According to Intel IoT is expected to be a multi-trillion-dollar market, with 50 billion devices creating 44 zettabytes (or 44 trillion gigabytes) of data annually by 2020. But that widely cited 50 billion IoT devices in 2020 number is clearly not correct! Forecast of 50 Billion Devices by 2020 Is Outdated. In 2017 we should be talking about about some sensible numbers. The current count is somewhere between Gartner’s estimate of 6.4 billion (which doesn’t include smartphones, tablets, and computers), International Data Corporation’s estimate of 9 billion (which also excludes those devices), and IHS’s estimate of 17.6 billion (with all such devices included). Both Ericsson and Evans have lowered their expectations from 50 billion for 2020: Evans, who is now CTO of Stringify, says he expects to see 30 billion connected devices by then, while Ericsson figures on 28 billion by 2021.
Connectivity and security will be key features for Internet of Things processors in 2017. Microcontroller (MCU) makers will continue to target their products at the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2017 by giving more focus on battery life, more connectivity of various types, and greater security. The new architectures are almost sure to spawn a multitude of IoT MCUs in 2017 from manufacturers who adopt ARM’s core designs.
ARM will be big. Last year, ARM’s partners shipped 15 billion chips based on its architectures. The trend toward IoT processors will go well beyond ARM licensees. Intel rolled out the Intel Atom E3900 Series for IoT applications. And do not forget MIPS an RISC-V.
FPGA manufacturers are pushing their products to IoT market. They promise that FPGAs solve challenges at the core of IoT implementation: making IoT devices power efficient, handling incompatible interfaces, and providing a processing growth path to handle the inevitable increase in device performance requirement.
Energy harvesting field will become interesting in 2017 as it is more broadly adopted. Energy harvesting is becoming the way forward to help supplement battery power or lose the need for it altogether. Generally researchers are eyeing energy-harvesting to power ultra-low-power devices, wearable technology, and other things that don’t need a lot of power or don’t come in a battery-friendly form factor.
Low power wide area networks (LPWA) networks (also known as NarrowBand IoT) will be hot in 2017. There is hope that f LPWA nets will act as a catalyst, changing the nature of the embedded and machine-to-machine markets as NB-IoT focuses specifically on indoor coverage, low cost, long battery life, and enabling a large number of connected devices. The markets will become a kind of do-it-yourselfers paradise of modules and services, blurring the lines between vendors, users and partners. At the same time for years to come, the market for low power wide area networks (LPWA) will be as fragmented and is already in a race to the bottom (Sigfox, said to be promising costs approaching $1 per node per year). Competing technologies include Sigfox, LoRa Alliance, LTE Cat 1, LTE Cat M1 (eMTC), LTE Cat NB1 (NB-IoT) and other sub-gigahertz options almost too numerous to enumerate.
We are starting to see a battle between different IoT technologies, and in few years to come we will see which are winners and which technologies will be lost in the fight. Sigfox and Lora are currently starting well, but telecom operators with mobile networks NB-IoT will try hit the race heavily in 2017. Vendors prep Cat M1, NB1 for 2017: 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. Vendors hope the 7-billion-unit installed base of cellular M2M modules expands. It’s too early to tell which technologies will be mainstream and which niche. It could be that cellular NB-IOT was too late, it will fail in the short term, it can win in the long term, and the industry will struggle to make any money from it. At $2 a year, 20 billion devices will contribute around 4% of current global mobile subscription revenues.
New versions of communication standards will be taken into use in 2017. For example Bluetooth 5 that adds more speed and IoT functionality. In 2017, we will see an increase in the number of devices with the new Bluetooth 5 standard.
Industrial IoT to gain traction in 2017. Industrial applications ultimately have the greater transformative potential than consumer products, offering users real returns on investment (ROI) rather than just enhanced convenience or “cool factor”. But the industrial sector is conservative and has been slow to embrace an industrial IoT (IIoT), but is seems that they are getting interested now. During the past year there has been considerable progress in removing many of the barriers to IIoT adoption. A global wide implementation of an IIoT is many years away, of course. The issues of standards and interoperability will most likely remain unresolved for several years to come, but progress is being made. The Industrial Internet Consortium released a framework to support development of standards and best practices for IIoT security.
The IIoT market is certainly poised to grow. A Genpact research study, for instance, indicates that more than 80% of large companies believe that the IIoT will be essential to their future success. In a recent market analysis by Industry ARC, for instance, the projected value of the IIoT market will reach more than $120 billion by 2021. Research firm Markets and Markets is even more optimistic, pegging IIoT growth at a CAGR of 8% to more than $150 billion by 2020. And the benefits will follow. By GE’s estimate, the IIoT will stimulate an increase in the global GDP of $10 to $15 trillion over the next 20 years.
Systems integrators are seeking a quick way to enter the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market. So expect to see many plug and play IoT sensor systems unveiled. There were many releses in 2016, and expect to see more in 2017. Expect to see device, connectivity and cloud service to be marketed as one packet.
IoT analytics will be talked a lot in 2017. Many companies will promise to turn Big Data insights into bigger solutions. For industrial customers Big Data analytics is promised to drive operational efficiencies, cut costs, boosting production, and improving worker productivity. There are many IIoT analytic solution and platform suppliers already on the market and a growing number of companies are now addressing industrial analytics use.
In 2016 it was all bout getting the IoT devices connected to cloud. In 2017 we will see increased talk about fog computing. Fog computing is new IoT trend pushed by Cisco and many other companies. As the Internet of Things (IoT) evolves, decentralized, distributed-intelligence concepts such as “fog computing” are taking hold to address the need for lower latencies, improved security, lower power consumption, and higher reliability. The basic premise of fog computing is classic decentralization whereby some processing and storage functions are better performed locally instead of sending data all the way from the sensor, to the cloud, and back again to an actuator. This demands smarter sensors and new wireless sensor network architectures. Groups such as the Open Fog Consortium have formed to define how it should best be done. You might start to want to be able to run the same code in cloud and your IoT device.
The situation in IoT security in 2016 was already Hacking the IoT: As Bad As I Feared It’d Be and there is nothing that would indicate that the situation will not get any better in 2017. A veritable army of Internet-connected equipment has been circumvented of late, due to vulnerabilities in its hardware, software or both … “smart” TVs, set-top boxes and PVRs, along with IP cameras, routers, DSL, fiber and cable modems, printers and standalone print servers, NASs, cellular hot spots, and probably plenty of other gear. IoT world at the moment is full of vulnerable devices, and it will take years to get then replaces with more secure devices. Those vulnerable devices can be used to make huge DDoS attacks against Internet services. The 2016 October 21 cyberattacks on Dyn brought to light how easily many IoT devices can be compromised. I expect that kind of incidents will happen more in 2017 as DDoS botnets are pretty easy to build with tools available on-line. There’s no question that everyone in the chain – manufacturers, retailers and consumers – have to do a better job securing connected devices.When it comes to IoT, more security is needed.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Mouser – Bluetooth low energy SoC transitions quickly between power-saving and active modes (STMicroelectronics BLUENRG-132)
http://www.electropages.com/2017/01/mouser-bluetooth-energy-soc-transitions-quickly-power-saving-active-modes/?utm_campaign=2017-01-11-Electropages&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=article&utm_content=Mouser+-+Bluetooth+low+energy+SoC+transitions+quickly+between+power-saving+…
Mouser now stocks the BlueNRG-1 system-on-chip (SoC) from STMicroelectronics. The device contains a Bluetooth low energy radio optimized to satisfy high-volume opportunities in the fast-growing Bluetooth low energy (Bluetooth Smart) market
The wireless SoC features a 32MHz 32-bit ARM Cortex-M0 core
The SoC also includes 160kB of on-chip flash memory, allowing designers to embed both the Bluetooth Low Energy 4.2 protocol stack and the application code; 24kB of static RAM with retention (in two 12kB banks); and SPI, UART, I2C standard communication interface peripherals.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exploring IoT Concepts with a cloudBit
There are variety of WiFi-based chipsets that embedded developers and product designers use in their IoT designs.
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/exploring-iot-concepts-cloudbit/21164096047247?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170111.tst004t
There are variety of WiFi-based chipsets that embedded developers and product designers use in their IoT designs. An alternative reference design that allows these developers and designers to explore IoT (Internet of Things) concepts is the cloudBit manufactured by littleBits electronics. The littleBits are colorful electronic modules that provide specific electrical functions for consumer devices and gadgets. By connecting the modules in unique creative ways, interesting, innovative electronic devices and gadgets can be built. The ease in which electronic devices and gadgets can be built allows a rapid approach to developing new IoT design concepts. I’ll present an alternative design approach to building IoT product concepts using the littleBits cloudBit.
The cloudBit module allows a variety of electronic devices and gadgets to easily connect to a home WiFi network. The IC (integrated circuit) technologies used on the tiny electronic module’s PCB (Printed Circuit Board) allow wireless connectivity to control and monitor other littleBits modules. Also, a hardware development kit (HDK) provides electrical circuit interfacing to non littleBits modules, as well.
The cloudBit’s WiFi radio is packaged inside of a USB adapter.
compliant 802.11n/g WiFi device
The linux software that provides the WiFi setup resides inside of the μSD (micro SD card) located on the bottom side of the cloudBit.
