How Does It Work? - IoT Architecture Tour

Visual and console tours of the Smart Car Park IoT system

How Does It Work? - IoT Architecture Tour

Visual and console tours of the Smart Car Park IoT system

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How Real-Time IoT Works

Choose your path: a visual tour with diagrams, or a hands-on console tour exploring the AWS infrastructure.

Architecture Tours

Visual Architecture Tour

Understand the IoT data flow from sensors through to dashboards

6 minutes

1. 1

   Sensor Layer

   Physical or simulated sensors report bay status (OCCUPIED/VACANT) via MQTT protocol. Each sensor has a unique ID and reports state changes immediately.

2. 2

   IoT Core Ingestion

   AWS IoT Core receives MQTT messages, routes them to appropriate services based on topic patterns. Device shadows maintain last-known state for offline scenarios.

3. 3

   Time Series Storage

   Amazon Timestream stores every state change with microsecond precision. Data is automatically tiered from memory to magnetic storage based on age.

4. 4

   Processing Layer

   Lambda functions calculate aggregate metrics: total occupancy, zone breakdowns, trend analysis. Runs on every batch of changes or on schedule.

5. 5

   Dashboard Presentation

   QuickSight queries Timestream and renders real-time visualizations. Auto-refresh keeps dashboards current without manual intervention.

6. 6

   Alert Pipeline

   SNS notifications triggered when occupancy exceeds thresholds. Configurable recipients and escalation paths.

Console Architecture Tour

Explore the actual AWS resources powering this scenario

10 minutes Requires deployed stack

1. IoT Core

   What to look for: Thing registry, message broker, topic rules routing data to Timestream and Lambda

2. Timestream Database

   What to look for: Database and table structure, sample queries, data retention settings

3. Lambda Functions

   What to look for: Aggregation function code, CloudWatch logs showing processing events

4. QuickSight

   What to look for: Dashboard layout, data source configuration, refresh settings

5. CloudWatch Alarms

   What to look for: Occupancy threshold alarms, SNS action configuration

What's Next?

Test the Limits

What happens when sensors fail or data spikes?

Try challenges

Production Guidance

Learn what changes for multi-car park deployments.

View guidance