NCN November 2017

THE UK’S NO.1 NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE

Network Communications News

November 2017

High Five!

A look at the 5G future with Cradlepoint

inside...

Special Feature

Special Feature

Conversational IoT

IoT continues its rise

Green IT’s power to transform

Can we really ‘talk’ computer ?

CONTENTS

In this issue…

Regulars

Knowledge Network

4 Editorial

12 The Power of 5G

Te c hnolo gy, cha n ging t h e wa y we li ve

Lindsay Notwell at Cradlepoint underlines the trans-formative powers of 5G networks

6 Industry News The latest and greatest from across the sector

10 On the Case who’s doing what and where?

22 Project Focus Lighting the way, IoT specialist Eseye has been working with Mayflower to provide a 21st century solution for the management of street lighting

33 NCN Q&A Pàdraig Smith at PSE Power takes on the fiendish challenge that is the new NCN Q&A

34 Company Showcase Time to talk technology

36 Know How

14

14 Embrace the Change Simon Pamplin of Silver Peak encourages resellers to run towards the power of SD-WAN

16 Get Smart Thomas Rockman, VP connected home, Deutsche Telekom, delves into the future of the smart home industry

18 Can We Talk?

Jim Hunter of Greenwave System bridges the gap between human and ‘thing’, exploring the concept of conversational IoT

20 Keeping Cities Safe

16

Talking times where technological advancements and developments are commonplace, Paul Ward, ETELM, contends that smart cities need smart solutions

Explaining that SBCs and firewalls need to be thought of as conetwork defenders, Kevin Baynes of Sonus, points out potential threats of utilising UC applications

@NCNMag 2 | November 2017

CONTENTS THE UK’S NO.1 NETWORK INFRASTRUCTURE MAGAZINE

Network Communications News

November 2017

November 2017

High Five!

A look at the 5G future with Cradlepoint

Green IT inside...

24 Energy and Cost Cutting

28

M i c h a e l A k i n l a at Pa n d u i t E u ro p e exa m i n e s h ow i nte l l i ge nt i n f ra s t r u ct u re i s d r i v i n g I T fa c i l i t y c o s t s d ow n , i nve s t i gat i n g ro u te s to o pt i m i s e d ata c e nt re w h i te s p a c e

Special Feature

Special Feature

Conversational IoT

IoT continues its rise

Green IT’s power to transform

Can we really ‘talk’ computer ?

Editor in Chief: Daniel J Sait 01634 673163 | dan@allthingsmedialtd.com

Assistant Editor: Jessica Foreman 01634 673163 | jessica@allthingsmedialtd.com

Designer: Jon Appleton

Internet of Things

jon@allthingsmedialtd.com

Group Advertisement Manager: Kelly Byne 01634 673163 | kelly@allthingsmedialtd.com

28 Rise of the Machines

30

John Cook at Enterprise IT examines the passive optical LAN and the rise of the Internet of Things

Advertisement Manager: Michael Sheridan 01634 673163 | michael.sheridan@allthingsmedialtd.com

Studio Manager: Ben Bristow 01634 673163 | ben@allthingsmedialtd.com

30 Get Ready for GDPR Preparing to be GDPR compliant, Reggie Best of Lumeta, presents a GDPR checklist to reduce network complexity challenges around securing IoT and cloud environments

Business Support Administrator: Carol Gylby 01634 673163 | carol@allthingsmedialtd.com

Managing Director: David Kitchener 01634 673163 | david@allthingsmedialtd.com

Accounts:

32 IoT Products

01634 673163 | susan@allthingsmedialtd.com

Exploring a world first product and a starter kit set to make ‘dumb’ products smart

18

www.networkcommunicationsnews.co.uk

ABC membership approved, pending first audit.

The editor and publishers do not necessarily agree with the views expressed by contributors nor do they accept responsibility for any errors in the transmission of the subject matter in this publication. In all matters the editor’s decision is final. Editorial contributions to NCN are welcomed, and the editor reserves the right to alter or abridge text prior to publication. © Copyright 2017. All rights reserved.

Suite 14, 6-8 Revenge Road, Lordswood, Kent ME5 8UD T: +44 (0)1634 673163 | F: +44 (0)1634 673173

November 2017 | 3

EDITORIAL

Star Trek Luxury Communism?

T

wo ma j or focu s e s in this month’ s is s u e a re that of G re e n IT a nd Io T, s ub j e ct s t h at a re vita l not j u s t fo r t he fu ture of o ur s ecto r, b u t not to pu t too fin er po int o n it , t h e fu tu re of everything .

For the mos t pa r t in t h e mode r n wo rld we have h a d to talk about technolo gy a s b e ing par t of the pro blem in te r m s of energy co ns umption a nd c a r ing for ou r enviro nment. Tec h no l o gy , and peopl e’ s des ire for it , h a s d r i ven environ menta l c h a nge a nd i mpact , however a re we m ov ing i nto a new era where gre e n te c hnolo gy a nd the Io T c a n s ta r t to be par t of the s o l utio n a nd solve ma ny of the is s ue s t h at face co mpa n ies , but a l s o p rov id e wi de r s olutio ns to ta ckl e c l im ate change, s o cia l probl em s a nd fu tu re p l a nn in g.

The IoT has the power to fundamentally change the way people live, in the same way the industrial revolution did, the last great change in human work and

4 | November 2017

Daniel J Sait, editor in chief

out of work life. This process is still on-going in some areas, look at the massive change in China in recent times with a largely rural population moving to a more urban model. The difference the IoT will make could and should be huge. Farming data and analysing it, should provide more efficient models to plan for a huge range of activities, work, leisure, travel and local services, making them more efficient and delivering less impact on the environment as well as improving the lives of the population. The famous phrase knowledge is power is as true as it has always been, but we might now need to add another sister phrase, information is power.

As for Green IT, the range of technologies that can be placed under this umbrella, can deliver very real benefits to companies, such as improving the efficiency of energy creation, gathering and even making companies money by firing spare energy back onto the grid. Other aspects of Green IT drive other efficiencies

improving the physical structures of products reducing harmful and expensive waste.

But what about the future?

These concepts of Green IT and IoT will feed increased machine learning, more automation, these will have some negative impact on jobs, and create knock-on social issues in the short term, which will have to be managed properly.

However, lets indulge ourselves for a second and imagine a future where work becomes not the sole focus of human populations, these technologies have the power to do that long term, as well as solve many of the environmental issues we face. I am not saying they definitely will, technology is often not used for the good of all, and new technologies will put a lot of power into the hands of some people who probably should not have it. But again lets be positive, a long way off in the future, a kind of Star Trek luxury communism, maybe possible, and we are witnessing the very first tinnest green shoots of the tech that could deliver it.

INDUSTRY NEWS

All at the touch of a button

Qualcomm rejects ‘undervaluing’ offer

Qualcomm rejects Broadcoms ‘compelling’ offer When Broadcom released its compelling offer to Qualcomm the word was it was possibly going to be the biggest tech deal yet… However, Qualcomm has since rejected the $130 billion offer, dubbing the unsolicited buyout bid as ‘undervaluing’.

Not quite as ‘compelling’ as the company initially thought, Broadcom’s offer, though record setting, was rejected. A unanimous decision by Qualcomm’s board of directors expressed the belief that not only does the offer ‘dramatically undervalue’ the company, but moreover, ‘comes with significant regulatory uncertainty’.

Qualcomm’s leaders believe that the company is in an advantageous position to ‘lead the transition to 5G’ – which, provided Qualcomm can square away its legal dispute with Apple and maintain dominance over the Android processor market – is true. After thorough investigation of the spontaneous offer, Qualcomm believed that it could add more value for shareholders by continuing to execute its existing strategy.

But is this ‘relationchip’ tale over yet?

The note about ‘dramatically undervaluing’ Qualcomm does give a hint that their board may be more receptive to higher offers from Broadcom, should any be forthcoming.

Before the offer was rejected, there were numerous speculations circling, one of which said that Broadcom appeared ready to fight any resistance. Reuters sources added, Broadcom is hoping to submit its own selection of directors for Qualcomm’s board. If shareholders want a deal, they could vote for new board members and force the company to come to the negotiating table.

Ultimately, was it really that shocking that Qualcomm rejected the offer ? After all, it knows that it has plenty of bargaining chips. Its Snapdragon processors are vir tually ubiquitous in the smar tphone world, and it has lots of clout in wireless infrastructure as well.

Qualcomm may not completely object to the idea of a sale, but it knows it can at least take a stab in the dark and hope for a better deal before losing its independence.

Qualcomm, qualcomm.com

6 | November 2017

New network device insights sets to enable organisations to automatically discover and analyse the impact of device health on application experience.

Are we immersed in a consumerist society? Are businesses driven by the commonplace millennial desire to have the ‘everything at the touch of a button’? It may come as no surprise that we, as consumers, have become accustomed to the speed and convenience associated with the on-demand economy. In fact, our expectations have recently hit an all-time high, with recent research studies showing that a seemingly insignificant delay of four to six seconds tends to result in users abandoning browsing sessions and moving onto another viable option. This revelation shows one thing, Network Intelligence is now more critical than ever.

ThousandEyes, a Network Intelligence company that delivers visibility into every network, has announced the general availability of Device Layer. The new capability adds network device health context to ThousandEyes Path Visualisation, enabling organisations to deliver superior application and service per formance. ThousandEyes says its Device Layer automatically discovers the network devices that matter for business-critical applications and services, enabling organisations to deliver a superior digital experience. Expanding its portfolio, the Network Intelligence allows organisations to build an accurate and complete understanding of end-to-end application and service delivery from the cloud, to the enterprise wide area network, to endpoint devices.

Commenting on the impact of the newly released device layer, Kevin Duffey, vice president of IT Operations, RichRelevance days,“As the personalisation platform for the biggest brands and retailers in the world, it is critical that RichRelevance scale to billions of real-time customer interactions to help our customers deliver on the promise of individualised experiences. ThousandEyes Network Intelligence helps us bulletproof the quality of our service, which in turn enables our customers to drive revenue and brand engagement.”

Assessing their external networks, he adds, “ThousandEyes has helped us reduce troubleshooting time from weeks to literally minutes. The new Device Layer feature helps my team identify root cause even faster by mapping out my network device topology and providing detailed interface metrics. It’s incredibly easy to manage and scale because we can see web per formance and end-to-end network topologies, which now include hardware dependencies, all in one place.”

Now including the public internet, enterprise networks, are becoming more complex and distributed, increasing the need for accurate, realtime data and per formance metrics to rapidly troubleshoot and triage issues. ThousandEyes says its Path Visualisation paired with its specially designed Device Layer provides granular data on the per formance of the routers, switches, firewalls and load balancers within an enterprise network and the inter-dependencies of how these devices connect to each other to deliver business critical applications.

ThousandEyes, thousandeyes.com

ThousandEyes improves network intelligence with new device layer

INDUSTRY NEWS

Connected cars communicating over 5G Often uttered in the same sentence are the words Japan and technology.

Homing arguably some of the most notable tech legends, Sony, Nintendo, Panasonic, Canon and Toyota; SoftBank is no exception.

Best known as one of Japan’s top three phone carriers and its robotics line-up, SoftBank is also renowned for pursuing its smart car hobby. Pairing with fellow Japan native Honda, the two announced plans late last year to make cars emotive using cloud-based tech on SoftBanks’s pepper robot.

‘Uniting driver and car’ These plans began to emerge late last year in the guise of auto-makers AIassisted NeuV and sports EV concepts.

Such concepts, Honda describes as an ‘automated EV commuter vehicle’ that will be able to have emotions. Well, sort of. The idea is to ‘unite driver and car’, Honda’s July press release stated that the emotive engine would be able to react to the owner’s conversations and emotions.

services by 2020. Before then, the carrier will test how well Honda’s cars can communicate with one another over its 5G network.

Starting in 2018, SoftBank will install 5G base stations at the auto-maker’s Takasu Proving Ground closed test course in Hokkaido, Japan. The 6.8 km circular course serves as a stomping ground for Honda’s smart cars, and soon they’ll be talking over wireless networks while speeding around.