To aid the iMX23 processor, as a wireless controller, an external 512 MB (Megabyte) DDR SDRAM chip makes high WiFi transfer rates manageable by controlling the digital data and electrical clock signals.
The analog I/O circuits allow electrical wiring of the cloudBit to other electronic modules or developer designed circuits.
Setup instructions to connect the coffee pot controller to your home WiFi network using the cloudBit are found on the littleBits website. Also, the AC switch has an IR (Infrared) sensor that needs to be paired to the IR transmitter. After all wireless connectivity of the cloudBit, AC switch, and IR transmitter components are achieved, the cloud-based UI pushbutton will be able to turn the coffee pot on and off. Beside controlling a coffee pot, small AC home electrical appliances like portable house fans, radios, and TVs can also be operated with this IoT-based controller.
I hope the cloudBit features discussed and illustrated with the coffee pot controller can be realized as an alternative prototyping tool for developing new IoT appliances.
littleBits Schematics and PCBs
https://github.com/littlebitselectronics/eagle-files
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Build a 4-Channel Wireless Sensor System
Do you have a DIY monitoring project that could use a boost? Here’s how to create a 4 channel Wi-Fi sensor system with a 200ft increase in range over most projects you’ll find online.
https://www.designnews.com/gadget-freak/how-build-4-channel-wireless-sensor-system/127957546847257
Search around online IoT communities and resource sites such as thingspeak and you can find several examples of Wi-Fi-based, Arduino-sourced projects that include a popular wireless sensor application using a HDT11 humidity and temperature sensor. These projects have a number of applications in garden, home, and other automation and monitoring projects, including environmental applications, resource, and utility monitoring.
However, the simplest systems are constrained in that they require both a Wi-Fi environment and that they must be located within some fixed distance from the wireless router.
This project intends to build on the value found in those other projects by providing a wireless DHT-based sensor that extends the range up to 200 ft while allowing for up to four sensors to be monitored using a wired power source, battery, or a solar-based operation. This specific project is for a greenhouse remotely located a few hundred feet away. Its operation includes the sensors, fans, pumps and a misting system.
The hardware is based on a MicroChip 12F509 (transmitter) and 16F676 controller for the receiver. The application uses an inexpensive 433MHZ (up to 4) transmitters and a single receiver. The remote sensor used in my project was a AM2302, (DHT22 or DHT11) humidity/temperature sensor
It uses a 9-volt battery and 78L05 regulator and can be assembled for about $5-6.
The receiver, which handles up to four sensors
comes in at $5. For all four remote wireless sensors and the receiver the total costs come in at about $25.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Chemical Tests of the Future Could Move onto Chips
http://electronicdesign.com/electromechanical/chemical-tests-future-could-move-chips
Marcel Zevenbergen imagines chemical sensors that are the size of a fingernail, measure chloride levels in a farm’s water supply, and stream data wirelessly for months. These are not the cattail-shaped electrodes and analytical machines that scientists have traditionally used to measure chemicals in fluid.
Zevenbergen is a senior researcher at the Holst Centre, a Dutch microelectronics lab where engineers are trying to shrink such chemical sensors down into silicon chips. These devices largely missed out on the falling cost and dimensions of other sensors for measuring pressure or temperature.
Holst Centre and imec Introduce World\’s First Solid-State Multi-Ion Sensor for Internet-of-Things Applications
https://www.holstcentre.com/news—press/2016/ion-sensor/
imec, the world-leading research and innovation hub in nano-electronics and digital technology and Holst Centre debuted a miniaturized sensor that simultaneously determines pH and chloride (Cl-)levels in fluid. This innovation is a must have for accurate long-term measurement of ion concentrations in applications such as environmental monitoring, precision agriculture and diagnostics for personalized healthcare. The sensor is an industry first and thanks to the SoC (system on chip) integration it enables massive and cost-effective deployments in Internet-of-Things (IoT) settings.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Will this number-generation innovation hack off the hackers?
http://www.electropages.com/2017/01/will-this-number-generation-innovation-hack-off-the-hackers/?utm_campaign=&utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=article&utm_content=Will+this+number-generation+innovation+hack+off+the+hackers%3F
Year 2016 was billed by many industry observers as the year of the hacker and its certainly true that cyber criminals enjoyed bumper profits.
So what will 2017 bring in the way of technology that will truly hinder the hackers? Obviously it is something that thousands of electronics companies are working on and a key area of security development will be at the semiconductor level.
This is important because it’s all too easy for consumers to feel that the chips in their electronic products are secure. But the harsh fact is many can easily shed data and cyber thieves are particularly adept at discovering default passwords.
IoT proliferation
In addition to that area of security threat, 2017 will see the irrepressible proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) where web-enabled sensors will be widely employed in consumer and industrial products. And the question here is just how secure will they be? The answer in some cases is not very.
However, the insecurity implications of the IoT cannot be exaggerated because the number of connected devices, sensors and actuators is expected to be approximately 38 billion by 2020. A situation that must have hackers rubbing their hands in glee.
Add to those concerns the electronics industry typical reaction to hacking related security issues is to generate and implement product fixes after the crime has been committed and you have a situation where it’s the hackers “tails” that are wagging the industry “dog.”
Universidad Industrial de Santander in Columbia. The team there has developed a security building block for the Open-V microprocessor with a fully open True Random Number Generator (TRNG) peripheral.
A TRNG is a RNG that produces bits based on a random physical process.
security building block can generate up to 400,000 random bits/sec and needs a mere 0.01mm2 of die space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
GPS Tracker – How it works?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdHL_EPC7ZE
A look inside an A8 GPS tracker. (It’s really not!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-gJOvrUl9o
this device to try out as a smaller alternative to the bigger GPS tracker units a few years ago. It’s interesting, but it’s not a proper tracker.
Tomi Engdahl says:
ASE: The challenge and importance of MEMS and sensor packaging
http://www.edn.com/design/analog/4443240/ASE–The-challenge-and-importance-of-MEMS-and-sensor-packaging?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20170112&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20170112&elqTrackId=3eb71d69b5ad44ce8c6261ba03929df7&elq=75983181a3fb41608ed0ee567c26b941&elqaid=35492&elqat=1&elqCampaignId=31031
MEMS and sensor devices have catapulted the Internet of Things (IoT) toward the deployment of billions of sensors in a myriad of applications in electronics technology that will improve the world around us as well as enhance the human condition. In reality MEMS and sensors exist today with incredible capabilities which are continuously being enhanced with more integration. Their physical size is shrinking and the energy needed to power them is ever being lowered.
Smart module and SiP integration will allow the huge deployment of connected devices in the IoT. To enable this, the different solution providers within the value chain will need to work together. A simplified supply chain needs to emerge and system integrators need to develop things like design kits for industry design engineers to evaluate different system configurations before designing a specific module or SiP.
ASE Group has a design kit (DK) that will help designers to get a faster time-to-market.
Designers can go from prototype to production inside of four months with a development kit like this.
Stress optimization is a critical aspect of the package design for a MEMS/sensor design.
Applications such as consumer products and smartphones sometimes attach sensors to glass. Strong modeling is a must here
Automotive is a fast growing market for the electronics industry. This sector has far different needs and demands for their MEMS package requirements than most industries.
A good example of an application in a smart sensor system could be a small hand-held device with light, proximity, and direction sensing, or a body motion sensor array, or even a physiological sign monitoring and reporting device. Design engineers seek enhanced software, greater connectivity, and sophisticated hardware
There are so many optical sensor designs in the market today and one especially growing segment is the wearables sector.
The key challenge here actually does not involve MEMS and sensors packaging itself; instead, the main challenge will be for the outsourced assembly and test (OSAT) community to effectively deliver the most suitable architecture to meet customer module and/or SiP integration needs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RF Outlet to Light Switch Hack 2.0
Convert an off the shelf RF control outlet into a RF light switch.
https://hackaday.io/project/19403-rf-outlet-to-light-switch-hack-20
The goal of this project is to safely place the electronics of the RF outlet inside a standard electrical gang box.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Will Grow Faster With More Flexible Wireless Design
Evolving standards enable new generations of applications.
http://semiengineering.com/iot-will-grow-faster-with-more-flexible-wireless-design/
The fascinating numbers-within-the-numbers for the forecasted growth in Internet of Things (IoT) devices is this: By 2020, it’s estimated there will be nearly 2 billion low-power radio-connected devices, specifically with Bluetooth 5 and 802.15.4 (Zigbee and Thread). Those numbers are compelling because not only is that a quadrupling of the amount of low-power radio devices today, but the value for those devices should, in theory, be greater thanks to that wireless flexibility.
We can’t get there by building separate wireless protocol devices for each potential application; that doesn’t scale. But the notion of combining the Bluetooth and 802.15.4 radios on the same piece of silicon does.
Cordio radio IP enables developers to choose from a standard radio implementation across a range of process nodes from multiple foundries.
All Cordio radios are sub-volt implementations that extract more life out of batteries and lend themselves perfectly to energy-harvesting implementations. For sub-volt radio IP, billions of devices need not mean billions of batteries.
