Short answer
This glossary explains 60 IoT terms in plain Arabic, each with its English name and a one-line definition, in six groups: basics, connectivity, fuel and tanks, fleet and machines, locks and cargo, and alerts and data. Use it to read quotes, data sheets and dashboards with your team in the same words.
Key takeaways
- A device is the tracker, lock or sensor; an asset is the truck, tank or machine it watches. Price per device, report per asset.
- LPWA is a family of low-power, long-range networks. LTE-M and NB-IoT run on the mobile network; LoRaWAN needs its own gateways.
- Fuel level is height, fuel volume is litres. An "unexplained drop" is a reason to check, not proof of theft.
- Threshold, hold time, cooldown, hysteresis and smoothing decide when an alert fires; ask every vendor for their defaults and real timing.
- ATEX and IECEx certify a specific device model for explosive atmospheres, never a whole platform.
01How to use this glossary
IoT buying in Saudi Arabia usually happens in two languages at once. The supplier’s data sheet is in English, the site team talks in Arabic, and the dashboard may show either. When the same word means different things to different people, quotes get compared wrongly and alerts get ignored. This glossary fixes the words first. It lists 60 terms in six groups: basics, connectivity and positioning, fuel and tanks, fleet and machines, locks and cargo, and alerts and data. Each row gives the Arabic term, the English term and one plain line that a manager, a driver and an engineer can all agree on. The definitions are neutral: they describe the idea, not one brand. Where a line mentions how ENTEK uses a term, it says so clearly. Read the group you need, share the table with your team before a meeting or an RFQ, and open the related insights when a term needs a longer explanation.
02Devices and connectivity: the words buyers mix up most
Three pairs cause most of the confusion in quotes. The first is device and asset. The device is the tracker, lock or sensor; the asset is the truck, tank or machine it watches. One asset can carry several devices, so ask suppliers to price per device and report per asset. The second pair is LTE-M and NB-IoT. Both are cellular IoT standards from 3GPP and both are built to save battery, but LTE-M suits moving devices that send more data, while NB-IoT suits fixed meters and sensors in hard-to-reach places. The third pair is LPWA and LoRaWAN. LPWA is the family name for low-power, long-range networks. LoRaWAN is one member of that family and needs its own gateways, while LTE-M and NB-IoT run on the mobile network. Also note that GPS is only one satellite system. GNSS covers GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou, and a receiver that uses several of them has more satellites in view, which helps between tall buildings.
03Fuel and fleet: the words that change a report
In fuel monitoring, the costliest mix-up is level and volume. Level is the height of fuel in the tank; volume is the litres, calculated from that height and the tank’s shape through a calibration table. A wrong table gives wrong litres even when the probe is perfect. The second point is how a drop is described. A careful report says unexplained drop: fuel left the tank with no delivery or use on record. It is a reason to check, not proof of theft, and temperature alone can move the litres a little, because diesel expands when warm and shrinks when cool. In fleets, ignition, engine hours and idling are linked. Ignition says whether the engine is on, engine hours add up the time it was on, and idling is engine on while the vehicle stands still. Power take-off breaks that logic: a mixer or pump truck can work hard while standing, so idling figures on such trucks need a PTO signal before anyone draws conclusions.
04Locks and cargo: who controls the door
Smart lock words describe a chain of control. The lock controller sits in the cab with cellular and GPS. The container door locks have no SIM of their own; they talk to the controller over Bluetooth and report through it, which is why they are called sub-devices. A trip is the planned route with ordered stops, and each stop has a stop zone drawn on the map. Unlocking is tied to that zone, so a door is meant to open only where the trip says it should. Photo verification and the trip audit log are the evidence side: photos taken with the live camera at a stop, and a time-stamped list of what happened and when. Do not confuse an electronic seal with a lock. A seal reports that it was opened or cut; a lock also controls when it can open. Finally, ATEX and IECEx are certifications of a specific device model for explosive atmospheres. They belong to that model, not to a whole platform or a supplier.
05Alert words: why an alert fires, or stays quiet
Most complaints about alerts come from a handful of settings. The threshold is the line, such as fuel below 20%. The hold time, also called a confirm window or debounce, asks the condition to last a set time first, so one bad reading does not wake the supervisor. Cooldown stops the same problem from sending a message every minute after it fires. Hysteresis puts a gap between the value that starts an alert and the value that clears it, so a tank sitting right on the line does not flip on and off. Smoothing is different again: it averages raw readings to remove sensor noise before any rule looks at them, and it is not the same as delaying an alert. Ask any vendor which of these five settings they support, and what the defaults are. Also ask about timing in plain numbers. A word like instant hides the real cycle; a good answer says how often rules are checked and how long delivery takes.