At the same time, the two firms will be closely monitoring outcomes in order to develop the vehicles’ on-board tech and antennas. The experiment is also set

to allow SoftBank to test its 5G signal in a rural setting – thus far its trials have been mainly limited to urban locations.

The greater picture may encompass SoftBank’s ridesharing investments, which include Singapore’s Grab (which also counts Honda as a backer), India’s Ola, China’s Didi, and now Uber.

Interestingly enough, Uber is also testing driverless cars in select states in the US. On a final note, smarter cars operating over faster wireless networks will only improve these services.

SoftBank, Softbank.jp/en

Honda’s next phase of their connected cars project is all about 5G.

Ticking time bomb to 5G With the clock ticking down to Honda’s 2025 deadline for driverless cars, the duo are moving on to the next phase in their connected cars project, which is all about 5G. Along with rivals NTT Docomo and KDDI, SoftBank is already testing 5G in Japan, with a view to kick-starting

D-Link bolsters IoT security by partnering with Afero D-Link, one of the world’s largest networking manufacturers, is locking down its Internet of Things products by turning to a trusted partner who can ensure security. That’s why the company is turning to Afero, a leading provider of an ultrasecure edge-to-cloud IoT platform.

There are plenty of products that will need securing, as D-Link’s portfolio is vast. It includes everything from routers to smart home products, as well as plenty of offerings for enterprise customers.

“We are especially happy to be working with Afero, one of Gartner’s Cool Vendors in the Internet of Things. The D-Link Smart Water Sensor system leverages the Afero IoT Platform for its security, reliability, and ease-of-use,” stated Jack McGuigan, VP of sales at D-Link.

“In addition to the elegant on-boarding, Afero provides a scalable, cloud platform for an array of solutions to address the needs of insurance customers.”

Gartner estimates that over 8.4 billion ‘connected things’ will be in use worldwide in 2017 and that figure is anticipated

to reach more than 20 billion by 2020. Total spending on endpoints and services is expected to reach close to $2 trillion in 2017.

“For over 30 years, D-Link has delivered award-winning communication solutions to the home and to the enterprise,” adds Afero CEO Joe Britt.

“We are tremendously excited that D-Link has partnered with us to combine our technology innovation with their trusted brand, which will enable their customers, both enterprise and consumers, to on-board devices quickly and deploy rich IoT solutions easily and rapidly.”

D-Link’s partnership with Afero should ensure that its products remain outside rapidly growing botnets, which have become a big problem in the IoT space. This includes botnets such as Reaper and Mirai which have already spread throughout hundreds of thousands of devices, including IoT sensors, hubs and routers.

D-Link, dlink.com

November 2017 | 7

INDUSTRY NEWS

Cisco makes $1 billion available for smart city funding Cisco is keen to foster the growth of smart cities globally, which is why the company is making $1 billion of its own money available to budding smart cities.

Dubbed the City Infrastructure Financing Acceleration Program, Cisco hopes to make smart technology more accessible to local city government all around the world. The hope is that the $1 billion fund will ‘make it easier, faster, and more affordable’ for cities to adopt smart technologies, which can help them automate traffic management, or make the day-to-day running of the city simpler.

The Cisco Capital subsidiary is behind the new fund, with the company also partnering with private equity firm Digital Alpha Advisors, and pension fund investors APS Asset Management and Whitehelm Capital.

So, what exactly does Cisco get out of this arrangement? Well, in exchange for offering funding

for smart city development, Cisco has suggested a revenue sharing deal, which will allow the companies providing the money to share in the success of the new technologies.

“Funding is a major stumbling block for municipalities beginning their smart city transformation,” says Anil Menon, Global President of Cisco’s Smart+Connected Communities.

“With our partners, Cisco will bring the capital and expertise it takes to make smart city projects a reality. Digital Alpha, APG, and Whitehelm Capital bring a fresh perspective on investment in an area that has previously been perceived as too new and, therefore, too difficult to finance.”

Cisco kinetic hopes to transform the smart city In addition to additional funding for smart cities, Cisco is also releasing its newly updated digital platform,

Cisco hopes funding will make smart technology more accessible

dubbed Cisco Kinetic for Cities. This is essentially a rebranding of the company’s old Smart+Connected Digital Platform, but there are some new features that cities should be able to take advantage of.

That includes real-time notifications in emergency situations, full-policy automation options, and an improved dashboard with integrated video; all of which should help enhance public safety, according to Cisco.

Cisco is not the only company wanting to fund the creation of smar t cities.

Deutsche Telekom and the world’s second richest man, Bill Gates, are also trying to foster growth in the sector by stumping up serious cash.

Cisco’s offering is one of the largest to date, however.

Although there’s no word as to which cities will be eligible to enter.

Cisco, Cisco.com

UK hotels struggling with substandard Wi-Fi services With increasing UK cities providing free gigabit Wi-Fi, can hotels still justify charging guests for substandard Wi-Fi Services?

Research has found that many UK hotels are buckling under the pressure to cope with the number of devices connecting to a singular network. Produced by Zyxel, wireless communication experts, research found 9 out of 10 UK hotels believe that delivering Wi-Fi services to guests should still be chargeable, regardless of how fast the service.

W i th the in herent de m a nd fo r ins ta nt co nne ct io n an d constant a cces s ibil ity b e ing a n eve r- p reva l e nt at t it u d e amongst s ociety, it ma y co m e a s a s u r p r is e t h at 1 8% of UK hote ls (the hig hes t figure in E u ro p e) a re s t il l l im it ing a n d o r chargi ng for Wi-Fi a cces s . O n t h at s tat is t ic a l o ne a qu e st i o n of whether Europea n g u e s t s (p a r t ic u l a r l y t h o s e t h at trave l for bu sines s) a re at ris k of b e ing d is a p p o inte d b y t h e UK hote l i n dus try.

The study consisted of 405 hoteliers in 10 European markets, showing that a quarter of UK hotels installed Wi-Fi to make themselves more attractive to international guests, more than any other region surveyed. In spite of this, 41% of UK hotels admit they still struggle to cope with the number of connected devices, second only to Italy at 65%.

These figures come from Zyxel’s Connected Hospitality Report: Europe, which investigates how the hospitality sector in

8 | November 2017

November 2017 | 8

Western Europe is using Wi-Fi to support guests’ increasingly connected lifestyles.

UK hotels in particular had a high proportion of hotel guests staying over for business purposes, with 75% of hotels saying this group made up at least half of their customer base.

Notably, business customers often need Wi-Fi for critical use cases and extended periods, meaning poor connections or usage caps are bound to cause frustration.

Jannik Hargaard, president of Europe at Zyxel, comments, “In a world where hotel bookings are directly related to scores on TripAdvisor, small frustrations can have a significant impact on revenue over time. Almost all guests now expect free Wi-Fi for everything from uploading holiday snaps to sending emails, making these services essential. In an attempt to squeeze out extra revenue through charging for connectivity, hotels could be shooting themselves in the foot as competitors provide a better service.”

Of all the regions surveyed, the UK has the highest proportion of hoteliers that are using Wi-Fi as an additional revenue source, or considering to do so at 38% – well above the European average of 23%. The UK also has the highest rate of hotels looking to provide free Wi-Fi in the future (27%), a personalised mobile app (20%), or an upgrade to their website (36%).

Zyxel, zyxel.com

INDUSTRY NEWS Bringing Ireland back up to speed

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The great fibre of Ireland Becoming the latest stop for Siro’s fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) scheme is the town of Monksland, Roscommon. Providing 50 towns around the country with first 100pc fibre-optic broadband network, Siro has partnered with Vodafone, Digiweb, Westnet, Rocket Broadband, Carnsore Broadband and Kerry Broadband for the roll out of the scheme.

Siro comes to Monksland Breaking the ground running, Monksland has become one of the first 25 Siro towns to benefit from gigabit-speed broadband. Connecting more than 12,000 customers to the network, CEO Sean Atkinson and Minister for Communications, Climate Action and the Environment, Denis Naughten, TD celebrated Gimme Fibre Day, which occurred on November 4.

Ireland’s fibre journey Considered a success in terms of the roll-out of FTTH, both Minister Naughten and Siro have jointly requested the FTTHC to include Ireland in its next league table. This list is set to be published in February 2018.

Currently, Siro is the only Irish operator member of the FTTHC, an organisation whose mission is to accelerate the availability of ultra-high-speed fibre access networks for the benefit of customers and businesses alike. It also facilitates European policy goals, such as the Digital Agenda and Digital Single Market.

Minister Naughten explained how Ireland’s fibre journey was progressing, “The CEO of the FTTH council, Ms Erzsebet Fitori, was the keynote speaker at the recent ComReg conference which clearly shows how the conversation in Ireland is changing from last mile copper and cable to fibre.

“I will be writing to the Council in support of SIRO’s submission. League tables matter and with the latest ComReg statistics showing total FTTH subscriptions at 20,000, we should now join the register.”

Sean added: “In the two years since we launched we have changed the conversation about broadband in Ireland with a clear recognition that FTTH is the future.

“Siro is proud to be the only Irish operator member of the FTTH Council and with over 12,000 customers ourselves alone, we have requested that Ireland be included in the next FTTH league table due in February 2018.”

Siro, 1800 989 945 siro.ie

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ON THE CASE

Town Centre Upgrades Surveillance Network Siklu’s multi-gigabit millimetre wave wireless system provides inter ference free and fibre-like connectivity to 40 high definition surveillance cameras.

Siklu Inc., renowned for its millimetre wave solutions, revealed that its Etherhaul mmWave radios have been installed as part of an extensive upgrade to the town centre surveillance network in Burnley, Lancashire.

The 18 high capacity point-to-point mmWave links from Siklu effectively deliver interference-free connectivity for 40 newly installed HD IP CCTV cameras from Hikvision. Providing a fibre-like performance, with low latency and real-time HD quality, they can now be used not only for recognition, but identification too. The new wireless network and cameras make up part of a mission critical Lancashire Hub CCTV Centralisation Project, designed to consolidate multiple control centres into a single location.

With the Siklu mmWave EH-500TX and EH-600TX radios, Burnley Town Centre can leverage the licence free and lightly licenced V-band to deliver reliable connectivity with 99.999˙% link availability by operating over the

uncongested 60GHz frequency and using narrow beams which are immune to interference. Also supporting PoE, the Hikvision cameras can be wired directly into the Siklu radios eliminating the need for additional switching hardware. With the new infrastructure in place, Burnley Town Centre can focus on improving its public safety and begin to build the foundation for a modern smart city.

Installed by OpenView Security Solutions Ltd (OSS), a leading installer of wireless and CCTV infrastructure with offices throughout the U.K., OSS integrated the new cameras with the premium HikVision iVMS-5200 Professional to create a reliable surveillance network.

Upon realising that Burnley Town Centre needed an alternative wireless frequency because its existing traditional 5GHz infrastructure was associated with a high level of inter ference, OSS selected Siklu’s mmWave wireless network. As an added benefit, the project achieved further cost savings by significantly reducing and removing reoccurring leased line costs.

“Siklu’s best of breed wireless solutions enable the delivery of scalable and resilient network infrastructures that suppor t the provision of the highest level of ser vice,” says Andy Ward, sales director of OpenView Security Solutions. “The Lancashire hub CCTV centralisation project is now arguably one of the most advanced and robust networks in the country”.

“The Burnley town centre project with OpenView Security Solutions represents an innovative approach to delivering interference-free connectivity with significant cost savings,” adds Eyal Assa, CEO of Siklu. “We are excited to work with OpenView Security Solutions and to expand access to mmWave wireless networks across the U.K.” Siklu Inc, siklu.com

Gatwick upgrades to fastest Vodafone 4G speed of any UK airport Just how important is a fast and reliable network at an airport?

Statistics show that last year alone, customers travelling through Gatwick used enough data to download a staggering three million music tracks (averaging at a data consumption of 4MB per download).

Boasting a rise in passenger traffic, 7.7% in 2017 to be exact, Gatwick now offers Vodafone’s most reliable network ever and the fastest Vodafone 4G speeds of any UK airport. The major in-building modernisation programme across Gatwick’s North and South terminals, now allows passengers to enjoy download speeds of up to 200 megabits per second (Mbps).

