The gateway needs a working Internet connection via Ethernet. Networking components like switches are never offered as part of a Mount Kelvin project proposal. The networking contractor must acquire and install these separately. The gateway requires outbound connectivity to the Internet. Notably, the network connection must be installed and fully functional prior to starting commissioning.
The gateways acquire IP addresses via DHCP, no manual IP assignment is needed. All gateway units in a single installation must be placed in a single network, which does not filter mDNS traffic.
In a typical network, no firewall changes are necessary, but if a firewall with outbound communications restrictions is present, the following ports must be open:
| Direction | Port | Protocol | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
Outbound | 443 | TCP | HTTPS to cloud backend, system updates |
Outbound | 29648 | TCP | Logging service for maintenance |
Outbound | 123 | UDP | NTP time synchronization |
Outbound | 53 | UDP | DNS (Domain Name Service) |
The connection between the gateways and cloud backend is built upon WebSockets. Monitoring of gateway connection status is handled by monitoring the WebSocket state. In addition to the socket to the command &. control backend, a separate fleet management system monitors the gateways.
The bandwidth requirements of the gateway are relatively low, a few hundred MB / month. A more critical consideration is network latency, but this aspect is only relevant when using the mobile or web application to control the system and during commissioning. During normal operation, the switches and sensors in the rooms are used as the primary control mechanism and the network connection is mostly used for status reporting and monitoring. Temporary spikes in network usage may be observed during updates of the gateway software, which can amount to 1—2 Gb per gateway.
The Mount Kelvin gateways do not support PoE, a separate power socket is needed in the installation location.