ARM Cordio radio IP: Flexible Bluetooth 5 and 802.15.4 connectivity architecture for IoT edge devices
https://www.community.arm.com/iot/b/blog/posts/arm-cordio-radio-ip-flexible-bluetooth-5-and-802-15-4-connectivity-architecture-for-iot-edge-devices
Bluetooth® 5, 802.15.4’s ZigBee or Thread, ARM® RF or 3rd party, new foundries and nodes: The choice is yours with ARM Cordio® radio IP
Having the options to include both Bluetooth low energy and 802.15.4 in the same device enables flexibility in products and new classes of devices. But RF design requires special expertise, is difficult, and is costly to stay competitive and current with the latest low-power wireless standards. The latest 2016 changes in wireless standards will generate demand for these standards, and complete one-source solutions are needed to reduce time to market and development costs. ARM Cordio is ready!
With over 15 billion ARM-based chips shipped from sensors to servers in 2015, the sheer volume and diversity of connected devices enabled by ARM technology is unmatched. Connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT) is an essential factor as devices need to be connected to communicate! There are several standards competing in the IoT arena, but Bluetooth low energy and 802.15.4 are the de facto ultra-low-power radio standards for constrained devices: over 270 million devices were shipped last year using Bluetooth low energy alone, and analysts see no signs of this stopping with predictions of more than 1.8 Billion devices shipped in 2020 using Bluetooth, ZigBee, or Thread.
Bluetooth 5 was announced by the Bluetooth SIG in June and is due to be released by end 2016. It includes key updates such as an extended range (4x), faster data transfer (2x to 2Mbps), and an increase of up to 8x for broadcast messaging capacity, allowing Bluetooth based devices to transmit richer, more intelligent data.
802.15.4 is an established standard for the Internet of Things, and is used in consumer and commercial applications, such as smart metering or home automation, and is the platform for the growing ZigBee 3.0 and Thread standards, with many solutions that support both standards in the market place today.
The new Cordio architecture brings extensive choice and flexibility to designers, still with its leading ultra-low power sub 1-volt solution, for easy integration to their SoC:
Bluetooth 5 and 802.15.4 radio support on TSMC 40nm LP/ULP, TSMC 55nm LP/ULP and UMC 55nm ULP
ARM or 3rd party RF front-end on different foundries/nodes, multiple standards support with soft-IP only offering
ARM/3rd party software support (Bluetooth 5, ZigBee, Thread)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Mobile Processors Move Beyond Phones
Qualcomm, other vendors look to autos, drones, and other applications.
http://semiengineering.com/mobile-processors-move-beyond-smartphones/
Mobile processors, also known as application processors, are well-known as the engines that run smartphones, tablet computers, and other wireless devices. But these chips increasingly are finding their way into autonomous vehicles, the Internet of Things, unmanned aerial vehicles, virtual reality, and other applications far beyond phone calls and text messages. Moreover, they are gaining in complexity as they are adapted for other markets.
This shift was evident at this month’s Consumer Electronics Show. Little attention was paid to smartphones and their apps, even though this is still one of the largest markets for complex SoCs. The real buzz was artificial intelligence, big data, machine learning, and self-driving cars.
As the market for smartphones and tablets flatten, processor vendors and their many suppliers in design software and services are branching out.
“Qualcomm maintained its smartphone AP market share leadership despite MediaTek’s strong inroads in 1H 2016,”
Blurring the lines
Mobile processors historically have fallen into two main buckets, those with a modem and those without. But that distinction is becoming fuzzier.
Bigger, faster, more complex
With these advanced SoCs, bigger, faster, and more heterogeneous are competitive advantages. Multi-core chips are almost required, and the vast majority have between four and eight cores.
Driving sales
Arvind Narayanan, product marketing architect at Mentor Graphics, looks to the next wave in mobile processors, with significant growth in AI, automotive-class chips, and IoT. Image sensors are key to self-driving cars.
“There’s so much demand in that area,” he says. “There’s going to be a lot more chips in these cars. That will help us in EDA.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
2017: Manufacturing And Markets
http://semiengineering.com/predictions-for-2017-manufacturing-and-markets/
Markets
According to the predictions, three general categories are driving semiconductors for 2017 — Internet of Things (IoT), Automotive and Artificial Intelligence. There is also significant overlap between these areas. In addition, one very necessary area is causing a few slowdowns — security.
“2017 will be the year of hardware insecurity,” proclaims Jen Bernier, director of technology communications for Imagination Technologies. “Security is a make-or-break issue, and the problem will undoubtedly get worse before it gets better. Every day more connected products are hacked. In 2017, multi-domain security will gain widespread acceptance as the necessary way to protect embedded devices.”
Progress has been made, but “there is a lack of serious effort and understanding to implement security in hardware except in the metering, financial, and mobile markets where standards are well defined,” says Ron Lowman, strategic marketing manager for IoT at Synopsys. “The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is developing secure gateways, but the end nodes still need security upgrades and provisioning with integrated embedded SIM solutions. There still is a notion that software security will be good enough. New challenge response requirements for authentication standards will push many to implement more robust security architectures and hire more security expertise to comply without compromising the user experience.”
Delays may cause a change in public behavior. “In 2017, we have the potential for security concerns to start a retreat from always-on social media and a growing value on private time and information,” warns Knoth. “I don’t see a silver bullet for security on our horizon. Instead, I anticipate an increasing focus for products to include security managers (like their safety counterparts) on the design team and to consider safety from the initial concept through the design/production cycle.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
FDA: Postmarket Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices
http://semiengineering.com/fda-postmarket-management-of-cybersecurity-in-medical-devices/
FDA issues guidance to inform industry and FDA staff of recommendations for managing postmarket cybersecurity vulnerabilities for marketed and distributed medical device.
“The exploitation of vulnerabilities may represent a risk to health and typically requires continual maintenance throughout the product life cycle to assure an adequate degree of protection against such exploits. Proactively addressing cybersecurity risks in medical devices reduces the overall risk to health.”
Postmarket Management of Cybersecurity in Medical Devices
http://www.fda.gov/downloads/MedicalDevices/DeviceRegulationandGuidance/GuidanceDocuments/UCM482022.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Strategic Principles For Securing The Internet Of Things (IoT)
http://semiengineering.com/strategic-principles-for-securing-the-internet-of-things-iot/
Risks, non-binding principles and suggested best practices for a responsible level of security in IoT devices.
“The growth of network-connected devices, systems, and services comprising the Internet of Things (IoT) creates immense opportunities and benefits for our society. IoT security, however, has not kept up with the rapid pace of innovation and deployment, creating substantial safety and economic risks.”
STRATEGIC PRINCIPLES FOR SECURING THE INTERNET OF THINGS (IoT)
https://www.dhs.gov/sites/default/files/publications/Strategic_Principles_for_Securing_the_Internet_of_Things-2016-1115-FINAL_v2-dg11.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
ARM TechCon Report: Turbocharged IoT Will Change the World
http://intelligentsystemssource.com/arm-techcon-report-turbocharged-iot-will-change-the-world/
ARM, an IP company enjoying a healthy growth of 20% year after year, enables silicon partners to produce products to power supercomputers as well as small sensors used in the Internet-of-Things connections around the world. In the joint press release on July 18, 2016, Softbank announced the acquisition of ARM for $32 billion at a 43% premium and the deal was closed within 7 weeks. How will this mega-merger impact the future of ARM and the silicon world?
What is Son’s Vision?
Son, one of the richest man in Japan, sees Internet-of-things (IoT) as the biggest opportunity of humankind. At the recent ARM TechCon he declared that the internet and telecom industry will all point to one thing – singularity. Son uses the term singularity to represent a new era in that technology will be empowered by the connected IoT and artificial superintelligence. Working together, IoT will save lives and bring happiness to families and humankind. The two CEO met 10 years ago and recently reconnected to form this new partnership. The deal would help ARM to accelerate growth to capture new business and build an IoT future together. With additional investment from Softbank, ARM plans to double its UK work force of 1700 within 5 years.
Son projected that the IoT connected sensors would reach one trillion accumulatively and that IoT would surpass mobile units (phones and devices) by 2018. The motivation behind acquiring ARM is clear. ARM’s IP products are used in 95% of mobile devices worldwide today. Almost all silicon manufacturers today license ARM’s IP.
The Future of ARM
No doubt, the IoT vision will be a strong driving force behind the company. Traditionally, ARM focuses on market segments involve mobile, wearable, low power solutions, security and medical and they will all benefit from IoT. One area ARM is trying to gain a stronger foothold is connected health and remote care. This segment fits the overall IoT strategy. Studies have shown that the overall healthcare cost will continue to grow with projected shortage of healthcare professionals such as primary care physicians. Technology such as connected health will be one way to keep the cost under control and improve access to healthcare services. According to ARM, successful patient interaction with connected health requires many things to be in place. They include secure connection, trusted data transfer, accuracy of patient information and, in the future, artificial intelligence support. The ability of connecting and collecting data of vital signs from a patient is only part of the solutions. The data need to be meaningful and insightful to the caregivers. Therefore, the analytic is an important part of the overall solution.