06How the terms map to ENTEK IoT
Many terms in the tables describe features built into ENTEK IoT today. Devices connect over cellular with three fields: a name, the IMEI and the model, and the platform works with more than 1,500 compatible tracker and sensor models. A device counts as online if it reported in the last 60 minutes. Alert rules cover minimum and maximum values, open too long, no signal for a set time and exit from a drawn zone, with severity, hold time and cooldown. Rules are checked every 30 seconds, and messages go out by email, SMS or WhatsApp, usually within about a minute. Fuel Tank marks a tank Low below 35% and Critical below 20%, and Smart Lock covers trips, stop zones, live-camera photos and the trip audit log. Other terms in this glossary, such as SCADA and Modbus, are delivered as a project: ENTEK scopes the sensors and connects them per site. Hardware for either path can be bought through the ENTEK marketplace and RFQ at entek.ai.
| English term | Arabic term | Plain definition |
|---|---|---|
| Internet of Things (IoT) | إنترنت الأشياء | Physical things such as vehicles, tanks and machines fitted with sensors that report their state over the internet. |
| Sensor | حساس | A part that measures one thing, such as fuel level, temperature or door state, and turns it into a reading. |
| Tracker | جهاز تتبع | A device that finds its position by satellite and sends it, often with speed and ignition state, over the mobile network. |
| Device | جهاز | Any tracker, lock or sensor that sends data to the platform. |
| Asset | أصل | The thing you monitor, such as a truck, tank, container, generator or machine. Devices are attached to it. |
| IMEI | رقم IMEI | The unique serial number of a cellular device, used to tell which device sent a message. |
| Telemetry | القياسات عن بعد | Data a remote device reports by itself: position, level, speed, status and more. |
| Sub-device | جهاز فرعي | An accessory, such as a Bluetooth door lock, that reports through a parent device’s connection instead of its own SIM. |
| IP rating (IP67, IP68) | درجة الحماية IP | A code from the IEC 60529 standard: the first digit rates protection against dust, the second against water. |
| SCADA | نظام سكادا SCADA | A system that monitors and controls industrial equipment, such as substations, pumps and pipelines, from a central screen. |
| English term | Arabic term | Plain definition |
|---|---|---|
| Cellular connectivity | الاتصال الخلوي | Sending data over the mobile phone network with a SIM, not over Wi-Fi or a local company network. |
| SIM card | شريحة الاتصال SIM | The card that lets a device join a mobile network and be billed for the data it uses. |
| Dual SIM | شريحتان | A device that holds two SIMs and can switch to the second network when the first has weak coverage. |
| LPWA (Low Power Wide Area) | الشبكات منخفضة الطاقة واسعة النطاق LPWA | A family of radio networks built for small messages, long range and long battery life. |
| LTE-M | LTE-M | A cellular IoT standard from 3GPP for low-power devices that move between towers and need moderate data. |
| NB-IoT | NB-IoT | A narrowband cellular IoT standard from 3GPP for fixed devices that send small amounts of data from hard-to-reach places. |
| Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) | البلوتوث منخفض الطاقة BLE | Short-range radio. In a smart lock system, the door locks use it to talk to the lock controller. |
| LoRaWAN | LoRaWAN | An LPWA network specification from the LoRa Alliance that links battery devices to its own gateways over long distances. |
| GNSS / GPS | تحديد الموقع بالأقمار الصناعية GNSS / GPS | GNSS is the general name for satellite positioning. GPS is the US system; Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou are others. |
| Modbus (RS-485) | بروتوكول Modbus | An industrial protocol for reading values from meters and controllers, often carried over an RS-485 wire. |
| English term | Arabic term | Plain definition |
|---|---|---|
| Capacitive probe | المسبار السعوي | A rod-shaped level sensor fitted through the tank top. It measures level from a change in capacitance, with no moving parts. |
| Ultrasonic level sensor | حساس المستوى بالموجات فوق الصوتية | A sensor that measures level by timing a sound pulse that bounces back from the liquid surface. |
| Fuel level | مستوى الوقود | The height of fuel in the tank, in millimetres or as a percentage. |
