Event Handler is a service that allows you to build automations that react to different SIM events. An event handler consists of a rule and one or more actions, which can be freely combined to fit a variety of situations, as well as variables which can be used to customize certain actions.

• Examples of rules that Event Handler can check:

  • Perform an action when a SIM is activated (its status changes to Active)
  • Perform an action when a SIM exceeds 1 GiB of data transfer within one month
  • Perform an action when a SIM's expiration date has passed

• Examples of action that Event Handler can perform:

  • Send a notification by email
  • Change the speed class of the SIM
  • Call an AWS Lambda function

Event Handler has been updated and now supports the following additional rules, actions, and variables:

New Rule: Match when a SIM status is changed to Standby

The Target Status property of the Sim status attribute and Subscriber status attribute rules can now be set to Standby. With this configuration, an Event Handler will run its actions when a SIM's status is changed to Standby.

Updated Rule: Match source SIM status

In addition to configuring an Event Handler rule to run its actions when a SIM's status is changed to a specific status (such as when a SIM status changes to Active or Inactive), you can now also match a specific SIM status before the status change.

This gives you finer control over your devices, such as running different actions when a SIM changes from Ready to Active, than when it changes from Inactive to Active.

New Action: Suspend a SIM

You can now choose to suspend a SIM (change its status to Suspended) as an action to perform when an Event Handler's rule is matched.

• Note: A fee may apply

  Note that a suspension fee or a reactivation fee will apply when changing a SIM status to or from the Suspended status, respectively, depending on the subscription plan of the SIM. For more information, refer to the Pricing & Fee Schedule documentation.

New Variable: Coverage Type

Event Handlers only apply to the coverage type in which they are created. In other words, an Event Handler created for Global coverage will only apply to SIMs which are also managed in the Global coverage type, and likewise for Japan coverage. If you have configured Event Handlers in both coverage types, you can now use the ${coverage} variable in the Send email, Send mail to operator, Execute web request, and Invoke AWS Lambda actions to differentiate which coverage type the action is coming from. This variable will return the following values:

• When an Event Handler in Global coverage executes, ${coverage} will be replaced with g
• When an Event Handler in Japan coverage executes, ${coverage} will be replaced with jp

For more information, please refer to the Event Handler documentation.

SORACOM Arc, a secure link service that allows compatible devices to connect directly to Soracom using any standard Internet connection, now supports connectivity using IPv6.

When configuring Arc, configuration details will be issued, which your device can then use to connect to Soracom. These configuration details include a connection endpoint which consists of a domain name like *.arc.soracom.io.

With this update, when your device looks up the domain name specified by the connection endpoint, both IPv4 (A record) and IPv6 (AAAA record) addresses will be returned:

$ nslookup abc.arc.soracom.io
Server:         192.168.0.1
Address:        192.168.0.1#53

Non-authoritative answer:
Name:   abc.arc.soracom.io
Address: 54.11.22.33
Name:   abc.arc.soracom.io
Address: 2406:d014:3333:4444:5555:6666:7777:8888

Your device can then use the IPv6 address to connect to Soracom.

Compatibility

In order for your device to connect using IPv6, both the device itself and all network elements between the device and Soracom must support IPv6. For example, if your device is connected via Wi-Fi to a router, the router must support IPv6 networking, and your Internet Service Provider must also provide you with an IPv6 address.

If you are using the soratun tool to configure and manage the SORACOM Arc connections on your device, you will also need to upgrade soratun to version 1.1.0 or later. You can check which version is currently installed by running soratun version.

SORACOM Harvest is a data collection and storage service that allows you to easily capture and save data from devices without the need to set up and configure servers or other cloud services.

Soracom is pleased to announce updates to the Harvest Data interface on the SORACOM User Console, to help make accessing and visualizing data more intuitive.

Improved Layout

The Harvest Data interface layout has been improved to make accessing the following features easier:

• Showing or hiding individual data series in graphs
• Displaying detailed data when clicking on a data point in a graph or map
• Specifying which data properties should be used for latitude and longitude when displaying data on a map
• Automatically refreshing to check for new data
• Enabling or disabling the Extended Data Retention Option

Easier Searching

The Harvest Data interface now provides quick shortcuts for specifying a time range for the shown data, such as "Last 1 hour," "Last 7 days," or "All Time."

When changing the time range, the User Console will now also dynamically update the URL to match the specified time range. You can use this to save a link and easily return to the same view later.

• Relative and Absolute Times

  Please note that when selecting a Relative Time range such as "Last 7 days," the URL will only include the relative time range. As a result, when accessing the URL later, the time range shown in Harvest Data will be updated relative to the current time.

  If you want to save a URL in order to return to the same time range later, specify an Absolute Time range instead.

When using SORACOM Funnel to send data from a device to a cloud service, Funnel will now preserve decimal value notation when the fractional part of a decimal value contains all 0s.

For example, when a device sends data {"temperature": 20.0}, Funnel previously converted the value to an integer and sent the data as {"temperature": 20}. Now, Funnel will send the data as {"temperature": 20.0} without converting the value to an integer.

Note that if the value contains more than one trailing 0 in the fractional part of the decimal, only the first 0 will be preserved. For example, if a device sends data {"temperature": 20.00}, Funnel will send the data as {"temperature": 20.0} to the cloud service.

