Advantages and Disadvantages of Gateway

omid Network August 16, 2021

What is Gateway ?

Gateway is a kind of networking device that interconnects two devices in different networks. So that they can communicate with each other. In other words, it acts as a gate for another network.

in this Article we are going to Discuss the Advantages and Disadvantages of Gateway

The Advantages of Gateway?

Adding And Configuring Smart Devices Simply And Quickly

Commissioning a network, especially a large network, is one of the most time consuming and difficult operations in the network life cycle. Commissioning starts with making sure devices are part of the network (also known as “joining” or “pairing”). It doesn’t end there.

For a control system to be smart, it needs to support the following:

Be able to control a group of devices in a specific way that could be different for different devices (often called a scene)
And Also Be able to control devices, groups, or scenes on a schedule
Be able to take input from one device on the system and use that to control another device, group or scene.
Do all of the above in an automatic way that feels magical to the end user

Rather than having to setup each group, and schedule. And rule, the Gateway can be given a small amount of information and use this to create the configuration of the network.

Uninterrupted, Internet-Independent Operation

While cloud-based control and monitoring of on-premises IoT devices will continue to be essential, attempting to move all intelligence and routing responsibilities into the cloud has so far proven to be ineffective. This is due to the latency issues mentioned above, but a larger problem involves the need for a constant connection.

Although internet connectivity and up-time have made great advances, outages and other interruptions still occur frequently. It simply isn’t feasible for users and managers to risk losing control of vital devices in their offices and homes if an internet failure occurs.

In simple terms, having an on-premises gateway creates a reliable backup should internet access be interrupt. When cloud access is unavailable, gateway-based communication continues, allowing users to have uninterrupted control from on-site.

Easier To Create Rich And Useful User Interface

Every network needs a user interface. Hopefully this is used mostly for management and configuration and used only sometimes for control, since the majority of control should ideally be automated.

The most common example of a user interface is a mobile app. This mobile app needs to talk directly to the network when on-premises, and communicate through the cloud when remote.

Exposing a reasonable interface to allow the mobile app to take these actions is the responsibility of the Gateway. The better this interface is designed, the easier it is to modify or create user interfaces.

Without a gateway, all devices would need to present a reasonable interface for a user application. This would add complexity to each device and would make the user interface development far more difficult.

The other Advantages of Gateway

Connectivity
Security
Filtering Process
Domain Control
Protocol Conversion

Connectivity

As mentioned earlier, the main benefit of gateway is the connectivity it provides. A gateway can expand the network by connecting computers with different systems together. Through this, same kind of information will be able to be access by different computers.

Security

Gateways are known to posses improved security since they allow user authentication. Forms of security such as User ID and Password can be imposed on gateway so that all the unwanted access will be prevented. This not only protects sensitive information, it also ensures that only the authorized users have access to the information.

Filtering Process

Filtering process is another important capability of a gateway. Without them, whatever the services that arrives at the gateway carries the risk of theft. Therefore, gateway performs the filtering process by inspecting each data packet that passed through the gateway.

Domain Control

When the number of Collision and Broadcast domain increases, the network provider can assure that they will be able to provide better bandwidth. A networking gateway has the capability to control collision as well as broadcast domain.

Protocol Conversion

Besides filtering, a gateway can also convert data packets according to the destination needs. If the destination network or architecture has different needs, it can also convert the data format accordingly. That is the reason why it is also call as the Protocol Converter.

Now listen to the Disadvantages of Gateway

The Disadvantages of Gateway

Implementation
Configuration
Time Delay
Connection Failure
Troubleshooting

Implementation

Generally gateways on default are install on the routers itself. This makes it more difficult for the network administrators to install or configure them. Apart from this the cost involved in the implementation process is too high.

Configuration

Configuration of devices through a gateway is made even more difficult or impossible. There must be special system administration for this purpose.

Time Delay

Gateway networks always causes time delay since information must be translate. There is no way can a instant transfer take place. In addition to that, a gateway must also return old cache information that is not clear properly. This can take more time resulting in time constraints.

Connection Failure

If there are possibilities of failure occurring at the gateway, it can lead to communication loss. Devices on the opposite side will no longer be able to communicate until the problem is resolve.

Troubleshooting

Computers on a network are with different protocols. Therefore, if there is any problem, each of these computers need to be troubleshoot individually. This makes the process more complicated since different tools must be present.

Therefore In this article We Discussed the Advantages and Disadvantages of Gateway and we hope you enjoy of reading that.

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