| Fuel volume | حجم الوقود | The litres in the tank, calculated from the level and the tank’s shape and size. |
| Calibration table | جدول المعايرة | A table that turns each level reading into litres for one specific tank. |
| Refuel event | حدث تعبئة | A rise in tank level, recorded with the litres added. |
| Unexplained drop | انخفاض غير مبرر | Fuel that leaves a tank with no delivery or use on record. It calls for a check; on its own it does not prove theft. |
| Low and Critical levels | المستوى المنخفض والمستوى الحرج | Fill bands that call for action. In ENTEK Fuel Tank, Low is below 35% and Critical is below 20%. |
| Thermal expansion | التمدد الحراري | Diesel takes more space when warm and less when cool, so litres shift with temperature even when nothing is added or taken. |
| Siphoning | سحب الوقود بالشفط | Taking fuel out through a hose without permission. It often shows as a fast drop with no matching use. |
| English term | Arabic term | Plain definition |
|---|---|---|
| OBD-II | منفذ OBD-II | The vehicle’s standard diagnostic port. A plug-in tracker takes power and data from it with no wiring. |
| CAN bus | شبكة CAN | The internal network that links a vehicle’s control units. A tracker can read values such as fuel used and engine speed from it. |
| Ignition | حالة التشغيل | Whether the engine is switched on or off. It is the base for running hours and idling. |
| Engine hours (running hours) | ساعات التشغيل | How long an engine has run, used for service intervals on equipment that has no odometer. |
| Idling | التشغيل دون حركة | Engine on while the vehicle stands still. It burns fuel and adds engine hours with no work done. |
| Odometer | عداد المسافة | The distance a vehicle has travelled, read from the vehicle or calculated from GPS. |
| Geofence | السياج الجغرافي | A boundary drawn on a map. Entering or leaving it can start an action or an alert. |
| Harsh driving event | حدث قيادة عنيفة | A sudden brake, sharp acceleration or hard turn detected by the tracker’s motion sensor. |
| Onboard weighing (axle load) | الوزن على المحاور | Measuring the load a vehicle carries with sensors on its axles or suspension, shown as payload and use of capacity. |
| Power take-off (PTO) | مأخذ القدرة PTO | A drive that sends engine power to extra equipment, such as a pump, mixer drum or crane, so the engine works while the truck stands still. |
| English term | Arabic term | Plain definition |
|---|---|---|
| Lock controller (master lock) | وحدة التحكم بالأقفال | The unit in the cab with cellular and GPS. It links the door locks to the platform and passes on unlock commands. |
| Container door lock (slave lock) | قفل باب الحاوية | The lock on the container door. It has no SIM or GPS and reports through the lock controller. |
| Electronic seal | الختم الإلكتروني | A seal that records and reports when it is opened or cut, instead of showing it only at inspection. |
| Trip | الرحلة | A planned route with ordered stops, such as a filling site and customer sites. |
| Stop zone | نطاق المحطة | The area drawn around a stop. Arrival and departure are detected from it, and unlocking is allowed only inside it. |
| Photo verification | التحقق بالصور | Photos taken with the live camera at a stop, then reviewed by a supervisor, to prove the state of the cargo. |
| Tamper alert | تنبيه العبث | An alert raised when a lock or device reports forcing, cutting or opening without permission. |
| Remote unlock | الفتح عن بعد | An unlock command sent from the platform by an authorised person. Each command is logged with who sent it. |
| Trip audit log | سجل الرحلة | The time-stamped record of a trip: created, arrived, departed, unlocked, photos missed. |
| ATEX / IECEx | ATEX / IECEx | ATEX is the EU framework (Directive 2014/34/EU) and IECEx is the IEC certification system for equipment used in explosive atmospheres. |
| English term | Arabic term | Plain definition |
|---|---|---|
| Alert rule | قاعدة التنبيه | A condition plus who to tell, for example fuel below 20% for 5 minutes, then SMS the supervisor. |
| Threshold | الحد | The value that separates normal from not normal, such as a minimum or maximum level. |
| Hold time (confirm window, debounce) | مدة التأكيد | How long a condition must last before the alert fires, so short spikes are ignored. |
| Cooldown | فترة التهدئة | A quiet period after an alert, so the same problem does not send a flood of repeats. |
