IoT trends for 2017

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 Forecast of 50 Billion Devices by 2020 Is Outdated.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.

 

2,275 Comments

  1. Tomi Engdahl says:

    http://intelligentsystemssource.com/lorawan-specification-can-now-be-downloaded-for-free/

    Many IoT applications do not need continuous data streaming as in the case of playing a video. Rather, it would need a low cost, low data rate on-demand connection. The non-profit Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) Alliance was created to deliver just that. According to LoRa Alliance LoRaWAN™ is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) specification intended for wireless battery operated Things in a regional, national or global network. LoRaWAN targets key requirements of Internet of Things such as secure bi-directional communication, mobility and localization services.

    For further information, you may download the LoRaWAN 1.0.2 specification here at no cost. LoRaWAN 1.0.2 Specification and LoRaWAN Regional Parameters 1.0.

    https://www.lora-alliance.org/Contact/Request-Specification-Form

    Reply
  2. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT Network Reboots Its Efforts
    Weightless SIG seeks unifying role in LPWA
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331207&

    The Weightless Special Interest Group is rebooting its effort to drive open standards in low-power, wide-area (LPWA) networks for the Internet of Things. A new startup has taken up the charge for its Weightless-P specification while the SIG aims to carve out a new role as a forum to unify the sector.

    Whether either initiative gains traction, SIG chief executive William Webb makes the case that it’s still in the early days for a highly fragmented sector of LPWA networks. To realize predictions of 50 billion IoT nodes by 2020, vendors need to deploy nearly 13 million a day, but so far, market leaders in LPWA such as Sigfox and LoRa each have connected an estimated 7–10 million total to date.

    “We are bumbling along the bottom,” Webb said.

    Market watchers at Machina Research estimate that Sigfox now has public networks in the works or running in 26 countries, with LoRa following at 19 and Ingenu at 10. At CES, many top cellular carriers and module makers announced that they were ready to start trials of the Category-M version of LTE geared for IoT.

    “We project [that,] as of the end of 2017, the LPWA networks using unlicensed spectrum will collectively cover 32% of the world’s population with 11% for licensed LPWA,” which includes both cellular operators and other spectrum holders such as M2M Spectrum Networks, said analyst Aapo Markkanen.

    “The message we are hearing very strongly is that the biggest problem in LPWA is the fragmentation of the industry,” said Webb. “If you are making a sensor what wireless chip do you put in it? Most people stop because they don’t want to use the wrong one.”

    ETSI’s Task Group 28 has an informal subgroup called Low Throughput Networks (LTN) that will act as a “document rapporteur.” It expects to release a suite of LPWA specifications by the end of the year.

    Sigfox, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute, and Weightless members such as Telensa are expected to make submissions to the ETSI process, which opens in March.

    “I suspect that [ETSI] will have a family of standards, and you can argue that that will defeat the aim of ending fragmentation, but we hope that a single-chip design could implement all of them, although not all at the same time,” Webb said.

    Startup Ubiik hopes to roll out hardware in February for Weightless-P, the Weightless SIG’s third effort at defining a spec for LPWA networks. The technology has an edge over current market leaders, Sigfox and LoRa, that will help it find traction in the still-emerging sector of IoT nets, said Fabien Petitgrand, chief technologist of the startup based in Taiwan.

    In late 2015, the SIG announced the specification for Weightless-P, which includes radio technology from M2Comm. It is a bi-directional narrowband network capable of up to 100 Kbits/second over 12.5-KHz channels in the 800- to 900-MHz band.

    “The real success [of Weightless-P] will be if we can bring on more players,” said Webb. “We’re talking to quite a few semiconductor companies, and a number of them like Weightless as a vehicle for LPWA.”

    Reply
  3. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT Will Grow by Collaboration
    http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331209&

    As with most new technologies, growth for the Internet of Things will be linear to start before we hit an inflection point that will lead to mass adoption.

    Several challenges must be addressed for IoT to reach this inflection point, which we think is still four to five years away. Areas we are exploring within the IPSO Alliance include device management, security/privacy and identity, and interoperability in protocols and semantics

    Engineers also face challenges packing more software into the low-cost hardware of edge devices. Business managers need to find a return on investment for complete IoT systems that support security, provisioning, commissioning, device management and so on.

    Device management is the missing link that will unite the two camps involved in IoT–the embedded industry developing the “things” and the IT industry/cloud providers. Effectively managing the billions of IoT devices requires that device developers and IT/cloud providers collaborate on issues such as security.

    Groups like the IPSO Alliance can provide a forum to discuss issues such as security.

    Cost is a big challenge given growing software requirements for IoT. For example, device-level security is fundamental but it can require larger microcontrollers, chips which aren’t inherently ideal for edge devices.

    Reply
  4. Tomi Engdahl says:

    10 Big Data Predictions for Automation and Control in 2017
    https://www.designnews.com/automation-motion-control/10-big-data-predictions-automation-and-control-2017/148135179547297?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170119.tst004t

    This year will provide increasing clarity and direction on Big Data technologies guiding the Industrial Internet of Things.

    The emergence and relevance of Big Data in the world of automation and control has been a work in progress for the last five years, but 2017 could represent a major step forward and tipping point.

    Realizing that the world of industrial automation and control has its own specific set of objectives and priorities, comparisons to general computing market trends are still valid. So here is an updated list of 10 Big Data predictions for automation and control in 2017:

    1. More data than ever before
    2. More projects and spending
    3. Cloud-based solutions vs. on-premises
    4. Rise of artificial intelligence and machine learning
    5. Growth of predictive analytics
    6. Increased focus on real-time analysis
    7. More staff with Big Data skills especially data scientists and database professionals
    8. New tools that enable automation professionals to self-service their own needs
    9. Increased focus on privacy and security
    10. More productivity

    Reply
  5. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Monitoring a growing network by tracking data trends
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/monitoring-a-growing-network-by-tracking-data-trends/c788c2616f7b97e8428230641bf1d8ac.html

    Audit and compliance rules dictate data must be true to ensure processes and systems are running to the height of their performance capabilities. It can also help manufacturers predict future trends by tracking historic data.

    Whether it is a mandatory industry compliance regulation or a company-wide rule, knowing what is on the system and ensuring it is working is a must in these days of growing networks. Audit and compliance rules dictate data must be true to ensure processes and systems are running to the height of their performance capabilities.

    After all, manufacturers have an obligation to ensure they remain in compliance with the law and the data stored is accurate, secure and managed correctly. In addition, auditing and network monitoring provide historical information that can help diagnose problems and track malicious activity. It can also help predict future trends by being able to look at historic data.

    While maybe not predicting the future, one simple case in point gives a good perspective on the location of equipment and its operating status.

    This information at auditing time is critical to make sure from a cost perspective because you know where they are and if they are online and in use.

    Audit trail

    The goal is to keep the history as long as the user wants. By knowing the history of that baseline that could go back for years, it could also help in showing everything is staying within normal parameters.

    By logging network traffic and keeping it forever, it is possible to view an audit trail in an effort to reconstruct a sequence of events. This way, if the user finds something bad did happen, through the tool’s logging component, there is some history where he or she can go back and put the pieces together and figure out what happened and put some mitigation in place.

    Appraising the IIoT

    Understanding network traffic and being able to analyze it becomes all more important as the industry moves toward a more connected Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) environment. Realizing just what is on the network becomes mind boggling when you start talking about IIoT.