Re-defining airport experiences, Gatwick installed 300 new mobile antennas and 46 kilometres of fibre optic cabling.

Providing the broad spectrum of passengers from tourists to businessmen (last year totalling 45 million) reliable network and significantly better signal strength. Accessibility to the network is said to be seamless, regardless of whether the passengers are just arriving at the airport or just stepping off their plane.

Notably though, it is not just passengers that will reap the 4G upgrade benefits, airport staff and other businesses on site will also benefit from improved coverage and a more reliable mobile service from Vodafone. Surrounding network areas outside the terminals have also been upgraded, delivering reliable coverage across all aircraft hangers, runways, car parks and other transport links.

10 | November 2017

With improvements due to support more than 250 companies situated on the airport campus, whose 24,000 employees depend on mobile communications to do their jobs. Cathal Corcoran, chief information officer, Gatwick Airport, affirmed, “Vodafone’s advanced 4G network is making it easier and faster for passengers to surf the web, use apps, watch videos or make internet calls. The majority of the 250 companies based on the Gatwick campus also benefit from this superfast 4G service, including those that rely heavily on mobile applications for their day to day business.”

Vodafone UK’s chief technology officer, Jorge Fernandes added, “Gatwick Airport had the foresight to invite us in at an early stage of their major development work so that we could install an integrated mobile network to match its worldclass facilities whilst minimising any disruption to passengers and employees. Our latest improvements will ensure all our customers using Gatwick can rely on us to stay connected from the minute they can switch on their mobile devices.”

Vodafone’s upgrades ensure that there is enough capacity to meet growing customer demand. Whether streaming online videos to entertain younger passengers in the departure lounges, checking bank balances online, or speaking with business contacts whilst waiting for a flight, the upgrade will, without doubt, improve airport experiences.

Further improvements to coverage throughout the airport will continue to be made during the next few months.

ON THE CASE

Vodafone: Plans to shakeup the UK broadband market are a go

A ‘completely connected Sweden’

Bringing the UK back up to speed by providing an alternative legacy network, Vodafone and CityFibre are set to build a fibre-to-the-premise (FTTP) broadband network that will serve as many as five million properties.

Construction work has been planned to start next year, and is set to deliver FTTP to one million homes and businesses by 2021. The first towns and cities to reap the benefits will be announced early next year, after which there is an arrangement to expand to four million more.

CityFibre will build and operate the network, while Vodafone will have a period of exclusive rights to use the network in exchange for a minimum commitment.

The Swedish government has upheld a vision of a ‘completely connected Sweden’ for some time now, releasing plans back in 2009 to complete its broadband strategy by 2025.

Identifying that increased globalisation, digitalisation, urbanisation and climate change are all connected to, or affected by the connected society – Sweden recognises the demand for a seamless broadband network spanning the entire country, creating a ‘world class’ competence and infrastructure.

Commissioning a fitting funding of SEK 150 million to the Board of Agriculture, Swedish Metro Network Association (SSNf) celebrated the governments confirmation its funding for Sweden’s rural broadband expansion.

With funding established, initial plans to target places with fewer residents can be put into notion – granted, that is as long as permits are accepted.

Back in May, the Swedish Government pledged to finally address its ever-prevalent broadband issues.

Being a sparsely populated and elongated country, many households and enterprises have had limited to no access to broadband; which, in an increasingly connected world reliant on the internet, proves a major issue.

In an attempt to improve broadband coverage, the Swedish government presented a somewhat ambitious broadband strategy, with the vision of providing coverage for everyone residing in Sweden. The three outlined goals are:

Vodafone CityFibre FTTP The benefits of the development are twofold, assisting CityFibre in establishing itself as a credible wholesale alternative to Openreach, accelerateing Vodafone’s FTTP ambitions, and free it from its dependency on BT. Recent entrant to the UK home broadband market, Vodafone, at present uses a combination of the Openreach network as its cable and wireless assets to deliver services. However, more recently, it has bought, built or part invested in ultrafast infrastructure in a number of countries including Spain, Italy and Ireland. As a result, Vodafone now claims to have a footprint of 99 million premises across the continent.

Nick Jeffery, CEO at Vodafone UK details, “Vodafone is already playing the leading role in building the Gigabit Society across Europe by providing customers with high-speed, high-quality broadband” Later adding, “The UK has fallen far behind the rest of the world, trapped by the limited choice available on legacy networks. We look forward to working with CityFibre to build the Gigabit fibre network that the UK needs and deserves.”

Notably, CityFibre does not operate any broadband services of its own and instead targets towns and cities outside London by building FTTP networks for ‘anchor’ tenants such as local councils or mobile operators and architects them in such a way that they can be extended to residential areas so capacity can be sold on a wholesale basis to ISPs. It claims this ‘demand-led’ approach de-risks investment.

It bought KCOM’s, national network outside of Hull and East Yorkshire, for £90 million in 2015. Together with Vodafone

as a major anchor tenant around the country, it hopes to fulfil its ambition of being a national challenger to Openreach.

“This agreement will unlock the UK’s full fibre future and is a major step forward in delivering our vision for a Gigabit Britain,” added CityFibre CEO Greg Mesch. “With this commitment from Vodafone, we have a partner with whom we can transform the digital capabilities of millions of homes and businesses and establish an unassailable wholesale infrastructure position across 20% of the UK broadband market.”

The development could have a knockon effect on Openreach’s consultation for a wide-scale rollout of FTTP. The newly-independent BT business had invited customers, including Vodafone, to participate following calls for Openreach to invest in the technology.

Meanwhile, the government has stated its preference is for a ‘full fibre’ Britain.

Openreach has committed to delivering ‘ultrafast’ broadband using a combination of FTTP and G.Fast – a technology which speeds up copper lines – to the majority of the UK within a decade.

“We welcome this news and the competition,” an Openreach spokesperson told Silicon. “As we’ve said consistently – investing in more Fibre-to-the-Premises technology across the UK will need commitment from the whole industry.

“For our part, we’ve invested more than £11bn over the last decade to upgrade Britain’s digital infrastructure – helping it to become the leading digital economy in the G20.

“We hope this plan to reach one million front doors by 2021 can complement our own programme of upgrading two million premises, which is already well under way. We have also been consulting our customers on an ambition to reach 10 million homes and businesses with FTTP by the mid-2020s, and we’ll give an update on that process before the end of this year.”

Vodafone vodafone.com

T o provide 95% of all household and businesses with access to at least 100 Megabits by 2020 F or all of Sweden to acquire fast high quality mobile services by 2023 F inally, access to super-fast broadband for the country by 2025 Amending the current Swedish rural development programme for 20142020, the government’s proposal now supports internet expansion throughout the entirety of the country; bringing the state’s investment in broadband expansion to SEK 4.25 billion.

The rural broadband support is set to target locations where it is not commercially viable to install a network. The Swedish government will refer its proposal to the European Commission for approval before it enters force.

November 2017 | 11

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5G sparks new possibilities Describing the 5G vision to be more prolific than initially realised, Lindsay Notwell, VP 5G Strategy at Cradlepoint, clarifies why both network and technology companies are excited to get a slice of the 5G pie.

T

here is certainly huge hype around 5G. Billed

by Qualcomm as a next generation network with the potential to be as transformative as electricity itself, both network operators and technology companies are excited to get a slice of the 5G pie.

It is the vision for this new 5G world – a combination of various technologies that will create the next generation wide area network (WAN) needed to support the world’s growing connectivity needs. The GSMA, which tracks the number of mobile devices worldwide, estimates that there are more than 5 billion mobile devices being used by people

12 | November 2017

around the world. This represents 93% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) since mobile phones were introduced in the early 1980s. By the end of 2017, analyst company predicts the number of connected ‘things’ globally will reach 8.4 billion, projecting 21 billion by the year 2020.

The next generation WAN will have all the features of 4G, plus capacity for massive mobile data. It will offer the voice, video and mobile data features of 3G. It will include Wi-Fi spectrum, and offer 2G-like for Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity and long battery life. With virtually zero latency and gigabit throughput, these features will together form the next generation 5G WAN.

Work in progress As this vision becomes clearer, so does the realisation that it will be some time before this technology becomes a full reality. We are still in a pre-standards phase for 5G. But whilst an agreed specification is not expected until 2019, network operators are already conducting 5G trials today using pre-standard architecture – in the hopes of driving the full standard, and being first to market.

On e n ew te c h n o l o g y b ei n g u se d i s ‘ m i l l i met re wave’ sp e ct r u m , a ve r y h i g h freq uen cy sp e ct r u m ra n g i n g f ro m 6 to 10 0 G Hz – w h i c h i s mo s t ef fecti ve fo r p o i nt - to - p o i nt w i reles s co m mu n i c at i o n . T h e sp ectrum

THE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK ef fe ct i vely ca rries data , b u t i s i nad eq uate in its q ues t to penet rate s olid o bj ects . O nc e spe c i fi catio n is s et, o p e rato r s a re bei ng able to combin e m il l im et re wave spectrum with s u b - 6G H z spe ct r um, which is what a l l Lo ngTe r m Evo l utio n (4G LTE) a nd Wi- F i are d e pl o yed in toda y. Wh il s t t hi s carries les s data , i t is m u c h bet te r fo r penetratin g b u il d ings and provides s ta nda rd s fo r c e l l si te handof f.

Operators now test prespecification; however, this is only a temporary solution with a few restrictions. The current 5G trials include no interoperability between carriers and no mobility – so it’s good for Fixed Wireless Access, but widespread 5G device adoption is still a long way off. The potential benefits of 5G technology, nevertheless, are huge: less latency with more throughput, connection density, spectrum efficiency, traffic capacity, and network efficiency — all of which is achievable within the next couple of years.

Bigger, better, faster The ultra-low latency requirements of 5G will cause operators to re-architect current networks, distributing their centralised routing engines to the network edge. In addition, the IoT industry, which primarily occupies the low bitrate range, is expecting new standards such as NB-IoT, CAT-M1 and CAT1, enabling lower cost devices with longer battery life and further reach.

To manage the next generation network, companies will need to consider the value of hardware combined with software-defined networking (SDN) technology.

Enabling this on the next generation 5G WAN will be a fundamental framework that securely connects all of the people and IoT devices around the world, while providing the capacity to process the huge volumes of data being generated.

M a n y o rga n i s at i o n s a re a l re a d y d e p l o y i n g S D N to i n c re a s e b a n d w i d t h a n d l owe r co s t s i n t h e i r co r p o rate n et wo r k s . T h i s f u n d a m e nta l l y c h a n ge s n ot j u s t h ow n et wo r k s a re b u i l t a n d m a n a ge d , b u t h ow t h e y evo l ve . I t m a ke s n et wo r k s

m o re a g i l e a n d ef f i c i e nt , e n a b l i n g n ew f u n ct i o n a l i t y to b e d e p l o y e d o n a m u c h m o re a g i l e b a s i s , rat h e r t h a n o n a h a rd wa re co n s t ra i n e d t i m e l i n e .

This will be crucial in delivering the vision of 5G, which has the potential to make a real impact in life-saving areas and applications.

The reduced latency will transform areas such as remote surgery, where remote controlled robotics can be controlled wirelessly in real-time. These applications are currently limited to a wired environment; 5G will extend highperformance connectivity to a wide array of devices. 5G will be more than just higher speeds and lower latency; it will offer the higher connection density central to IoT maturity.

For IoT to reach its fullest potential, intelligence, processing power and communication capabilities need to travel quickly and effortless across networks, mobile devices and connected sensors. But new, software-based networks will be needed to handle 5G’s throughput capabilities and massive scalability.

“New softwarebased networks will be needed to handle 5G’s throughput capabilities and massive scalability.”

A wide reach

The information superhighway T h e a m o u nt of data b e i n g ge ne rate d b y Io T d ev i c e s i s a l re a d y growing si g n i f i c a nt l y fa s te r t h a n t h e ab i l i t y of t h e net wo r k to p ro c ess i t . 5 G wil l o nl y m a ke t h i s p ro b l e m ex p o ne nt ia l l y wor se .