Tomi Engdahl says:
RTC Magazine: One-on-one with ARM
http://intelligentsystemssource.com/rtc-magazine-one-on-one-with-arm/
RTC interviewed Rhonda Dirvin, Director, Internet of Things Vertical Markets about ARM’s overall product direction.
ARM has multiple product families. For those who are not familiar with the ARM offerings, can you elaborate what the A, R and M families represent in the ARM product portfolio?
There are key differences in performance, cost, power, lifetime energy and application enabling features across the ARM Cortex processor family, an unrivaled processor portfolio that enables optimum choice to match any application from sensor to server.
From our recent conversation at ARM TechCon last year, the two priorities that really stood out in my mind as a focus for ARM were IoT and Security. Can you elaborate as to why those are priorities for ARM moving forward?
Connecting more people and opening up new markets is a priority for ARM. ARM has done this successfully with mobile and smartphone technologies over the past decade. ARM mobile innovations continue to transform the way we work and live and our embedded innovations are starting to transform industries and societies as we deliver the technology to scale IoT from gateways to rich end nodes and tiny, low-cost sensor nodes. It was clear early on that in order for ARM to scale the IoT and connect devices, more secure and trusted technologies for embedded applications were needed. In response to these requirements, we extended ARM TrustZone™ technology, which has been part of our Cortex-A processors for more than ten years
Everyone is talking about IoT and IIoT (Industrial Internet of Things). How does ARM define IoT and where do you think ARM will have the most impact across the various IoT opportunities?
We are not concerned with defining IoT as much as we are with developing the most scalable, efficient and secure technologies to connect devices and networks across the entire compute spectrum. The latest IoT forecast from Gartner says 6.4 billion connected ‘things’ will be in use in 2016 and that number jumps to 20.8 billion connected things by 2020. That pace of growth and resulting number of devices indicates that this will be more diverse than anything we have ever seen in the embedded or compute world before. The combination of our market leadership in embedded chip architectures, (ARM Cortex-M was the number one MCU in 2015 based on MCU revenues according to analyst firm IHS)
Are you familiar with Fog Computing that seems to be gaining momentum, what is ARM’s involvement in this?
Fog computing distributes the resources and services of computation, communication, control and storage closer to devices and systems at or near the users. This approach to IoT system architecture enables latency sensitive computing to be performed in proximity to the sensors. It also makes IoT solutions more efficient both in terms of functionally and network bandwidth. In general, fog computing offers potential benefits in real time control and analytics, in local resource utilization, in agile development and affordable scaling, and in privacy-protected user objective support. To further progress fog computing, ARM, along with Cisco, Dell, Microsoft, Intel and Princeton University, founded the OpenFog Consortium in 2015. OpenFog is committed to enabling the open, interoperable implementation of fog computing to support IoT solutions and accelerate the development of the IoT market. This commitment to ensuring interoperability among heterogeneous platforms aligns with ARM’s Intelligent Flexible Cloud (IFC) approach to networking. IFC utilizes heterogeneous compute platforms based on scalable and highly-integrated SoCs supported by a common layer of enabling software and distributed network intelligence. It’s one more way ARM is committed to enabling IoT-based services in the next decade.
What is your perspective of LoRa?
ARM’s vision of IoT is based on open standards to enable new products, services and businesses. One size does not fit all when we look at wider IoT connectivity enablement and the license-exempt technologies ARM supports such as Bluetooth, LoRa and Weightless all have a part to play in reducing the barriers to deployment. For example, ARM mbed™ already includes a choice of LoRa-capable devices.
In 2015, 14.8 billion ARM-based processors were shipped and more than half of these went into diverse embedded applications spanning automotive, industrial, consumer, medical devices and more.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IIoT Creates a New HVAC Business Model
http://intelligentsystemssource.com/iiot-creates-a-new-hvac-business-model/
The Internet of Things (IoT) promises to fundamentally alter our relationships with the products that surround us. The example of energy demand management systems in connected heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) equipment provides lessons for other markets that are being transformed—or soon will be—by the IoT.
HVAC equipment represents a multibillion-dollar global market with a nearly ubiquitous presence in everyday life. HVAC also is a major energy consumer, accounting for nearly 40% of the electricity used in commercial buildings and a hefty proportion of residential users’ energy bills. The IoT can potentially revolutionize not only how we use and pay for HVAC, but also the fundamental design of HVAC equipment and even the business models of the manufacturers themselves.
Smart buildings, smart cities, and smart homes are among the markets at the forefront of the IoT, and HVAC plays a major role in each.
But creating a connected HVAC product is not as simple as embedding a wireless chip or adding a sensor or two. Manufacturers of connected HVAC equipment need to consider things such as network security, device security, embedded wireless protocols, cloud infrastructure, web or mobile application design, user experience best practices, and data privacy—issues that never arose for traditional products and that manufacturers are unlikely to be able to address using their in-house expertise.
What’s more, the IoT raises all these issues to the nth degree due to the need for IoT products to interoperate seamlessly with one another; to be controlled by various mobile device and browser types; to be compatible with multiple cloud infrastructures; to offer enterprise-grade security from end to end, with no weak links; to scale all these capabilities to thousands or millions of connected products; and to stay current with fast-changing and ever-evolving standards and protocols, to avoid product obsolescence.
The IoT Beyond Mere Connection
The reasons for overcoming the challenges to joining the IoT only begin with connecting products; the real advantages lie in the data generated by connected products—and what manufacturers can do with that data. For example, HVAC manufacturers can use IoT data to:
Differentiate products in crowded marketplaces, and avoid being left behind competitively. When connected products become the norm, manufacturers that have not figured out the IoT will be at a big disadvantage.
Enhance customer experiences by responding to real-world data on how customers are actually using products in their homes or commercial buildings.
Improve their product designs, also based on real-world data of both in-the-field product performance and customer usage. For instance, if the IoT data shows that a particular air conditioner feature is rarely used, or difficult to find, or wears out quickly, the HVAC manufacturer can decide to fix the feature in future product generations, or eliminate it, or approach it in a better way.
Generate new revenue streams. HVAC manufacturers could offer preventive maintenance or repair services, better warranty services, or advanced add-on features—all based on the data generated by their deployed products.
How the IoT Can Improve HVAC Energy Efficiency
A recent ClimateProgress report estimated that if buildings in Boston adjusted their thermostats up one degree in the summer and down one degree in the winter, the buildings could collectively save over $20 million in energy costs each year and cut CO2 emissions by 81,017 metric tons.
For instance, IoT HVAC systems can use sensors and Wi-Fi cloud connectivity to automatically adjust the temperature when rooms are unoccupied. They can also leverage third-party data and services to enhance efficiency. A perfect example is cloud-based weather service information, which can be integrated with connected HVAC systems to plan for predicted weather conditions and to increase the lead time for response to various weather events. The HVAC systems can also use historical data to eliminate lags in responses that create frustration and inconvenience—and that can diminish energy efficiency.
Using such integrated services, HVAC systems in buildings and homes automatically adjust themselves to optimize both energy efficiency and occupant comfort.
In the IoT, a connected thermostat morphs into more than what we typically consider a thermostat. With an IoT-enabled thermostat and integrated energy demand management software:
Facility managers can ensure occupant comfort via multiple remote access methods.
Corporate facility managers can ensure that all facilities are performing optimally and as expected.
Energy managers can assess actual utility costs, in real time and historically.
Contractors can identify maintenance issues—often even before a problem makes its presence known—and fix them quickly, providing excellent customer service.
Service integrators can tie energy-consuming devices into the overall operation of a facility.
Utilities can control grid stress and use financial incentives to periodically cut back on energy delivery.
The IoT Demands New Manufacturing Business Models
When contemplating a move to the IoT, manufacturers must rethink many fundamentals of their business models. For instance, as in the example of the connected thermostat in HVAC systems, the IoT requires manufacturers to shift from a primarily hardware to a primarily software mindset. Even more dramatically, they need to stop thinking of their offerings primarily as discrete “products” and start considering them more like ongoing “services” instead.
The difference between selling hardware and software, and between selling products and services, fundamentally changes business models, from pricing and distribution to organizational structure and the types of expertise their employees need to have.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Securing Over-The-Air (OTA) Software Updates
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331102&
Over-the-air update expert reminds us that the software update process is a critical component in deploying IoT devices.
The Mirai botnet attack that enslaved poorly secured connected embedded devices is yet another tangible example of the importance of implementing security before bringing your embedded devices online. A more recent strain of Mirai caused network outages to about a million Deutsche Telekom customers due to poorly secured routers.
A secure and robust deployment approach for software updates to your connected device fleet is yet another of a myriad security considerations to take into account before you go into production. Deploying software updates mitigates against growing security risks.
One to 25 bugs and vulnerabilities exist per 1,000 lines of code, estimates Steve McConnell in his book Code Complete: A Practical Handbook of Software Construction. The ability to deploy new features over-the-air (OTA) without having to recall the entire device fleet can save manufacturers substantially on costs.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Spending Hit Estimated $737 Billion in 2016
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331161&
SAN FRANCISCO—Global spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) hit an estimated $737 billion in 2016, as organizations ramped up spending on IoT infrastructure and deployment on a trajectory that will bring such investment to nearly $1.3 tillion by 2020, according to market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC).
