Time & Ordering

Time is fundamental to telemetry processing. ModularIoT has specific approaches to handling temporal data.

Timestamp Types

Device Time

When the device recorded the measurement. May be inaccurate if device clock drifts.

Server Time

When the platform received the data. Always accurate but doesn’t reflect actual event time.

Processed Time

When the platform processed the record. Used for system tracking.

Out-of-Order Data

Telemetry often arrives out of order due to:

• Network delays
• Buffering on devices
• Batch transmission
• Connectivity gaps

ModularIoT handles this through:

• Event-time processing
• Late data windows
• Watermarks for completeness

Time Zones

All times are stored in UTC. Conversions to local time happen at display.

Data Gaps

When devices lose connectivity:

• Buffered data may arrive late
• Gaps are detectable in timeseries
• Symptoms can detect “no data” conditions

Ordering Guarantees

Within a single device stream, ordering is preserved. Across devices, global ordering is not guaranteed.