    Currently, numbers of sensors at typical process plants cluster around 40,000 sensors. IIoT will increase those numbers to something over 250,000 sensors per plant. Each of those sensors will produce near real-time data at an update rate of four times a minute, or 250 milliseconds per datum. That means each sensor will produce over 5,000 data points per day. That’s 1.44 billion data points per plant, per day. Each of those sensors needs to end up monitored and diagnostically checked for proper operation as part of the network.

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  6. Tomi Engdahl says:

    What does time-sensitive networking and real-time Ethernet data mean for the future of industrial systems?
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/what-does-time-sensitive-networking-and-real-time-ethernet-data-mean-for-the-future-of-industrial-systems/631ca5d5f8e41aca351dbce3a21113d4.html

    Avnu Alliance members explain how real-time communications enabled by Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) will strengthen the future of industrial systems.

    The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) brings the opportunity to create smart systems that share data between devices across the enterprise and in the cloud. As interest in IIoT and Industrie 4.0 continues to grow, more designers, engineers, and end-users are looking to Time Sensitive Networking (TSN)—a set of standards under revision from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)—to solve the need to process raw data in a timely fashion, reduce latency, increase robustness, and provide a foundation for more advanced manufacturing and product models where data can be more flexible and shared between layers of the control system. (The TSN Work Group, part of the IEEE 802.1 Working Group [Ethernet], evolved from the Audio Video Bridging [AVB] Work Group.)

    Reply
  7. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Group launches universal language for the Internet of Things
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/group-launches-universal-language-for-the-internet-of-things/608aadafaa7d44dbc8cef9c71d8c2205.html

    The zigbee alliance’s dotdot is a universal language for the Internet of Things (IoT) and is designed to make smart objects work together on any network and improve connectivity on the supply chain.

    The zigbee alliance’s dotdot is a universal language for the Internet of Things (IoT) at CES 2017. dotdot is designed to make smart objects work together on any network.

    “dotdot represents the next chapter in the zigbee alliance’s continued commitment to create and evolve open standards for the smart networks in our homes, businesses, and neighborhoods,” said Tobin Richardson, zigbee alliance president and CEO.

    Most IoT devices don’t speak the same language even if they use the same wireless technology. The result is an IoT that is often a patchwork of translations, adding complexity for developers and limiting users to single-vendor systems. The solution lies in a common language between all IoT devices on any network.

    Reply
  8. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT Startup Rides LoRa
    Semtech manager snags $7M for OEM
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331201

    A startup will ride LoRa and Wi-Fi networks to bring the Internet of Things to consumers and businesses this year. TrackNet snagged $7 million in A-series funding from two investors who will help it build and deploy routers and sensors.

    By June, the startup aims to be in production with hybrid LoRa/Wi-Fi routers and as many as seven sensors, the first products launching at Mobile World Congress next month. They will include wearable location monitors, motion sensors for security and environmental monitors for temperature and humidity.

    TrackNet targets both the smart home and commercial users tracking assets and monitoring buildings. It aims to bring relatively expensive LoRa sensors down to the $20-30 retail prices of today’s home automation products.

    Companies are considering LoRa as a lower cost, easier to deploy alternative

    “All the major OEMs from Foxconn and Flextronics to Gemtek have major programs with various sources underway for Lora hardware,” said Schmidbauer.

    Plans for as many as 30 national LoRa networks have been announced from many Asia operators and virtually all those in Europe except for Telefonica and Vodaphone, he said. In the U.S. Comcast recently announced it will support Lora, and China has shown interest, he added.

    Rival Sigfox is said to have 7-10 million nodes deployed and at least as many announced networks, market researchers say. Another rival, Ingenu, is not far behind with a network promising higher data rates, and many proprietary alternatives also are active.

    The unlicensed players face emerging competition from cellular operators also starting field trials of LTE Cat M networks.

    The 10-person startup includes a handful of engineers, some from IBM, who developed the LoRa spec.

    Reply
  9. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Alexa: Secret Agent or Double-Agent?
    http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331216

    I’m now sufficiently intrigued with Amazon Echo and Google Home. But when it comes to an actual purchase, I’m still on the fence. What about you?

    Maybe it’s just me. The idea of having “machines” constantly listening to me in the privacy of my living room, bedroom, kitchen or — God forbid — the bathroom? It freaks me out.

    When Nvidia’s CEO Jen-Hsun Huang introduced in his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show something called “Nvidia Spot,” a small artificial intelligence microphone designed to “extend intelligent control throughout the house,” as he put it, I did a double-take. “Did he just say ‘Nvidia Spy?’ ”

    At CES, we also learned that Alexa isn’t just for the Amazon Echo anymore. With the help of Alexa Voice Services, any developer can now add the Amazon virtual assistant to their device; Google’s letting developers do the same with Google Assistant.

    In short, even if I don’t want a microphone eavesdropping on me, I may no longer have a choice.

    This is the new norm the industry was trumpeting at the Consumer Electronics Show.

    Hardware suppliers, software designers and service providers are enamored with the power of AI. The next big thing is AI data centers fully equipped to collect, learn and analyze data, transforming all that eavesdropped data into “information.”

    Reply
  10. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Amazon just launched virtual ‘Dash’ buttons for one-click buying from the homepage
    Just let me live in the warehouse already.
    http://www.recode.net/2017/1/20/14333220/amazon-virtual-dash-buttons-one-click-purchase

    Another day, another attempt by Amazon to make buying something as easy as humanly possible.

    The e-commerce leader just unveiled digital versions of its Dash buttons — those tiny, physical gadgets that allow for one-click reordering of your favorite products with one tap of a finger.

    The new virtual Dash buttons started appearing on the Amazon.com homepage and the Amazon app home screen on Thursday night. The company is automatically creating ones for items you recently ordered or order often. An order is placed with one click or tap on the digital button.

    An Amazon spokesperson said Prime members can create a virtual one-click button for tens of millions of products available for Prime delivery. “Add to your Dash buttons”

    Virtual Dash buttons are free to use, while the physical ones cost $4.99.

    Amazon Dash Button
    Amazon Dash Button makes ordering easy. With a simple click, Prime Members can order their
    favorite products.
    https://www.amazon.com/Dash-Buttons/b?ie=UTF8&node=10667898011

    Reply
  11. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Lockpicking in the IoT [33c3]
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nBjxnYCj4A

    Lockpicking in the IoT
    …or why adding BTLE to a device sometimes isn’t smart at all

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  12. Tomi Engdahl says:

    David Pierce / Wired:
    Inside Xiaomi’s Internet of Things strategy: invest in IoT firms in exchange for 10-20% stake and the right to brand and sell their products

    China’s Plan to Rule the World: Make All the Gadgets
    https://www.wired.com/2017/01/china-consumer-electronics/

    Instead of just making and selling smartphones, Xiaomi wants to make and sell just about everything.

    Xiaomi’s first successes came from the rise of smartphones and its early understanding of e-commerce. Now De says another wave is coming. The Internet of Things, he believes, could be bigger than phones. “Every electronic device you use in your life could also become smart,” he says. Xiaomi started exploring the idea in 2013, and quickly realized no single company could dominate the entire sector. Consumers own one phone but will have dozens, even hundreds, of connected devices.

    Instead of trying to build them all, Xiaomi went shopping. It has invested in 77 companies, giving them access to its designers, marketers, and massive supply chain in exchange for a 10- to 20-percent stake and the right to brand and sell those products.

    It has sold more than 50 million connected devices under that strategy, and seen four of its portfolio companies hit a market cap over $1 billion.

    This outsourced-but-integrated approach could make Xiaomi among the first to offer a complete portfolio of connected devices, controlled by a single app—Mi Home. It wants to be The Everything Company.

