Internet of Things trends for 2016

The Internet of Things revolution started in 2015 and will continue to be strong in 2016. 2015 was the year everyone talked about the Internet of Things. (So was 2014. And 2013.) But unlike before, it was the year everyone started making plans, laying groundwork, and building the infrastructure. Internet of Things is coming. It’s not a matter of if or whether, but when and how. The premise of IoT is that a connected world will offer gains through efficiency.

The Internet of Things (IoT) has been called the next Industrial Revolution — it will change the way all businesses, governments, and consumers interact with the physical world. The Internet of Things (IoT) is an environment in which objects, animals or people are provided with unique identifiers and the ability to transfer the data over a network without requiring human-to-human or human-to-computer interaction. IoT has evolved from the convergence of wireless technologies, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS)
and the Internet. IoT is also called the Internet of Everything. A critical component for the IoT system to be a success will be secure bi-directional communication, mobility and localization services.

In the future, everything will be connected. It won’t just be our phones that access the Internet; it will be our light bulbs, our front doors, our microwaves, our comforters, our blenders. You can call it the Internet of Things, The Internet of Everything, Universal Object Interaction, or your pick of buzzwords that begin with Smart. They all hold as inevitable that everything, everything will be connected, to each other and to the Internet. And this is promised to change the world. Remember that the objects themselves do not benefit us, but what services and functions they make it possible to obtain. We will enjoy the outcome, hopefully even better quality products, informative and reliable services, and even new applications.

There will be lots of money spend on IoT in 2016, the exact sum is hard to define, but it is estimated that nearly $6 trillion will be spent on IoT solutions over the next five years. IoT is now a very large global business dominated by giants (IBM, Intel, Cisco, Gemalto, Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Bosch, GE, AT&T, T-Mobile, Telefonica and many others). I see that because it is still a young and quickly developing market, there will be lots of potential in it for startups in 2016.

There will be a very large number of new IoT devices connected to Internet in the end of 2016. According to Business Insider The Internet of Things Report there was 10 billion devices connected to the internet in 2015 and there will be  will be 34 billion devices connected to the internet by 2020. IoT devices will account for 24 billion, while traditional computing devicesw ill comprise 10 billion  (e.g. smartphones, tablets, smartwatches, etc.). Juniper research predicted that by 2020, there will be 38.5 billion connected devices. IDC says it’ll be 20.9 billion. Gartner’s guess? Twenty-five billion. The numbers don’t matter, except that they’re huge. They all agree that most of those gadgets will be industrial Internet of Things. The market for connecting the devices you use all day, every day, is about to be huge.

crystalball

Businesses will be the top adopter of IoT solutions because they see ways the IoT can improve their bottom line: lowering operating costs,  increasing productivity, expand to new markets and develop new product offerings. Sensors, data analytics, automation and wireless communication technologies allow the study of the “self-conscious” machines, which are able to observe their environment and communicate with each other. From predictive maintenance that reduces equipment downtime to workers using mobile devices on the factory floor, manufacturing is undergoing dramatic change. The Internet of Things (IoT) is enabling increased automation on the factory floor and throughout the supply chain, 3D printing is changing how we think about making components, and the cloud and big data are enabling new applications that provide an end-to-end view from the factory floor to the retail store.

Governments are focused on increasing productivity, decreasing costs, and improving their citizens’ quality of life. The IoT devices market will connect to climate agreements as in many applicatons IoT can be seen as one tool to help to solve those problems.  A deal to attempt to limit the rise in global temperatures to less than 2C was agreed at the climate change summit in Paris in December 2015. Sitra fresh market analysis indicates that there is up to an amount of EUR 6 000 billion market potential for smart green solutions by 2050. Smart waste and water systems, materials and packaging, as well as production systems together to form an annual of over EUR 670 billion market. Smart in those contests typically involves use of IoT technologies.

Consumers will lag behind businesses and governments in IoT adoption – still they will purchase a massive number of devices. There will be potential for marketing IoT devices for consumers: Nine out of ten consumers never heard the words IoT or Internet of Things, October 2015! It seems that the newest IoT technology extends homes in 2016 – to those homes where owner has heard of those things. Wi-Fi has become so ubiquitous in homes in so many parts of the world that you can now really start tapping into that by having additional devices. The smart phones and the Internet connection can make home appliances, locks and sensors make homes and leisure homes in more practical, safer and more economical. Home adjusts itself for optimal energy consumption and heating, while saving money. During the next few years prices will fall to fit for large sets of users. In some cases only suitable for software is needed, as the necessary sensors and data connections can be found in mobile phones. Our homes are going to get smarter, but it’s going to happen slowly. Right now people mostly buy single products for a single purposeOur smart homes and connected worlds are going to happen one device, one bulb at a time. The LED industry’s products will become more efficient, reliable, and, one can hope, interoperable in the near future. Companies know they have to get you into their platform with that first device, or risk losing you forever to someone else’s closed ecosystem.

 

crystalball

The definitions what would be considered IoT device and what is a traditional computing devices is not entirely clear, and I fear that we will not get a clear definition for that in 2016 that all could agree. It’s important to remember that the IoT is not a monolithic industry, but rather a loosely defined technology architecture that transcends vertical markets to make up an “Internet of everything.”

Too many people – industry leaders, media, analysts, and end users – have confused the concept of
“smart” with “connected”. Most devices – labeled “IoT” or “smart” – are simply connected devices. Just connecting a device to the internet so that it can be monitored and controlled by someone over the web using a smart phone is not smart. Yes, it may be convenient and time saving, but it is not “smart”. Smart means intelligence.

IoT New or Not? YES and NO. There are many cases where whole IoT thing is hyped way out of proportion. For the most part, it’s just the integration of existing technologies. Marketing has driven an amount of mania around IoT, on the positive side getting it on the desks of decision makers, and on the negative generating ever-loftier predictions. Are IoT and M2M same or different? Yes and no depending on case. For sure for very many years to come IoT and M2M will coexist.

Low-power wide area networks for the Internet of Things have been attracting new entrants and investors at a heady pace with unannounced offerings still in the pipeline for 2016 trying to enable new IoT apps by undercutting costs and battery life for cellular and WiFi.

Nearly a dozen contenders are trying to fill a need for long distance networks that cut the cost and power consumption of today’s cellular machine-to-machine networks. Whose technology protocols should these manufacturers incorporate into their gear? Should they adopt ZigBee, Apple’s HomeKit, Allseen Alliance/AllJoyn, or Intel’s Open Interconnect Consortium? Other 802.15.4 technologies? There are too many competing choices.

Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, two pioneers of the Internet of Things are expanding their platforms and partnerships. Crowdfunding sites and hardware accelerators are kicking out startups at a regular clip, typically companies building IoT devices that ride Bluetooth and Wi-Fi. Bluetooth Special Interest group is expected to release in2016 support for mesh networks and higher data rates.

Although ZWave and Zigbee helped pioneer the smart home and building space more than a decade ago, but efforts based on Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 6LoWPAN are poised to surpass them. Those pioneering systems are actively used and developed. Zigbee Alliance starts certification for its unified version 3.0 specification in few months (includes profiles for home and building automation, LED lighting, healthcare, retail and smart energy). EnOcean Alliance will bring its library of about 200 application profiles for 900 MHz energy harvesting devices to Zigbee networks. Zigbee will roll out a new spec for smart cities. The Z-Wave Security 2 framework will start a beta test in February and  Z-Wave aims to strike a collaboration withleading IoT application framework platformsZigbee alredy has support Thread.

The race to define, design and deploy new low power wide area networks for the Internet of Things won’t cross a finish line in 2016. But by the end of the year it should start to be clear which LPWA nets are likely to have long legs and the opportunities for brand new entrants will dim significantly. So at the moment it is hard to make design choices. To protect against future technology changes, maybe the device makers should design in wireless connectivity chips and software that will work with a variety of protocols? That’s complicated  and expensive. But if I pick only one technology I can easily pick up wrong horse, and it is also an expensive choice.

Within those who want to protect against future technology changes, there could be market for FPGAs in IoT devices. The Internet of Things (IoT) is broken and needs ARM-based field programmable gate array (FPGA) technology to fix it, an expert told engineers at UBM’s Designers of Things conference in San Jose. You end up with a piece of hardware that can be fundamentally changed in the field.

crystalball

There seems to be huge set of potential radio techniques also for Internet of Things even for long distance and low power consumpion. Zigbee will roll out a new spec for smart cities in February based on the 802.15.4g standard for metro networks. It will compete with an already crowded field of 900 MHz and 2.4 GHz networks from Sigfox, the LoRa Alliance, Ingenu and others. Weightless-P is an open standard announced by Weightless SIG, which operates at frequencies below one gigahertzWeightless-P nodes and development cards will be expected to be in the market already during the first quarter of 2016, at the moment Weightless IoT Hardware Virtually Unavailable.

I expect LoRa Technology is expected to be hot in 2016. The LoRaWAN standard enables low-data-rate Internet of Things (IoT) and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) wireless communication with a range of up to 10 miles, a battery life of 10 years, and the ability to connect millions of wireless sensor nodes to LoRaWAN gateways. LoRa® technology  works using a digital spread spectrum modulation and proprietary protocol in the Sub-GHz RF band (433/868/915 MHz). I see LoRa technology interesting because lots of activity around in Finland in several companies (especially Espotel) and I have seen a convincing hands-in demo of the LoRa system in use.

It seems that 3GPP Lost its Way in IoT and there is fragmentation ahead in cellular standards. In theory 3GPP should be the default provider of IoT connectivity, but it seems that it has now failed in providing one universal technology. At the moment, there are three major paths being supported by 3GPP for IoT: the machine-type version of LTE (known as LTE-M) and two technologies coming from the Cellular-IoT initiative — NB-IoT and EC-GSM. So here we are with three full standardization efforts in 3GPP for IoT connectivity. It is too much. There will like be a base standard in 2016 for LTE-M.

The promise of billions of connected devices leads everyone to assume that there will be plenty of room for multiple technologies, but this betrays the premise of IoT, that a connected world will offer gains through efficiency. Too many standard will cause challenges for everybody. Customers will not embrace IoT if they have to choose between LTE-M and Sigfox-enabled products that may or may not work in all cases. OEM manufacturers will again bear the cost, managing devices at a regional or possibly national level. Again, we lose efficiency and scale. The cost of wireless connectivity will remain a barrier to entry to IoT.

