top of page
BEAMgrids.png

COMMON PAYLOAD FORMATS

Events and query-results represent the majority of distributed data exchanged and are most efficiently contained within a grid (tabular) structure.  BEAM (Bidirectional Entity Attribute Message) payload formats are structured as grids that support requests/responses, contextual events, queries/results, and views.  The payloads are transported in a syntactical format suitable for a specific transport protocol. For example, a grid can be encoded as a JavaScript Object Notation (JSON) two-dimensional array for transport via an HTTP message. Or it can be encoded as a Concise Binary Object Recognition (CBOR) array for transport via CoAP.

BEAMevents.png

The BEAMevents grid is utilized for message payloads comprising one or more contextual events.  The grid is tightly coupled to the common ontology and provides event consumers with the minimal information necessary to react to any state change occurrence. The grid includes traditional time series elements (timestamp, value, unit) and metadata identifiers for ontology elements (attribute, class and object) to support contextual events.

BEAMqueries.png

The BEAMqueries grid is utilized for message payloads comprising one or more query requests.  The grid is also tightly coupled to the common ontology and is processed by a query processor to retrieve values for a BEAMresults grid.
The BEAMqueries grid comprises several elements with some elements comprising a nested grid. These elements have fixed, zero-based column positions (indices) within the BEAMqueries grid

BEAMresults.png

The BEAMresults grid is utilized for message payloads comprising one or more query results that correspond to the BEAMqueries grid.  Elements have fixed, zero-based column positions (indices)

bottom of page