The cloud is a vital part of the IoT ecosystem for its ability to store, process and analyse data at a massive scale, but the substantial increase in data generation from IoT poses both infrastructure and economic problems. Rather than trying to move all this data to the cloud, we need to find ways of moving data processing intelligence to the source of the data – before it hits the cloud. Edge Computing – otherwise known as Fog Computing – will pay a key role here. This brings some of the processing to where the data is generated, rather than moving all of the data to the cloud to be processed.

Bringing computing power to the edge of the network helps address the challenge of data build-up, mostly in closed IoT systems. The ultimate goal is to

minimise cost and latency, and to control network bandwidth. A major benefit is the reduction of data needing to be stored in the cloud. It costs around £3,000 per petabyte for long-term cloud storage and around 10 times that for real-time access storage.

Being able to use a technology to reduce these costs is a real benefit for businesses.

T h i s a l so re d u c e s the lag t h at c a n o cc u r b et we en data t ra n sm i ssi o n , p ro c e ssi n g, an d t h e a ct i o n re q u i re d at the en d.

Fo r exa m p l e , si n c e c l oud data c e nt re s c a n b e h u n d reds – i f n ot t h o u sa n d s – of m i les away f ro m a co n n e cte d d ev i ce, thi s ro u n d - t r i p l ate n c y c a n b e ten s to h u n d re d s of m i l l i se con ds .

Fo r I o T u se c a se s l i ke rob oti c co nt ro l , a u to n o m o u s vehi cles a n d p re c i si o n m a n u fa cturi n g, i n c re a se d l ate n c y at thes e levels c a n b e a re l at i ve l i fet i me. B ri n gi n g co mp u t i n g p owe r to t h e edge of t h e n et wo r k c a n re duce the c y c l e to j u st a few mi lli s econ ds .

The 5G vision has the potential to make a real impact in life-saving areas and applications.

For IoT to reach its full potential, intelligence, processing power and communication capabilities need to travel quickly and effortless across networks, mobile devices and connected sensors.

While there are many components, 5G will be a central part of this solution. It could be the light at the end of the tunnel for unlimited wireless network bandwidth and per formance.

While the specification is yet to come, the vision for 5G is set, and it will likely be more prolific than anything we’ve seen before.

November 2017 | 13

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Embracing the new WAN Specifying that resellers need to embrace the seismic shift in WAN, Simon Pamplin, EMEA technical director at Silver Peak, details the benefits of SD-WAN.

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he adoption of virtualisation and cloud in the enterprise, along with readily available high-performance broadband connectivity, are fuelling the adoption of softwaredefined WAN (SD-WAN) solutions.

While traditional router-centric WAN architectures, utilising private MPLS circuits, have proven reliable in the past, they are now evidencing to be costly and ineffective in connecting users in branch offices directly to cloud applications. This is largely because traditional WAN architectures were never designed with cloud-based applications in mind. With an SD-WAN, enterprises c an strea mlin e co nn ect io ns u t i li si ng broa dba n d, s im p l if y IT operatio ns a n d dra m at ic a l l y lower co s ts . Geog ra phi c a l l y di st r i buted orga n is atio ns a re tu r ni ng to the cha nn el to h e l p the m m a ke the tra n s itio n. A s su c h, i t’ s up to the rese l l e r s to fu lly e mbra ce this s eism ic s h if t in w i d e area networking .

The move to SD-WAN With the ubiquitous availability of lower-cost broadband connectivity – which hasn’t been available until now because it lacked scale, reliability and security required to support business applications – businesses can now utilise any combination of transport, including Broadband, LTE or MPLS, to connect branch and remote location users to applications, while maintaining the highest levels of performance and reliability.

With an SD-WAN, it’s possible for a worker in a branch office to connect directly to cloud-based applications for almost all their daily activities, such as email and reporting, without backhauling traffic from the branch to the headquarters.

14 | November 2017

“As organisations adopt a cloud-first IT strategy, traditional routercentric WAN architectures will only become more cumbersome to manage and maintain.”

Furthermore, SD-WAN can solve the problem of unnecessary office infrastructure and time to market. With MPLS, the pain of getting new remote offices up and running through service providers results in severe downtime, which, in turn, can affect the bottom line. With SD-WAN, companies can non-disruptively augment or replace their MPLS networks with any form of readily available internet connectivity. What’s more, businesses can do this at their own pace – whether they move to a full broadband WAN, or take the hybrid approach.

Regaining visibility and control As a growing number of Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications and cloud services are being accessed by employees, companies are now able to improve user experience and productivity by connecting branch users directly to cloud applications.

However, this can lead to network visibility and control being sacrificed, as network managers lose control of what’s happening on the network. SD-WAN enables companies to regain control, providing a holistic WAN view through network performance metrics, including bandwidth, utilisation, latency and loss.

For widely dispersed organisations with smaller branch sites, having a centrally orchestrated SD-WAN solution is a must for ease of control and network flexibility. Additionally, SD-WAN provides businesses the opportunity to centrally implement network-wide business-intent policies, instead of making traditional error-prone manual branch-by-branch policy changes.

With maximum visibility across the network and real-time information broken down into useful metrics, organisations can prioritise business-critical applications and maintain service levels for latency sensitive applications such as voice or video conferencing.

Why resellers need to embrace the new WAN As organisations adopt a cloud-first IT strategy, traditional router-centric WAN architectures will only become more cumbersome to manage and maintain. Resellers should therefore educate businesses on the benefits of SD-WAN before companies become constrained by the complexity of an MPLS-based WAN. Indeed, it’s increasingly becoming the channel’s responsibility to make businesses aware that SD-WAN can help connect users to applications via the most effective form of connectivity, whether that’s Broadband, LTE, MPLS, as well as maintain a high level of visibility and control over the network and applications.

In addition, SD-WAN provides organisations with added agility, allowing them to quickly open new branch offices, with minimal impact to the network. Ultimately, with so much to capitalise on, the channel should embrace the SD-WAN network revolution and encourage organisations to follow suit.

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Rising connectivity spurs smart home innovation Emerging from the hype cycle into the clearer waters of innovation and growth, Thomas Rockman, VP connected home, Deutsche Telekom, delves into the future of the smart home industry.

P

rogressing through the initial teething stages, it is certainly an exciting time in the smart home industry.

There are significant advances occurring across the board, from community-based improvements, technological change and consumer education. In short, when analysts predict that the market could grow from $46.97 billion in 2015 to $121.73 billion by 2022, at a CAGR of 14.07% between 2016 and 2022, that now seems conservative.

16 | November 2017

By tapping into the emerging business models, it is now easier than ever for companies in all sectors to achieve success with their smart home propositions.

In fact, the keys to the smart home kingdom are very simple – collaboration, striking the right partnerships, promoting open standards and seeking innovation to deliver a clear customer benefit that resonates, are the main elements. Most users begin their smart home journey with a single use case that, once satisfied, grows laterally as they upgrade

to further services, devices and discover new use cases – it is essential that the first experiences are exceptional.

Smart security, energy and comfort New business models are cropping up across Europe, and the most successful of all deliver compelling smar t home propositions. One example among many is Slovak Telekom, the largest telco in Slovakia. More recently, it rolled out a consumer

THE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK offering with an initial focus on protection and monitoring, energy conser vation and home automation. It combines the open standards-based Deutsche Telekom QIVICON plat form, the QIVICON Home Base, the white label app and compatible devices from various manufacturers - a flexible package that emphasises that one size very rarely fits all.

Deutsche Telekom’s smar t home por t folio offers more than 200 compatible devices from leading brands and covers a wide range of uses including security, energy and comfor t, which enables par tners to easily create and integrate a compelling consumer smar t home proposition.

AI revolution in the smart home The pace of technological innovation is incredibly rapid – what was perceived as science fiction a few years ago, is now commonplace in today’s connected home market. For example, a Gartner report predicts that 25% of households will use digital assistants as the primary interface to connected home services by 2019, and this is certain to be just the beginning.

By blending together devices and services from multiple sources, accessed via the AI overlay, consumers are again divorced from the intricacies of technology, and freed up to live their lives.

For example, a simple Alexa Skill means that Magenta SmartHome customers in Germany can use voice control service in their homes to activate pre-programmed situations or switch over to the status ‘Absent’.

T he very n ea r future wil l b r ing a host of more s ophis tic ate d benefi ts to end us ers , a s we l l as allow new bus in es s m o d e l s to blossom. Individua l ind u s t r ie s wi ll be abl e to inte grate o r cre ate applicatio n pro gra m m ing i nte r faces (AP Is) a nd th u s e nte r t he sma r t ho me ma rket wit h t h e ir se r vi c es via this n ew ch a nne l .

Take i ns ura n ce co mpa n ie s a s an exampl e, they ma y p rov id e gu i d ance ba s ed o n weat h e r o r t her mos tat data , while b a nk s cou ld u s e voice inter fac e s to help c us to mers ma n a ge t h e ir fi nanc es a nd pa y their b il l s qu i ck ly a nd ea s ily.

The rise of connected cars on roads in Europe presents no signs of stopping.

The connected car comes of age Meanwhile, transport networks are ringing in the changes too, as similar driving forces transform consumer expectations and begin to shape the towns and cities we live in. Connected cars may not be a new concept, but the number of them on our roads in Europe are fast rising, presenting no signs of stopping. This new platform represents one of the greatest untapped potential opportunities to deliver new services direct to the consumer – almost unparalleled in modern society. From the burgeoning range of consumer digital services, including entertainment, digital payments, mapping and navigation, communications, productivity applications across verticals from health to finance, and a significant wave of mobility services, connected vehicles are one of the newest and most numerous software platforms around.

One example is Deutsche Telekom’s partnership with Volkswagen, which centres around Volkswagen’s Car-Net App Connect, recently showcased at the IFA technology show in Berlin (September 1-6).

The integration means that car owners

can seamlessly control their Magenta SmartHome, which is based on Deutsche Telekom’s open, white label smart home platform, while away from home.

Volkswagen drivers will be able to control their Magenta SmartHome directly via their vehicle’s infotainment system. Using the control panel, the driver can activate or turn off pre-set scenarios while driving. For instance, in the scenario of ‘coming home’: the lights in the driveway and house entrance turn on automatically when the vehicle approaches, as the Magenta SmartHome app connects to the vehicle.

All they need is an Android smartphone with MirrorLink technology and the Volkswagen Car-Net App-Connect.

Meanwhile, the rise of the sharing economy brings obvious in-car monetisation possibilities – why pay for parking when a nearby family needs to rent a car for an hour? Extending current ride-share and short-term car rental offerings into real-time is already underway and will reach a consumer level in the immediate future.

Into the near future?

One thing is absolutely certain, that connectivity levels will continue to rise, and the inspirational lead of smart home enterprise will continue to spur parallel industries to compete. There are many more potential business models making their debut as we speak today, but the near future will certainly see models including facets of gamification, microtransactions, affiliate programmes and data aggregation begin to enter the market. These dynamic riffs on existing themes will have

“What was perceived as science fiction a few years ago, is now commonplace in today’s connected home market.”

considerable impact on a wide range of consumer markets, but it is also fair to strike a note of caution – challenges certainly remain in this space as well as opportunities.

Interoperability and standardisation remains a live issue, while regulatory pressures and content licensing, personal data security and national cybersecurity all require careful negotiation from manufacturers, installers and consumers alike.

However, the opportunities far outweigh the challenges – it’s set to be an exciting couple of years.

November 2017 | 17

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Key conversational concept Exploring the concept of conversational IoT, Jim Hunter, chief scientist and technology evangelist at Greenwave System, bridges the gap between human and ‘thing’.

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o i c e re co g n i t i o n te c h n o l o g y i s a ke y t re n d e m e rg i n g w i t h i n the IoT space.