Today’s Internet of Things product or service ultimately consists of multiple parts, quite propably supplied by different companies. An Internet of Things product or service ultimately consists of multiple parts. One is the end device that gathers data and/or executes control functions on the basis of its communications over the Internet. Another is the gateway or network interface device. Once on the Internet, the IoT system needs a cloud service to interact with. Then, there is the human-machine interface (HMI) that allows users to interact with the system. So far, most of the vendors selling into the IoT development network are offering only one or two of these parts directly. Alternatives to this disjointed design are arising, however. Recently many companies are getting into the end-to-end IoT design support business, although to different degrees.

crystalball

Voice is becoming more often used the user interface of choice for IoT solutions. Smartphones let you control a lot using only your voice as Apple, Google, Microsoft and Samsung have their solutions for this. For example Amazon, SoundHound and Nuance have created systems that allow to add language commands to own hardware or apps. Voice-activated interface becomes pervasive and persistent for IoT solutions in 2016. Right now, most smart home devices are controlled through smartphones, and it seems like that’s unlikely to change. The newest wearable technology, smart watches and other smart devices corresponding to the voice commands and interpret the data we produce – it learns from its users, and generate as responses in real time appropriate, “micro-moments” tied to experience.

Monitoring your health is no longer only a small group oriented digital consumer area. Consumers will soon take advantage of the health technology extensively to measure well-being. Intel Funds Doctor in Your Pocket and Samsung’s new processor is meant for building much better fitness trackers. Also, insurance companies have realized the benefits of health technologies and develop new kinds of insurance services based on data from IoT devices.

Samsung’s betting big on the internet of things and wants the TV to sit at the heart of this strategy. Samsung believes that people will want to activate their lights, heating and garage doors all from the comfort of their couch. If smart TVs get a reputation for being easy to hack, then Samsung’s models are hardly likely to be big sellers. After a year in which the weakness of smart TVs were exploited, Samsung goes on the offensive in 2016. Samsung’s new Tizen-based TVs will have GAIA security with pin lock for credit card and other personal info, data encryption, built-in anti-malware system, more.

This year’s CES will focus on how connectivity is proliferating everything from cars to homes, realigning diverse markets – processors and networking continue to enhance drones, wearables and more. Auto makers will demonstrate various connected cars. There will be probably more health-related wearables at CES 2016, most of which will be woven into clothing, mainly focused on fitness. Whether or not the 2016 International CES holds any big surprises remains to be seen. The technology is there. Connected light bulbs, connected tea kettles, connected fridges and fans and coffeemakers and cars—it’s all possible. It’s not perfect, but the parts are only going to continue to get better, smaller, and cheaper.

Connectivity of IoT devices will still have challeges in 2016. While IoT standards organizations like the Open Interconnect Consortium and the AllSeen Alliance are expected to demonstrate their capabilities at CES, the industry is still a ways away from making connectivity simple. In 2016 it will still pretty darn tedious to get all these things connected, and there’s all these standards battles coming on. So there will be many standards in use at the same time. The next unsolved challenge: How the hell are all these things going to work together? Supporting open APIs that connect with various services is good.

Like UPnP and DLNA, AllJoyn could become the best-kept secret in the connected home in 2016 — everyone has it, no one knows about it. AllJoyn is an open-source initiative to connect devices in the Internet of Things. Microsoft added support for AllJoyn to Windows in 2014.

Analysis will become important in 2016 on IoT discussions. There’s too much information out there that’s available free, or very cheaply. We need systems to manage the information so we can make decisions. Welcome to the systems age.

The rise of the Internet of Things and Web services is driving new design principles. The new goal is to delight customers with experiences that evolve in flexible ways that show you understand their needs. “People are expecting rich experiences, fun and social interactions… this generation gets bored easily so you need to understand all the dimensions of how to delight them”

With huge number of devices security issues will become more and more important. In 2016, we’ll need to begin grappling with the security concerns these devices raise. The reality of everything being connected can have unintended consequences, not all of them useful – Welcome to the Internet of stupid (hackable) things.

Security: It was a hot topic for 2015 and if anything it will get hotter in 2016. The reason is clear. By adding connectivity embedded systems not only increase their utility, they vastly increase their vulnerability to subversion with significant consequences. Embedded systems that add connectivity face many challenges, of which the need for security is both vital and misunderstood. But vendors and developers have been getting the message and solutions are appearing in greater numbers, from software libraries to MCUs with a secure root of trust.

Bruce Schneier is predicting that the IoT will be abused in conjunction with DMCA to make our lives worse instead of better. In theory, connected sensors will anticipate your needs, saving you time, money, and energy. Except when the companies that make these connected objects act in a way that runs counter to the consumer’s best interests. The story of a company using copy-protection technology to lock out competitors—isn’t a new one. Plenty of companies set up proprietary standards to ensure that their customers don’t use someone else’s products with theirs. Because companies can enforce anti-competitive behavior this way, there’s a litany of things that just don’t exist, even though they would make life easier for consumers.

Internet of Things is coming. It’s not a matter of if or whether, but when and how. Maybe it’ll be 2016, maybe the year after, but the train is coming. It’ll have Wi-Fi and Bluetooth and probably eight other things, and you’ll definitely get a push notification when it gets here.

 

More interesting material links:

44 Internet Of Things (IoT) Gamechangers 2016

The State of Internet of Things in 6 Visuals

1,510 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Kit helps connect sensors to the Internet
    http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4442833/Kit-helps-connect-sensors-to-the-Internet?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20161017&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20161017&elqTrackId=6ca809741a584b09bc0851acfe3a3d6b&elq=192aba49fe1f428986e8be0fe198dc2c&elqaid=34394&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30007

    igi’s ConnectCore for i.MX6UL starter kit serves as an IoT design platform that enables rapid development of smart connected devices. The starter board is outfitted with the ConnectCore for i.MX6UL stamp-size system-on-module powered by an NXP i.MX 6UltraLite applications processor. The compact 87×63-mm development board provides all the features and capabilities needed to build a wide range of wired and wireless connected applications.

    Onboard features include 256 Mbytes of flash memory, 256 Mbytes of RAM, integrated 10/100-Mbps Ethernet, precertified dual-band 802.11ac wireless LAN plus Bluetooth 4.2 connectivity, high-efficiency antenna, and a set of key peripheral interfaces. Grove connectors allow the integration of a variety of off-the-shelf sensors and peripherals.

    The ConnectCore for i.MX6UL starter kit is available now and costs $124.

    ConnectCore® for i.MX6UL
    https://www.digi.com/products/embedded-systems/system-on-modules/connectcore-for-i-mx6ul

    The Industry’s smallest wireless low-power NXP i.MX6UL System-on-Module platform to build your intelligent and secure connected devices

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Flex primer for IoT & wearables
    http://www.edn.com/design/pc-board/4442806/Flex-primer-for-IoT—wearables?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161017&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161017&elqTrackId=f6eb4f0654cb47298b5153984d7ebcf5&elq=39f464e080214302a5090f14b5da0cd3&elqaid=34387&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30000

    Today, technology trends are increasingly toward flex circuits or a combination of rigid-flex circuits for wearable/IoT PCB designs.

    Therefore, it’s important to get a handle on new design terminology and things that need to be factored in as you move to this next level of embedded design.

    This includes the following:

    Low and high modulus boards
    Bend radius, ratio, and strains
    Dielectric thickness
    Via placement
    Board layers and associated copper amounts
    Regular copper versus annealed copper
    Copper thickness

    Board modulus refers to its structure — a low modulus means a softer structure, while high modulus refers to a harder board with stiffener.

    Stiffeners are an inexpensive way to rigidize certain areas on the flex boards, such as SMT areas, pin areas, or hole pattern locations for component mounting.
    SMT areas don’t always need stiffeners depending on the components being installed at that location. However, adding a stiffener is going to add very little cost to the assembly.

    Regardless of the application, a flex circuit must be pliable and bendable, but the question is: How pliable and bendable can it be?

    The best advice given is to rely on an experienced EMS Provider that has several wearable/IoT PCB designs under its belt and has a storehouse of critical nuances associated with flex circuit bendability.

    Flex Circuit Design Primer for Wearable/IoT Device
    http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1330571

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The trouble with relying on the cloud
    http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/brians-brain/4442866/The-trouble-with-relying-on-the-cloud?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161019&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20161019&elqTrackId=0fc02b337283413ca929cdd81cdb83ae&elq=a71d5c2f0dde4e25a1424df8795fd682&elqaid=34417&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30029

    “This message is for customers that purchased an Eye-Fi Pro X2 or earlier generation products prior to March 2015. Effective today, June 30th 2016, we will no longer be offering support for our legacy product lines, a complete list of which appears below. This notice formally begins the final stage of the “end-of-life” (EOL) process started in mid-2015 for the affected products. It’s very important that customers cease using these products no later than September 16, 2016 as some key services these products rely on will be shut down at that time.”

    “We began EOL on these product lines in 2015 largely driven by technological obsolescence of some of the key technologies included in these products. The primary technologies relate to Internet security and authentication mechanisms that were state-of-the-art in 2007 when we built them into our products but have since proven to be vulnerable.”

    The above overview was then followed by a lengthy list of the products to be made obsolete, along with an abbreviated FAQ detailing all the features that either definitely would no longer work or would no longer be guaranteed to work

    I’ll cut to the chase; after the shutdown date, the affected Eye-Fi cards would become very small, very lightweight paperweights. It’s not even possible to use them as conventional SD flash memory cards!

    Eye-Fi’s products were heavily dependent on the company’s server-side intelligence both for initial configuration and ongoing operation. The company sold the “cloud” portion of its business to Ricoh shortly before making its EOL announcement

    But, as other coverage of the news also points out, this isn’t just about Eye-Fi. Consumer devices like this, as well as other high volume and equally price-sensitive IoT, etc. products, are cloud-centric precisely because of their price sensitivity, which translates into tremendous bill-of-materials cost pressure and scant profit margins. As a result, the amount of on-board intelligence is as negligible as possible; the bulk of the processing burden is transferred to the cloud, which also allows it to be cost-effectively time-slice amortized versus distributed (therefore paid for whether or not it may be in use on a particular device at a particular point in time).

    The centralized strategy works well … as long as the centralized intelligence doesn’t disappear. If and when it does, however, the intelligence-deficient edge devices go down. Permanently. And given the relatively low percentage of consumer (and IoT, no doubt) manufacturers that survive for the long term

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Raspberry Pi Texting Intruder Alarm!
    https://www.hackster.io/gatoninja236/raspberry-pi-texting-intruder-alarm-d0d2a8

    Make your raspberry pi text you if it senses an intruder in a set amount of time using a simple PIR sensor and internet connection!

