Commissioning
Once a manufactured IoT Gateway is installed and powered on, it goes through commissioning to establish its unique cryptographic identity and bind it to the business unit that will own and operate it.
Both steps below must be completed before telemetry can flow to your business unit in the field:
Automatic first-boot provisioning
When the device boots for the first time, it connects to Bifrost using the claim certificate loaded during manufacturing and automatically requests provisioning.
Bifrost verifies that the device's IMEI is registered in the platform and issues a unique certificate dedicated to that single device. Once the device receives its unique certificate, it stores it locally and must use it for all subsequent communication with Bifrost. From that point forward, the claim certificate is no longer used, and the device's provisioning status transitions from pending to active.
Until automatic first-boot provisioning succeeds and the device switches to its unique certificate, the device cannot publish telemetry or receive commands, even if a business unit has already been assigned to its record.
Assigning a business unit and environment
Provisioning establishes the device's identity, but it does not assign ownership. During commissioning, a privileged user assigns the device's business unit and environment by calling PATCH /v1/devices/{imei} on the Device API (see the Operations matrix).
Once assigned:
- Your business unit becomes the owner of the device, and the device is listed as part of your fleet.
- Bifrost routes the device's incoming payloads to the destination selected by that business unit and environment (see Where Data Lands).
- The device is ready to report telemetry and accept commands in the field.