Create a Device

Devices within TVA may be manually created or automatically created, depending on the interfaces and integration in use, as well as the settings for a given tenant. When creating a device manually, care must be taken to ensure the identifier used matches any direct interface-provided identifier. If the identifiers do not match, the device cannot be used for automatically processing data from a source interface.

To start, the create device screen is shown below.

This screen shows many optional and a few required fields, but the key fields to focus on are:

• Device Identifier - This is the key field used to match data reports sent by devices to this entry, and must match the source device. Depending on the source device this may be a MAC Address, an IMEI number, or other characteristics. Keep in mind, TVA adds a prefix on many of these identifiers to deterministically identify the source device, so the device identifier may be a prefix plus the additional device information.
• Description of Device - This is an optional field however this is useful to understand the type of device and function it provides for the organization. Generic descriptions are more useful than nothing, and helps to better understand when the device is assigned and in use.
• Device Type - The device type configuration defaults to a general device type, which supports standard data processing. Some device types, such as BLE Beacons and TVA Anchors, will cause additional fields to appear for entry.

Beyond these fields, there are several optional identifier fields useful for cross-referencing various types of devices to the system. These include:

• Device Part Number
• Device Serial Number
• Device Address
• SIM Card

These attributes are informational only and are not used for processing data within TVA, but may be useful for tracking and accountability.

Devices may be assignd to a location, and if so will automatically alert when the device departs from the area. This is an implicit geofence and may be established through an assigned place, assigned building, or assigned area.

To aid in the fine tuning of various device types, there is an option to enable or disable report filtering, and this filtering is used to automatically reject poor quality reports a device may send. Often a GPS device, for example, may send a very low accuracy report that could be confusing or disruptive, and so filtering with an optional custom accuracy threshold aids in the processing of data from the device.

To automatically detect devices that have trouble reporting, the device reporting intervals may be configured. These settings, for both warning and alert tiers, are used to identify a device that is no longer transmitting information to TVA, making it easier to identify and address hardware issues.

Finally, a device may be set at an initial position. For devices that aren't capable of reporting positions, the device will remain at this position until changed. For GPS-based devices that report positions, the device will automatically move from this initial position as data reports are processed.