    In this project you will be able to create a fully functioning alarm system. It alerts you via text message whenever the sensor gets tripped. Let’s look at what you need to put in the code.

    First you will need your phone “e-mail” address. Carriers have a system in which someone can text you via email.

    Simple Python code

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Skyhook & IBM: Precision Location for IoT
    https://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/ibm/skyhook-ibm-stay-on-track-with-precision-location-for-iot/

    Skyhook’s hybrid positioning system quickly provides precise location information using Wi-Fi, cell towers, GPS, and other data sources, and it is able to do so at low power; enabling the use of tiny devices, such as those envisioned with most IoT applications. So instead of tracking the vehicle transporting the organ, with Skyhook you can track the cooler.


    IBM Watson IoT Platform can leverage Skyhook’s location data and other contextual information to take you from passively monitoring asset location to actively managing asset movement, and because Skyhook enables the use of miniature tracking devices, you can monitor more than just location. For instance, you can use sensors to measure the temperature within the cooler, with Watson IoT monitoring the data and alerting the appropriate staff if the temperature reaches a critical level. Watson IoT can monitor traffic in real-time, proactively rerouting your asset for the quickest possible delivery.

    http://www.ibm.com/internet-of-things/

    Reply
  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Internet of Things is ‘dangerous’ but UK.gov won’t ride to the rescue
    Suck it up, folks, you’ll have to take responsibility for yourselves out there
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/19/internet_of_things_dangerous_no_legislation_any_time_soon/

    The Internet of Things is “dangerous”, according to some bloke trying to rebrand it as the “Internet of You” – and the government ain’t going to pass new laws to sort it out.

    According to a press release, one Jim Hunter of Greenwave Communications quite rightly warned the Broadband World Forum this morning that putting seemingly innocuous data
    together with identifying details and wider context is dangerous.

    Unfortunately, he then went on to say: “The IoT – or the IoY (Internet of You) – is about defining what those individual pixels are, which can build the stories which make sense. It’s then finding the part of the picture which gives the insight and information needed to provide a tailored personal blah blah…”

    The government, however, is not in the mood to legislate on mandatory IoT security standards, with the Minister for Digital Fun* Matt Hancock merely mumbling something in Parliament about “cyber security research institutes”

    Clearly, if industry doesn’t get its act together and start imposing its own requirements on IoT suppliers, the UK’s IoT offerings and networks are still going to be painfully insecure in years to come.

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Canonical Ltd.’s Ubuntu Core
    http://www.linuxjournal.com/content/canonical-ltds-ubuntu-core

    Canonical Ltd.’s “Snappy” Ubuntu Core, a stripped-down version of Ubuntu designed for autonomous machines, devices and other internet-connected digital things, has gained significant traction in the chipset/semiconductor market recently.

    Following on partnerships with Samsung ARTIK, Qualcomm and MediaTek, Ubuntu core now adds UcRobotics’ Bubblegum-96 board to the list of supported devices. Canonical describes Ubuntu Core as the ideal platform for developers in the semiconductor arena for deploying large numbers of IoT devices due to its secure and open-source design, transactional updates that are fast and reliable and its small footprint.

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    European Telecoms Standards Institute to World+Dog: please start caring about 5G
    Industry verticals, busy trying to make money, aren’t paying attention to the telco biz’s future
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/20/etsi_to_worlddog_please_start_caring_about_5g/

    5G is on the way – no, really, it’s on the way, stop giggling – but outside the telcos and their suppliers, the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) is having trouble getting industries to care.

    That’s a problem, because the business case for 5G depends not only on flogging fast broadband dongles, but flogging low-latency services to industrial Internet of Things applications.

    At Broadband World Forum, the chief technology officer of ETSI’s specifications group Adrian Scrase said getting interest from industry verticals – the putative customers that will help push billions of Things into industry – is difficult.

    LightReading says he identified factory automation, agriculture and mining industries as problematic.

    Without their input, he said, 5G’s roadmap is hard to achieve: “we need actors to work together coherently with this challenging timeline”.

    ETSI, he said, isn’t used to dealing with these industries, nor the disparate government departments that are assigned responsibility for them around the world.

    The telco sector is pushing ahead with work in different part of the spectrum – Qualcomm has just announced a 28 GHz chip that will reach sampling next year, a band that Nokia’s also working in, while others like AT&T are pushing the 70-80 GHz band.

    Engagement With Verticals Is Biggest 5G Challenge, Says ETSI
    http://www.lightreading.com/mobile/5g/engagement-with-verticals-is-biggest-5g-challenge-says-etsi/d/d-id/727113?

    Broadband World Forum — The difficulty of involving other vertical markets in discussions about 5G is proving to be one of the biggest risks to the timely development of a 5G standard, according to Adrian Scrase, the current chief technology officer of the ETSI specifications group.

    Much of the 5G focus right now is on coming up with “use cases” for a whole range of vertical markets, but engagement with some of these industries remains problematic, Scrase told attendees at today’s Broadband World Forum in London.

    On the plus side, European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) and the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) , which leads 5G standardization efforts, reckon engagement with the public safety and broadcasting sectors has been excellent. Efforts to involve the rail, automotive and education sectors are also proceeding well, according to Scrase.

    Yet there are a number of red flags, including difficulties communicating with the factory automation, agriculture and mining industries.

    The ETSI executive also acknowledged that organizations outside the telecom sector do not understand its standardization processes and can sometimes feel threatened by what he calls “industry giants.”

    In the meantime, recent competition between telcos that want to be first to market with 5G services is putting pressure on organizations like ETSI and the 3GPP to get standards written.

    The race to 5G has even triggered some breakaway initiatives focused on the 28GHz band, which operators in the US, Japan and South Korea are looking to use with 5G services in the next few years.

    Despite the various challenges, ETSI remains confident that a Phase 1 5G standard will appear in 2018, allowing operators to take advantage of specifications in some areas, with a more comprehensive Phase 2 standard scheduled to arrive in 2020.

    The initial priority for ETSI and the 3GPP is to tackle the use case for “enhanced mobile broadband” capability, simply because operators believe they can monetize this more easily. “Standardization must be driven by market demand,” said Scrase.

    Following that, attention will necessarily turn to “massive machine type communications” that can support applications in a number of the vertical markets to which ETSI is reaching out.

    In the meantime, LTE-based technologies, such as the recently standardized NB-IoT, are expected to satisfy demand for services requiring low-power and wide-area connectivity.

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Narrowband Internet of Things
    http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4442606/Narrowband-Internet-of-Things=NL_TOL_Edit_Subs_20161019_TechnicalPaper

    3GPP has specified a new radio interface, the Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT), optimized for machine type traffic

    Although NB-IoT is an independent radio interface, it is tightly connected with LTE, which also shows up in its integration in the current LTE specifications.

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT insecurity: US govt summons tech bosses, bashes heads together
    Everyone agrees: Our group has the best solution for patching bugs
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/19/us_govt_iot_security/

    There are two things that everyone agrees on when it comes to the internet of things (IoT). First, security is a problem. And second, their approach is the best one.

    The US government held a one-day meeting in Austin, Texas, today with the sole focus on a specific issue: the ability to upgrade and patch internet-connected devices.

    It was this topic, noted staff from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA) – an arm of the US Department of Commerce – that was top of the list of concerns when it held a public consultation on how and where the US government could and should help. It didn’t take long to figure out why.

    Everyone – and we mean everyone – is worried about the fact that there are billions of devices that now connect to the internet, with billions more in the pipeline, and there is literally no agreed-upon security approach.

    Fresh in people’s minds is the huge denial-of-service attack on security researcher Brian Krebs that knocked over his website even though he had Akamai protection. The culprit? A botnet made up of poorly patched webcams. It doesn’t take a genius to realize this is the beginning of a much bigger problem.

    “The issue is urgent and it is complex,”

    Follow me. No, me, not him

    But just as big as the IoT security issue itself, is how to get people to agree on a solution. No one, from the chip manufacturers to the network operators to the device manufacturers, wants to be the one that will introduce new systems and approaches. As much as NTIA staff gently but repeatedly prodded the room to look at real solutions, the conversation quickly drifted back to identifying the problem and offering vague concepts of what needed to happen.

    It wouldn’t be the internet of things without conflicting solutions to even the most intangible elements. In this case, it was a multitude of different frameworks for looking at the issue of IoT security.

    The Online Trust Alliance outlined its principles (31, boiled down from 75) for how to start looking at the problem. A huge group people had taken 18 months coming up with it, and everyone loves it, said its chair Jeff Wilbur.

    Agreement, in part

    Despite the lack of any real progress in the morning session of the event, that collaborative approach does seem to be holding.

    There is broad agreement that a key aspect to finding a solution would be working out how to convey any efforts to the consumer. Why? Because additional security costs money, and without some kind of market differentiation, people are just going to buy the cheapest product.

    There is real agreement that there needs to be some kind of ability to flag up whether an IoT device needs patching – which can be hard when many devices don’t have a display.

    There is also widespread agreement that there needs to be a way to deal with the billions of out-of-date devices that will soon cover the planet, whether they are no longer maintained by the manufacturer or if the manufacturer has gone out of business.

