on those caveats. Section topics are:

■Open Caveats

■Resolved Caveats

■Accessing the Bug Search Tool

Related Documentation

Find Cisco 1000 Series Connected Grid Routers and IoT Device Manager documentation at:

www.cisco.com/go/cgr1000-docs

For information on additional systems referenced in this release note, see the following documentation on Cisco.com:

■ Cisco ASR 1000 Series Aggregation Services Routers Configuration Guide

■ Cisco 3945 Series Integrated Services Router

■ Cisco 800 Series Integrated Services Routers

■ Cisco 800 Series Industrial Integrated Services Routers

■ Cisco 800 Series Access Points

■ Cisco 500 Series WPAN Industrial Routers

■ Cisco LoRaWAN Interface Module Hardware Installation Guide

■ Cisco Wireless Gateway for LoRaWAN l

No combinations are authorized or intended under this document.

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