JOSS SCHOLTEN

The Problem

Getting a command from a cloud server to an IoT device reliably is harder than it sounds. In a lab, everything works. In the real world — apartment buildings, hotels, office towers, homes — you're dealing with unreliable internet connections, devices that go to sleep, routers that reboot, NAT traversal nightmares, and corporate firewalls that block inbound traffic.

For a smart thermostat, a missed command is annoying. For a smart lock in an apartment building that a property manager is trying to grant access through, a missed command is a real operational problem. You can't build an enterprise product on infrastructure that works 95% of the time.

The Invention

The core insight was to put more intelligence at the local network level rather than relying entirely on cloud round-trips for every device interaction.

The patented architecture describes a local hub that can:

• Buffer and reliably deliver cloud commands even under degraded or intermittent network conditions
• Maintain synchronized device state between cloud and local environments
• Orchestrate device-to-device commands without requiring a cloud round-trip
• Fall back gracefully and retry when connectivity is temporarily lost
• Handle NAT traversal and firewall scenarios that block standard cloud-to-device connections

The result is a system where commands arrive reliably — even when the internet connection between the local network and the cloud is poor — and where device state stays consistent across both the local and cloud representations.

Why This Matters

This wasn't a theoretical exercise. The architecture described in these patents is what made Yonomi actually work at enterprise scale — across 200+ device types, in 150+ countries, including in deployments where "the internet is flaky" is simply a fact of life and failure isn't acceptable.

Enterprise IoT customers — property management companies, hotel chains, insurance carriers — need reliability guarantees that consumer-grade cloud architectures can't provide. The local orchestration layer was the answer.

Current Status

The patent portfolio was transferred to Allegion as part of the Yonomi acquisition in 2021. It now forms part of the foundational IP of Allegion's connected access infrastructure.

→ Read more about Yonomi and the acquisition