    Multistakeholder Process; Internet of Things (IoT) Security Upgradability and Patching
    https://www.ntia.doc.gov/other-publication/2016/multistakeholder-process-iot-security

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Thunderboard™ Sense Complete Sensor-to-Cloud Inspiration Kit
    http://www.silabs.com/products/wireless/Pages/thunderboard-sense-kit.aspx?mkt_tok=eyJpIjoiWldKaU1qUmpZbVZrTXpKbCIsInQiOiJ5MEtsQ1VNUzF1aGRFTks0Z25rUGRzcnBcLzBLRmFBWk53S3dyVUZpdmJ6WWU3UlNQRWwrSjA2ZkVqUHNHdEhcL3F2OGlhZHNrNkUyeGRlXC9XZGhWN2hjWWI1Y0JuSlFSeEEzR3F5clgweHBaTT0ifQ%3D%3D

    Thunderboard™ Sense is a small and feature packed development platform for battery operated IoT applications. The mobile app enables a quick proof of concept of cloud connected sensors. The multi-protocol radio combined with a broad selection of on-board sensors, make the Thunderboard Sense an excellent platform to develop and prototype a wide range of battery powered IoT applications.
    $36

    Wireless Gecko EFR32™
    Sub-GHz to 2.4GHz wireless SoC
    Multi-protocol radio
    ARM Cortex M4 core with 32 kB RAM and 256 kB Flash
    Low Energy Consumption
    Flexible MCU peripheral interfaces

    Mobile app
    Mobile app for Android and iOS
    iOS app implemented in swift
    Android app implanted in native code
    Source code available at GitHub
    Mobile app features
    Beacon notifications
    View sensor data
    Control LEDs and detect button pushes
    Stream sensor data to the cloud

    Cloud streaming
    Data is stored in Firebase
    Web frontend is implemented in ReactJS
    Using Alt.js as the flux implementation
    D3.js for data driven charts
    All source code available
    Sensors, I/O, and Misc. Control
    Relative Humidity and Temperature Sensor Si7021
    UV and Ambient Light Sensor Si1133
    Pressure Sensor BMP280
    Indoor Air Quality and Gas Sensor CCS811
    6-axis Inertial Sensor ICM-20648
    MEMS Microphone SPV1840
    High brightness LEDs
    Hall-effect Sensor (coming soon!)

    https://www.firebase.com/

    Reply
  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    FinnBuild2016: The construction sector believes in IoT technology

    Digitalization is revolutionizing like other sectors, including the construction sector, but the future is still a long traditional technology. IoT will be the first, but completely 3D-printed building elements is generally still some way off.

    Instead of large-scale disasters, the construction company YIT Plus Development Manager Toni Ruuska believes digitalisation alter the construction sector almost unnoticed. “People will realize the difference until afterwards in deciding whether a case is sometimes done otherwise,” he says.

    Entire buildings print 3D technology are still in the distant future. The next few years is the keyword of objects and things Internet of Things, IoT, for which is being built in Finland several sensor networks. Building automation and control are given new tools IoT technology.

    In the construction of IoT technologies are fitted to the working sensors that can convey real-time information on the use and the problems of the device. This machine repairs can be anticipated.
    Data also allows automatic refills without any unnecessary hassle.

    “Construction is now the same as the turning point in the media industry 15 years ago. Companies have to decide whether they will forcibly stick to their old practices, or feel free to step the digital world. ”

    Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/10/13/rakennusala-uskoo-iot-tekniikkaan/

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    What’s The Difference Between IEEE 802.15.4 And ZigBee Wireless?
    http://electronicdesign.com/what-s-difference-between/what-s-difference-between-ieee-802154-and-zigbee-wireless?code=UM_Classics10216elqTrackId=eb8d043f045e4e5ca92ecdc1cda5d57b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=8076&utm_medium=email&elq2=57d9974a4e4c4417adbdce166e8c4395

    There are many standards for short-range wireless technologies, but this variety often perplexes designers who want to select a standard for an application. The popular IEEE 802.15.4 standard and its relative ZigBee often are confused. They aren’t the same thing.

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Prashant Gopal / Bloomberg:
    Apple teams up with a handful of homebuilders to push Homekit-enabled bundles of smart appliances in new homes

    Apple Wants to Get Inside Your House Before You Buy It
    http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-19/inside-the-ihome-apple-helps-builders-pitch-gizmo-packed-houses

    Inside this four-bedroom stucco house in Alameda, California, Kaiserman, president of the technology division at construction company Lennar Corp., was pitching a vision of a home controlled via iPhone or iPad.

    Tap your phone, and AC/DC’s “Back in Black” blasts. Tap again, and the bath runs at a blissful 101 degrees. Sweet, right? Of course, your dad might view it as a bit over the top. All told, $30,000 worth of gadgets and gizmos were on display here, many run with Apple’s free HomeKit app.

    As iPhone sales growth slows, Apple is teaming up with a handful of builders and using these kinds of test beds to inch its way into the market for Internet-connected home furnishings, a nascent field that has attracted rivals like Alphabet Inc.’s Google and Amazon.com Inc.

    The gamble is that pricey wireless home devices will be an easier sell when bundled into the home itself.

    Unlike Google and Amazon, however, Apple isn’t hawking hardware meant to connect the home. Instead, the HomeKit app could increase the value of its iOS ecosystem — and make it tougher for users to switch to Android phones and tablets.

    KB offers wireless devices as upgrades. A basic package runs about $2,000, “which once rolled into a mortgage is pennies a month,”

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Vodafone says it’ll launch NB-IoT network in EU early next year
    Nobody’s really impressed, but take a look at the long term
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/20/vodafone_nb_iot_rollout_4_eu_countries/

    Vodafone has announced it will start rolling out its narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) focused network in four EU countries from the start of next year – and folk across industry are rolling their eyes.

    NB-IoT is a low-power network aimed at devices such as smart meters. Vodafone has said it is wheeling out the new tech in Germany, Ireland, the Netherlands and Spain beginning in Q1 2017.

    This is all well and good but NB-IoT has received a less-than-enthusiastic welcome so far. While the British telco has been pumping out press releases promoting it, the parts of the world likely to actually use it have been fettling about with other standards such as LoRaWAN – which enjoyed a network rollout across a slice of central London earlier this year.

    As TelecomTV reported, Vodafone “has control over its spectrum slivers so can theoretically ensure better quality of service than the other LPWAN operators, who usually compete with each other (and other applications) in the public ISM band”.

    The NB-IoT standard was adopted by the standards-setting body 3GPP in September last year.

    This suggests that in the long run, despite all the hype and resulting derision, NB-IoT may slowly catch on as telcos roll it out within their existing infrastructures at minimal cost.

    “The news from Vodafone puts pressure on technologies that compete with NB-IoT, such as LoRa, SIGFOX and Ingenu. LoRa in particular is looking robust, though.”

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    PURE modules
    https://hackaday.io/project/12808-pure-modules

    Simplifying development of low power wireless IoT hardware and software sensor prototypes with a modular sensor architecture

    PUREmodules.com attempt to simplify developing (low power wireless) sensor prototyping. To aid in this we have come up with the following architecture specifications.

    Goals:
    System capable of running for years off a coin cell battery or from harvested energy,
    Low cost,
    Simple to build and design modules,
    Open to allow others to contribute and use it,
    Small form factor.

    Key Features of this Architecture:
    Based on open source and well documented projects,
    Easy to make compatible sensors,
    Fast to prototype a working system,
    Small and rugged enough to go to production with,
    Low cost hardware,
    Simple to make your own sensors.

    http://www.puremodules.com/

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    ESP8266 Based RSS Feed on color OLED
    RSS FEED ON OLED USING ESP8266
    https://hackaday.io/project/16398-esp8266-based-rss-feed-on-color-oled

    This is an example of RSS Feed implementaion on ESP8266 using MQTT as trasnport protocol and SSD1331 based color OLED screen as display

    The main arduino code is in the respective folder. The Arduino libraries that are used are kept in the folders too, but they are also available in the library manager in the IDE
    Mosquitto server hosting on Digital Ocean

    The mosquitto server is hosted on Ubuntu on DigitalOcean, A monthly plan can be created by as low as 5$

    For this create an account, than create a droplet, for the image select Ubuntu x64 and for size select 5$/month. leave the rest as default and hit create, within few minutes, a new server will spin up, now use an SSH client such as putty and in the host name enter the IP address that you see in the said column beside the droplet name, now click open, after few seconds, the login prompt will be shown.

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Amalgamate is the Internet of Compost
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/23/amalgamate-is-the-internet-of-compost/

    A lot of people are scared of composting. After all, if the temperatures or humidity go badly wrong, you can end up with dried-out trash or a stinking soup. Getting the balance right is a secret known to the ancients: toss it in a big pile in your backyard. But what if you don’t have a big backyard?

    Amalgamate is a composting setup for the urban dweller, or for people who just don’t like bugs. [Jamie] built it as her first Raspberry Pi project, and that makes it a great entrée into the world of things.

    Automated IoT compost
    https://hackaday.io/project/16484-automated-iot-compost

    Amalgamate is an automated composting system that helps users build a compost, download the code, and connect to a user interface

    http://amalgamatecompost.com I built this for a final project after a 6 month development bootcamp. It measures soil moisture/temperature, allows for turning and watering, and has an web interface that users can connect to. The intended user is a DIY typer person who wants to build a compost/connect to a raspberry pi and then get the code from github and connect their compost the the interface. All instructions can be found on the webpage.

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Aquila 2.0 – MQTT-SN based IoT Platform
    MQTT for low power devices
    https://hackaday.io/project/16031-aquila-20-mqtt-sn-based-iot-platform

    Aquila 2.0 implements a MQTT-SN gateway, bridge and libraries for wireless nodes.

    It allows the communication of low power devices using various types of RF (currently 915MHz rfm69 radio and 2.4 Ghz 802.15.4 Altair board) with standard MQTT networks without losing the low power nature of the devices and the features of a full MQTT implementation.

    Characteristics of Aquila 2.0:

    - Ideal for low power networks
    - MQTT all the way via MQTT-SN
    - Sleeping nodes support according to MQTT-SN spec
    - Security by default (using radio encryption features when available)
    - Easy and flexible implementation
    - Interoperability between different wireless networks via MQTT

    Aquila 2.0 consists of:

    - Gateway MQTT-SN
    - Bridge (Firmware)
    - Wireless nodes (Firmware and MQTT-SN libraries)

    Two years ago I started working on Aquila, a Domotics and Internet of things platform aimed at easing prototyping, development and testing of ideas with connected devices.

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Week In Review: IoT
    http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-iot-23/

    The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) in August held the finals of its Cyber Grand Challenge,
    The capture-the-flag style contest let cybersecurity software counter various attacks on its own, without the aid of engineers and programmers.

    There are reports that Qualcomm and NXP may make their merger announcement next week

    Inmarsat and Vodafone will collaborate on Internet of Things technology using satellite communications and mobile phones. Inmarsat CEO Rupert Pearce said, “On a driverless car, or a truck or an oil rig, an ultra-fast reliable and low-cost network is paramount.”

    Mobiliya, and other systems integrators have joined Dell’s Internet of Things Solutions Partner Program. More than 50 independent software vendors are involved in the Dell program.

    Scalar Market Research, in a new report, estimates the Internet of Things market will grow from $1.470.8 billion this year to $2,995.2 billion in 2022, for a compound annual growth rate of 12.6%.