Acco rd i n g to Pa r k s A s s o c i ate s ’ 3 6 0 V i ew : M o b i l i t y a n d t h e A p p Eco n o m y re p o r t , 3 9 % of s m a r t p h o n e ow n e r s i n t h e U S a l re a d y u s e s o m e s o r t of vo i c e re co g n i t i o n s of t wa re . T h i s u s e i s ex p e cte d to g row, w i t h a n a l y s t s M a r ket s a n d M a r ket s p re d i ct i n g t h e s p e e c h a n d vo i c e re co g n i t i o n m a r ket w i l l b e wo r t h U S $ 1 8 . 3 0 B i l l i o n b y 2 0 23 . I o T d ev i c e m a n u fa ct u re r s a re a l re a d y e m b ra c i n g t h e te c h n o l o g y a n d n u m e ro u s p ro d u ct s a re b e i n g launched. This is especially true in the smart home space, with s y s te m s p ro m i s i n g to e n h a n c e h o m e s e c u r i t y , co nt ro l l i g ht i n g a n d h e at i n g , a n d m o re . S o , w h at i s vo i c e re co g n i t i o n te c h n o l o g y , h ow d o e s i t wo r k a n d d o e s i t h ave t h e p ote nt i a l to ta ke I o T to g l o b a l m a s s m a r ket s tat u s ?

18 | November 2017

Derivation of Conversational IoT In its most basic form, voice recognition is a computer software program or hardware device that can decode the human voice.

It achieves this by recognising speech patterns, converting them into a text format that the program or device understands, enabling it to carry out a specific action.

The voice command is then stored on a database, meaning that the same command will, in the future, produce the same outcome.

However, there are drawbacks to this functionality, with one of the main ones being the specific nature of how a ‘thing’ speaks.

The ‘thing,’ which, for example, could be your smartphone, requires a very specific, codebased message and short piece of data that it recognises to perform the command. With code-based messages, the exchange between a human and a ‘thing’ has no context.

They are just standalone messages.

Therein lies the fundamental issue

with voice recognition today, a human’s communication tends to be predominately story-telling based.

While we are seeing vast improvements in voice recognition technology, namely as a result of JSON code and XML code, which brings code closer to the human language, using code will always have limitations – conversation is very much informational instead of supporting a narrative.

This is where the concept of conversational IoT comes into play.

Human to ‘thing’ communication Conversational IoT is a conversation between a person and a ‘thing’ that has context instead of just standalone messages. It is this concept that really needs to happen in order to drive the IoT forward. After all, our lives are a constant conversation, so why shouldn’t our technology be a part of that?

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So far, the industry has been attempting to bridge the conversation between ‘things’ and people by making one or the other adapt their language. For example, people are getting more tech-savvy, the understanding of technical language is broadening – so, one of many ideas was to make people speak ‘thing’.

While this is ok for people who understand the terminology, it can complicate things for a large part of the market who are not as technologically literate. This produces a usability gap, where products are bought but quickly forgotten and thrown into the cupboard due to their complexity.

The industry has also attempted to address the aforementioned matter by getting things to speak a human language, but this has also failed due to fragmentation. Manufacturers are creating technology in their own way so conversations are different from device to device, with one word meaning something to one vendor’s product and something entirely different to another.

While many in the industry will point towards standardisation to address the problem, this is a long way off from being agreed.

So, one more piece of the conversation remains – the process. This has the power to bridge the conversation between people and things by introducing new breeds of software, such as cloud or fog, and embedding these technologies into the device to enable artificial intelligence, machine learning and chat boxes, to create interactive experiences.

It can also enable analytics, such as visual analytics for recognition – much like we are seeing with smart cars – and voice analytics for understanding natural languages.

Bridging the gap Ultimately, the process will bridge people and things together, enabling a significant step towards achieving mass market adoption. If a machine can have context, it can understand and address natural language and answer contextual questions like who, what, where, when and how. The process can also embrace storytelling, it has a memory and can connect the dots.

This can create a more informal conversation, making the whole experience much simpler than anything on the market today.

Conversational IoT can go further, by informing authorities that a fire has started at the house instead of relying on the owner of the property to contact them.

Conversational IoT has already been put to good use on devices like the Google Home Mini…

When you put this into the context of smart homes, a standalone conversation where a person has told an IoT device to turn a light on in a hallway can be enhanced. It can recognise nouns in the sentence and turn on all the lights at the same time, as opposed to one per command. As the process has added memory, it can also correctly respond to a command such as turn them off later, without needing the noun to be reiterated.

The process can also allow a conversation to be started by a device. For example, if a household’s fire detectors sensed that smoke and heat was coming from a certain area of the house, the process can detect the location and key words to form a message. If the user was away from the home, this key message could be translated into text and could then be sent to the user informing them of the fire.

Conversational IoT can also go further, by informing authorities that a fire has started at the house instead of relying on the owner of the property to contact them.

This changes the game because conversation can go further than just voice. If manufacturers can use the process to bridge the usability gap, they can transform the voice recognition we have today into a conversation and make the IoT something that truly enhances everyday life.

November 2017 | 19

THE KNOWLEDGE NETWORK

Mission possible Paul Ward, international sales director at ETELM, manufacturer of mission critical communications infrastructures, says smart cities need smart solutions for critical communications and security.

W

e are living through extraordinary times, where rapid technological advancements and developments are commonplace around the world. These developments are being driven by consumer demands, combined with new industry standards.

Regardless of what is driving

20 | November 2017

these changes, the outcome is the same: these developments have the potential to impact every aspect of our lives; changing the way we work, think, act, and even live.

Ra p i d d eve l o p m e nt s b r i n g a n a r ra y o f o p p o r t u n i t i e s a n d c h a l l e n ge s . M i s s i o n C r i t i c a l C o m m u n i c at i o n s ( M CC ) s o l u t i o n s p rov i d e r s m u s t e n s u re l e ga c y a n d p re - ex i s t i n g

i n f ra s t r u ct u re c a n ke e p p a c e with the demands being placed o n t h e m , w h i l e s i m u l ta n e o u s l y f u t u re - p ro o f i n g n ew s o l u t i o n s a n d i n f ra s t r u ct u re s to e n s u re t h e c h a l l e n ge s o f to d a y a re n ot re p l i c ate d i n t h e f u t u re .

A l t h o u g h re l at i ve l y u n k n ow n to c o n s u m e r s , M CC i n f ra s t r u ct u re s a re ke e p i n g t h e m s a fe , a n d h ave b e c o m e d e p e n d e nt u p o n te c h n o l o g y .

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“Although relatively unknown to consumers, MCC infrastructures are keeping them safe, and have become dependent upon technology.”

The tech of the future has to be planned for now and not be include as an afterthought

As smart cities pop up around the world, it is important that MCC infrastructures are inbuilt during the initial planning, development, and design phase, rather than being an afterthought.

This is the only way to ensure smart cities become safe cities.

As blue light services continue to face increasingly challenging and complex situations, there is a need to bridge the channels

between individual services, so they may come together and act as one, while utilising advanced applications.

The aim for any safe city is to implement MC technology with longevity, based on nonproprietary technology, which can introduce new and advanced functionality. Although consumer demands are driving change within the mobile communications industry, the need for industry is shaping the path of technologies.

Standards are bringing organisations together, creating minimum requirements to ensure protection for consumers and manufacturers, while paving the way for interoperability. Factors behind this include; the volume of converging technologies and the platforms on which they operate, the IoT, connected homes, smart applications and 5G. For the last 15 years, TETRA has been the dominant narrowband technology of choice for MCC users, because of the need for interoperability between subscribers and the fact that mission critical features and functionality were standardised for all vendors. While there are many benefits of TETRA, including the security it offers, being a narrowband technology, it can only provide limited data services.

The need for high speed, mobile services, and smart applications is evident, not only in our day-to-day lives, but within critical industries such as; blue light services, aviation, oil and gas, mining, security, and transport. Within these industries, the environment can often be changeable, and challenging.

Reliability, without compromise, is essential. However, as these users seek MCC options offering faster and upgraded services, TETRA simply cannot keep pace.

Welcome LTE LTE offers new broadband and data-hungry possibilities; however, it brings its own challenges. At present, there is a major drive by 3GPP to introduce more MC standards by working with users and manufacturers to ensure services are adopted internationally. The process of standardisation is a long one – it takes time for standards to be tested and vendors to implement enhancements. While LTE is currently being utilised with consumers in mind, it is expected to take around five to seven years to reach full maturity for MC users, although certain features will be implemented sooner.

The ideal scenario in the meantime, is one in which LTE and TETRA work together, rather than replace each other. This enables legacy equipment and infrastructure to be revitalised, without the expense of costly upgrades each time a new technology becomes available.

It also utilises the reliability and robustness of TETRA, combined with the new broadband services available through LTE. It should be noted that a ‘one sized fits all’ approach to MCC won’t work because it is simply too rigid to meet the ever-changing needs of MC users.

There are many technologies for smart device communications (LoRA, Zigbee, SigFox, and LTE), however, the technology which will eventually become the dominant solution will be determined by market forces. Arguably, private LTE is the only solution that can provide multiple services, and the level of criticality required, and indeed expected, by MC users, along with the added benefit of being able to add narrowband IoT services.

ETELM +33 (0)169 317 900, etelm.fr

November 2017 | 21

PROJECT FOCUS

Intelligent lighting systems promote better safety as well

Light it up!

IoT specialist Eseye has been working with lighting maker Mayflower to provide a 21st century solution for the management of street lighting, which sees a reduction of the carbon footprint for local authorities. The same tech partnerships are also paving the way for smart city developments such as weather monitoring and assisting refuse collection. NCN takes a look.

M

a y f l owe r p rov id e s a 21 s t c e nt u r y s o l u t io n fo r t h e m a na ge m e nt of exte r io r l ight ing a nd a s s o c iate d il l uminat io n e qu ip m e nt . T h e ma ke r s a y s it s p ro d u ct s of fer d y na m ic a nd m a na ge d s mar t s t re et l ight ing a nd fa cilitate p ro a ct ive re m ote es tate m a na ge m e nt a nd co s t redu ct io ns . T h is a l s o re s u l t s in a redu ct io n of t h e c a r b o n fo ot p r int

22 | November 2017

of l o c a l a u t h o r i t i e s i n t h e d e l i ve r y of t h e i r se r v i c e s.

In addition to targeted maintenance, accurate electricity metering and dimming of individual or groups of lights, Mayflower’s connected devices offer many other opportunities for smart city applications. These include environment and weather monitoring, monitoring and assisting in refuse collection, parking, road surface temperature sensing and beacon and traffic counting.

IoT in action Local Authorities control street lights remotely from a web based user inter face and messages travel from the back-office application, via a GSM connection, to a gateway unit (referred to as a Sub Master). The Sub Master then uses ZigBee connectivity to deliver messages to around 500 individual lights. This process is reversed to report important data back to the customer and their field maintenance teams.

PROJECT FOCUS The M2M vision May flower wa s o riginal l y u s ing a local s ing l e network S IM card acro s s its con necte d produ ct ra nge, which la c ke d t he sc a la bil ity, s ecurity a nd reli abi li ty the co mpa n y wa nte d to of fe r i ts cus tomers . In t h e e a r l y nou ghties , at the very b e ginning of t he I o T revolutio n, M a y f l owe r i d e nt i fi ed the potentia l advanta ges a centra ll y co nt ro l l e d and mon ito red s ys tem fo r p u b l ic li ghti ng in s ta ll ation s wou l d b r ing.

Af ter devel o pment, trial l ing a nd i ni ti al d eplo yment, M a yf l owe r be gan to lo o k fo r wa ys to e ns u re t hi s vi sion wa s more ef fe ct ive l y connected. The s olutio n wa s relat i vel y s imple to imp l e m e nt , bu t lacked univers a l cove ra ge .

Mayfl ower wa nted to im p rove t he covera ge a nd res ilie nc e of i t s pro pos ition a nd s o u ght a spe c i a lis t M 2M provid e r of ce llu lar co nn ectivity. Af te r evalu atio n, Es eye wa s c h o s e n as a ke y M a yfl ower cel l u l a r connectivity pa r tner.

