Asset Tree Overview


Asset trees are primarily designed for device managers who understand the business hierarchy of enterprise assets, enabling them to quickly create hierarchical structures for assets based on asset trees.

An asset tree is a way of organizing the hierarchical relationships between assets. An asset can appear in multiple asset trees to meet various management needs across different dimensions. However, an asset can only appear once within a single asset tree. Scenarios for using multiple trees include:

  • Organized by geographic location: Country, Province, City, District.

  • Organized by domain: Wind Power, Solar Power, Energy Storage.

  • Organized by device type: Wind Turbine, Inverter, Combiner Box.

As shown in the three organizational methods above, three asset trees can be constructed, and the assets on these trees can be the same.


Device provisioning and access do not depend on asset trees. You can first register and connect devices, then create an asset tree and associate devices with it. Alternatively, you can create an asset tree first, register and connect devices in the cloud, and then bind the devices to the asset tree. Typically, connected devices need to be bound to an asset tree.

Key Concepts


Before creating an asset tree, you need to learn about the following key concepts.

Node


A connection point on an asset tree where assets can be mounted. Assets form the topological relationships of the asset tree by being mounted on its nodes. When a user creates an asset tree, EnOS automatically generates the root node of the tree, which typically mounts a logical asset. Sub-nodes can be added under the root node, and further nodes can be added under those sub-nodes, with each node capable of mounting an asset.

Asset


An asset is an entity that is directly mounted on the asset tree and can be managed. An asset tree can mount device assets (e.g., air conditioners, lights) or logical assets (e.g., floors, functional groups). An asset is unique within the same tree but can be mounted on different asset trees. Below is a design case study for a smart building asset tree:


Asset Tree A


../../_images/assettree_sample_1.png


Asset Tree B


../../_images/assettree_sample_2.png


In a smart building, assets can be organized into an asset tree based on their floor and room (e.g., Asset Tree A) or based on device type (e.g., Asset Tree B), depending on specific business needs. For example, the Light asset is mounted on both Asset Tree A and Asset Tree B.