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Dell expands #IoT Solutions Partner Program
    http://www.machinetomachinemagazine.com/2016/10/18/dell-expands-iot-solutions-partner-program/

    Dell today announced that Systems Integrators (SIs) have now been added to theDell Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions Partner Program, which currently has an ecosystem of over 50 Independent Software Vendors (ISVs). These new additions to the program include Action Point, Datatrend Technologies, L&T Technology Services andMobiliya.

    This program expansion is reflective of Dell’s effort to build a holistic ecosystem of IoT solutions that span industries – from energy to manufacturing to transportation. With the addition of SIs, there’s now a broader selection of partners that can help customers navigate the fragmented IoT landscape, identify the right solution to address their needs and take projects from proof of concept to a robust deployment.

    “We’re passionate about providing our customers with a comprehensive IoT ecosystem to help them innovate and move an idea from concept to reality,”

    Based on TECHnalysis Research’s Enterprise IoT survey, regardless of company size, many organizations are interested in working with systems and operations integrators that specialize in IoT. Dell’s continued expansion of its IoT Partner Program is designed to offer customers a broad spectrum of industry-specific expertise in conjunction with Dell’s reputation as a global leader in computing technology.

    About Dell Internet of Things

    Dell takes a pragmatic approach to the Internet of Things (IoT) by building on the equipment and data you already have, and leveraging your current technology investments, to quickly and securely enable analytics-driven action. With a comprehensive solution portfolio including edge gateways and powerful analytics tools, Dell reduces the complexity, lowers the risk and increases the speed of deploying IoT initiatives

    http://www.dell.com/en-us/work/learn/internet-of-things-solutions

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Inmarsat Satellite power’s Vodafone’s IoT Platform
    http://www.machinetomachinemagazine.com/2016/10/21/inmarsat-satellite-powers-vodafones-iot-platform/

    20 October 2016: Today, Inmarsat plc (LSE: ISAT.L), the leading provider of global mobile satellite communications, and Vodafone have announced a roaming agreement with the ambition to enable international satellite and cellular roaming connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT).

    “Deploying satellite connectivity to complement terrestrial networks for IoT applications changes the Internet of Things into the Internet of Everywhere. The growth in mission critical IoT applications, is driving demand for connectivity with unprecedented reach, range and reliability on a global basis”, said Rupert Pearce, CEO, Inmarsat. “This agreement marks a first for Inmarsat; enabling a mobile operator to utilise broadband roaming services on our global network.”

    Vodafone Director of IoT, Ivo Rook said, “Success in IoT demands a mix of different technologies for different applications. By adding satellite connectivity from Inmarsat to the Vodafone portfolio we continue to deliver on our strategy to lead in managed IoT services. The IoT is transforming businesses in every sector and I am delighted we are able to support more of our customers in taking advantage of all that this technology has to offer.”

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Integrated C and Java Environment for IoT
    https://www.eeweb.com/news/integrated-c-and-java-environment-for-iot

    MicroEJ® and Micrium Software, part of the Silicon Labs portfolio, announced the integration of the MicroEJ OS application platform and µC/OS real-time operating system (RTOS), designed to offer the best mixed C and Java language programming environment to software developers for embedded microcontrollers and microprocessors.

    The combined solution of Micrium’s µC/OS RTOS runtime components and MicroEJ OS allows device manufacturers to quickly deliver embedded software that offers a richer user experience.

    “MicroEJ allows device manufacturers to better manage the software content of their IoT devices by offering flexibility through dynamic and secure download of code as apps,” said Vincent Perrier, chief marketing officer of MicroEJ. “The combined Micrium µC/OS RTOS and MicroEJ OS are optimized for performance, power and footprint, so cost-effective, low-power IoT devices can benefit from capabilities, business models and ecosystems similar to mobile solutions with the online MicroEJ Store.”

    Reply
  24. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Magnet, Concentrator and Magnetic Shield Suppliers
    https://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/allegro_microsystems/magnet-concentrator-ad-magnetic-shield-suppliers/

    This article describes magnet, concentrator and magnetic shield and lists a few suppliers recommended by Allegro’s customers.

    Reply
  25. Tomi Engdahl says:

    ST Blends Security, Performance in IoT MCUs
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330653&

    STMicroelectronics has announced a new family of microcontrollers based on the ARM Cortex-M7 processor that provides a blend of high performance and integrated security for IoT applications. The STM32H7 series addresses the high end of the IoT market, including industrial control, home automation, and domestic appliances, with a rich combination of memory and peripherals, processing capability, and security features. According to the company’s press release, the STM32H743 — first in the series — achieves a CoreMark score of 2010 running at 400 MHz while consuming less than 280 µA/MHz.

    Because they are fabricated in a 40 nm eFlash process, STM32H7 devices are able to offer a rich array of memory and peripheral resources to developers,

    In addition to their memory offerings, STM32H7 devices can draw on a range of peripheral types, including up to 35 communications peripherals and 11 enhanced analog functions, to include in their mix. The first device in the series offers multiple UART, USART, SPI, CAN, and USB-OTG ports along with camera, HDMI, and Ethernet interfaces. “There’s enough IO to run HMI applications,” noted LeCam. Analog functions include 14-bit 2 MHz ADCs, 12-bit DACs, op-amps, and 22 timers.

    Development support for the STM32H7 series leverages the existing ecosystem for the M7-based STM43F7 series,

    Reply
  26. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT Hears LTE Calling
    Vendors prep Cat M1, NB1 for 2017
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330644&

    The two largest U.S. cellular carriers and five module makers said they will use a Qualcomm chip implementing the latest low-power LTE standards for the Internet of Things. The news shows the cellular IoT standards should get strong market penetration next year.

    AT&T will use the Qualcomm’s MDM9206 in a San Francisco pilot of Cat-M1 that it expects to be the start of a national service roll out in 2017. Verizon will use the chip in its Thingspace service. Cellular module makers Quectel, Telit, U-Blox, Simcom and Wistron NeWeb Corp. said they will use the chips in modules supporting Cat-M1 and NB-1 services.

    The Cat M1 standard delivers up to 380 Kbits/second over a 1.4 MHz channel. NB-1 handles up to 40 Kbits/s over 200 kHz channels. Qualcomm said the modules using its chips will ship in early 2017 for Cat-M1, with a software upgrade to NB-1 following “shortly thereafter.”

    The lower power LTE specifications are expected to enable new kinds of cellular IoT uses in electric and water meters, building security and lighting, industrial control, retail point of sale and asset tracking. Low power IoT apps previously used mainly 802.15.4 variants with a swath of new options courting uses that need support across wide areas.

    The flood of new IoT networks is seen as a game changer, especially in cellular. Vendors hope the 7-billion-unit installed base of cellular M2M modules expands as what has been a market of custom-built systems turns into something of a do-it-yourselfer’s paradise.

    Initially, U.S. giants AT&T and Verizon will deploy M1 networks while China and Vodaphone and Deutsche Telekom in Europe will use NB1 first, in part due to issues of spectrum availability. Some carriers in Europe aim to support a third cellular IoT spec, a 3G variant called Extended Coverage GSM which uses 200 kHz channels.

    “Ultimately, 80-90% of carriers will offer both [M1 and NB1] because there’s enough differentiation between the two, and NB1 has a sweet spot in sensor networks,” said Aapo Markkanen, an analyst with Machina Research.

    Some carriers will launch the new cellular IoT services before the end of the year and the area will be a big focus at January’s Consumer Electronics Show. “We are definitely seeing broad adoption,”

    The chip maker is using a single product with a simplified RF front end that can be used worldwide for either standard. Ultimately, vendors are expected to create optimized chips for each standard as demand grows.

    Reply
  27. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Cellular IoT Raises Hopes, Concerns
    Rich mix may be a game changer
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1329878

    For years to come, the market for low power wide area networks (LPWA) will be as fragmented as the Internet of Things it serves. With one of its most significant entrants still more than a year away, players are in a race to cultivate a market of end users that is diverse and still largely unknown.

    The great hope, some say, is the rise of LPWA nets will act as a catalyst, changing the nature of the embedded and machine-to-machine markets. What are today custom solutions tailored for each application will become a kind of do-it-yourselfers paradise of modules and services, blurring the lines between vendors, users and partners.

    Before it has even gotten market traction, the LPWA sector is already in a race to the bottom. The current leader is the area’s pioneer, Sigfox, said to be promising costs approaching $1 per node per year for users offering enough volume.

    Nipping at its heels are members of the rapidly expanding LoRa Alliance. Following it is an array of other sub-gigahertz options almost too numerous to enumerate as well as two cellular options just getting started, LTE Cat 1 and LTE Cat M1.

    That puts a lot of pressure on the cellular industry’s prince in waiting, LTE Category M2. It is expected to emerge from the 3GPP standards process soon but is not likely to be switched on in any major provider’s network until 2018, in part because it requires operators to install and test a new class of application servers.

    The good news is the IoT market is broad, diverse and will take years to fully cultivate. Many expect there will be enough business for all, but it’s too early to tell which technologies will be mainstream and which niche.

    Reply
  28. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT Hears LTE Calling
    Qualcomm, Sequans clash in cellular IoT
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330644&page_number=2

    Some carriers will launch the new cellular IoT services before the end of the year and the area will be a big focus at January’s Consumer Electronics Show. “We are definitely seeing broad adoption,” said Art Miller, a senior director of business development at Qualcomm.

    The chip maker is using a single product with a simplified RF front end that can be used worldwide for either standard. Ultimately, vendors are expected to create optimized chips for each standard as demand grows.

    Qualcomm’s announcement follows comments from smaller rival Sequans which said in September it was sampling its M1/NB1 Monarch chip that had a big lead in the market. “We will be part of the first wave of products, and while others say they have a 6-9 month lead we can assure you that is not the case,” said Qualcomm’s Miller.

    Sequans CEO Georges Karam stood by his statement. He believes the MDM9206 is “a chip originally designed for low-end Cat 3 LTE, and Qualcomm did a software downgrade to make it work at lower speeds…[but it] doesn’t solve the problem that Cat M and NB address — namely, to provide a very low cost and very low power solution.”

    Karam said modules based on the Monarch chip will sell for less than $10. Another Qualcomm chip, the MDM9205, will be a more realistic rival to Monarch but won’t ship until sometime next year, he added.

    Separately, Qualcomm rolled out a camera reference design based on the Snapdragon 625, a new 64-bit, eight-core mobile SoC that supports 4K video and is made in a 14nm process.