IDC (Framingham, Mass.) said organizations worldwide in 2016 ratcheted up spending on the hardware, software, services and connectivity that enable IoT. The firm is forecasting that IoT spending will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16% between 2015 and 2020, reaching $1.29 trillion in 2020.
While the manufacturing, transportation and utilities industries made the largest investments in IoT in 2016, IDC expects consumer IoT purchases to rise rapidly to become the third largest segment of spending by 2020. Other industries that will see rapid spending increases include insurance, consumer, healthcare and retail, according to the IDC forecast.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Everything wrong with IoT (and how to fix it) – according to Uncle Sam
US Dept of Commerce green paper reveals that, er, it’s a bit of a mess
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/13/us_dept_commerce_internet_of_things_green_paper/
The US Department of Commerce has published a green paper [PDF] on the Internet of Things, the first step in a process to develop formal governmental policies on the technology.
The end result is a typically vague but well-meaning combination of “doing verbs,” complete with lengthy resource references. But the paper does help point the direction in which the IoT market is going.
Several things stand out:
The US government needs to get on the same page: As we have repeatedly pointed out, a wide range of different government departments are jostling for position to be the IoT go-to.
New policies will develop through broad participation
It ain’t nothing special: While the internet of things offers some unique possibilities, the existing systems and processes should be sufficient to handle any new challenges.
There is no definition of what IoT actually is: Obviously this is not an ideal scenario – trying to create policies for something that no one can agree on what it actually is.
Regulation is bad
There are different flavors of IoT: There was agreement that it would be useful to put IoT into several buckets, such as industrial and consumer. Smart city technology was also seen as pretty much its own thing.
We need IPv6 and we need it now: Unsurprisingly, if we want to add billions of new things to the internet, responders feel it may be a good idea to finally shift to an infrastructure that is capable of handling it. As a result, the DoC will “continue to encourage the adoption of IPv6 through its ongoing efforts to enhance standards profiles, support measurement and testing infrastructures, and foster multistakeholder collaboration.” It’ll happen, we promise.
FOSTERING THE ADVANCEMENT OF THE INTERNET OF THINGS
https://www.ntia.doc.gov/files/ntia/publications/iot_green_paper_01122017.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bosch’s visions
The morning opening corresponded to my own case Bosch.
Bosch’s Executive Board Werner Struth attributable painted a morning presentation, the future of the Internet of Things. Everyone is familiar with the forecast is for example the field of IOT-projected 250 billion in revenue by 2020.
A couple of degrees more concrete figure came from Struth promised that all Bosch products are in some way connected to the network or to other devices in 2020.
For example, on top of the oven or coffee residues no longer need to stress about the evening in bed or in the morning on a business trip, but their status can be checked from the phone app.
Mayfield Kuri is one the most advanced domestic robot (manufactured by subsidiary of Bosch). It can, for example, to identify family members face, and behaves differently family with children and parents. It is possible with, for example, at their eye on the children makings of a built-in camera. The robot uses to communicate beeps little R2-D2 style.
New ways of creating the kitchen is also available. Smart speaker style Mykie can tell you recipes, and brings with it an entirely new phenomenon – “virtual social cooking”: everyone can to cook at home, and share the experience
However, most of the world-altering changes will be like motoring. Bosch’s new technologies utilizing the demo can be found in the car, for example, the contact area for providing a virtual haptic feedback.
Slightly more realistic vision is already becoming a beta-testing, together with Mercedes-Benz: Car will be installed sensors that continuously investigating streets. An empty parking space hits you want, they will indicate whether a cloud service, which information is shared on the Navigator to the goal it has set for other drivers that region.
Source: http://www.mikrobitti.fi/2017/01/mikrobitti-ces-messuilla-paiva-2-internet-porakoneita-ja-virtuaalipiparibileita/
More:
Mayfield Robotics launches $700 home robot Kuri
http://venturebeat.com/2017/01/03/mayfield-robotics-launches-699-home-robot-kuri/
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Week In Review: IoT
NI sets up IIoT Lab; FarmLogs adds $22M in funding; IoT news from CES.
http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-iot-35/
National Instruments this week opened the NI Industrial Internet of Things Lab at its headquarters in Austin, Texas
Deutsche Telekom Strategic Investments and others invested $4.1 million in Roambee, an Internet of Things supply chain and enterprise assets visibility startup based in Santa Clara, Calif. Roambee will work with T-Systems, the corporate customer arm of Deutsche Telekom, in a global IoT partnership to provide real-time visibility into assets and goods in Africa, the Americas, Asia, and Europe.
NXT-ID demonstrated its IoT Stamp miniature module for wearable bands at CES 2017. The product was developed in cooperation with Nordic Semiconductor.
Hortonworks will collaborate with Neustar to develop open-source identity management and security tools for the IoT.
Mobile Experts forecasts cellular IoT devices will outnumber machine-to-machine devices in shipments within five years. More than 450 million c-IoT and M2M devices will be shipped in 2021, the market research firm estimates, with M2M devices representing fewer than 200 million units of that total.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Spending Hit Estimated $737 Billion in 2016
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331161&
Global spending on the Internet of Things (IoT) hit an estimated $737 billion in 2016, as organizations ramped up spending on IoT infrastructure and deployment on a trajectory that will bring such investment to nearly $1.3 tillion by 2020, according to market research firm International Data Corp. (IDC).
IDC (Framingham, Mass.) said organizations worldwide in 2016 ratcheted up spending on the hardware, software, services and connectivity that enable IoT. The firm is forecasting that IoT spending will grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 16% between 2015 and 2020, reaching $1.29 trillion in 2020.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How to Ensure you’re Not Part of the Next Botnet
https://hosteddocs.ittoolbox.com/HowtoensureYou%E2%80%99reNotBotnet.pdf
Botnets are covert armies of compromised networked computers
and devices (bots) that have been subverted by malware to enable
remote control by a cybercriminal. Botnets are bred and nurtured by
hackers to provide a powerful, dark cloud computing network used
to conduct cybercrime attacks, like the recent DDoS attack
Best-practices to consider (both for your organization and for your home):
• Immediately change the default passwords for all your network devices to a unique
complex password, and use a password manager if necessary.
• Minimize the use of IoT devices and keep your essential devices up to date.
Disconnect any unnecessary devices, upgrade older devices to newer more secure
models, and keep all your devices up to date with the latest firmware updates.
• Avoid IoT devices that require ports opened in your Firewall or router to provide
remote access. Instead, use cloud-based devices that connect only to the cloud
provider’s servers and don’t offer any direct remote access.
• Do not enable UPnP on your firewall or router. This protocol enables devices to open
ports on your firewall on demand without your knowledge increasing your surface
area of attack.
• Use secure VPN technologies to manage devices remotely.
How to protect your organization
- Advanced Threat Protection
- Intrusion prevention
- Sandboxing
- Web and email protection
- Web Application Firewall
Tomi Engdahl says:
RF Outlet to Light Switch Hack 2.0
Convert an off the shelf RF control outlet into a RF light switch.
https://hackaday.io/project/19403-rf-outlet-to-light-switch-hack-20
Tomi Engdahl says:
Garage Door Opener Logs to Google Drive
http://hackaday.com/2017/01/15/garage-door-opener-logs-to-google-drive/
A garage door opener is a pretty classic hack around these parts. IR, Bluetooth, WiFi, smartphone controlled, web interfaces — we’ve seen it all. But if you want to keep track of people going in and out, you need some way of logging what’s happening. You could go ahead and roll up your own SQL based solution, tied into a custom web page. But there’s an easier way; you can build a garage door opener that logs events to Google Drive.
ESP8266 WiFi Garage Door Opener from any Web Browser
http://www.whiskeytangohotel.com/2017/01/esp8266-wifi-garage-door-opener-from.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Alexa Keeps Pet Snake Thermoregulated
http://hackaday.com/2017/01/15/alexa-keeps-pet-snake-thermoregulated/
[Chris Grill] got his hands on a pet boa constrictor, which requires a fairly strict temperature controlled environment. Its enclosure needs to have a consistent temperature throughout, or the snake could have trouble regulating its body temperature. [Chris] wanted to keep tabs on the temp and grabbed a few TTF-103 thermistors and an Arduino Yun, which allowed him to log the temperature on each side of the enclosure. He used some code to get the temp reading to the linux side of an Arduino Yun, and then used jpgraph, a PHP graphing library, to display the results.
Alexa Enabled Terrarium Temperature Monitor
http://www.wb6cqa.com/2017/01/alexa-enabled-terrarium-temperature.html
http://jpgraph.net/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Exploring IoT Concepts with a cloudBit
There are variety of WiFi-based chipsets that embedded developers and product designers use in their IoT designs.
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/exploring-iot-concepts-cloudbit/21164096047247?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170113.tst004t
The ease in which electronic devices and gadgets can be built allows a rapid approach to developing new IoT design concepts. I’ll present an alternative design approach to building IoT product concepts using the littleBits cloudBit. To illustrate this design method a WiFi-based appliance controller prototype will be built with additional littleBits modules.