    Reply
  13. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Gummi Hafsteinsson / Google:
    Google adds support to Home for Belkin’s WeMo and Honeywell devices, says Assistant on Pixel will soon be able to control smart devices
    https://blog.google/products/home/your-home-just-got-smarter-new-google-assistant-partners/

    Reply
  14. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Gummi Hafsteinsson / Google:
    Google adds support to Home for Belkin’s WeMo and Honeywell devices, says Assistant on Pixel will soon be able to control smart devices — Connecting your Google Assistant on Google Home to other devices around your house can simplify your day and help you get more done.

    https://blog.google/products/home/your-home-just-got-smarter-new-google-assistant-partners/

    Reply
  15. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
    Connected doorbell startup Ring raises $109M Series D from DFJ, Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm, others; firm says its products are now on sale in 100 countries

    Connected doorbell startup Ring raises $109 million from DFJ, Goldman Sachs, Qualcomm, others
    http://venturebeat.com/2017/01/25/smart-doorbell-startup-ring-raises-109-million/

    From beds to fridges and beyond, the so-called Internet of Things took a giant leap forward in 2016, with consumers the world over encouraged to connect the most random of household items to the internet.

    The new year is setting off on a similar footing, with connected doorbell startup Ring announcing a fresh $109 million investment: a series D round led by DFJ Growth, Goldman Sachs Investment Partners, and Qualcomm Ventures, with participation from entrepreneur Richard Branson, American Family Insurance, Shea Ventures, and True Ventures, among others. The funding round also includes a debt element from Silicon Valley Bank.

    Reply
  16. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Week In Review: IoT
    Intel goes shopping; OCF at CES; IoT market reports.
    http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-iot-36/

    Intel on Monday unveiled the Responsive Retail Platform, with CEO Brian Krzanich making a presentation at the National Retail Federation’s Big Show conference. “Intel’s Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud technologies touch every link of the retail supply chain. IoT sensors capture data that can be analyzed. Data centers crunch the information and give it real-world usefulness,”

    Rob Topol, general manager of Intel’s 5G business and technology, at CES 2017. “What we announced here at CES, one thing is the Intel Go platform, an end-to-end solution for working with automotive OEMs on autonomous driving. We put a 5G FPGA-based modem in that platform that can now test any sort of”

    Security
    Brian Krebs, a leading cybersecurity researcher and blogger, claims a Rutgers University student was one of the people behind the Mirai IoT botnet, which wreaked havoc across the Web last October

    The OCF, which exhibited at CES 2017, merged last year with the AllSeen Alliance and counts Intel, LG Electronics, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Samsung Electronics, and Sony among its corporate members.

    The IPSO Alliance said this week that its Security, Privacy and Identity Working Group has published its charter, laying out a framework for secure IoT interoperability.

    The European Telecommunications Standards Institute has formed an Industry Specification Group on cross-sector context information management for applications in smart cities.

    The worldwide Internet of Things market will produce revenue of $1.13 billion this year, according to visiongain

    ON World sees the market for industrial IoT wireless sensing, tracking, and control equipment, along with associated services, growing to $35 billion in 2022 for agriculture, construction, industrial automation, and related markets.

    Reply
  17. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Week In Review: IoT
    Ring rings up more cash; IIoT predictions for 2017; OCF gets new executive director.
    http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-iot-37/

    Ring, which sells Internet-connected doorbells, security cameras, and other products, received another $109 million in private funding

    FreeWave Technologies, a supplier of wireless networking products and services, has five predictions for the Industrial Internet of Things in 2017. They include: A public utility will be shut down; finding IoT talent will be hard; and the year will see the introduction of stronger security measures.

    ABI Research forecasts that IoT-connected devices will generate more than 2,000 exabytes (2 zettabytes) of data in 2021, a nearly six-fold increase over the next four years, as IoT analytics extend from the cloud to the network’s edge.

    Cisco Systems, Dell, Intel, Predixion Software, and PTC are currently deploying intelligence in IoT systems on three levels, according to ABI.

    Juniper Research says the installed base of consumer IoT devices will hit more than 15 billion units by 2021, an increase of 120% from 2016.

    Silicon Laboratories has acquired Zentri, a provider of low-power, cloud-connected Wi-Fi technologies for the Internet of Things.

    WSO2 of Mountain View, Calif., this week introduced its WSO2 IoT Server 3.0 software, which it says is “100% open source” and works with the company’s WSO2 Enterprise Mobility Manager 2.0 software. WSO2 IoT Server can be used for application management, device management, IoT and mobile communications, identity and access management, IoT analytics, and visualization of sensor readings, while also exposing devices as application programming interfaces for app development and integration.

    Reply
  18. Tomi Engdahl says:

    New Open Source WSO2 Internet of Things Server Lowers the Barriers to Delivering Enterprise-Grade IoT and Mobile Solutions
    https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/01/26/911209/0/en/New-Open-Source-WSO2-Internet-of-Things-Server-Lowers-the-Barriers-to-Delivering-Enterprise-Grade-IoT-and-Mobile-Solutions.html

    WSO2 IoT Server speeds projects by combining the ability to manage IoT and mobile devices, expose devices as APIs for app development, secure access, manage apps, and analyze device data

    “Enterprises worldwide are harnessing mobile computing and the Internet of Things to revolutionize their business models. And increasingly these technologies are working hand-in-hand as mobile phones and tablets become command centers for controlling IoT-enabled lights, autos, retail kiosks, manufacturing systems, and more,” said Dr. Sanjiva Weerawarana, WSO2 founder, CEO and chief architect. “With the launch of our comprehensive, open source WSO2 IoT Server, we are empowering these organizations to speed their pace of innovation by delivering all the functionality needed to manage, integrate, secure and analyze IoT and mobile devices and applications.”

    http://wso2.com/products/iot-server/?utm_source=pressrelease&utm_campaign=iot_server_release_jan17&utm_medium=pr

    WSO2 IoT Server is a complete solution that enables device manufacturers and enterprises to connect and manage their devices, build apps, manage events, secure devices and data, and visualize sensor data in a scalable manner.

    It also offers a complete and secure enterprise mobility management (EMM/MDM) solution that aims to address mobile computing challenges faced by enterprises today. Supporting iOS, Android, and Windows devices, it helps organizations deal with both corporate owned, personally enabled (COPE) and employee-owned devices with the bring your own device (BYOD) concept.

    Reply
  19. Tomi Engdahl says:

    The Internet of Things Is Coming for Us
    https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/21/sunday-review/the-internet-of-things-is-coming-for-us.html

    The Moche people lived on Peru’s north coast long before the Spanish conquest of the Americas. They grew corn and squash, built monumental adobe temples and were master craftsmen in gold and ceramics.

    They never had the chance to sell their wares on Etsy, and yet they anticipated some of our most modern anxieties.

    Like us, they saw themselves living in a vulnerable world where the technology created to make their lives better was just as likely to turn against them. While we worry about our baby monitors and home routers being hijacked by malicious hackers, they perceived a world in which everyday objects like jugs and clothes might come to life with ominous consequences.

    Moche artists painted scenes of this happening on ceramic vessels and on the walls of their temples.

    Inherent in the idea that objects have life is the more subversive concept that they also have desires; feel hate and love; seek revenge; and have the capacity to act on their own.

    In the modern world, most of the objects that surround us are a result of an impersonal process of production — they come from factories, we buy them in stores or online. For the Moche, objects were not produced — they were created, imbuing them with the ambiguity and mystery with which life is given to animated beings.

