Merge pull request #3 from thingsboard/master

Merge latest readme to the release branch

Author: ashvayka

README.md

@@ -0,0 +1,59 @@
+# Thingsboard IoT Gateway
+[![Join the chat at https://gitter.im/thingsboard/chat](https://badges.gitter.im/Join%20Chat.svg)](https://gitter.im/thingsboard/chat?utm_source=badge&utm_medium=badge&utm_campaign=pr-badge&utm_content=badge)
+
+The Thingsboard **IoT Gateway** is an open-source solution that allows you to integrate devices connected to legacy and third-party systems with Thingsboard.
+
+Thingsboard is an open-source IoT platform for data collection, processing, visualization, and device management. See [**What is Thingsboard?**](https://thingsboard.io/docs/getting-started-guides/what-is-thingsboard/) if you are new platform user. 
+
+![IoT Gateway architecture](./img/tb-gateway.png?raw=true "IoT Gateway architecture")
+
+### Documentation
+
+Thingsboard IoT Gateway documentation is hosted on [thingsboard.io](https://thingsboard.io/docs/iot-gateway/).
+
+### Gateway features
+
+Thingsboard IoT Gateway provides following features:
+
+ - **OPC-UA** extension to collect data from devices that are connected to OPC-UA servers.
+ - **MQTT** extension to collect data that is published to external MQTT brokers.
+ - **Persistence** of collected data to guarantee data delivery in case of network and hardware failures.
+ - **Automatic reconnect** to Thingsboard cluster.
+ - Simple yet powerful **mapping** of incoming data and messages **to unified format**.
+  
+### Architecture  
+
+The IoT Gateway is built on top of **Java**, however is different from similar projects that leverage OSGi technology.
+The idea is distantly similar to microservices architecture.
+There are **other programming languages** (C, C++, Python, Javascript, Go..) that may be more suitable for application development that target IoT devices.
+Especially, when we are talking about language APIs and existing libraries to work with serial ports, GPIOs, I2C, and new modules and sensors that are released every day. 
+
+The Gateway provides simple integration APIs, and encapsulates common Thingsboard related tasks: device provisioning, local data persistence and delivery, message converters/adaptors and other.
+As an application developer, you are able to choose Python, Go, C/C++ and other languages and connect to Thingsboard Gateway through external MQTT broker or OPC-UA server. 
+Devices that support other protocols may be connected to gateway by implementing custom extensions.
+
+### Project Roadmap
+
+The initial Gateway release goal is to bring Thingsboard [data collection](/docs/user-guide/telemetry/) feature to OPC-UA and MQTT enabled devices.  
+The Gateway project is currently in active development stage and you should expect following major features in next releases:
+
+ - Ability to configure devices connected through the Gateway using Thingsboard [Attributes](/docs/user-guide/attributes) feature.
+ - Ability to control devices connected through the Gateway using Thingsboard [RPC](/docs/user-guide/rpc/) feature.
+ - Ability to configure Gateway distantly from Thingsboard [Dashboards](/docs/user-guide/visualization/).
+ - Client-side load balancing based on information about Thingsboard cluster.
+ - Ability to visualize collected device data on the Gateway Web UI. 
+ - Configurable edge analytics.
+
+### Getting Started
+
+Connect to your OPC-UA server or MQTT broker in minutes by following this [guide](https://thingsboard.io/docs/iot-gateway/getting-started).
+
+## Support
+
+ - [Community chat](https://gitter.im/thingsboard/chat)
+ - [Q&A forum](https://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/thingsboard)
+ - [Stackoverflow](http://stackoverflow.com/questions/tagged/thingsboard)
+
+## Licenses
+
+This project is released under [Apache 2.0 License](./LICENSE).