| Hysteresis | الهامش العكسي | A gap between the value that starts an alert and the value that clears it, so a reading near the line does not flip it on and off. |
| Offline (no signal) | انقطاع الإشارة | A device that has stopped reporting for longer than allowed. ENTEK counts a device as online if it reported in the last 60 minutes. |
| Input smoothing | تنعيم القراءات | Averaging a few readings to remove sensor noise. It is not the same as delaying an alert. |
| Multi-tenant | متعدد الشركات | Many companies on one platform, with each company’s data kept apart at the database level. |
| REST API | واجهة REST | A documented web interface that lets your own systems read and write platform data without the dashboard. |
| MCP (Model Context Protocol) | بروتوكول MCP | A standard way for an AI assistant to use a piece of software on your behalf, with your permission. |
Figures and sources
- Approval date of ITU-T Recommendation Y.2060, "Overview of the Internet of things": 15 June 2012 (Source: ITU-T, Recommendation Y.2060 record page, as of 2026-10-19)
- Number ITU-T Y.2060 was renumbered to on 5 February 2016, without modification: ITU-T Y.4000 (Source: ITU-T, Recommendation Y.2060 record page, as of 2026-10-19)
- 3GPP release in which the NB-IoT specification was frozen: Release 13 (June 2016) (Source: Wikipedia, Narrowband IoT, as of 2026-10-19)
- Coupling loss between base station and device reached by LTE-M and NB-IoT in the 3GPP Release 15 5G self-evaluation: 164 dB (Source: Ericsson, LTE-M and NB-IoT meet the 5G performance requirements, as of 2026-10-19)
- What the LoRaWAN specification is: A Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) networking specification (Source: LoRa Alliance, About LoRaWAN, as of 2026-10-19)
- EU directive covering equipment and protective systems intended for use in potentially explosive atmospheres (ATEX): Directive 2014/34/EU (Source: European Commission, Equipment for potentially explosive atmospheres (ATEX), as of 2026-10-19)
- What IECEx is: The IEC System for Certification to Standards Relating to Equipment for Use in Explosive Atmospheres (Source: IECEx, official website, as of 2026-10-19)
- Who operates and maintains GPS: U.S. Space Force (Source: GPS.gov, official U.S. government information about GPS, as of 2026-10-19)
Questions
What is IoT called in Arabic?
IoT is "إنترنت الأشياء" in Arabic. It means physical things such as vehicles, tanks, locks and machines fitted with sensors that report their state over the internet.
What is the difference between a tracker and a sensor?
A sensor measures one thing, such as fuel level or temperature. A tracker finds its position by satellite and sends data over the mobile network. Many sensors, such as a fuel probe, send their readings through a tracker.
Is LoRaWAN the same as NB-IoT?
No. Both belong to the LPWA family, but NB-IoT is a cellular standard from 3GPP that runs on the mobile network, while LoRaWAN is a specification from the LoRa Alliance that needs its own gateways.
What does "unexplained drop" mean in a fuel report?
It means fuel left the tank with no delivery or use on record. It is a reason to check the site and the records, not proof of theft on its own.
Why do I keep getting the same alert again and again?
Usually the hold time, cooldown or hysteresis is too short or missing. A longer hold time ignores short spikes, a cooldown stops repeats, and hysteresis stops a reading near the line from flipping the alert on and off.
Which of these terms are built into ENTEK IoT?
Cellular devices added by IMEI, alert rules with hold time and cooldown, email, SMS and WhatsApp delivery, Fuel Tank levels, and Smart Lock trips, stop zones, photos and the trip audit log are built in. SCADA and Modbus work is delivered as a project.
Sources
- ITU-T Recommendation Y.2060, Overview of the Internet of things
- LoRa Alliance, About LoRaWAN
- European Commission, Equipment for potentially explosive atmospheres (ATEX)
- IECEx, the IEC certification system for explosive atmospheres
- GPS.gov, official U.S. government information about GPS
- Ericsson, LTE-M and NB-IoT meet the 5G performance requirements
Related insights
- What LPWA Actually Means, and When Your Asset Needs It
- Fuel Level vs Fuel Volume: Why a Height in Millimetres Is Not Litres
- Hysteresis Explained: One Threshold Chatters, Two Thresholds Cannot
- What Is an Electronic Seal? A Reference Guide for Logistics Operators
- What the CAN Bus Tells You That GPS Cannot