Tomi Engdahl says:
NODE+ Platform Integrates Sensors with Smartphones
https://spinoff.nasa.gov/Spinoff2016/cg_1.html
The team settled on the iPhone, which was new at the time, and Li convinced the program manager at DHS that the sensor should be a module attached to the outside of the phone, rather than a system built into the phone’s guts. “This is a very new technology, and there will be a lot of iterations. Making it interchangeable will make it easier to update,” she explains.
This modular design not only will pave the way for future smartphone chemical sensors but also presaged the line of interchangeable, smartphone-savvy sensors Yu would commercialize a few years later, after founding Variable Inc. in Chattanooga, Tennessee.
Yu figured out how the sensor module could draw its power from the cell phone battery and use the phone to digitally process the data it gathered and transmit it to a central location, such as a cloud platform.
“DHS wants to utilize chemical detection technology incorporated with a cell phone to do global or regional chemical detection,”
Building on the integration system he developed for the Cell-All initiative, Yu developed his NODE platform—a cylinder not much bigger than a man’s thumb that can transmit data from sensors to a smartphone or other smart device and that also has its own memory port capable of storing data to be uploaded to any computer. Unlike the sensor developed for DHS, NODE operates independently of the cell phone and transmits the data to the phone or other device using Bluetooth wireless technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Intel launches new IoT retail platform called Responsive Retail Platform and announces plan to invest $100M over next five years in the retail tech sector
Intel launches new IoT retail platform, plans $100 million retail tech investment
http://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-launches-new-iot-retail-platform-plans-100-million-retail-tech-investment/
The platform works to bring together retail hardware, software, APIs, and sensors in a standardized way.
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich spoke at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show conference on January 16 and announced the chipmaker’s latest platform for the retail sector.
It’s called the Responsive Retail Platform (RRP), and according to Intel, it connects disparate islands of in-store technology and makes it easier to develop and deploy Internet of Things (IoT) software and services. Simply put, it works to bring together retail hardware, software, APIs, and sensors in a standardized way.
The core of the platform is Intel’s low-power integrated sensor with RFID capability and an expandable sensor suite that allows for the eventual inclusion of other sensors from third-party sensor vendors. The sensors can be used to track inventory and generate in-store data that highlights store activity and customer preferences.
“This is one of those rare situations where it’s a win-win-win,” Parker added. “It’s a win for Intel, and a win for sensor vendors and ISVs because they don’t currently have access to the market. And retailers get a lot of choice.”
Intel also announced plans to invest more than $100 million over the next five years in the retail industry.
Intel Unveils New Intel Responsive Retail Platform and Plans for $100 Million Investment at NRF 2017
https://newsroom.intel.com/news/intel-unveils-new-intel-responsive-retail-platform-plans-100-million-investment-nrf-2017/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Singtel announces eSIM availability across 4G network
http://www.zdnet.com/article/singtel-announces-esim-availability-across-4g-network/
Wearables with eSIMs will no longer need to pair via Bluetooth with phones to use data, SMS, and call capabilities on Singtel’s 4G network.
Singaporean telecommunications provider Singtel has announced that the embedded SIM (eSIM) is now usable across its 4G network, allowing customers to connect their smart wearables without needing to pair with a smartphone via Bluetooth.
The “SIM-less” technology involves a permanently fitted SIM, around 10 times smaller than a nano SIM, being pre-installed in wearables. The Samsung Gear S3 Frontier LTE is thus far the only compatible device within Singapore, although the telco expects more compatible devices and wearables to become available in future.
The eSIM is activated with a QR code, with Singtel’s eSIM profile needing to be downloaded to the wearable before mobile connectivity can be achieved. Those using a non-Samsung smartphone alongside their Gear S3 frontier LTE may have to install additional apps, however.
The eSIM specification has been backed by Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, Huawei, Sony, and LG, along with chip makers, SIM makers, and telecommunications carriers.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel launches new IoT retail platform, plans $100 million retail tech investment
The platform works to bring together retail hardware, software, APIs, and sensors in a standardized way.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/intel-launches-new-iot-retail-platform-plans-100-million-retail-tech-investment/
Intel CEO Brian Krzanich spoke at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show conference on January 16 and announced the chipmaker’s latest platform for the retail sector.
It’s called the Responsive Retail Platform (RRP), and according to Intel, it connects disparate islands of in-store technology and makes it easier to develop and deploy Internet of Things (IoT) software and services. Simply put, it works to bring together retail hardware, software, APIs, and sensors in a standardized way.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Matt Weinberger / Business Insider:
How Amazon’s Echo made Alexa the most successful smart voice assistant at home, and how Google, Microsoft, and Apple are fighting back — We’re barely halfway through January of 2017, and it’s already looking like this is going to be the year of Amazon’s Alexa, the virtual assistant at the heart of the Amazon Echo.
Why Amazon’s Echo is totally dominating — and what Google, Microsoft, and Apple have to do to catch up
http://www.businessinsider.com/amazon-echo-google-home-microsoft-cortana-apple-siri-2017-1?op=1&r=US&IR=T&IR=T
We’re barely halfway through January of 2017, and it’s already looking like this is going to be the year of Amazon’s Alexa, the virtual assistant at the heart of the Amazon Echo.
In 2016, the Amazon Echo line of devices appeared to have a great sales year, with the cheap Echo Dot smart speaker finishing out the holiday shopping season as the best-selling item on all of Amazon.com. Forrester research estimates that 6 million Amazon Echo devices were sold by the end of 2016.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Servo-Controlled IoT Light Switches
http://hackaday.com/2017/01/17/servo-controlled-iot-light-switches/
The Internet of Things is fun to play with; there’s all manner of devices to automate and control remotely. It can be sketchy, though — make a mistake when coding your automatic plant watering system and you could flood your house. Make a mistake with a space heater and you could burn it down. Combine these risks with the fact that many people live in rental properties, and it can be a difficult proposition to bring the Internet of Things to your home.
[Suyash] came up with a way around this by building 3D printed light switch covers that add servo control. It’s a great solution that it doesn’t require the modification of any mains wiring, and interfaces with the standard switches in the normal way. It makes it a lot safer this way — there are municipal wiring codes for a reason.
The backend of things is handled by the venerable ESP8266, with [Suyash]’s custom IoT library known as conduit doing the heavy lifting.
Cloud-Controlled house lights using home-grown electronics and 3D printed light switch covers
https://github.com/suyashkumar/smart-lights
This project is a hassle-free cloud connected lighting system that interfaces with standard light switches via a 3D printed lightswitch cover with a built-in servo mount
This project uses an ESP8266 WiFi microcontroller along with my conduit IoT service/library to expose functionality that can be called via a RESTful API from anywhere in the world!
Control microcontrollers via central RESTful API from anywhere in the world. [ESP8266, Arduino]
https://conduit.suyash.io
https://github.com/suyashkumar/conduit
Tomi Engdahl says:
‘Invest in IoT or die,’ Harvard chief warns industry (MAGAZINE)
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-13/issue-9/features/internet-of-things/invest-in-iot-or-die-harvard-chief-warns-industry.html?cmpid=enl_leds_smartlightingiot_2017-01-16
Invest in research and development for the forthcoming Internet of Things (IoT) revolution or face irrelevance – that’s the stark warning delivered today to lighting manufacturers by Paul Hussey, CEO of drivers-to-wireless-controls manufacturer Harvard Technology.
“We are taking up the challenge on product quality and we are taking up the challenge on R&D and I would like to ask the rest of the industry: Are they doing the same?
“People talk about quality. Have you spent three or four million pounds on building a quality team? Because if you haven’t, you’re just talking about it; you’re not doing it.”
“The worst thing the lighting industry can do is continue this death by PowerPoint where we talk about the IoT but don’t make the investment in it. A few years ago people asked, ‘Why are Google buying Nest?’ and ‘Why are Verizon buying [Sensity Systems]?’ Suddenly it’s starting to make sense.
He says the lighting industry is moving into the domain of very advanced electronics. “The electronics for drivers are at the heart of this new LED world, and the lighting industry hasn’t had enough time to adjust to its new realities.
“Other industries such as automotive and pharmaceutic have had decades to perfect their systems and processes, whereas the lighting industry has only recently become electronic. It’s sorting out those companies that have advanced techniques and those who don’t.”
The LED driver has historically been the weak link in a lighting installation, and Hussey is quick to point out that the cost of failure is very high.
The fruits of the investment in new product development are starting to show. At LuxLive in London in November, the company will be trialing an outdoor version of EyeNut, dubbed EyeNode. It’s a ZigBee-based control system for what Hussey calls “close proximity lighting installations.” It won’t have the same range as a radio-based system, but would work in applications where light points are in close proximity, such as university campuses, shopping malls, airports, ports, theme parks, and holiday resorts.
Hussey cites this product as an example of a compelling application of IoT technology in the real world. “Through an electronic ping, you can conduct the mandatory testing and get all the necessary data, without the manpower required for a site visit.