    Reply
  29. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Impressive Pi System Controls Large Office
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/22/impressive-pi-system-controls-large-office/

    A pile of Raspberry Pis isn’t what would spring to mind for most people when building a system to control a large office, but most people aren’t [Kamil Górski]. He decided to use Pis to run the office of his company Monterail when they moved to a larger space. The system they built is one of the largest Pi installations we have seen, controlling the lights, TVs, speakers and door access. It can all be controlled through a web interface,

    How we built a truly Smart Office system based on Raspberry Pi
    http://monterail.com/blog/2016/how-we-built-a-truly-smart-office-system-based-on-raspberry-pi/

    The “Smart” part

    Such a huge project cannot start without a good, long workshop about our needs and requirements. After a thorough workshop we decided to have the following features:

    light control,
    conference and call room occupancy signalization,
    individual access codes for the main doors for each team member in a centralized database,
    audio system with a wireless music streaming option,
    separate, manageable audio experience in the restroom,
    five TVs with the ability to manage the content displayed on them,
    kitchen LED lamp color management,
    ability to control everything via a web application (desktop, mobile, phone and panels mounted on the walls).

    Technical decisions and reliability risks

    Most automation systems we found were built based on PLCs – due to their reliability and strict manufacturing restrictions.

    “Let’s do something new, something that we haven’t seen on the Internet before.”

    After some consideration we put our bet on Raspberry Pi. We debated about reliability as we couldn’t find a project based on RaspberryPi that big. We wanted to find out if it’s possible. And we did.

    Heart of the system

    There is one master Raspberry Pi which controls all of the low-level hardware. To accomplish this we had to create two kinds of custom devices:

    The first one we called the “distribution board”: distribute power and provide connectors that connects all peripherals: the RPi itself, movement sensors, door lock, etc.

    The second device is a relay driver board.
    There is one relay for each light group which makes over 30 pieces to handle the entire Monterail office.

    The main unit also runs a web server with a Web Application that allows to control all of the smart features.

    Occupancy signalization

    This function is achieved by a regular movement sensor mounted in each room.

    Reply
  30. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT startup and smart cam-maker Smartfrog raises further €20M
    https://techcrunch.com/2016/10/18/smartfrog/

    Dublin and Berlin-based Internet of Things (IoT) startup Smartfrog has raised €20 million in further funding, meaning that the smart cam maker has managed to pull in €28 million in total despite only launching roughly a year ago.

    The Smartfrog cam and app/cloud service competes with similar devices from Nest et. al. and lets consumers add home surveillance to their smart home setup or perhaps as a first toe into the smart home or consumer IoT waters.

    A free version of the service is offered that turns a disused smartphone into a smart security cam, something Rudyk says is largely targeted at emerging markets and other markets where Smartfrog is yet to launch its hardware device.

    You can also purchase the rather neat-looking and feature-rich Smartfrog cam outright, which includes free cloud recording and storage of the last 4 hours footage or the option to pay a monthly fee for more cloud storage and a longer surveillance history.

    And, adds Rudyk, who confesses to owning a pair of “smart” socks that have an RFID chip to tell him when to throw them out, a smart security cam is just the start. Smartfrog has built the full IoT/smart home software, hardware and cloud stack that should enable it to enter new verticals, such as elderly care and health, and via other types of smart sensors.

    Reply
  31. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Internet Doorbell Gone Full-Hipster
    http://hackaday.com/2016/10/24/internet-doorbell-gone-full-hipster/

    There are things and there are Things. Hooking up an Internet-connected doorbell that “rings” a piezo buzzer or sends a text message is OK, but it’s not classy. In all of the Internet-of-Things hubbub, too much attention is paid to the “Internet”, which is actually the easy part, and too little attention is paid to the “Things”.

    This week, he connected the ubiquitous ESP8266 to a nice old (physical) bell for his broadcast over the weekend. (i”Translated” here.) Check out the video teaser embedded below.

    Reply
  32. Tomi Engdahl says:

    MEMS ICs detect structural defects
    http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4442846/MEMS-ICs-detect-structural-defects?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20161024&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20161024&elqTrackId=a728893f777f46958e2c820c7e571277&elq=0b40416e38894452a9c7d40e25efce45&elqaid=34515&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30116

    Three-axis MEMS accelerometers, Analog Devices’ ADXL354 and ADXL355 perform high-resolution vibration measurement to enable the early detection of structural defects via wireless sensor networks. The low power consumption of the devices lengthens battery life and reduces the time between battery changes.

    The analog-output ADXL354 and digital-output ADXL355 offer selectable measurement ranges of ±2 g to ±8 g and low 0-g offset drift.

    Reply
  33. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Webcams used to attack Reddit and Twitter recalled
    http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-37750798

    Home webcams that were hijacked to help knock popular websites offline last week are being recalled in the US.

    Chinese electronics firm Hangzhou Xiongmai issued the recall soon after its cameras were identified as aiding the massive web attacks.

    They made access to popular websites, such as Reddit, Twitter, Spotify and many other sites, intermittent.

    Security experts said easy-to-guess default passwords, used on Xiongmai webcams, aided the hijacking.

    The web attack enrolled thousands of devices that make up the internet of things – smart devices used to oversee homes and which can be controlled remotely.

    In a statement, Hangzhou Xiongmai said hackers were able to take over the cameras because users had not changed the devices’ default passwords.

    Xiongmai rejected suggestions that its webcams made up the bulk of the devices used in the attacks.

    “Security issues are a problem facing all mankind,” it said. “Since industry giants have experienced them, Xiongmai is not afraid to experience them once, too.”

    It has also pledged to improve the way it uses passwords on its products and will send customers a software patch to harden devices against attack.

    Could this happen again?

    Yes, and it probably will. The smart devices making up the IoT are proving very popular with the malicious hackers who make their living by selling attack services or extorting cash by threatening firms with devastating attacks.

    Before the rise of the IoT it was tricky to set up a network of hijacked machines as most would be PCs that, generally, are more secure. Running such a network is hard and often machines had to be rented for a few hours just to carry out attacks. Now anyone can scan the net for vulnerable cameras, DVRs and other gadgets, take them over and start bombarding targets whenever they want.
    Why should I care if my webcam is hijacked?

    For the same reason you would care if your car was stolen and used by bank robbers as a getaway vehicle.

    And because if your webcam, printer or DVR is hijacked you have, in effect, allowed a stranger to enter your home. Hackers are likely to start using these gadgets to spy on you and scoop up valuable data. It’s worth taking steps to shut out the intruders.

    Can the IoT-based attacks be stopped?

    Not easily. Many of the devices being targeted are hard to update and the passwords on some, according to one report, are hard-coded which means they cannot be changed.

    There is also the difficulty of identifying whether you are using a vulnerable product. A lot of IoT devices are built from components sourced from lots of different places. Finding out what software is running on them can be frustrating.

    Also, even if recalls and updates are massively successful there will still be plenty of unpatched devices available for malicious hackers to use. Some manufacturers of cheaper devices have refused to issue updates meaning there is a ready population of vulnerable gadgets available.

    Why are these devices so poorly protected?

    Because security costs money and electronics firms want to make their IoT device as cheap as possible. Paying developers to write secure code might mean a gadget is late to market and is more expensive. Plus enforcing good security on these devices can make them harder to use – again that might hit sales.

    Who was behind the massive web attacks?

    Right now, we don’t know. Some hacker groups have claimed responsibility but none of their claims are credible.

    Reply
  34. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Low-voltage lighting an intriguing element of Cisco’s Digital Ceiling platform
    http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/print/volume-24/issue-9/features/technology/low-voltage-lighting-an-intriguing-element-of-cisco-s-digital-ceiling-platform.html

    Market-intelligence firm BSRIA recently reported that its latest study of the structured cabling marketplace shows that the industry’s hot topic is convergence and the impact of digitization. “With the launch of its Digital Ceiling, Cisco has, with its many partners, boosted the level of interest in convergence,” BSRIA noted. “And cabling suppliers and channel players are expecting to see an increase in demand for cabling, and in particular, for higher-specification cabling.”

    Cisco launched Digital Ceiling at its Cisco Live event in Berlin, Germany in February.

    BSRIA additionally reported that most of the large converged intelligent buildings are new-build or major refurbishments in verticals like retail/shopping centers, high-end offices, universities, hospitals, airports, sports stadiums, government buildings and hotels. Lone Hansen, manager for BSRIA’s IT cable group, commented, “The growth in WAPS [wireless access points] and DBS [distributed building services] is coming from a small base. The main factor that could boost the market is the performance of solutions for the retrofit market.”

    “The evolution to LED lighting creates an opportunity for organizations to bring all of their parallel networks together. New LED lighting systems are now connected to and powered from the corporate data network. The network-powered lighting system can be the centralized hub for a digital ceiling that brings together lighting, building automation and other technologies such as sensors. In fact, the digital ceiling is the easiest, fastest path to a true smart and connected building. The evolution to a digital ceiling will not only make buildings smarter and lower-cost, but can also significantly change the way companies interact with customers and workers.”

    Building an ecosystem

    Indeed, low-voltage lighting, and particularly lighting that receives power via twisted-pair cabling, has drawn focus to the Digital Ceiling technology platform. Cabling vendors Legrand, Siemon, and Superior Essex are among the partner organizations in the Digital Ceiling ecosystem.

    “A key part of the Digital Ceiling includes systems and devices that are powered by network switches using Power over Ethernet, including PoE-powered LED lights with sensors that can help lower energy costs by up to 85 percent. Siemon’s ConvergeIT cabling solutions include advanced copper shielded cables and connectivity that provide superior support of PoE-enabled systems.”

    During his presentation, Philips’s Moreman stated, “These systems are collecting copious amounts of data. The sensors are constantly gathering information.” Speaking about Philips products in particular, he explained that the system incorporates visible light communication (VLC), which “enables personal control over individual luminaires, groups of luminaires, entire offices, et cetera.”

    Moreman also discussed the physical setup of PoE-enabled lighting systems, describing two scenarios. “It can ride on the existing IT infrastructure,” he said, diagramming the path from router to distribution switches. “Off those switches, we run into specific PoE lighting switches, then off to the individual luminaires,” he said. “The switches do not have to be dedicated to lighting exclusively; they also can be used for other applications.”

    The other scenario includes a separate network for lighting. “This is the same effective concept, but is a standalone network” entirely devoted to lighting, he said.