    Such objects could be either beneficial or dangerous, depending on whether they decided to serve their creators or turn against them, either of their own volition or through the black arts of others.

    We now live in a world where objects once again have life. We can talk to them and they can answer back, as is the case with Alexa and Siri and their digital kin.

    The internet of things is made up of billions of everyday devices connected for convenience to the web.

    Andean people before the conquest created a philosophical and spiritual system built around the concepts of duality and transformation — light versus darkness, order versus chaos.

    The modern world is full of such opportunities for chaos, often created by humans and the increasing sophistication and technology-centeredness of modern life. A solar flare has the potential to disrupt electrical networks. A tsunami can flood a nuclear reactor. The digitalization of stock markets leads to flash crashes. Russian hackers stealing Democratic Party emails seek to influence an American presidential election.

    Order gives way to chaos. The internet of things turns on its makers.

    Reply
  20. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Vehicle-to-Vehicle Communications Might Be Required In All US Cars
    https://blogs.synopsys.com/codereview/2016/12/16/vehicle-to-vehicle-communications-might-be-required-in-all-us-cars/?elq_mid=8729&elq_cid=546544

    United States Department of Transportation (DoT) might require new cars to include vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications technology if a new rule is approved.

    At the moment the new rule to make the V2V system required on all new light-vehicles is only a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, a required notification from the Department of Transportation. It is now open to a comment period of 90 days. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) will then have the final say whether or not the new rule becomes a requirement. So a lot of steps remain.

    Reply
  21. Tomi Engdahl says:

    HMI evolution provides a gateway to productivity
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/hmi-evolution-provides-a-gateway-to-productivity/5107dbe18d2fa639ae564676e78b4b64.html

    Control Engineering Europe: Human-machine interfaces (HMIs) have evolved into sophisticated computer systems capable of acting as automation gateways for controlling and monitoring an industrial process, even remotely. These advanced HMI functions can save time in commissioning, maintenance and production.

    Reply
  22. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT technology market expected to take over M2M
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/iot-technology-market-expected-to-take-over-m2m/ca0c0ad7085af2f23f5b0ba9983ba141.html

    Mobile Experts released a report that analyzed the migration of the M2M market to the Internet of Things (IoT) technology market with device shipments expected to increase to more than 450 million devices by 2021.

    Mobile Experts released a report that analyzed the migration of the machine-to-machine (M2M) market to the Internet of Things (IoT) technology market. In other words, 2G, 3G, and LTE are migrating to narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) and 5G IoT.

    “The change from M2M to IoT is more than just a name change,” said Joe Madden, founder and principal analyst, Mobile Experts. “New standards are far better optimized for battery-based devices. In addition, the prior history of reusing semiconductor parts for M2M will change-in the future we will see more customized IoT semiconductors.”

    The report noted that the shift to the IoT market represents a shift to the enterprise market, which is large enough now to support specialized products at multiple levels of the supply chain unlike the previous M2M devices which simply took advantage of the existing mobile network. For example, NB-IoT has inspired operators to invest in specialized infrastructure

    “The changes represent a break in our approach to connected devices. We are beginning to set new standards that will support the rise of new applications. This report includes analysis of growth from 2014-2021 in the transition from M2M to C-IoT, and from these predictions we anticipate device shipments will grow from about 120 million in 2016 to more than 450 million devices in 2021,”

    Reply
  23. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Think IIoT Design
    http://iiot.think-onsemi.com/?utm_campaign=ON+Semi+Nurturing+EN&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=41186082&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_ac94LnX7XXX5ZckklwjmEqz7esf5APS7i8cH1pWVWH4sdWVYBmds4UaC4siAcq5BaMdRgWKu2S0O1MN_U2gRDcSrl9Kxzt1UcaEZPyKaznlVfERo&_hsmi=41186082

    Welcome to ON Semiconductor’s Industrial Internet of things (IIoT) design resource center. Here you’ll find information to support the design process for applications like security and surveillance, smart city, smart home, industrial automation, smart lighting and more. Resources include:

    Design resources (one-time registration required)
    Tutorial videos

    Reply
  24. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Think Wireless & Wearables Design
    http://wirelesswearables.think-onsemi.com/?utm_campaign=ON+Semi+Nurturing+EN&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=41186187&_hsenc=p2ANqtz–2RdHhilrKeRhoTf3jih1W4Q3wg928YkzDQb354uTYsNn-E5vZN8Rjwsyn4NZTUaPFvq8767knmrW_fPi75I5l23qE52JkQtqEXrKJSTCkibcWnp0&_hsmi=41186187

    Welcome to ON Semiconductor’s wireless and wearables design resource center. Here you’ll find information to support the design process for applications like wireless handsets and tablets, medical wearables, smart wearables, wireless charging and more.

    Reply
  25. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IIoT arrives; It’s time to get started
    Implementation is not only practical, but now is a competitive necessity.
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/iiot-arrives-its-time-to-get-started/5fc5b345759be75ec8a5249ec04dc5bc.html

    The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) has progressed from dream to hype to reality. Today, the basic deployment scenarios of the IIoT solutions we implement for our end user manufacturing customers include:

    Greenfield deployments, which are primarily found in “smart” solutions related to advanced monitoring and visibility
    Brownfield upgrades, which are the introduction of IIoT technologies and approaches to existing facilities to expand asset and process visibility and analytics
    New asset-monitoring services from vendors who are leveraging IIoT to provide remote predictive analytics capabilities for their assets installed at customer sites.

    Don’t get caught behind

    As we look ahead in 2017, there are many ways to discuss what’s ahead for IIoT. For example there are new IIoT technologies to consider, such as drones, robots, voice-powered artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality solutions. And while those will likely have a future in IIoT, there is also an important issue we need to address first: most firms need to catch up to the technology opportunities available today.

    Standards, security are issues

    The quip about standards, “the great thing about standards is there is one for every issue,” continues to be a reality in the IIoT ecosystem.

    Meanwhile the other “s” word-security-is consistently a leader on lists of requirements, concerns and issues with IIoT-and certainly in this area will not be realized in 2017. Automobile, HVAC, SCADA and any number of other systems have been hacked. Unfortunately, there is no easy answer to security issues. Instead, what is needed is hard work, best efforts and the selection of solutions with limited exposure to the outside world.

    Focus on business impact

    In many IIoT articles, the starting point is the sensor. That is the origination point for data that flows through a communications network to a centralized application with analytics, integration, data storage, etc. It is easy to start at the sensor because the hardware and communications innovation that is driving IIoT is exciting and it is fun to think it about from that perspective.

    Micro-sensors; Arduino, Raspberry PI and Intel Galileo platforms; long-life batteries; low power wireless systems; and builder kits from Microsoft, IBM and Amazon are areas in the news and of interest. There is so much to imagine with sensors and logic added to every possible asset and structure.

    Unfortunately, these technologies often don’t necessarily serve the business end of the issue. The right question is not what’s possible with the new technologies, but what’s important to the business: a quantifiable positive impact to production and business outcomes.

