Data Service Connection Schedule

The Data Service supports a configurable time based connection schedule. If this functionality is enabled, the Data Service will connect at specific time instants represented by a configurable Cron expression, keep the connection open until it becomes idle and then disconnect until the next instant that matches the expression.

More in detail, the connection logic is as follows:

The DataService parses the confgiured Cron expression and schedules a connection attempt at the next instant that matches the expression. When the connection instant is reached, the logic continues from step 2.
The Data Service will start the auto connect logic. One or more connection attempts will be performed until the connection is established honoring the connect.retry-interval parameter.
The Data Service starts a timer that ticks after connection.schedule.inactivity.interval.seconds seconds. When the timer ticks the connection will be closed, and the logic resumed from step 1. The timer is reset delaying the disconnection when a message is published or confirmed (for QoS >= 1). The connection will not be closed if there are messages with QoS >= 1 that have not been confirmed yet. If an unexpected connection drop occurs in this phase, the logic will resume from step 2.

The Data Service will attempt to detect large time shifts in system clock, if a time shift is detected, the logic will switch to step 1, rescheduling the next connection attempt.

The relevant configuration parameters are the following:

Enable Connection Schedule: Enables or disables the connection schedule feature. Please note that in order to enable the connection logic, the Connect Auto-on-startup parameter must be set to true as well.
Connection Schedule CRON Expression: A CRON expression that specifies the instants when the gateway should perform a connection attempt. This parameter is only used if Enable Connection Schedule is set to true. The default expression schedules a connection every day at midnight.
Allow priority message to overide connection schedule - Allows messages beyond a specified priority to force a connection and be sent regardless of connection schedule.
Message schedule priority override threshold - A message with a priority equal to or less than this threshold will cause the framework to automatically re-connect and send regardless of the connection schedule.
Connection Schedule Disconnect Inactivity Interval Second: Specifies an inactivity timeout in seconds. If the timeout expires, the cloud connection will be automatically closed. This parameter is only used if Enable Connection Schedule is set to true.