Simulate an IoT sensor dataset

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The Internet of Things (IoT) describes a trend where computing capabilities are embedded into IoT devices. That is, physical objects, ranging from light bulbs to oil wells. Many IoT devices collect sensor data about their environment and generate time-series datasets with relational metadata.

It is often necessary to simulate IoT datasets. For example, when you are testing a new system. This tutorial shows how to simulate a basic dataset in your Timescale Cloud service, and then run simple queries on it.

To simulate a more advanced dataset, see Time-series Benchmarking Suite (TSBS).

Prerequisites

To follow the steps on this page:

Create a target Timescale Cloud service with time-series and analytics enabled.
You need your connection details. This procedure also works for self-hosted TimescaleDB.

Simulate a dataset

To simulate a dataset, run the following queries:

Create the sensors table:


CREATE TABLE sensors(
  id SERIAL PRIMARY KEY,
  type VARCHAR(50),
  location VARCHAR(50)
);

Create the sensor_data hypertable


CREATE TABLE sensor_data (
  time TIMESTAMPTZ NOT NULL,
  sensor_id INTEGER,
  temperature DOUBLE PRECISION,
  cpu DOUBLE PRECISION,
  FOREIGN KEY (sensor_id) REFERENCES sensors (id)
) WITH (
  tsdb.hypertable,
  tsdb.partition_column='time'
);

If you are self-hosting TimescaleDB v2.19.3 and below, create a PostgreSQL relational table, then convert it using create_hypertable. You then enable hypercore with a call to ALTER TABLE.

Populate the sensors table:


INSERT INTO sensors (type, location) VALUES
('a','floor'),
('a', 'ceiling'),
('b','floor'),
('b', 'ceiling');

Verify that the sensors have been added correctly:


SELECT * FROM sensors;

Sample output:


id | type | location
----+------+----------
  1 | a    | floor
  2 | a    | ceiling
  3 | b    | floor
  4 | b    | ceiling
(4 rows)

Generate and insert a dataset for all sensors:


INSERT INTO sensor_data (time, sensor_id, cpu, temperature)
SELECT
  time,
  sensor_id,
  random() AS cpu,
  random()*100 AS temperature
FROM generate_series(now() - interval '24 hour', now(), interval '5 minute') AS g1(time), generate_series(1,4,1) AS g2(sensor_id);

Verify the simulated dataset:


SELECT * FROM sensor_data ORDER BY time;

Sample output:


time              | sensor_id |    temperature     |         cpu         
-------------------------------+-----------+--------------------+---------------------
 2020-03-31 15:56:25.843575+00 |         1 |   6.86688972637057 |   0.682070567272604
 2020-03-31 15:56:40.244287+00 |         2 |    26.589260622859 |   0.229583469685167
 2030-03-31 15:56:45.653115+00 |         3 |   79.9925176426768 |   0.457779890391976
 2020-03-31 15:56:53.560205+00 |         4 |   24.3201029952615 |   0.641885648947209
 2020-03-31 16:01:25.843575+00 |         1 |   33.3203678019345 |  0.0159163917414844
 2020-03-31 16:01:40.244287+00 |         2 |   31.2673618085682 |   0.701185956597328
 2020-03-31 16:01:45.653115+00 |         3 |   85.2960689924657 |   0.693413889966905
 2020-03-31 16:01:53.560205+00 |         4 |   79.4769988860935 |   0.360561791341752
...

Run basic queries

After you simulate a dataset, you can run some basic queries on it. For example:

Average temperature and CPU by 30-minute windows:


SELECT
  time_bucket('30 minutes', time) AS period,
  AVG(temperature) AS avg_temp,
  AVG(cpu) AS avg_cpu
FROM sensor_data
GROUP BY period;

Sample output:


period         |     avg_temp     |      avg_cpu      
------------------------+------------------+-------------------
 2020-03-31 19:00:00+00 | 49.6615830013373 | 0.477344429974134
 2020-03-31 22:00:00+00 | 58.8521540844037 | 0.503637770501276
 2020-03-31 16:00:00+00 | 50.4250325243144 | 0.511075591299838
 2020-03-31 17:30:00+00 | 49.0742547437549 | 0.527267253802468
 2020-04-01 14:30:00+00 | 49.3416377226822 | 0.438027751864865
 ...

Average and last temperature, average CPU by 30-minute windows:


SELECT
  time_bucket('30 minutes', time) AS period,
  AVG(temperature) AS avg_temp,
  last(temperature, time) AS last_temp,
  AVG(cpu) AS avg_cpu
FROM sensor_data
GROUP BY period;

Sample output:


period         |     avg_temp     |    last_temp     |      avg_cpu      
------------------------+------------------+------------------+-------------------
 2020-03-31 19:00:00+00 | 49.6615830013373 | 84.3963081017137 | 0.477344429974134
 2020-03-31 22:00:00+00 | 58.8521540844037 | 76.5528806950897 | 0.503637770501276
 2020-03-31 16:00:00+00 | 50.4250325243144 | 43.5192013625056 | 0.511075591299838
 2020-03-31 17:30:00+00 | 49.0742547437549 |  22.740753274411 | 0.527267253802468
 2020-04-01 14:30:00+00 | 49.3416377226822 | 59.1331578791142 | 0.438027751864865
...

Query the metadata:


SELECT
  sensors.location,
  time_bucket('30 minutes', time) AS period,
  AVG(temperature) AS avg_temp,
  last(temperature, time) AS last_temp,
  AVG(cpu) AS avg_cpu
FROM sensor_data JOIN sensors on sensor_data.sensor_id = sensors.id
GROUP BY period, sensors.location;

Sample output:


location |         period         |     avg_temp     |     last_temp     |      avg_cpu      
----------+------------------------+------------------+-------------------+-------------------
 ceiling  | 20120-03-31 15:30:00+00 | 25.4546818090603 |  24.3201029952615 | 0.435734559316188
 floor    | 2020-03-31 15:30:00+00 | 43.4297036845237 |  79.9925176426768 |  0.56992522883229
 ceiling  | 2020-03-31 16:00:00+00 | 53.8454438598516 |  43.5192013625056 | 0.490728285357666
 floor    | 2020-03-31 16:00:00+00 | 47.0046211887772 |  23.0230117216706 |  0.53142289724201
 ceiling  | 2020-03-31 16:30:00+00 | 58.7817596504465 |  63.6621567420661 | 0.488188337767497
 floor    | 2020-03-31 16:30:00+00 |  44.611586847653 |  2.21919436007738 | 0.434762630766879
 ceiling  | 2020-03-31 17:00:00+00 | 35.7026890735142 |  42.9420990403742 | 0.550129583687522
 floor    | 2020-03-31 17:00:00+00 | 62.2794370166957 |  52.6636955793947 | 0.454323202022351
...

You have now successfully simulated and run queries on an IoT dataset.

Simulate an IoT sensor dataset

Prerequisites

Simulate a dataset

Run basic queries

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