    Reply
  26. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Six ways to lower IIoT network costs
    One consequence of the IIoT trend is that purchasing devices for your network isn’t the end of your expenditure.
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/six-ways-to-lower-iiot-network-costs/87d8da24e9237e6e36ca97b6b2a48ff2.html

    Here are the six stages, and their impact on TCO:

    1. Reduce installation and integration costs
    It is rare to see completely new network installations in industrial environments. The majority of network deployments involve a combination of new equipment and upgrades to existing SCADA systems, control networks and devices.
    For industrial networks, devices are often installed in control panels with other devices that run on different voltages
    use a device that supports a wide range of power inputs

    2. Reduce configuration costs
    One of the most time-consuming tasks for projects in industrial environments, and therefore one of the most expensive, is configuring devices on a network so that they perform well.
    Due to the convergence of industrial automation and IT systems across IIoT networks, EtherNet/IP and PROFINET protocols must have a way to operate together on the same network. Devices that have been preconfigured to allow for these disparate protocols to communicate automatically allow network administrators to deploy what is essentially a plug and play device.
    Configuration is also made a lot easier by an intuitive graphical user interface (GUI). Some companies offer an advanced testing kit

    3. Reduce operational costs
    A key way to lower operational costs is to minimize the amount of manual work needed to keep switches and a network operational.

    4. Reduce maintenance costs
    The majority of IIoT networks are controlled by programmable logic controllers (PLCs). When the network performs scheduled maintenance and reboots, a PLC will often take about 20 seconds to reboot.

    5. Reduce costs associated with downtime
    Finding the root cause of downtime on a large-scale network is very time consuming, so any tools that assist network administrators with identifying the point of failure and allow them to quickly fix it will have significant advantages.

    6. Ongoing technical support
    As switches are often deployed on networks for longer than 10 years, the technical support that comes with a switch will significantly impact costs in long-term deployments.
    Reliable switches that offer free, ongoing technical support complemented by a long warranty period present significant advantages for network administrators who want the lowest TCO for their projects.

    Reply
  27. Tomi Engdahl says:

    What does time-sensitive networking and real-time Ethernet data mean for the future of industrial systems?
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/what-does-time-sensitive-networking-and-real-time-ethernet-data-mean-for-the-future-of-industrial-systems/631ca5d5f8e41aca351dbce3a21113d4.html

    Avnu Alliance members explain how real-time communications enabled by Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) will strengthen the future of industrial systems.

    Reply
  28. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Five tips to modernize industrial network architectures
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/five-tips-to-modernize-industrial-network-architectures/7616347d05ebaa0c9f092507ede98ab7.html

    Optimize an industrial network design and stay ahead of potential future challenges by deploying a modern network architecture and following certain design tips.

    1. Collaborate upfront

    Modernizing a network infrastructure shouldn’t be a go-it-alone venture for IT or OT. Rather, it needs to be a collaborative effort that involves functional teams from across organizations

    2. Use design and deployment resources

    Industry guidance and resources are invaluable during a network modernization project.

    3. Choose the right protocol

    One of the most critical decisions that will be made while designing the network infrastructure is selecting the right industrial Ethernet protocol.
    Today, manufacturing and industrial companies are seeking to capitalize on the proliferation of connected smart devices that make up the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). IIoT devices use the IP, which provides the common language for different devices to coexist and interoperate on the same network.
    EtherNet/IP from ODVA Inc. is an industrial automation protocol that harnesses the power of IP, allowing for the harmonious coexistence of all IP-connected devices.

    4. Use a holistic security approach

    According to a recent report from BDO USA, 92% of manufacturers cited cybersecurity concerns in their 2016 securities and exchange commission (SEC) disclosures this year. What’s more, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security also reported that basic cybersecurity practices in many industrial organizations are “an afterthought or significantly less than needed.”

    Industrial organizations cannot ignore the fact that more connection points in a modern industrial IP network architecture also bring greater security risks.

    5. Plan for the future

    The infrastructure lifecycle in the industrial automation space is typically between 15 and 20 years. But down the road, imagine what your operations will look like or how you will be using information given all the innovation that’s occurring today?

    Modern network architecture benefits

    Smart manufacturing is digitizing and transforming nearly every aspect of industrial operations. Plants and systems that previously operated separately from each other can be integrated with end-to-end connectivity. Machines that had little or no visibility into their performance can be monitored in real time. Workers who were reliant on manually collected data and tribal knowledge can make better decisions with production intelligence, online support, and mobile collaboration.

    Reply
  29. Tomi Engdahl says:

    German town taps Bluetooth-enabled outdoor luminaires to transmit information about what’s happening
    http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2017/01/german-town-taps-bluetooth-enabled-outdoor-luminaires-to-transmit-information-about-what-s-happening.html?cmpid=enl_leds_ledsmagazine_2017-01-25

    The German town of Wipperfürth is using outdoor LED luminaires to transmit wireless information to residents and visitors about things happening in the city, marking the first known public deployment of Osram’s Bluetooth-based Einstone location-based service technology.

    Smartphone users who download the town’s free WippApp receive information about events, shops, promotions, restaurants, churches, and more in Wipperfürth, an old town of about 22,000 people near Cologne in the western part of the country.

    Batteries power Einstone during the day, and they charge up at night when the lights switch on.

    The town controls the lights centrally with Osram’s Street Light Control (SLC) software, which can change light colors to provide different scenes, and which also provides remote monitoring of operations. Lights communicate with a wired router via the wireless IPv6 Internet protocol.

    Reply
  30. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Street lights will learn from the bigger picture in IBM, Echelon IoT partnership
    http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2017/01/streetlights-will-learn-from-the-bigger-picture-in-ibm-echelon-iot-partnership.html?cmpid=enl_leds_ledsmagazine_2017-01-25

    Watson cognitive computing will combine external and streetlight data to optimize lighting for public safety, traffic, energy, you name it.

    Controls company Echelon Corp. has teamed with IBM’s Watson Internet of Things group to help optimize streetlight operations by analyzing data collected both from the lighting infrastructure as well as from external sources.

    “With a mission to continually advance our adaptive street lighting solution, we are excited at the prospect of integrating the cognitive and real-time analytics capability of IBM Watson IoT into Echelon’s platform to enhance its inherent intelligence,” said Sohrab Modi, chief technology officer of Santa Clara, CA-based Echelon. “If mayors and town selectmen can have infrastructures that adapt to the data produced by billions of interconnected sensors and devices, they can positively impact crime and weather-related accident statistics. The omniscience that IBM Watson IoT will bring to our next-generation technology will be a huge asset for local and state governments.”

    “The IBM Watson IoT platform enables the access to external data sets and the ability to extract “intelligence

    Echelon expects to announce the first deployments within a few months.

    Reply
  31. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT Growth Banks on Reliable Communication
    http://mwrf.com/iot/iot-growth-banks-reliable-communication?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20170126_MWRF-001_67&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=9411&utm_medium=email&elq2=c841eede91d641aa9c7b959246558fa8

    To meet the needs of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), communication systems must demonstrate a high level of reliability while maintaining low costs.

    According to technology industry researcher Gartner, the number of “things” in the Internet of Things (IoT) increases by 5.5 million each day. By 2020, the total number is expected to reach 20.8 billion. Given such explosive growth, it’s imperative to examine the internet that will connect and enable communication between all of these things. Creating reliable wireless connectivity among devices is proving to be one of the IoT’s greatest challenges.

    The reliability of a communications system can be defined by the performance of two critical components: a radio transceiver and a communications microcontroller. This article discusses how components and solutions are able to maximize system-level reliability, enabling high-impact applications that provide mission-critical quality and integrity of data and insights.

    What’s Good Now is Not Good Enough

    Existing wireless-connectivity technologies for consumer devices do not always satisfy the performance demands of industrial and healthcare systems. The different priorities in these systems—including safety, accuracy, and time-sensitivity—heighten the need for increased reliability. Cellular systems come close, but are often unsuitable in terms of battery, cost, and data-throughput requirements.