“This kind of application is IoT. It’s analytics; it’s telemetry; it’s giving data and cutting out the need for human interaction. We always seem to focus on the cost of the hardware, but do we ever think about the cost of sending out gangs of men and women to maintain lighting at all hours of the day and night?”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Best of the Weird from CES
http://www.btreport.net/articles/2017/01/the-best-of-the-weird-from-ces.html?cmpid=enl_btr_weekly_2017-01-17
Frivolity aside, though, that some of these innovations will stick to the wall, and those Internet of Things (IoT) devices will inevitably affect cable operators, requiring more bandwidth, bringing up security issues, and creating opportunities for management.
CES offered the opportunity to see some of the IoT devices operators might have to accommodate. Here are some that made us smile.
The Kerastase Hair Coach won the International CES Innovation Award for its WiFi-connected hairbrush.
The Hydrao Digital Showerhead is a Bluetooth-enabled device that changes color to alert the bather to how much water has been used.
Spinalli Design jeans buzz on different sides of the body to alert the wearer whether to turn left or right. The company also has a “smart” bikini that alerts the wearer when to apply sunscreen and a beanie that keeps the user connected while skiing.
Genican revealed a trash can sensor that scans barcodes and creates a shopping list of what to reorder.
The Ceravo Teclim is a pair of virtual reality shoes and gloves that that give the wearer the sensation of walking on different surfaces or touching different objects.
A smart All-in-One Combo washer/dryer by Whirlpool washes and dries a load in one machine.
The smart sensors determine when laundry supplies are low and order from Amazon.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The new mesh-type solution IoT networks
Popular IoT networks such as Lora Sigfox or topology are point-to-point type.
NeoCortecin Neomesh is a network in which all the points are capable of communicating with each other. If the sensor network is just dense enough, the network will be very durable, so-called. robust.
Neomesh protocol supports up to 65 thousand nodes in one network (up to 127 routers).
The protocol operates ISM frequencies. 433-megahertz range of nodes is 500 meters, 250 meters to 868/915 megahertz and 2.4 gigahertz hundred meters. ( line of sight between nodes )
Under development are a longer-range nodes, which span 2.5 kilometers away.
Fisher says, most of the available mesh solutions IoT networks are IP-based. However, IP protocol is not ideal mesh implementation.
Other types of mesh networks Fisher criticizes costly or difficult to implement.
NeoCortec was founded in 2008. Currently Neomesh tested in several pilot projects.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/5679-uusi-mesh-tyyppinen-ratkaisu-iot-verkkoihin
More:
World-First ad-hoc Wireless Mesh-Network That Simply Works
http://neocortec.com/
NEOCORTEC offers some of the worlds smallest modules for Wireless Ad-Hoc Mesh Networking. The modules come pre-certified to meet CE and FCC requirements. They are easy to integrate into the final application enabling short time-to-market for the final product.
The modules are available in the following frequency bands:
2.4GHz – 868/915MHz – 433MHz
Tomi Engdahl says:
Web-Based Applets Allow Creating IoT Physical Devices Easily
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/web-based-applets-allow-creating-iot-physical-devices-easily/199478077147261?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170117.tst004t
Services are the software apps we use every day to connect with physical objects and obtain data from mobile devices. The gateway to managing these services for physical connectivity can be achieved by using applets with embedded hardware.
Services are the software apps we use every day to connect with physical objects and obtain data from mobile devices. The gateway to managing these services for physical connectivity can be achieved by using applets with embedded hardware. There’s a website, called IFTTT (IF This Then That), which allows users to use services to build personal applications to monitor a variety of conditions and provide notifications on their smartphones and tablets. In this blog, I’ll further explore services and applets along with details on building a simple IoT appliance device using an IFTTT applet, an Arduino, and a cloudBit.
Exploring IFTTT
IFTTT is a website that allows users to build applets which are operated (triggered) by physical or online services like microcontrollers, Facebook, Gmail, Instagram, and Twitter.
Although IFTTT applets provided on the website are built with triggers and actions, they can be customized by changing the small application’s ingredient settings.
An IoT IFTTT Appliance Device
With an understanding of an IFTTT applet, I’ll discuss how to use the web-based tool in building a simple IoT appliance device with off-the-shelf components. The basic operation of the appliance device is to send an email when a littleBits cloudBit is triggered. The +5V trigger is wired to the input pin of the cloudBit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Industrial IoT: A Timeline of Revolutionary Technology
https://info.kepware.com/blog/iiot-timeline?utm_campaign=Blog&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=40533258&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_GDZme-7X7HBRiIm_UzWPja-r7sgSUQ7wVF1ZuKBj10_DPT7RbWZQuoNoGEVT2YxQYlehrc19YCAB_A8G7zoN7HENafQSP-w_GIPwOVne1ZVjwHZA&_hsmi=40533258
In today’s fast-paced world of technology, new software can reshape industries overnight. But while the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is everywhere now—connecting millions of devices, machines, sensors, and systems throughout the world—it is anything but an overnight sensation. Over the past 50 years, technological milestones big and small—from large-scale system architecture breakthroughs to modest “Eureka” moments—have led to today’s IIoT and are still informing predictions for tomorrow’s industrial landscape.
Learn about the evolution of the IIoT and smart manufacturing systems—and how future changes will continue to revolutionize industry—by reading our IIoT timeline below.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sensor-Laden Remote Control Knows Where You’re Pointing It
https://www.wired.com/2017/01/sevenhugs-smart-remote/
With its new Smart Remote, Sevenhugs presents a compelling use case for a universal remote. The gadget connects to a proprietary indoor positioning system that uses sensors to triangulate the exact location of the remote. What that means is when you point the remote at one of more than 25,000 different connected devices, it will know exactly what it’s looking at. Aim it at a lamp and it might pull up Hue’s app interface. Point it at your TV, and a Roku menu will appear.
https://remote.sevenhugs.com/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Adapt this for IoT applications?
ZeroPhone gives Smartphones the Raspberry (Pi)
http://hackaday.com/2017/01/18/zerophone-gives-smartphones-the-raspberry-pi/
There are several open source phones out there these days, but all of them have a downside. Hard to obtain parts, hard to solder, or difficult programming systems abound. [Arsenijs] is looking to change all that with ZeroPhone. ZeroPhone is based upon the popular Raspberry Pi Zero. The $5 price tag of the CPU module means that you can build this entire phone for around $50 USD.
The radio module in the ZeroPhone is the well known SIM800L 2G module.
An ESP8266 serves as the WiFi module with an OLED screen and code in python round out this phone.
ZeroPhone – a Raspberry Pi smartphone
Pi-powered open-source mobile phone (that you can assemble for 50$ in parts)
https://hackaday.io/project/19035-zerophone-a-raspberry-pi-smartphone
This is a mobile phone that is:
1) As open-source as possible *while also being cheap*
2) Easy to get parts for if you want to assemble one
3) Easy to assemble and repair
4) Free from apps with privacy concerns
5) Easy to write apps for
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Evolution of IoT: Connect the Unconnected
http://www.edn.com/education-training/edntv?bclid=1032340888&bctid=5279887343001&_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_video_20170118&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_video_20170118
Chalkboard IoT Connect The Unconnected
http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/internet-of-things/videos/chalkboard-iot-connect-the-unconnected-video.html
Tomi Engdahl says:
Securely Control Sensors and IoT Nodes
http://www.edn.com/education-training/edntv?bclid=1032340888&bctid=5192851329001&_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_video_20170118&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_video_20170118
System Board 6295
MAXREFDES143#: DeepCover Embedded Security in IoT Authenticated Sensing and Notification
https://www.maximintegrated.com/en/design/reference-design-center/system-board/6295.html?utm_source=MAXREFDES143_EDN_Video_NL&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_content=MAXREFDES143&utm_campaign=FY17_Q2_2016_NOV_MNS-EmbeddedSecurity-AMER_EN
Tomi Engdahl says:
Quantum-resistant Cryptography for the IoT
A Technical Deep Dive on the Mathematics Behind SecureRF’s Solutions
http://info.securerf.com/mathematical-foundation-and-implementation-of-quantum-resistant-cryptography-for-low-resource-iot-devices-0
Replay the technical overview of SecureRF’s protocol implementations and performance metrics for low-resource devices
SecureRF’s asymmetric cryptosystems uniquely provide high-speed security for low-resource IoT devices without overwhelming available memory and power. Based on Infinite Group Theory, the theory of matrices with polynomial entries, and modular arithmetic, SecureRF’s cryptosystems will protect IoT devices when quantum computers are expected to become available and render other cryptographic systems obsolete.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Web-Based Applets Allow Creating IoT Physical Devices Easily
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/web-based-applets-allow-creating-iot-physical-devices-easily/199478077147261?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170118.tst004t
Services are the software apps we use every day to connect with physical objects and obtain data from mobile devices. The gateway to managing these services for physical connectivity can be achieved by using applets with embedded hardware.
There’s a website, called IFTTT (IF This Then That), which allows users to use services to build personal applications to monitor a variety of conditions and provide notifications on their smartphones and tablets. In this blog, I’ll further explore services and applets along with details on building a simple IoT appliance device using an IFTTT applet, an Arduino, and a cloudBit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Cloud Connectivity Smartens Old Factory Equipment
https://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/cloud-connectivity-smartens-old-factory-equipment/91648894447275?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170118.tst004t
A new testbed approved by the Industrial Internet Consortium brings advanced manufacturing capabilities to older plant equipment.