Please be aware that if your cloud service is configured to check the presence or absence of a decimal point . in order to determine the data type (decimal or integer), this change will affect the behavior of the cloud service.

Type-C Virtual Private Gateways (VPG) will be deprecated on July 31, 2021. After this date, you will no longer be able to create a Type-C VPG.

Customers with existing Type-C VPGs may continue using their Type-C VPGs without interruption. However, please note that some VPG features such as SORACOM Peek packet capture are only available with newer Type-E and Type-F VPGs.

As you will no longer be able to create Type-C VPGs, you may use one of the following alternatives:

• Customers who require the private network connectivity services of SORACOM Canal, Door, or Direct in order to connect their SORACOM Air devices to their private network, may use the newer VPG Type-F option, which provides the same capabilities of the Type-C option as well as support for additional private networking features.
• Customers who do not need private network connectivity services but would still like to maintain a dedicated gateway for their SORACOM Air devices may use the VPG Type-E option, which provides many of the same capabilities as the Type-F option at a greatly reduced cost.

For more information on the differences between each VPG type, refer to the following pages:

• Virtual Private Gateway: Overview
• Pricing & Fee Schedule: Virtual Private Gateway

The Amazon Kinesis Video Stream adapter for SORACOM Funnel, previously offered on a Limited Preview basis, will be discontinued on July 31, 2021.

Soracom is pleased to offer a new D-300MB data bundle pricing plan for plan-D IoT SIMs. The original plan-D subscription provides pay-as-you-go pricing with coverage in Japan. The new plan-D D-300MB bundle provides the same service area coverage, but with new pricing that makes it easier to forecast data usage fees.

New Bundle Pricing

The plan-D subscription is available with Data-only and Data/SMS options. For plan-D (Data-only) subscriptions, the main differences between the original subscription and the new D-300MB bundle are as follows:

The D-300MB bundle is also available for plan-D (Data/SMS) SIMs, with similar differences in pricing.

For more information, please refer to SORACOM IoT SIM for Japan: Pricing page (in Japanese).

Getting Started with the plan-D D-300MB Bundle

You can start using the plan-D D-300MB bundle in the following ways:

Purchase a new plan-D D-300MB SIM

You can purchase a new plan-D D-300MB SIM from the SORACOM User Console. Simply switch to the Japan Coverage type, create a new order, and select the "SORACOM Air SIM card plan-D (D-300MB)" item. You can choose between Data-only and Data/SMS options, as well as the SIM card size you want to use.

For more instructions on creating an order, please refer to the Order Management: Placing a New Order instructions.

You can also purchase a new plan-D D-300MB SIM from the Soracom IoT Store (Japan) (in Japanese).

Add the D-300MB bundle to an existing plan-D SIM

If you already have a plan-D SIM, you can add the D-300MB bundle and begin using it right away, without paying for a new SIM. After logging into the SORACOM User Console, simply select your plan-D SIM, click Actions > Update bundle, and select the D-300MB bundle.

For more information on adding a bundle, please refer to the Data Usage: Changing Bundled Data Plans instructions.

Please note that the D-300MB bundle can only be added to a plan-D SIM, and cannot be added to other SIMs. In addition, once a D-300MB bundle has been added to a plan-D SIM, it cannot be removed.

The search functionality in the SIM Management screen of the User Console has been improved. In addition to searching by SIM name, tag, and group, you can also filter search results by SIM status, the type of subscription, and even the type of module, all from a single search interface.

SORACOM Funnel now supports transferring data from devices to SensorCorpus, an IoT platform from INFOCORPUS Inc.

For more information, please refer to the following pages (in Japanese):

• 指定のクラウドサービスに連携する「SORACOM Funnel」が、 インフォコーパスの「SensorCorpus」に対応 (SORACOM Inc.)
• ユニバーサルIoTプラットフォーム「SensorCorpus」が「SORACOM Funnel」のPartner Hosted Adapterに対応 (INFOCORPUS Inc.)

SORACOM Beam, a proxy and protocol conversion service which offloads encryption forwards data from IoT devices to the cloud, provides support for multiple protocols through various entry points, such as HTTP, MQTT, TCP, and UDP entry points.

When using the MQTT entry point to forward an MQTT connection from a device to a destination MQTT broker, you are currently able to select between two Soracom platform versions: 201912 and 201509. Soracom will end support for the 201509 version on January 20, 2022.

Differences between the MQTT Entry Point Versions

For more information about differences between the 201912 and 201509 versions, refer to the SORACOM Beam: MQTT Entry Point documentation.

Updating Beam MQTT Entry Point Configurations to Version 201912

If you are currently using the 201509 version in your Beam MQTT Entry Point configuration, please note that any configurations that still use version 201509 will automatically be switched to version 201912 on January 20, 2022, once support for the previous version has ended. Depending on the configuration of the MQTT client on your device, your device may no longer be able to connect to the destination MQTT broker in order to send or receive data once this change occurs.

Please carefully review the details in the SORACOM Beam: MQTT Entry Point documentation for information on how to update your device settings and migrate your Beam configuration to version 201912 in advance, in order to avoid interruption.