    Extremely reliable systems exist today for niche industrial and military applications. However, these are designed with reliability being the top priority and cost appearing further down the list. With the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), the challenge becomes delivering the same high level of reliability at a much lower system cost.

    RF Obstacles Cause Missed Packets

    Crowded Frequency Bands Cause Missed Packets

    Environmental Effects Degrade Performance

    Corrupted Memory Can Lead to Unexpected Outcomes

    Reply
  32. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Corin Faife / CoinDesk:
    Cisco, Foxconn, Bosch, Gemalto, blockchain startups, and others form an alliance to develop blockchain-based security protocol for IoT devices

    Bosch, Cisco, Gemalto and More: Tech Giants Team Up For Blockchain-IoT
    http://www.coindesk.com/bosch-cisco-gemalto-and-more-tech-giants-team-for-blockchain-iot/

    The Internet of Things (IoT) – the vast web of connected devices which is becoming a fundamental part of the technological infrastructure that surrounds us – brings both huge potential and great risk.

    But as a consequence, every connected device is another attack surface for a hacker to target, and significant concerns have been expressed about the growing number of IoT devices which have been weaponised into botnets or used as surveillance tools.

    Evidence of these high-profile breaches means that attempts to increase trust and security between IoT devices are crucial – so it’s big news that a group of Fortune 500 companies from the hardware and software industries is joining with a team of blockchain startups to develop a protocol that will connect the dots between IoT devices and blockchain technology.

    “The barcode was a simple and unique system that led to huge improvements in the retail industry,” Orr said. “Unfortunately the system was not secure, so you have trillions of dollars of counterfeiting today … Once we have a secure system of identity that’s open and interoperable, I think the implications will be as big as the barcode over 10 to 20 years.”

    Reply
  33. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Maybe this could be used to power “cyborg type” IoT as well?

    Subcutaneous Solar Cells Could Power Pacemakers
    http://powerelectronics.com/solar/subcutaneous-solar-cells-could-power-pacemakers?NL=ED-003&Issue=ED-003_20170130_ED-003_24&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=9468&utm_medium=email&elq2=024b9bca2e58422885ed206c8d97dde9

    A pacemaker is a device that is implanted in the abdomen or chest area to control abnormal heart rhythms. It utilizes electrical impulses to help the heart muscle maintain a proper rhythm and heart rate. Most pacemakers are usually powered with a primary battery that requires a replacement when it is depleted. Implant replacements due to battery depletion can account for about 25% of implantations of cardiac pacemakers.

    Over the years, various power sources have been used for pacemakers—among them a radioactive material power source using plutonium-238. Another approach involved inductive transfer in a manner similar to charging a smartphone battery. Several other techniques have utilized the movement of the heart to harvest energy for powering the pacemaker. These approaches all had problems that limited their commercial use.

    A new approach proposed by Swiss researchers involves the use of solar cells placed under the skin to power an electronic implant. The Swiss researchers found that a 3.6 square centimeter solar cell is all that is needed to generate enough power during winter and summer to power a typical pacemaker.

    “As a promising alternative energy source, ambient sunlight could be used,”

    Various research groups have put forward prototypes of small electronic solar cells that can be carried under the skin and can be used to recharge medical devices. The solar cells convert the light from the sun that penetrates the skin surface into energy.

    Reply
  34. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Nokia Applies IMPACT to IoT Fragmentation
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331277&

    Lack of security and fragmentation are often cited as basic reasons why the Internet of Things market has been slow to catch fire.

    By offering updates to its own IoT platform called IMPACT, unveiled last June, Nokia hopes to provide service providers, enterprises and governments with pre-integrated applications that help alleviate customers’ initial trepidation before plunging into IoT.

    During an interview with EE Times, Frank Ploumen, CTO of IoT platform and applications at Nokia, said, “Traditional machine-to-Machine applications tend to be point solutions.”

    It’s problematic, “because when every time someone changes IoT devices, protocols or applications, those who run services must also change applications in their backend, accordingly.”

    The only thing IoT customers should care about is data, said Ploumen. They should be able to depend on the IoT platform to take care of security and scalability, he noted. Nokia boasts that IMPACT (Intelligent Management Platform for All Connected Things) IoT platform can exactly deliver that.

    Nokia is rolling out this week an updated IMPACT platform. New features include support for both NB-IoT and LoRa connectivity, and pre-integrated IoT vertical applications including smart parking, smart lighting and transportation/automotive.

    Reply
  35. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Multi Zone Wireless Thermostat
    Replace the bimetallic thermostat with a few microcontroller based thermostats to control the combi boiler.
    https://hackaday.io/project/19365-multi-zone-wireless-thermostat

    The project aims to:
    - Replace the bimetallic thermostat with a micro controller based thermostat (boiler unit) capable of commanding the boiler, logging temperature and receiving commands from the controller unit.
    - Add mobile micro controller (remote unit) to report temperatures to the controller unit.
    - Build the controller unit to receive temperatures from the boiler and remote units and command the boiler consequently.

    User Arduino IDE to program the NodeMCU
    Use MQTT to communicate boiler, remote and controller unit
    Boiler and remote units to be a NodeMCU
    Boiler and remote units to make use of low power modes, disconnect WiFi between updates… consider battery power

    Reply
  36. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Build Your Own P-Brain
    http://hackaday.com/2017/01/26/build-your-own-p-brain/

    [Pat AI] was interested in building an open source, extensible, virtual assistant, so he built P-Brain.

    P-Brain is written in Node.js and using a Node package called Natural, P-Brain parses your request and matches it to a ‘skill.’ At the moment, P-Brain can get the time, date and weather, it can get facts from the internet, find and play music and can flip a virtual coin for you. Currently, P-Brain only runs in Chrome, but [Pat AI] has plans to remove that as a dependency.

    Natural language virtual assistant using Node.js + Bootstrap
    https://github.com/patrickjquinn/P-Brain.ai/

    Reply
  37. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Objectifier: Director of Domestic Technology
    http://hackaday.com/2017/01/26/objectifier-director-of-domestic-technology/

    [Bjørn Karmann]’s Objectifier is a device that lets you control domestic objects by allowing them to respond to unique actions or behaviour, using machine learning and computer vision. The Objectifier can turn on a table lamp when you open a book, and turn it off when you close the book. Switch on the coffee maker when you place the mug next to the pot, and switch it off when the mug is removed. Turn on the belt sander when you put on the safety glasses, and stop it when you remove the glasses.

    http://bjoernkarmann.dk/objectifier

    Reply
  38. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Bluetooth Automation Remote Hangs Around
    http://hackaday.com/2017/01/28/bluetooth-automation-remote-hangs-around/

    Using your smartphone to control your home automation system gives you a lot of flexibility. But for something as simple as turning the lights on and off, it can be a pain to go through the whole process of unlocking your phone, choosing the right browser page or app, and then finally hitting the button you need. It’d be much simpler if it could all be done at the touch of a single, physical button – but phones don’t have many of those anymore. [falldeaf] brings the solution – a four-button Bluetooth remote for your smartphone that’s wearable, to boot.

    The project is built around the RFDuino, an Arduino platform used for quickly and easily building Bluetooth compatible projects.

    Four button, bluetooth, Remote mobile phone control
    http://falldeaf.com/2017/01/four-button-bluetooth-remote-mobile-phone-control/

    Reply
  39. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Industrial IoT Nets Blossom
    LPWA nets rising, large deployments grow
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331283&

    A new survey shows significant growth in the industrial Internet of Things and rising competition among low power wide area (LPWA) networks. Its release coincides with an update of an industrial IoT framework and word of a new analysis of IoT protocols in the works.