The systems stay connected and mean less maintenance runs

Improved safety and security with decreased costs M a y f l owe r ’ s s w i tc h , f ro m s i n g l e n et wo r k S I M c a rd s to E s e y e ’ s A n y N et m u l t i - I M S I / O p e rato r S I M , i m m e d i ate l y e n h a n c e d t h e v i s i b i l i t y a n d m a n a ge m e nt c o nt ro l of a s s et s . Pe r fo r m a n c e wa s i m p rove d a c ro s s t h e w h o l e e s tate , g i v i n g c o m fo r t to re s i d e nt s a n d ro a d u s e r s w h o re l y o n s t re et l i g h t i n g fo r t h e i r s afet y . T h e o p e rat i n g c o s t s a n d c a r b o n fo ot p r i nt of l i g h t i n g h a s a l s o b e e n re d u c e d w i t h ta rgete d a n d p re d i ct i ve m a i nte n a n c e a n d t h e re m ova l of t h e n e e d fo r ‘night scouting’.

AnyNet’s roaming capabilities also provides Mayflower with reassu ra n ce that the S u b Master is a lwa ys in cel l u l a r coverage, removin g the ne e d for costl y R F en gineer c e l l u l a r su r veys a n d mul tipl e co nt ra ct s and multipl e bil l s .

Mayflower has also utilised Eseye’s expertise in resolving areas of complexity within the initial phases of project. With trial units deployed, Eseye and Mayflower worked together closely to ensure modem compatibility issues were resolved.

Lighting up the globe A further significant advantage of the AnyNet single SIM is its simple global, zonal billing. This gives Mayflower a connectivity solution on which to market its IoT products overseas, with competitive and pre-defined pricing.

Patrick Mitchell, managing director at Mayflower says: “We are very pleased that our integration with Eseye has been so fruitful. We are happy to be able to offer a highly reliable solution, thanks to the connectivity. This allows us to become a truly international player

in the connected street lighting field and smart city applications.”

Ian Marsden, CTO at Eseye, says: “The possibilities in smart city development are endless, but to achieve its full potential, exceptional managed connectivity is essential.

That’s why we are proud to work with Mayflower – a company that is at the forefront of the smart city movement and understands the importance of secure and reliable M2M connectivity.”

Mayflower 0345 076 7664, mayflowercontrol.com Eseye 01483 802501, eseye.com

Local authorities can significantly improve their service and save money

November 2017 | 23

GREEN IT

The smart money is on change Michael Akinla, TSE manager EMEA, Panduit Europe, examines how intelligent infrastructure is driving IT facility costs down and looks at the monitoring and analysis route to efficient energy usage within the data centre white space.

T

he needs of the data centre operator and IT facilities controller are changing. Previously, it was a situation of ‘up at any cost’ and hardware overcapacity and high power use were the default position. High energy use was a necessary weakness in this strategy, costing operators and end-users large sums of money in wasted energy, system downtime and maintenance.

Today however, advances in server, storage, switch and infrastructure technology together with intelligent monitoring systems and millions of hours of facility analysis allows energy efficient systems to dramatically reduce operational expenditure benefiting the operator and user with cheaper energy costs, and higher performance solutions.

Optimising the white space Understanding the utilisation of the cabinets within a white space is essential in maximising the effectiveness of the layout and the efficiencies that can be generated in respect of power, cooling and connectivity. When we discuss data centre white space, we mean the server, switch and data storage area, which also house the air handling equipment to those cabinets.

What is evident from recent industry research is that the cost of outages, and their frequency, is rising. Recent outages at a data centre used by Wikipedia shut down the site for hours, whilst Microsoft’s Outlook email service

24 | November 2017

was shut down for 16-hours due to an unplanned outage. Both these incidents were caused by data centre servers overheating and the servers’ automated systems shutting down.

As data has become an increasingly valuable corporate asset, the requirement to develop systems that guarantee data availability and delivery have led more board-level IT decisions toward standards-based solutions. In parallel, most major IT hardware systems providers have increased their hardware operating temperatures, guaranteeing maximum performance is maintained at higher equipment temperatures. This is one way that the industry has reacted to reduce the numerous cases of overheating and providing superior performance characteristics within the system.

International standards such as ASHREA TC 9.9, ETSI EN 300 and EN 50600-2-3 are driving acceptance of best practice in white space and data centre environments. For example, ASHRAE TC 9.9, provides a framework for compliance and determining suitable Information Technology Environments (ITE), with policies and guidelines for data processing environments.

Air pressure management is also an essential component in a robust and effective airflow management and cooling system within the data centre white space.

Environmental monitoring across the data centre is providing data, analysis and actionable intelligence allowing operators to drive up efficiency and reduce

energy consumption. Modular thermal efficiency DCIM solutions which utilise temperature and pressure to control the white space environment provide clear targeting criteria to achieve operator goals and can offer potentially cost neutral systems, together with on-going savings.

Industry and customer requirements are driving data centre operators towards implementing environmental monitoring capabilities. Currently there are significant differences in implementation between ‘strategic’ and ‘basic’ data centres. However, the cost and environmental benefits for employing an intelligent monitoring system, especially within modular asset and connectivity management solutions, is providing an engaging argument.

Energy saving Data centres are energy intensive undertakings. Operating a white space with hundreds or thousands of servers uses vast amounts of energy and generates a great deal of heat, that in turn, must be dealt with. It is not unusual for the cooling system of a facility to use as much, or possibly more, energy than the white space it supports. Today, a well-designed white space with a monitored and controllable cooling system may use a greatly reduced level of energy. In many cases, the latest developments in thermal planning, monitoring and cooling optimisation are saving hundreds of thousands of pounds in energy

GREEN IT

costs, as well as pre-empting problems and providing a more resilient and reliable data centre.

The previous widespread concept was to create a cool environment where hot equipment (servers, storage and switches) would have cold air passed across the live surface and the hot exhaust drawn away. This HVAC solution required a great deal of energy to reduce the ‘Air Inlet’ temperature, to that needed to lower the temperature across the hot equipment, whilst the hot exhaust is then often expelled and wasted.

Today’s white space processing equipment has higher operating temperatures, therefore this has allowed the data centre industry to develop

alternative cooling methods which take advantage of intelligent environments. The warmer the white space operational temperature, the less energy is needed to equalise the ‘Air Inlet’ temperature. Device Inlet temperatures between 1827°C and 20-80% relative humidity (RH) will usually meet the manufacturers operational criteria. What does become increasingly impor tant is the capability to monitor and control the Recommended Environmental Range, including temperature and relative humidity (RH) and to maintain an Allowable Environmental Envelope, where the systems are operating at optimum per formance.

Operating within a higher temperature environment means that the HPC (high performance computing) servers are working closer to their maximum operational characteristics. If for example, a massive spike in processor activity were to take place, and many more servers are brought online to cope with the capacity, while at the same time a generator fails and the UPS back up is not 100% efficient, this could lead to cooler fans not coming online quickly enough and the servers overheating and shutting down. As we discussed above, unplanned outage can cost the data centre revenue in terms of customer compensation, damaged reputation and future customer contracts.

November 2017 | 25

GREEN IT

Airflow Management & Cooling-System Control ASHREA TC 9.9 Guidelines 1. C abinet/Rack level – Instrument and monitor the inlet temperature and Relative Humidity (RH) for racks and cabinets at the bottom, middle and top of the cabinet, maintaining a specified recommended (18-27°C) as well as allowable (15-32°C) thermal ranges 2. C ontainment level – With a cold aisle containment system, the hot aisle temperature can be in the range up to 50°C; instrument and monitor the outlet temperature at the top of the rack and cabinet. When using hot aisle containment system, then temperatures across the room must be monitored 3. D ata Hall level – Humidity and temperature needs to be monitored near each CRAC/CRAH at the Supply and Return. Relative humidity is recommended at 60% RH and allowable at 20% to 80% RH 4. A ir flow Management & Cooling-System Control – Airflow management and cooling-system control strategy should be implemented. With good air flow management, server temperature rise can be up to 20°C; with inlet temperature of 40°C the hot aisle could be 60°C

What is required to safeguard optimal performance is the capability to intelligently monitor the white space thermal environment and analyse the data generated in real-time to provide actionable intelligence to maintain effective white space operations.

There are three distinct levels that data centre operators need to consider and implement, in order to deploy an environmental monitoring and cooling optimisation solution.

M onitoring – alarms and notification – ASHREA provides guidelines for sensor distribution within the ITE white space. The latest wireless sensors offer thermal, thermal with humidity, and pressure nodes. These are easily configured on a wireless mesh network and allow for simple, fast and secure device deployment, offering a highly resilient self-healing, scalable and efficient sensor network.

26 | November 2017

ooling Optimisation – air flow C remediation and floor balancing – Designing the air flow metrics, employing CFD allows modelling of environmental scenarios in line with the operator’s goals.

Utilising blanking plates and evaluating containment options and installing per forated floor tiles to ensure optimised air pressure across the critical pathway. Using real-time cooling mapping software to provide heat maps of the white space.

H VAC control and dynamically matching cooling to IT load.

Real-time data analysis across the system allows for actionable intelligence. The system constantly analyses data to improve airflow management to reduce energy use. Realtime control allows the system to dynamically maintain the optimised state through airflow management via fan speed adjustment, using pressure nodes for readings, and air temperature management via temperature set point adjustment using temperature monitoring.

A Customer found itself in the situation where it was reaching its power and cooling constraint limits and was faced with the prospect of building a new data centre to meet growing demand. When the white space utilisation was analysed with a DCIM system, it revealed that cooling capacity was being wasted, and that by reorganising per forated floor tiles,

it reduced the cooling capacity across a number of pods and provided enough cooling capacity to increase the operational life of the data centre by over two years.

Appropriate changes large saving The energy needed to cool the world’s data centres will triple over the next decade, in environmental impact and direct cost. The industry is being driven to develop efficient processes in the way it uses energy. Operators are investigating and implementing intelligent systems to initiate the path to continuous analysis, data assessment and dynamic optimisation. Pursuing specific energy reduction and efficiency goals the latest environmental and cooling management systems often incorporated within DCIM systems, can provide actionable intelligence that will greatly reduce ROI timescale, by using simple and efficient asset utilisation.

If we consider the customer example above, the cost of a new data centre is £10 million per MW of electrical capacity. Given the DCIM system’s findings the customer achieved major CapEx savings and large OpEx savings, and continues to gain real-time operational information to maintain energy efficiency and equipment optimisation across the site.

Panduit Europe 0208 6017 219, panduit.com

Cost for partial and total shutdown. Comparsion of 2012,2013 and 2016 results.

Discover the building blocks for next generation data centres • High packing density with 72 ports in 1U of rack space • 1U and 4U chassis designs for server and switch applications • Easy migration from 10G to 40G and 100G using MTP backbones • Supported by compact and robust cable systems Contact our sales team for more information

01908 282200 enquiries@dunasfern.com | www.dunasfern.com

Things are about to get interesting John Cook, president, Enterprise IT, VT Group and member of Association of Passive Optical LAN (APOLAN) examines the passive optical LAN and the rise of the Internet of Things (IoT).

I

nternet of Things is defined by the Oxford dictionary as, ‘the interconnection via the internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data.

To expand on this definition, the IoT is the network of physical objects, devices, vehicles, buildings and other items embedded with the electronics, software, sensors and connectivity that enables them to collect and exchange data.

28 | October 2017

IoT has near unlimited number of applications and is all about the data. It is driving the ver ticals to digital transformation, providing mobility to IoT enabled networks, and delivering ser vice flexible models and new ser vices. In the near future, things like machines, homes, hotels, cars and tools will be connected to the internet leading to smar t traffic, cities, and environments.

The roots of IoT began in improving logistics and inventory

management. We see its presence in a variety of industries and whether we realise it or not, IoT is greatly influencing our day-today lives. With the opportunities surrounding IoT, this advancement shows no signs of slowing down any time soon.

To make a comparison, the current world population is 7.5 billion. According to APOLAN’s Passive Optical LAN: The Perfect Partner for the Internet of Things, a recent Gartner report predicts the

INTERNET OF THINGS Benefits of Passive Optical LAN and IoT

“Total amount of connected devices will reach 20 billion by 2020.”

Gartner report

total amount of connected devices will reach 20 billion by 2020. In just a short amount of time, the number of connected gadgets and products will be three times greater than the current population. This staggering statistic is made possible due to the IoT expanding to keep pace with the acceleration in technology.