Advance manufacturing isn’t just for greenfield facilities that are deploying new equipment. The next stage in smart connected production may be a matter of bringing older equipment in aging factories into the world of the 21 st Century plant technology. Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) members TE Connectivity , ifm, SAP, and the OPC Foundation have worked together to produce cloud connectivity to enable the integration of sensors with IT systems in existing facilities.
The IIC has approved a testbed on sensor-to-the-cloud connectivity called the Smart Manufacturing Connectivity for Brownfield Sensors Testbed. The testbed created by TE connectivity is being carried out with SAP, ifm, and the OPC Foundation, using OPC UA. The goal of the sensor-to-the-cloud connectivity is to make sensor data available to IT systems in near real time, enabling advanced analytics.
The testbed will introduce a retrofit hardware solution (the Y-Gateway) that makes use of existing physical connectivity. It is designed to extract sensor data from the automation system without impacting operations.
The system will send sensor data to SAP’s IT platform through a secure OT/IT communication gateway based on OPC UA. The
Targeting the Older Plants
For existing plants, the testbed provides the opportunity to improve efficiencies through reductions in energy consumption and increased operational performance. Unlike new deployments, where the appropriate connectivity is typically designed-in from the beginning, brownfield installations require a layer of added communication to enable easy integration at both the operational technology (OT) and the IT level to reduce downtime and save costs.
In brownfield installations, PLCs just make use of the data required to run the control loop (the interactions between the connected sensors and actuators) which is just a fraction of the potential the data that can be delivered by the sensors. “Re-programming the PLC could be a solution here. However, operators may want to avoid that, since these PLCs are often far from modern and are simply not capable of processing a larger amount of data,”
“Re-programming the PLC requires some time which means some downtime for the control loop. With this retrofit-able hardware, the Y-Gateway re-programming can be avoided and 100 % of the sensor data can be made available in IT systems.”
Hilgner also noted that OPC UA carries security features that are likely to be attractive to those working in older plants that do not necessarily have sophisticated cybersecurity protection. “OPC UA implements a set of security features that prevent unauthorized access to the control system,”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Filaments Harvest, Store Solar Energy to Turn Clothes into Solar Batteries
https://www.designnews.com/materials-assembly/filaments-harvest-store-solar-energy-turn-clothes-solar-batteries/99235196047281?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170118.tst004t
The filaments could be especially useful for military personnel, allowing them to recharge their devices while in the field or in combat situations, relieving them of the heavy burden of batteries.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT data directly to Azure cloud
Finnish IoT device received Microsoft’s Azure-approval
IonSign Ltd transmission of Gluon GMU491 device has been tested in Microsoft’s testing tools. Compatibility has been shown to Azure seamless.
The certification means that the communication device has been tested in Microsoft’s testing tools and Microsoft has validated the test results are approved. Compatibility Azure is thus established a seamless and between the sensor and the Azure longer needed Gluon GMU491.
Communication Azure is built in the device’s internal Linux machine, which also allows for other communication or of local applications (edge computing) the adoption of the Linux environment. IonSign deliver the device, except for Microsoft’s Azure also with Amazon’s AWS connectivity. Next, the production also IBM’s Bluemix support.
- The key is that the measured data ends up in the cloud right company for inspection and recognizable service, and is set to the correct position time series.
– The signal can be in industry standard current or voltage signal, digital pulse or switch data, Pt1000 temperature signal or fieldbus data. We support the Modbus fieldbus
Sources:
http://www.uusiteknologia.fi/2017/01/19/suomalainen-iot-laite-sai-azure-hyvaksynnan/
http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/5690-iot-data-suoraan-azureen
Tomi Engdahl says:
Lys
A wifi connected light for vivid colours in the wild.
https://hackaday.io/project/11327-lys
Lys is a solar rechargable LED lantern with 6 shiny watts of RGB LEDs for colourful installations where the power grid cannot be accessed. It allows connectivity with either bluetooth or wifi so that the lights can be controlled or programmed. Sensors, like proximity or sound, can also be connected.
Imagine putting these up in the trees of a forrest, on remote art installations interacting with visitors or simply as a funky disco light in your outhouse.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Selecting a Wi-Fi module for your embedded or IoT designs
http://www.tek.com/blog/selecting-wi-fi-module-your-embedded-or-iot-designs
Wi-Fi technology is expanding beyond its traditional borders into everything from consumer electronics to medical devices and industrial controls as well as the growing movement toward the Internet of Things (IoT). This means that more and more engineers working on embedded electronics are being asked to design for interoperability with other products that are also using Wi-Fi. Such designs must comply with at least one of the IEEE 802.11 standards, which requires a hands-on testing program. There is a lot to consider, especially for someone new to RF product integration, and it can be hard to know where to begin.
In this post I’ll first go over some of the basics of WLAN integration and 802.11, discuss typical applications and then look at some parametric filters (a fancy way of saying key considerations) for your module search, module tradeoffs, and whether RF engineers are needed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Wireless Communications Standards: The Battle for the IoT
http://intelligentsystemssource.com/wireless-communications-standards-the-battle-for-the-iot/
The success of the Internet of Things (IoT) depends upon every device being connected to the rest of the world, and wireless communications will be the predominant method used to achieve this. With so many different wireless standards available, which one should be used?
Since they are on virtually every mobile phone today, communication technologies such as cellular, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are very well known. There are also several other technologies, some old and some new, which offer an alternative for IoT applications. Depending on the application, factors such as range, data requirements, security and power demands, battery life and the target market will dictate the choice of one or some combination of these technologies.
When selecting a wireless standard, power consumption is a key consideration. Will your device be battery powered or will it be plugged into a wall? Battery powered devices must conserve as much energy as possible to limit the necessity to change or recharge the battery.
Data rate is also an important consideration. How much data will need to be communicated between the device and the user’s phone, the cloud, or a central hub?
Depending upon the desired distance of transmission and physical location of the devices, frequency and transmission power heavily figure into the design decision. The frequency at which a device communicates will affect the device’s ability to penetrate walls and buildings as well as the overall distance the signal can travel. In general, lower frequencies can penetrate walls and buildings better than higher frequencies.
EEE 802.11 / Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi connectivity is often an obvious choice for developers, particularly given the pervasiveness of Wi-Fi in the home and in many consumer environments. Wi-Fi can offer data rates from 1 Mbps through to several Gbps, at ranges up to 300m, depending on the IEEE standards used.
Bluetooth
One of the major short range communication standards, Bluetooth has become very important in many consumer product markets. It is expected to be the dominant technology for wearable products in particular.
6LoWPAN
6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks) is intended for devices featuring very low power consumption and limited processing performance. It is meant to provide IoT connectivity even for very small devices such as coin cell operated sensors. The standard only defines an efficient adaptation layer inserted between the 802.15.4 data link layer and the TCP/IP stack.
There is still no comprehensive standard for the entire protocol stack. In addition, certification programs for 6LoWPAN solutions do not exist yet.
The 6LoWPAN communication protocol is still quite new. Initial installations operate in the 2.4GHz, 868MHz and 916MHz ISM bands.
Standard: RFC6282
Thread
A very new IP-based IPv6 networking protocol aimed at the home automation environment is Thread, based on 6LowPAN. Launched in mid-2014 by the Thread Group, the royalty-free protocol is based on various standards including IEEE802.15.4 (as the wireless air-interface protocol), IPv6 and 6LoWPAN, and offers a resilient IP-based solution for the IoT. Designed to work on existing IEEE802.15.4 wireless silicon
Zigbee
Conceived as a mesh network, ZigBee (which also uses IEEE 802.15.4) mainly operates in the 2.4GHz ISM band, but it supports the 868MHz and 916MHz ISM bands as well. While ZigBee can reach a data throughput of up to 250kbps, data rates tend to be much lower in practical applications.
NFC
NFC (Near Field Communication) is a technology that enables simple and safe two-way interactions between electronic devices, and especially applicable for smartphones, allowing consumers to perform contactless payment transactions, access digital content and connect electronic devices.
SigFox
An alternative wide-range technology is Sigfox, which in terms of range comes between Wi-Fi and cellular. It uses the ISM bands, which are free-to-use without the need to acquire licenses, to transmit data over a very narrow spectrum to and from connected objects. For many M2M applications that run on a small battery and only require low levels of data transfer, Wi-Fi’s range is too short while cellular is too expensive and also consumes too much power. Sigfox addresses this using a technology called Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) and is designed to handle low data-transfer speeds of 10 to 1,000 bits per second.
Range: 30-50km (rural environments), 3-10km (urban environments)
LoRa
LoRaWAN targets wide-area network (WAN) applications and is designed to provide low-power WANs with features specifically needed to support low-cost mobile secure bi-directional communication in IoT, M2M and smart city and industrial applications. Optimized for low-power consumption and supporting large networks with millions and millions of devices, data rates range from 0.3 kbps to 50 kbps.
Range: 2-5km (urban environment), 15km (suburban environment)
Selecting the correct communications standard for your application will be a key decision in how your solution will interact with other devices and people. Often, there will be no simple “one standard will fit all” solution