    Nearly a third of industrial IoT networks now have more than 1,000 nodes, according to a survey of more than 180 industrial automation professionals by market watcher ON World. That’s twice the level of large scale networks it found in a 2014 survey.

    The survey found 12 percent of respondents have deployed 1,000 or more wireless field devices at a single site, and 11 percent are using LPWA networks such LoRa or Sigfox. Two out of five respondents are researching, pilot testing or developing LPWA solutions and three-quarters of those developing LPWA plans are targeting new applications that cannot be met with other technologies.

    Reply
  40. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT Contest Shows Security Gaps
    Winning engineer plies open-source tools
    http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1331278&

    An engineer with little working experience in security used open-source code to win a challenge finding breaches in a home network. The effort, while promising, showed that there’s still plenty of work ahead to close vulnerabilities in the Internet of Things, participants said.

    Contestants were provided with two short recordings of RF traffic at a model smart home built in a Bedford, Massachusetts, warehouse. The first was a two-minute baseline of as many as 75 Zigbee and Z-Wave devices in operation. The second recording was made after organizers changed about 40 devices in a mixture of easy, medium, and difficult ways to detect.

    “We’ve been worrying about how you determine what devices are on your network, and we knew it was hard,”

    Thompson and his older brother used GNU Radio to do an initial analysis of the signaling data, using a down-sample filter to cut the size of gigabyte files. They also used the open-source program to demodulate packets. Then they used the Wire Shark protocol analyzer to inspect packets.

    “With the Zigbee files, it was easier to ID the transmitters … and make matches between the two samples,”

    The Z-Wave analysis “was a lot more complicated because it doesn’t use hardware IDs

    Z-Wave devices were generally harder to penetrate than Zigbee due to their lack of hardware identifiers. But overall, “there are a lot of challenges ahead to prevent people from messing with your network,” he said.

    “The industry is moving very, very fast. It has been focused on functionality and utility for homeowners and security is just starting to catch up as a focus,”

    Reply
  41. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Are We Ready to Chat With Our Toasters?
    http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1331281&

    Consumer electronics and appliances makers are pushing to add voice control to their products in the wake of the success of Amazon Echo and Google Home.

    The company hasn’t disclosed exactly how many Echo products it has sold since the introduction in late 2014, but some analysts believe it’s in the neighborhood of 10 million.

    The Consumer Technology Association’s (CTA) estimates are slightly lower. The Consumer Technology Association (CTA) estimated earlier this month that a total of 5 million digital voice assistants like Echo and Home have been sold in the U.S. alone to date, with another 5 million forecast to sell this year.

    So, voice control is a big deal.

    The next wave appears to involve cutting out the middleman—the hub that interfaces with the user and controls the devices—and adding voice control capability directly to appliances we use everyday. This trend was evident at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES), where voice control interfaces emerged as one of the stars of the show.

    At CES, Amazon and Google announced that they are making available the capability to allow developers to add their virtual assistants to any connected device. Nvidia also announced a similar capability.

    Chip vendors such as NXP Semiconductors are offering devices, reference design and design kits intended to help vendors of appliances and home entertainment equipment add voice capability directly to their products.

    Reply
  42. Tomi Engdahl says:

    What is Ethernet’s role in industrial Internet?
    Applications demand sensible migration path and robust network.
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/what-is-ethernet-s-role-in-industrial-internet/07b38ef542ca18365f9f86712e3fc9bd.html

    Visibility and control of connected IIoT objects calls for high-performance, low-latency networks with remote management capabilities.

    Today’s industrial networks, however, largely use specialized network protocols and have diverse installed bases. This makes modernization onto an all IP Ethernet infrastructure complex. Meeting challenges related to system reliability, determinism and security calls for using Ethernet switching solutions, programmable devices, high-precision timing, Power over Ethernet (PoE) and application-optimized software.

    IIoT network security must be multi-layered to protect the data, management, and control planes, particularly for M2M communications. A typical approach relies on data encryption; traffic control; authentication, authorization and accounting (AAA); and data integrity.

    As to networkwide encryption, MACsec (IEEE 802.1AE) and Keysec (now part of IEEE 802.1X) are the L2 encryption and key management protocols to secure Ethernet physical ports and VLANs. Further enhancing confidentiality, IEEE 802.1AEbn includes strong 256-bit encryption now required by certain government agencies.

    While encryption alone is insufficient to secure a network, using strong 256-bit encryption like MACsec in networking equipment and end points is a means to authentication, data integrity and user confidentiality. Leveraging FPGAs with built-in security capabilities can be used to provide a root of trust in a system.

    For deterministic performance and network reliability, the expectation is that specific functions occur within a precise timeframe. This is possible when each network element is time-aware and recognizes whether it delivered Ethernet packets “on time.”

    But this is only one part of the solution. A mechanism to synchronize and distribute precise “time” in Ethernet exists today using IEEE 1588v2; however, the latest Time Sensitive Networking (TSN) standards bring system developers a very time-oriented style of traffic scheduling.

    Besides usability and performance, for example, IEEE 802.1ASbt adds one-step time stamp support. Reduced packet numbers are needed to convey network timing information versus a two-step process in the prior generation standard.

    While Ethernet with TSN will finally be a plausible deterministic backbone for industrial networks, proprietary interfaces will remain in place. FPGAs/SoCs that have the capability to translate between Ethernet, IEEE 1588, TSN and specialized industrial protocols while keeping deterministic behavior will be critical.

    Reply
  43. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IoT technology market expected to take over M2M
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/iot-technology-market-expected-to-take-over-m2m/ca0c0ad7085af2f23f5b0ba9983ba141.html

    Mobile Experts released a report that analyzed the migration of the M2M market to the Internet of Things (IoT) technology market with device shipments expected to increase to more than 450 million devices by 2021.

    2G, 3G, and LTE are migrating to narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT) and 5G IoT.

    “The change from M2M to IoT is more than just a name change,

    The report noted that the shift to the IoT market represents a shift to the enterprise market, which is large enough now to support specialized products at multiple levels of the supply chain unlike the previous M2M devices which simply took advantage of the existing mobile network.

    Reply
  44. Tomi Engdahl says:

    IIoT security requires a holistic approach
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/iiot-security-requires-a-holistic-approach/b930f55511f191d9e56887b3152bfa60.html

    Enhanced intelligence and fast delivery are key drivers for further investment in IIoT, but as the technology is still in relative infancy, security is a rising concern as more objects communicate with each other via the Internet.

    Enhanced intelligence and fast delivery are key drivers for further investment in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT), but as the technology is still in relative infancy, security is a rising concern and a holistic approach is needed by companies to address these issues. Equipment such as sensors, gateways, processors and actuators continuously evolve, communicating with each other via the Internet. Due to this fact, the Internet of Things (IoT) and the Industrial Internet of Things are quickly becoming a business reality within various industrial sectors.

    Reply
  45. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Four predictions for manufacturing technology in 2017
    http://www.controleng.com/single-article/four-predictions-for-manufacturing-technology-in-2017/191f5df8bdd63ef1ca905166c12c78ec.html

    As 2017 kicks off, one thing is certain for manufacturers: access to meaningful and actionable data will play a big role in achieving success this year.

    In 2017 the migration to cloud technology, big data, the Internet of Things, and accomplishing more with the same or fewer workers are sure to shape strategies and actions.

    1. Increased rate of migration to the cloud. As more blue chip manufacturers gain efficiencies through migrating their operations to the cloud, manufacturers of all sizes will need to follow suit to compete. In 2017 cloud-based systems will become the standard.