So what is the explanation behind such extraordinary growth? Well, the creation of embedded sensors and the increasing sophistication of analytics mean that every gadget can now, if wired properly, provide feedback.

There are several reasons to invest in technology infrastructure and the IoT. The reasons include the ever-increasing dependency upon technology for doing our jobs; access to information and market demands. The network backbone to support this, Passive optical LAN, delivers significant benefits and features as it relates to IoT, such as scalability through simplicity and the use of fiber optic cables.

In the increasingly competitive, environmentally conscious market, everyone from the end user, to the brokers, project managers, architects, engineers, IT consultants and general contractors are looking for a differentiator that saves money while increasing efficiency.

Passive Optical LAN is a proven technology that exceeds traditional active Ethernet performance, it provides added security, and uses significantly less energy. It can also eliminate the need for IT rooms in your space, which can save up to 50% in both CAPEX and OPEX. More to the point, Passive Optical LAN is a major cost savings to the traditional copper Ethernet cabling/switching systems.

This technology is the first major revelation in the cabling infrastructure world in more than a decade. The best approach is centered on the consolidation of all systems commonly found in today’s buildings, AV, security, data, building automation and phone systems over this Passive Optical LAN. This again, significantly reduces the amount of cabling and allows convergence onto a single infrastructure to maximize ROI. The outcome is to converge all network services, thereby eliminating the need for

multiple platforms and cabling infrastructure. Passive optical LANs can handle the growing impact of IoT because of its ability to serve 8,000-gigabit Ethernet endpoints across a 30-kilometer reach from one system.

The growth and education around the Passive Optical LAN industry is an important piece of the IoT puzzle. Groups like APOLAN see the opportunity and are focused on formulating solutions on how best to market, install, educate, and support this integral technology.

Where Do We Go From Here?

The IoT requires an evolution in our thinking about the local area network landscape. The staggering number of products and gadgets that companies are integrating into their daily workflow to do everything from increasing productivity to keeping customers happy is astonishing.

To meet today and tomorrow’s demands, organisations must have a network backbone that can be future proof. It must be flexible, scalable, secure, and cost effective. This is an exciting time with almost endless possibilities.

We don’t know exactly what the future holds. Which means it is important for us to keep pushing forward to better understand the impact and realisation that IoT will impact our daily lives significantly.

More information: Association of Passive Optical LAN apolanglobal.org

October 2017 | 29

INTERNET OF THINGS

Get GDPR compliant!

Reggie Best, chief product officer at network specialist Lumeta, presents a GDPR checklist to reduce network complexity challenges around securing IoT and cloud environments.

S

ecurity a nd net wo r k tea ms a re l e a r ning that in crea s ing network co m p l ex it y ha s expose d t h e m to a greater atta ck s ur fa c e . T h is complexity is ca us ed in l a rge par t by the expa n s ion into t h e c lou d an d s uppo r ting IP- e na b l e d mobi le and Intern et of T h ings ( IoT ) / Indus tria l Co ntrol S y s te m s ( ICS) i nfra s tructure. Tod a y ’ s compan ies a re battl in g f re qu e nt and wi des prea d ra n s o mwa re attac k s, ma n y of which h ave had a severe impa ct o n b ot h t h e re pu tation a nd fina n cial s of m a ny well-k nown compa nies . O n to p of thi s, a ddition a l requ ire m e nt s i mpose d by the EU’s G e ne ra l D ata Protectio n Re g ulat io n ( G DPR) is puttin g s ign if ic a nt pre ssu re on o rga nis ations .

The countdown has begun and GDPR will begin to be enforced in less than a year.

GDPR is emerging as a boardlevel issue for many multi-national organisations and the pressure is on cybersecurity professionals

to ensure the necessary steps are being taken to protect the Personally Identifiable Information (PII) of EU residents. Unfortunately, network complexity is causing real challenges. It can be difficult to gain full control and visibility of the network since today’s data resides across physical, virtual and cloud networks, as well as on endpoints like smartphones, tablets and notebooks. To make matters even more tricky, to comply with GDPR companies will need to be able to answer where all PII is being stored, with whom it’s being shared, how the organisation is protecting it and what they’re using it for.

Now is a critical time for organisations to plan, budget and make any remaining changes needed to meet GDPR guidelines.

Failure to comply with the regulation’s standards will result in hefty non-compliance fines.

To realistically achieve GDPR compliance in time for the May 25, 2018 deadline, organisations should first ask themselves the following questions:

ow confident are you in H identifying and securing every single related asset that stores or processes sensitive user data? For instance, have your cybersecurity professionals located all rogue or shadow IT infrastructure? Have you determined what data is being held, where, and why? Who’s accessing that data currently and who should have future access?

Can you truly identify new and existing leaks to the Internet, that could be exploited at any moment to compromise PII? C an you truly see in real-time or is our “continuous” monitoring actually just periodic polling?

For instance, is your IT team tracking cloud apps or virtual machines (VMs) each time they join or leave your network? Are all ports and endpoints known in real-time? How are you managing IoT technologies? Can you see new paths being created in realtime to and from locked-down sensitive resources that should support limited communication channels?

D o you know your entire extended network across suppliers, customers, consultants and other organisations you interact with? For instance, do any trusted network assets show up on attacker lists? Are there any active devices on your network using known Trojan or malware ports? Can known threat or malware IP address space be reached from within your network?

Once these crucial questions have been evaluated, organisations and their cybersecurity professionals can incorporate them into their compliance program by leveraging the following key technology best practices:

30 | November 2017

INTERNET OF THINGS ata Processing and Storage D Assessment: By identifying any EU-based PII, evaluating all access rights and additional security measures, and assessing current and future risk to the data, organisations can guarantee the identification of all their assets at all times, even when processing. They’ll also be able to better assess their data segmentation policies. To identify any new network assets, cybersecurity professionals should make sure correct patch level and endpoint protection is in place. They should also identify whether those assets are changing any network topology, and monitor them from a single, cohesive pane.

B reach Prevention Program Implementation: When organisations are able to restrict access to PII, define, document and implement data security controls, and

continuously evaluate the inevitable changes to PII and access, they’re able to discover all new assets or changes in real-time and properly test and execute network segmentation.

To identify any unauthorized network paths in real-time, cybersecurity professionals should ensure segmentation for protecting access to PII, and continually identify any segmentation violations across their GDPR environment.

M onitoring, Detection and Response Execution: To achieve GDPR compliance, organisations must have realtime visibility across all of their networks, devices and endpoints, including any VMs. They also need to be able to instantly detect any suspicious network behavior and get a

“GDPR is the European Union’s new legislation to protect the personal data of EU citizens and comes into force May 25, 2018.”

faster picture of the network and security context surrounding the malicious activity in the event of a necessary remediation effort. Continual network monitoring, threat detection and incident response plans can enable compliance and allow cybersecurity professionals to identify any behaviors that could be indicators of active breach activity.

Don’t fall victim to GDPRinduced panic, more importantly, don’t destroy your entire IT budget in an attempt to quickly meet GDPR standards. Focus first and foremost on implementing continuous, real-time network visibility. By monitoring all network activity, devices and endpoints – including VMs in the darkest corners of an infrastructure – your organisation can achieve GDPR compliance and, even more importantly, can accurately identify potential malicious network activity and gain the context and intelligence to detect and stop threats before a breach ever occurs.

Lumeta lumeta.com

November 2017 | 31

INTERNET OF THINGS

IoT Starter Kit to simplify global IoT connectivity Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) connectivity provider Thingstream has launched its own IoT Starter Kit, enabling device manufacturers to rapidly develop globally connected devices and accelerate IoT projects.

Leveraging GSM connectivity without reliance on cellular data or SMS, the Thingstream Starter Kit will allow a device to connect to almost any GSM network, worldwide; and communicate with applications via MQTT messaging.

The Star ter Kit is comprised of both hardware and software, including: T he Thingstream IoT Module, boasting GSM/GPS connectivity out of the box, ARM Cortex-M0+ core, 128/256 KB program flash memory, 32 KB SRAM, SPI, I2C, UART, PWM, 16bit ADC, real time clock and 15 GPIOs A companion baseboard to allow developers to easily use the 15 GPIOs T he Thingstream Global IoT SIM T hree months of full access to the global network and connectivity software tools including a sophisticated data flow Stream Editor “We want to make IoT connectivity simple and address both commercial and technical challenges,” explains Neil Hamilton, VP of business development at Thingstream. “Traditionally, building a connected device that communicates remotely has been a costly process. Any connected hardware has had to support TCP/IP in order to communicate, taking up power and space, while making the data vulnerable to security threats.”

Thingstream aims to give manufacturers everything they need to make dumb products smart

Thingstream uses USSD messaging via GSM networks. Sometimes referred to as ‘Quick Codes’, Unstructured Supplementary Service Data messaging data is a protocol used by mobile phone networks to communicate with a service provider’s computers. When a user sends a message to the phone company network – to register their phone for the first time, for example, or to query their bill – it is received by a computer dedicated to USSD. Because USSD is a feature in all cellular networks, Myriad executives argue, it can provide secure IoT connectivity – without the internet being involved at all.

This, according to Neil, removes complexities around roaming and also reduces power consumption and space by removing processing capacity that would normally be used for TCP/IP. “We believe our solution is particularly compelling to the market, as it combines ubiquitous global access with the necessary hardware, ready to be bolted on and connected to a whole variety of devices,” he said.

Thingstream, thingstream.io

Launch of the world’s first ‘all in one’ IoT module Gemalto, leader in digital security, is expanding Industrial IoT connectivity with a noteworthy breakthrough in wireless engineering – the industry’s first IoT module, which is set to provide global connectivity on 12 LTE bands plus, 3G and 2G cellular coverage all from a single device. This new product launch aims to greatly simplify logistics and distribution, lowering the cost of global IoT deployments.

In the decade ahead, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market value is expected to exceed $195 billion, transforming manufacturing, energy, transportation and many other sectors.

Coined the 4th Industrial Revolution, the IIoT relies on highly efficient, global connectivity solutions that can be easily deployed anywhere in the world.

The ‘all in one’ IoT module The new Gemalto Cinterion PLS62-W Module delivers highly efficient LTE Cat. 1 connectivity on all 12 LTE bands while providing seamless fall-back to multi band 3G and 2G networks if 4G is not available. This allows device manufacturers and integrators to develop

32 | November 2017

one application that can connect anywhere in the world, even when solutions move between different regions and cellular network standards.

Embedded systems simplify and speed up new product development A powerful Java embedded system included in the IoT Module adds processing power to IoT solutions.

Gemalto’s new IoT module provides 12 band LTE coverage plus fall back to 3G and 2G in a single device

Gemalto says it makes application design easier and faster by sharing memory, a large library of existing open source code and recognised software building blocks. In addition, it simplifies lifecycle management and streamlines integration with back-end IT systems.

Optimised power management Its advanced power management system ensures reliability, and provides optimised sleep mode to preserve power and extend battery life. This is critical for remote industrial applications, a sector expected to reach 5.2 billion in by 2025.

“Ideal for worldwide tracking and tracing, telematics and fleet management solutions, the Cinterion multi band LTE Cat. 1 module with 3G, 2G fall-back is a one stop shop for cellular IoT connectivity, no matter where your IoT solutions are deployed or where they move,” commented Andreas Haegele, senior vice president IoT products at Gemalto. “The highly efficient Cinterion PLS62-W is perfectly suited for applications that need to operate across many different wireless network environments for many years.”

Gemalto, gemalto.com

NCN QnA

Power to the people!

COMPANY PROFILE

Pádraig Smith, managing director of UPS specialist PSE Power, takes on the fiendish challenge that is the new NCN Q&A.

What are you up to today?

Doing my job as managing director of PSE Power, which includes attending internal meetings as well as customer meetings and visits, and driving the sales and business development. In the evening I spend time with my wife and four daughters aged from three to eight.

How and why did you pursue a career in the Data/Comms industry?

P S E P o w e r w a s e s ta b l i s h e d b y m y fa t h e r 3 3 y e a r s a g o a n d w a s i nvo l ve d i n U P S f ro m ve r y e a r l y o n , s o I fe l t c o m fo r ta b l e e n te r i n g t h e b u s i n e s s h av i n g g ro w n u p a l o n g s i d e t h e te c h n o l o g y o f U P S s y s te m s .