    In the conclusion of his paper, Kerravala notes, “In the digital era, the ability to create new experiences that delight customers will be one of the factors that determine marketplace leaders. Also, digital technology can be used to energize the workforce, which will lead to more productive, engaged employees. A Digital Ceiling deployment enables both. Consequently, ZK Research believes that a digital ceiling is now a business imperative and should be at or near the top of every business and IT leader’s priority list.”

    Reply
  35. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Finnish companies to package smart water heater

    There Corporation and Kaukora developed with the Vaasa power a new kind of smart water heater. NEW device enables real-time connection to the electricity market.

    electrically heated single-family homes Finland has enabled more than one million water heater, and each year 30 000 new product will be sold. If even some of these accumulators to be smart, it would mean a significant opportunity to adjust the demand for electricity.

    A new type of älyvaraajan can be used to balance the consumption of electricity during the national demand for electricity peaks or oversupply. During peak demands the price of electricity is at its highest, so the new charger to transfer the water warming in a more favorable time.

    increase ” elasticity of demand is one solution to the need for regulating power. Much has been said about the participation of consumers towards demand, but until now it has not been technically possible ”,

    Source: http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2016/10/25/suomalaisyritykset-paketoivat-alya-lamminvesivaraajaan/

    Reply
  36. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Optimize Your Software Stack for Industrial Internet of Things Devices
    http://www.techonline.com/electrical-engineers/education-training/tech-papers/4442249/Optimize-Your-Software-Stack-for-Industrial-Internet-of-Things-Devices?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20161021&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_funfriday_20161021&elqTrackId=d05d41aa93434f9d991b028f7602c807&elq=723d92cbbf8f43569f4a76c114f794f8&elqaid=34482&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30087

    According to Accenture, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) will help companies boost revenues by increasing production, driving innovation and transforming their workforce. Conservative estimates place spending on the IIoT worldwide at $500 billion by 2020. GE calculated the economic impact of just a 1% cost savings across industrial segments at $276 billion. What are the ingredients that will enable your company to secure a piece of this enormous pie?

    Reply
  37. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Movidius to Push AI at Edge of Network
    Surveillance camera deal with Hikvision
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330663&

    Movidius, a leading embedded computer-vision processor company, soon to be acquired by Intel Corp., has agreed with China’s Hikvision to penetrate artificial intelligence (AI) deeper into surveillance cameras.

    The deal put Movidius in a direct contact with Hikvision (pronounced high-K vision), a Chinese company not only known as a major factor globally in the surveillance market, but also for its expertise in advanced visual analytics.

    In a phone interview with EE Times, Movidius CEO, Remi El-Ouazzane, said, “Deploying Artificial Intelligence at the edge [of the network] is becoming a massive trend.”

    Movidius, which has played a key role behind Google’s Project Tango, has been promoting its ultra low-power vision processing SoC in a number of embedded systems. The company has set its sights on accelerating the adoption of deep learning in a host of applications, including security cameras, drones and augmented reality (AR)/virtual reality (VR), as El-Ouazzane explained.

    Ranked No.1 in scene classification at ImageNet 2016
    The deal with Hikvision is geared toward driving Movidius’ embedded vision processor into the world of security cameras.

    Sense, assess and decide
    Embedded systems, capable of actions such as “to sense, assess and decide,” will only grow further, explained Movidius CEO El-Ouazzane.

    Along with this growth, the industry has an increasing number of tech companies “trying to attack ‘Deep Learning’ from different layers and come up with new SoC platforms,” he observed.

    Considering the performance level required for neural network applications in a power-constrained environment, embedded vision processing needs a special, purpose-built architecture, El-Ouazzane explained. This trend is amplified by Moore’s Law which has recently shown signs of slowing down, he added.

    Reply
  38. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Who Needs a Smart Staff When You Have Remote Monitoring?
    http://www.designnews.com/author.asp?section_id=1386&doc_id=281856&cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20161025.tst004c

    Remote monitoring has come a long way over the past couple decades. Years ago, sensors on motors were connected to a wired network. The sensor read the temperature of the motor and reported back if it was overheating, hopefully before the motor failed. The network was safe, since it wasn’t connected to the enterprise system and young engineers were not plugging USB sticks full of music into the network’s computers. What a difference a couple decades makes.

    The network is now connected to the enterprise system. The sensors read far more than the temperature, and they’re connected to nearly everything in the plant, even assets away from the plant. They count, they measure, they record vibration and sound. They’re connected wirelessly to the Internet and carry data into the cloud where it’s processed for ultimate optimization. The engineer reviewing the data may be worlds away from the plant. And the young engineer with the USB stick wouldn’t dare plug it into a plant computer.

    Remote monitoring now looks beyond the individual motor or conveyor and instead views the process from end to end. “We look at the overall connected enterprise. It’s about connecting machines on the plant floor to the overall enterprise,”

    Vendors Can Monitor, Even Run, the Equipment

    Machine builders are now creating sophisticated equipment that can be adjusted electronically from afar. The machines can gather a wide range of critical production data. Some builders offer monitoring services so the plant staff itself doesn’t need to gather and analyze machine data. “Machine builders are offering secure remote-monitoring services to view their equipment’s performance and collect valuable analytics,” said Schook. “The flexible, scalable solution collects, organizes, and normalizes real-time data across production assets, providing data-driven insights across a broad range of devices.”

    Vendor-Designed Security and Analysis

    With remote monitoring comes the responsibility to provide a secure network. “We offer the secure connection to the machine, and we also offer the secure connection in the cloud,” said Schook. “We’re taking the data we get from the machines down the path of doing analytics to provide more intelligent information.”

    Reply
  39. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Intel reports better-than-expected earnings as data center chips grow 13% to $4.5 billion
    http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/pt/2016/10/intel-reports-better-than-expected-earnings-as-data-center-chips-grow-13-to-4-5-billion.html

    Intel reported third-quarter earnings that beat analyst estimates, driven by revenues from data center chips and the Internet of Things.

    Reply
  40. Tomi Engdahl says:

    MEMS ICs detect structural defects
    http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4442846/MEMS-ICs-detect-structural-defects?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20161024&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_productsandtools_20161024&elqTrackId=60f8a6a4933f4423a65b39e7876d2320&elq=0ee175e0841f4edf87c4c914f8b893a6&elqaid=34511&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=30111

    Three-axis MEMS accelerometers, Analog Devices’ ADXL354 and ADXL355 perform high-resolution vibration measurement to enable the early detection of structural defects via wireless sensor networks. The low power consumption of the devices lengthens battery life and reduces the time between battery changes.

    The analog-output ADXL354 and digital-output ADXL355 offer selectable measurement ranges of ±2 g to ±8 g and low 0-g offset drift.

    Reply
  41. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Device Makers Face Legal Trouble Over Internet of Things Attack
    http://fortune.com/2016/10/25/dyn-lawsuits/

    The legal test looks at consumer harms.

    Who should be held responsible for last week’s security breach that took out parts of the Internet?

    That question is becoming more pressing as regulators and the public begin to grasp the implication of the first major “Internet of things” attack, in which hackers hijacked millions of everyday devices such as security cameras and printers, and cut off access to major websites like Amazon and Twitter for hours at a time.

    Increasingly, the security community is focusing on the role of the device makers, whose products contained a major security flaw. Namely, the companies did not require consumers to change a default password, which is what made it so easy for hackers to conscript so many Internet-connected devices into the botnet army that carried out last week’s attack.

    Some of the companies, which include little-known Chinese manufacturers but also familiar names like Panasonic and Xerox, have begun a recall of the devices. But for now, many of their products remain out in the wild with their software “unpatched.” That means they remain compromised. Worse, hackers have released the source code to control the botnet army, meaning future attacks using devices of this nature are all but certain.

    This raises the question of whether the device makers should be held legally responsible. Even though they had no role in directing last week’s attack on the Internet, such an attack was not hard to foresee—especially since there have been reports of compromised cameras, and other Internet-enabled devices, for years.

    According to Michael Zweiback, an attorney with Alston & Bird and a former cyber-crime prosecutor, legal action is most likely to come in the form of lawsuits, and investigations by the Federal Trade Commission and state attorneys general.

    A harder question is whether U.S. consumers who purchased the compromised devices, which also include network routers and baby monitors, can bring lawsuits of their own.

    While class action lawyers may be watching the situation closely, a legal victory would be no sure thing. Even though the companies appear to have been negligent by failing to introduce tougher password protection, consumers would still have to show they were harmed. And right now the test for showing harm is unclear.

    The situation is different for Dyn, the Internet service company that was the direct target of last week’s attack by the millions of compromised devices, since the firm had to directly absorb the cost of the attack.

    Reply
  42. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Power/Performance Bits: Oct. 25
    Energy-harvesting floor; ultralow power transistors; perovskite solar cell reaches 20.3% efficiency.
    http://semiengineering.com/powerperformance-bits-oct-25/

    Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison developed a flooring material which can be used as a triboelectric nanogenerator to convert footsteps into electricity.

    The method uses wood pulp, a common waste material already often used in flooring.

    Ultralow power transistors

    Engineers at the University of Cambridge developed an ultralow power transistor which could function for months or even years without a battery by scavenging energy from its environment.

    The thin-film transistor, constructed of indium-gallium-zinc-oxide, was able to operate at ultralow power (less than 1 nanowatt) and at switching voltages of less than 1 volt with very high intrinsic gain.

    By changing the design of the transistors, the researchers were able to use Schottky barriers to keep the electrodes independent from one another, so that the transistors can be scaled down to very small geometries.

    Perovskite solar cell reaches 20.3% efficiency

    Researchers from Stanford and Oxford built an all-perovskite solar cell that converts sunlight into electricity with an efficiency of 20.3%, comparable to silicon solar cells currently on the market.

    Reply
  43. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT Networks Get New Provider
    M2M Spectrum picks Link Labs technology
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330671&

    A new low power wide area (LPWA) network for the Internet of Things joined the growing set of options. M2M Spectrum Networks will use over its licensed sub-GHz spectrum in the U.S. technology from Link Labs.

    Over the next two years, M2M is expected to purchase as many as 10,000 base stations implementing Link Labs’ variant of LoRa called Symphony Link. Separately, Link Labs is gearing up a new IoT networking product line based on LTE-M.

    A handful of startups are rolling out LPWA networks worldwide for IoT including Sigfox, LoRa and Ingenu. Cellular providers are countering with low power versions of LTE going into trials next year.