    2. More meaningful data. In the past years, companies have been focused on acquiring more data-a big data and IoT trend-by documenting plant information or by connecting machines to databases. Now that many companies have accomplished gathering data, those organizations are trying to figure out what to do with the information. While big data is the upside of the IoT, plants don’t need more data, but the right data.

    3. Creating the Internet of People. Companies have been pushing to connect machines to data, but 2017 will see the connecting of people to data and vice versa, creating the Internet of People (IoP).
    In 2017 companies will start integrating people into their systems whether they track employees through mobile technology or cloud technology.

    4. Increase productivity with fewer people. Manufacturing plants will be able to do more with fewer people.

    Reply
  46. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Free smart fridges! App stores in fountains! Plus more from Canonical man
    This is an entirely sensible view of the near future. Cough
    https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/01/31/canonical_vp_maarten_ectors_iot_interview/

    “What if you need to update 50 million hairdryers and something goes wrong? How can you roll it back?” Thus spake Maarten Ectors, Canonical’s Internet of Things veep, who painted a picture of an IoT future where your fridge will be taken away from you unless you constantly use it as a smart app store.

    “From a security perspective, you can’t have the industry just let default passwords go. You can’t have an industry where you don’t update things after you ship them. You can’t have a complex thing where if you find a bug, that breaks something and you have to roll it back. We need to help people make that easy. Otherwise we’re reinventing the wheel,” continued Ectors.

    Speaking to The Register at last week’s IoT Tech Expo in London, Ector explained that he sees small, inexpensive machines such as the Raspberry Pi as “supercomputers”.

    “You can easily see that we need some new economical models. Companies have been making money from hardware but in the £1 [per device] market there’s no margin for that.

    “You could put an app store into elevators,” he continued, in all seriousness. “Or, take security: if someone gets a mask and gun out you want to shut the [lift] doors; if someone faints you call a doctor, etc. We will change the complete economic model.”

    Canonical’s Ubuntu Core, version 16 of which was released in October, is the firm’s chief OS offering for the Internet of Things. Its key feature is Snaps, an app container system for making apps run on other distributions without needing to rewrite the app for each one. Ectors said: “All the tools to run them are also open source. What this means is every developer now is in control of making their own apps for any device and what we’re going to launch in 2017 is ‘run your own app store.’”

    Reply
  47. Tomi Engdahl says:

    WiFio – Mini
    Arduino-Enabled IoT Prototyping Platform with ESP8266 + Temperature + Light Sensors
    https://hackaday.io/project/11031-wifio-mini

    WiFio Mini is the simple IoT rapid prototyping platform to help you build IoT applications.
    Based around Arduino-enabled Atmega328P and Easy to program FTDI header.

    Board Highlights:
    -> Arduino IDE Programmable.
    -> FTDI Header to Upload sketches and Power.
    -> 2×4 Pin Headers for ESP-01 (ESP8266).
    -> On-Board MCP9700 (Temperature) and LDR (Light) Sensors.
    -> +3V3 Powered [DC Jack for 7-12V External Power]
    -> Small Form Factor[ Dimensions: 100mm x 50mm]
    -> Low Cost.
    -> Open Hardware Design

    Reply
  48. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Wireless Sensor Networks Will Spread to Factories and Farms, Report Says
    http://mwrf.com/systems/wireless-sensor-networks-will-spread-factories-and-farms-report-says?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20170131_MWRF-001_544&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_2_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=9478&utm_medium=email&elq2=917f2b3746b44463a93163622710f231

    The report, from technology research firm OnWorld, says that a majority of industrial automation engineers are using some form of mesh networking sensors, while interest in low-power wide area networks is also growing.

    Wireless sensors installed in farms, construction sites, and factories are growing widespread as businesses try using data to increase efficiency. And the hardware and software used to connect these sensors is turning into big business.

    The market for wireless sensor technologies and the cloud services derived from them is estimated to reach $35 billion by 2021, according to a recent report from OnWorld, a market research firm that tracks the industrial Internet of Things.

    Not all wireless sensor networks are equal, though. On the one hand, there are proprietary networks that operate over long distances and chew through little power from devices. On the other hand are mesh networking technologies that skip signals between chips or nodes over a short distances.

    The report said that mesh networking technologies would dominate the market over the next five years. These include special versions of familiar standards like Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, as well as lesser known technologies based on a standard drafted by the International Society of Automation called ISA100.11a.

    Only two out of five OnWorld survey respondents said they were researching or developing these LPWAN technologies.

    LoRa and Sigfox are among the most popular LPWAN networks used to mine valuable data from industrial systems and infrastructure. Other technologies derived from cellular standards, such as LTE-M1 and Narrowband-IoT, are also in development

    Reply
  49. Tomi Engdahl says:

    Cisco stokes PoE lighting push with dedicated Ethernet switch, signs up Marriott (UPDATED)
    http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2017/02/cisco-stokes-poe-lighting-push-with-dedicated-ethernet-switch-signs-up-marriott.html?cmpid=enl_leds_ledsmagazine_2017-02-01

    The IT company’s Digital Building Ethernet box will support lighting, heating, security, and other building operations without the electricity losses associated with some PoE schemes.

    Hoping to solve some of the shortcomings of Power-over-Ethernet technology, Cisco Systems today introduced a new Ethernet data switch optimized for building operations including lighting, and said that a Marriott Hotel and a Swiss commercial office headquarters are pioneering its use.

    Cisco designed the new Catalyst Digital Building Switch to sit inside the ceiling close to lighting fixtures, rather than on a rack of data switches that are typically further away. The proximity reduces the loss of Ethernet-borne electricity that occurs when cable travels longer distances within a facility. Such transmission inefficiencies have deterred some potential users from deploying Power-over-Ethernet (PoE) lighting, an Internet of Things (IoT) technology that transmits not only data but also electricity via standard Ethernet cable to LED lights.

    Like Cisco’s general line of Ethernet switches, the new box knocks voltage down from the 120V and 240V electrical lines that feed it, transforming it into a lower voltage that is sufficient to power LED lights — renowned for low energy needs — and that can travel safely over standard Ethernet cable, commonly referred to as Cat5 and Cat6.

    “One of the things that has been missing has been the purpose-built switch — this is the industry’s first,”

    The data rate of the new switch is much slower than on conventional switches — 100 Mbits/s to the lighting fixtures, and 1 Gbit/s back to the network, compared to Cisco’s 10-times faster general IT switches. But the pokier pace suffices because the switch is dedicated primarily to carrying information to and from lighting and other building operations, rather than supporting enterprise information networks.

    Each switch has 8 ports and can thus deliver data and electricity to 8 different fixtures. An $895 version of the switch supports 30W per port, and a $1395 model supports 60W.

    Neither version requires a cooling a fan, which Cisco said will be key to quiet operation in hospitality, retail, office, hospital, and other settings.

    Ethernet connections run in and out of the Building Switch to tie them into the building’s faster IT backbone. Cisco has adapted the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), one of several schemes intended to help alleviate the incompatibility of myriad digitized devices expected to tie into the IoT.

    Early users include a Marriott hotel in Texas and Swiss energy company Alpiq InTec.

    Alpiq InTec is tying new Cisco switches at its Zurich headquarters into PoE luminaires from Philips Lighting

    Digital SSL’s mega disruptor will be Power over Ethernet (MAGAZINE)
    http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/print/volume-12/issue-11/features/networks-power/digital-ssl-s-mega-disruptor-will-be-power-over-ethernet-magazine.html

    Reply

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