    Symphony Link from Link Labs uses LoRa’s physical layer but adds its own synchronous protocol geared for sub-GHz unlicensed bands in the U.S. It supports downlinks at rates of up to 100 Kbits/second based on transmitting significantly more energy than the maximum used by LoRa of less than 1W. Symphony also implements a scheme for upgrading firmware over the air and sending compressed acknowledgements.

    The deal is a major expansion for Link Labs that to date has sold less than a thousand base stations for unlicensed 902-928 MHz nets direct to commercial users for applications such as telematics, metering networks and controlling door locks. M2M will provide services over its licensed 800 and 900 MHz bands for a wide variety of uses including fleet management.

    The M2M implementation uses a custom radio front end that can transit up to a theoretical maximum of a kilowatt of power to achieve 20-30 dB more link margin than the typical LoRa network. In-building users such as hospitals and factories will typically tune the networks to emit much lower energy levels of about 25W.

    “LTE-M is a brand new market, so it will take 6-12 months for volumes sales to develop, people will buy small volumes first for pilots,”

    “I’m bullish on both LoRa which is good for telematics and smart cities applications and LTE-M which can bring Internet access to an end point with no proxy service needed – that’s a powerful architecture for IoT end nodes,” said Ray.

    Reply
  44. Tomi Engdahl says:

    New Intel Atom Processor E3900 Series: Enabling Next Generation of Smart and Connected IoT Devices
    https://newsroom.intel.com/editorials/new-intel-atom-processor-e3900-series-enabling-next-generation-smart-connected-iot-devices/

    New Processor Series Moves Computing Power Nearer to Sensor, Alleviating Need to Push All Processing to Data Center

    The Internet of Things (IoT) is linking billions of smart and connected devices to each other, creating a wave of change in how we live and work. The number of connected machines is expected to dramatically increase – by 2020, 50 billion devices (Cisco IBSG) will create 44 zettabytes (of 44 trillion gigabytes) of data annually, and will require much more processing power at the edge, and in the fog to network in order to maintain viability.

    To support these experiences, today at IoT Solutions World Congress, Intel is announcing the latest generation of the Intel® Atom™ processors for IoT applications. The new Intel Atom processor E3900 series is designed from the ground up to support the rapid development and the growing complexity of IoT businesses. The result is a processor exceptionally capable of delivering on performance, processing and scalability.

    We are also announcing details of our Intel Atom processor dedicated for automotive applications. The A3900 series is designed to power a new generation of in-vehicle experiences.

    Reply
  45. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The IoT market will grow through cannibalisation, says Tech Mahindra
    Less blue-sky thinking, more ‘is this profitable?’ needed
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/26/tech_mahindra_karthik_natarajan_iot_world_congress_cannibalisation/

    IoT World Congress What does the Internet of Things actually mean for business? “If a customer is spending $10m on maintenance, I say, ‘Give us $8m and… I will bring you better availability of your equipment’,” a confident Karthikeyan Natarajan of Tech Mahindra told The Register yesterday.

    Natarajan, the Indian firm’s veep for integrated engineering solutions, was at IoT World Congress in Barcelona plugging Tech Mahindra’s relatively new IoT business unit.

    It grew out of the company’s previous work on machine-to-machine (M2M) instrumentation in the US, which came to a head after the 2014 New Jersey power blackout which saw 12,000 left without electricity after a rogue raccoon got inside a sub-station.

    According to Natarajan, Tech Mahindra had been putting connectivity-enabled sensors on backup generator sets to determine whether they were active, what their fuel levels were and so on – what we now recognise as a typical IoT use case. In this case its client had about 2,000 generator sets.

    “When the blackout happened, our customer was able to put 200 assets back online within two hours. They made $200m in hours,” said Natarajan.

    “IT plus IoT will make real-time IT, which will mean your current dumb systems will need real-time alerts, monitoring and performance,” continued Natarajan. He is bullish about the future of IoT, bluntly stating “growth” when El Reg asked him where he thinks it’s all going – before predicting “cannibalisation” among customers and “consolidation” among IoT outfits.

    “Growth will be driven by being a system integrator,” he said, mentioning sensor-to-app and sensor-to-cloud systems, as well as full-scale enterprise systems. “This is a key element where customers need help; more critical adoption will grow if you can simplify it. If not, too many partners need to be brought to the table. Currently you need at least four – if you can do it with two, that’s why consolidation happens. Customers find it difficult to pull in half a dozen partners to make one solution happen.”

    Reply
  46. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Dell bundles bundle of systems-bundlers into its IoT van
    Secure or not, it’s great if someone’s making money
    http://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/10/17/dell_iot_partner_program_expands/

    The Dell EMC borg has chucked a slack handful of systems integrators into its Internet of Things Solutions Partner Program, it says.

    The routine business decision “is reflective of Dell’s effort to build a holistic ecosystem of IoT solutions that span industries” according to the usual burbling from Dell’s PR speakers.

    The lucky firms are named as Action Point, Datatrend Technologies, L&T Technology Services and Mobiliya.

    “We’re passionate about providing our customers with a comprehensive IoT ecosystem to help them innovate and move an idea from concept to reality,” said Jeff Brown, Dell’s veep for IoT and embedded PC sales, in a canned quote. “By adding SIs into the mix, we are helping to bridge the gap between IT and OT, and transform IoT into a profitable market reality.”

    A whole host of supporting canned quotes supplied by Dell unsurprisingly sang Dell’s praises and said how wonderful it is to be supporting these IoT firms.

    Reply
  47. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The new card computer

    SMARC is a compact, low-power, but performance PCs, the standard card, which has just been released 2.0 version. German Congatec was the first to launch SMARC 2.0 cards. Cards are based on the new Intel manufactured Lake Apollo Series 14-nanometer line width of the processor.

    SMARC ( “Smart Mobility Architecture”) is a credit card-sized card format. Its physical dimensions are either 82 x 50 or 82 mils x 80 mils. The first Congatec SMARC 2.0 cards have been expressly SA5.

    Processor options include the Apollo Lake developed a code name Atom, Cele and the Pentium, which Intel announced yesterday.

    Despite its small size SMARC 2.0 cards may be a fair amount of performance.

    Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5290:uusi-korttitietokone-markkinoille&catid=13&Itemid=101

    More: http://www.congatec.com/en/products/smarc/conga-sa5.html

    Reply
  48. Tomi Engdahl says:

    ARM Does IoT Security Chip to Cloud
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330669

    At the ARM TechCon conference today ARM announced a comprehensive portfolio of products and services that promises to greatly simplify the creation of secure IoT systems. The core, operating system, and cloud-based software-as-a-service (SaaS) collection aims to accelerate IoT chip to cloud development both for ARM manufacturing licensees as well as their design customers. The offerings target low- to mid/high-end applications and aim to make energy-harvesting a viable power option for many designs.

    “The next shift in the IoT requires better efficiency, security, and ability to scale,” ARM computer group’s vice president of strategy Nandan Nayampally told EE Times in a briefing. To address that need in a way that also speeds development, he added, ARM created an integrated offering that enhanced security at each stage of the IoT system. The offering includes processor cores with a TrustZone protected execution environment, a processor bus that extends that TrustZone to memory and peripherals, and CryptoCell hardware that supports secure boot, key management, and the like. Along with these cores, he noted, ARM is offering a sub-one-volt 802.15.4 radio, and pre-designed system IP with operating system software for SoC creation.

    The IoT design portfolio announced today starts with two cores based on the new ARMv8-M architecture. The M33 is a general-purpose, 32-bit processor with TrustZone technology, DSP extensions, and floating-point capability. It also offers a coprocessor interface for tightly coupling custom acceleration hardware. The M23 is a more basic core targeting ultra-low-power applications while still offering TrustZone protection. Nayampally noted that the M23 is 75% smaller and 50% more efficient than the M33, and that both processors are suitable for functional safety applications.

    Reply
  49. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Intel, ARM Battle over IoT
    Explosion of end nodes makes MCUs strategic
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1330662

    The battle for the Internet of Things heats up this week as Intel and ARM fire off competing announcements to establish their microprocessor architectures on its broad frontiers.

    ARM has a clear lead in the emerging ground game for end nodes with its Cortex-M microcontrollers. Intel, the world’s largest semiconductor company, ranks 17th among MCU vendors with its relatively new Quark x86 chips, making it about equal with Panasonic and Sharp according to market watcher IHS Inc.

    “Renesas, NXP and Microchip are an order of magnitude ahead of Intel in MCUs,” said Tom Hackenberg who tracks the sector for IHS.

    The market for chips that sometimes sell for less than $1 is new to Intel and strategic to IoT. “What makes IoT a new area are the advancements in end nodes, pushing the intelligence down to apps that didn’t have that Internet access before,” said Hackenberg.

    While it’s not yet discussing it publicly, Intel has a plan, and the current Quark chips are just its first foray. The company is said to have as many as six other x86 microcontroller designs in the works.

    “Intel tried getting into deeply embedded systems with [ARM-based] Xscale [chips several years ago], and it didn’t work particularly well. Now they decided they can do it by redesigning the x86,” said Hackenberg.

    To compete with the leaders in MCUs, Intel needs to deliver Quark x86 chips that:

    Deliver 1-milliwatt active power levels to compete with Cortex-M0 chips
    Include the rich portfolio of memory, I/O and connectivity options of ARM’s partners
    Target specific vertical markets, such as an automotive MCU with multiple CAN buses
    Bring its x86 programming tools and partners into the MCU world
    Make it as easy to support a hardware root-of-trust as ARM has with its new TrustZone CryptoCell

    Reply
  50. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Nokia announces Open Innovation Challenge 2016 winners
    http://company.nokia.com/en/news/press-releases/2016/10/26/nokia-announces-open-innovation-challenge-2016-winners

    Espoo, Finland – Start-ups with innovative products focusing on the connected home, digital health and big data have taken the top three spots in Nokia’s 2016 Open Innovation Challenge, beating a tough field of over 400 entries in a competition which looks for the next big ideas in Internet of Things domains including public safety, connected automotive, industry 4.0, digital health, utilities, security and smart cities. The challenge was organized in partnership with Nokia Growth Partners, which this year announced a USD 350 million fund for investments in IoT companies.

    The first prize was awarded to CUJO for their firewall for the connected home, designed to bring business-level security to the home network. The second prize and investors’ choice prize were awarded to iSono Health, who empower people to take charge of their health with early breast cancer detection. The third prize was awarded to Mobagel for their Decanter(TM) Big Data AI engine which automatically chooses the optimal machine learning model and provides the right actionable insights for marketers and executives.

    Reply

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

*