What project/work achievement are you most proud of in your career and why?

Developing and growing the business in recent years and also par tnering with Riello UPS, who we have admired from afar for many years.

What is the worst thing (outside of your control) that has ever gone wrong on a work project?

Having a customer go out of business mid project with all the kit delivered.

What is one thing you’re tired of hearing either at work or about your job?

I am tired of hearing anyone complaining about the government or the economy. We make our own opportunities and successes.

What is your favourite piece of technology right now?

Active cruise control in my car.

What product/s or concepts do you think will be the next big thing in the industry?

Battery storage & CHP.

You can invite three people living or dead out for a pint or over for dinner (not including family and friends!) Who are they and why?

Bill Clinton for his company and charm, James Corden for his fun and Conor McGregor because he is Conor McGregor.

Do you have any hidden talents?

I make a mean beans on toast.

“I am tired of hearing anyone complaining about the government or the economy.

We make our own opportunities and successes.”

F o r t h e p a s t t h re e d e c a d e s , P S E Powe r h a s b u i l t a s t ro n g re p u tat i o n a s a s u p p l i e r of p owe r p rote ct i o n a n d e n e rg y m a n a ge m e nt s o l u t i o n s to m u l t i n at i o n a l b l u e c h i p c l i e nt s f ro m t h e I CT, p h a r m a c e u t i c a l , m e d te c h a n d m a n u fa ct u r i n g i n d u s t r i e s , a s we l l a s f ro m t h e fa c i l i t y m a n a ge m e nt , s tate b o d i e s , av i at i o n , e n g i n e e r i n g , financial services and h o s p i ta l i t y s e cto r s t h ro u g h o u t I re l a n d .

The company delivers power protection solutions underpinned by service excellence.

PSE Power provides tailored strategic power management solutions to clients to meet diverse needs. By combining a comprehensive product range – standby generators, UPS systems, CHP systems – and broad range of ser vices with technical exper tise and superior delivery, the company provides solutions to meet our customers’ specific requirements. From initial contact through installation, ser vice and maintenance, PSE Power provides customers with an unrivalled single source for complete power management, delivering continuing significant energy cost savings.

Based in Dublin and Limerick, with nationwide service and 24/ 7 availability, all PSE Power services are delivered by a dedicated and extensive network of skilled service engineers and service support staff to ensure lifelong and reliable operation of the power protection and energy management solutions provided.

Specialist knowledge and engineering skills enables the company to partner with leading consulting engineering firms to deliver critical power projects in Ireland, the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

PSE Power + 353 (0)1 4600596 www.pse.ie

November 2017 | 33

THE KNOWLEDGE COMPANY SHOWCASE NETWORK SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY

Feel safe with APCON APCON, provider of intelligent network visibility and security solutions, has launched a new series of Copper Bypass TAP appliances, which are designed to provide fail-safe inline protection for network monitoring tools.

With a growing number of inline security tools being installed, APCON says there is a risk that if a tool fails it could cause network downtime and loss of data. The Copper Bypass TAP appliance combines fail-safe access ports for inline security tools, to protect networks from a single point of failure, and visibility features to send traffic of interest to external monitoring tools.

In normal mode, traffic flows through the Copper Bypass TAP appliance before it travels through the security tool and back onto the network. The Copper Bypass TAP automatically detects a tool failure through the insertion of heartbeat packets into network traffic.

The Copper Bypass TAP continuously monitors the attached tools; if the expected number of ‘heartbeat’ packets are not returned, it assumes that a failover condition has occurred. The Copper Bypass TAP then switches to bypass mode and, in doing so, enables traffic to continue to flow on the network link.

“As organisations worldwide experience an escalation of security threats, it’s critical that monitoring operations are continuous and not interrupted, even if there’s a power loss or software failure of network monitoring devices,” says Richard Rauch, president and CEO of APCON. “When the Copper Bypass TAP detects the failure of an attached security tool, it can automatically redistribute the traffic across other attached tools to maintain security monitoring.”

APCON apcon.com

IGEL allies with Citrix IGEL, specialist in endpoint management software for the secure enterprise, has announced that all its IGEL OS 10-based Universal Desktop (UD) thin clients, including the UD Pocket micro thin client and UD3, UD6 and UD9 thin clients and UDC (conversion software), have been verified as Citrix Ready. This means that each of the IGEL OS 10-based solutions have successfully passed a series of tests established by Citrix, ensuring that they will work seamlessly with Citrix XenApp 7.14 and XenDesktop 7.14 to streamline the deployment of Citrix VDI, Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) and hosted desktop solutions.

“IGEL OS-based solutions complement the adoption and use of Citrix by providing endpoints that are simple to configure with granular controls to enhance security,” says John Panagulias, director, Citrix Ready. “We are pleased IGEL has validated their latest release of IGEL OS 10 and the Universal Desktop products on which it runs; adding them to the broad list of IGEL solutions that have been Citrix Ready verified over the past decade and a half.”

The IGEL OS, currently in its sixth generation, is a Linux-based, read-only, 64-bit operating system which standardises endpoints and is designed to provide IT with granular, secure control of endpoints, while giving users a familiar, trouble-free workspace. The maker says its approach supports more remote communications protocols than any solution on the market and is purpose-built for enterprise access to virtual environments of all

34 | November 2017

types. The IGEL OS is at the core of IGEL’s line of thin and zero clients and all-in-one thin client solutions which deliver smart and secure endpoint management. The UD Pocket is a micro Universal Desktop thin client on a USB 3.0 thumb drive that allows users to turn a PC, laptop or any compatible x86, 64-bit CPU-based endpoint device into a thin client running IGEL OS. “IGEL is committed to empowering Citrix customers with a smar t and secure endpoint management experience,” says Ainsley Brooks, IGEL’s UK & Ireland country manager.

“By extending our line of Citrix Ready verified solutions, we’re working together with Citrix to accelerate the adoption of Citrix VDI, Desktop-as-a-Ser vice (DaaS) and hosted desktop solutions.”

IGEL has been working with Citrix for more than 15 years, and as a Citrix Ready partner, remains committed to developing new and innovative ways in which to collaborate with Citrix to enhance the end-user computing experience.

IGEL solutions that have been verified as Citrix Ready include IGEL OS-powered Universal Desktop thin and IZ Series zero clients and All-in-One thin client solutions as listed on the Citrix Ready Marketplace. Verified IGEL OS 10 UDs support HDX Insight providing end-to end visibility for ICA traffic passing through NetScaler ADC. Additionally, IGEL offers the Universal Management Suite (UMS) and IGEL Cloud Gateway (ICG) to facilitate the management of any IGEL-OS powered device. With more than 7,000 settings and hundreds of templates to choose from, IGEL states that it delivers IT with unparalleled control that is simple and quick to configure.

IGEL 0118 340 3400 igel.com

SPONSORED STORIES FROM THE INDUSTRY THE KNOWLEDGE COMPANY SHOWCASE NETWORK

The IDEAL Choice The new IDEAL FT-45 Feed-Thru Modular Plugs are designed to make assembly and termination of CAT5e and CAT6 modular plugs simpler, time-efficient and more successful.

The units are single-piece connectors, removing the need to assemble a three-piece connector, even when working with CAT6 cable, making terminations faster and more consistent. The plugs also mean that working with CAT5e and CAT6 is identical. The modular plugs also make it easier for new twisted pair installers to convert from coax to data.

To speed up assembly, FT-45 installers no longer need to spend time accurately pre-trimming conductor wires to a specific length, instead, they simply need to remove an appropriate section of jacket, remove the centre spline (if present), untwist the pairs into the right order, and trim the ends flat. The cable can then be slid into the connector.

As the wires are fed through the clear connector they can be seen, enabling installers to visually verify the correct wiring order. The open-ended feed-thru plug includes three-pin contacts, rather than the two-pins seen in most other RJ45 modular plugs. This improves wire stability by providing three prong contacts into every wire for more conductive contact points, as well as a better transfer rate.

Once the wires are fed through, the user can pull the cable into the plug, allowing the twists to be pulled to the front of the connector. This provides better radio-frequency performance and minimal untwisting, while ensuring that the cable jacket is fully secured under the strain relief tab. To complete the process, the installer can use the new easy-to-use FT-45 Crimp Tool, for a reliable, end-to-end solution.

IDEAL Networks 01925 444 446, idealnetworks.net

IDEAL Networks’ FT-45 Feed-Thru Modular Plugs are designed to save time and effort on site

Anritsu unveils new WLAN security software Anritsu Corporation, a provider of communications solutions, has unveiled its new WLAN security function software for its MT8862A wireless connectivity test set. The newly introduced software, specially designed to support evaluation of devices for the rapidly growing IoT market, even functions when WLAN security is turned on.

Awareness Applications including TVs and the connected car rapidly adopting the WLAN standard. The reason behind it is simple too, the company say it helps ensure a reliable operation; detailing parameters such as wireless reception range and sensitivity must to be tested under realistic operating conditions.

The software The MX886200A-020 software allows the Anritsu MT8862A to use its Network Mode measurement function to execute tests while the WLAN device is operating; even if security is enabled. The software supports a range of standards, including WEP, WPA-Personal and WPA2-Personal. Anritsu points out that previously engineers had to disable WLAN security for testing, which is not representative of typical operating conditions. Many designers are choosing to eliminate the ability to disable security to meet demands for secure IoT deployment.

This new security function can be installed on existing MT8862A systems by updating the firmware and installing a license from a web browser, eliminating the need for factory upgrades and reducing downtime to a minimum.

The MT8862A is a WLAN test set that suppor ts IEEE802.11ac/n/g/b/a. It uses builtin communications protocols and per forms tests of WLAN device RF TRx characteristics, including Tx power, modulation accuracy and Rx sensitivity.

Anritsu +44 (0) 1582 433285, anritsu.com

November 2017 | 35

KNOW HOW

Co-defenders clamp down on UC security threats Explaining that SBCs and firewalls need to be thought of as co-network defenders, Kevin Baynes, Sonus UK and Ireland country manager, points out potential threats of utilising UC applications.

T

raditionally, network security has centred around data: corporate data, customer data, credit card data.

Organisations collectively spend billions each year protecting their data through firewalls and other data-centric security devices. But, what if they have left another door wide-open – one that is leading to some of the fastest growing and most misunderstood threats enterprises face today?

A s UC a pplicatio ns s u c h a s voi c e , v ideo, mes s a ging, a nd f il e shar i ng s ta r t to be tra ns m it te d over the s a me IP networ k a s d ata appli c atio ns , a nd moved into t h e c lou d , the cyber-atta ck s u r fa c e grow s. What mo s t peop l e d o n’ t

36 | November 2017

re a l i se i s t h at UC a p p l i c at i o n s a re p ro n e to t h e sa me t y p e of d ata se c u r i t y at ta c k s t h at h ave b e e n p l a g u i n g b u si n e sse s fo r ma n y y e a r s.

The difference UC applications differ from their pure data-based counterparts because they are real-time applications that use the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) for signalling between UC stacks and endpoints. Realtime communications and data communications also have different requirements. For example, if you drop a packet while downloading a web site, you can just send another packet. But if you drop

a word in a real-time voice conversation, you can’t re-insert it into the conversation later on.

These different requirements are important to security because most companies rely on data-based security devices, such as firewalls, as their primary line of defence.

However, firewalls simply weren’t designed for the more complex SIP-based communications. Using a traditional data firewall is fine to protect things like deep packet inspection and threat intelligence.

But even the most advanced nextgeneration firewalls don’t have the awareness or statefulness to protect complex SIP services. As a result, enterprises turn off certain security features, such as SIP ALG, to accommodate scaling of real-

KNOW HOW time voice and video. This, in turn, creates new security holes.

What do these holes open a network up to?

UC’s three primary cyber threats are denial of service, toll fraud and data exfiltration. Theft of service, voice phishing, telephony denialof-service (TDoS) attacks and eavesdropping are also risks that IT managers need to consider.

Session border controllers (SBC) are the first step to protecting your network. SBCs include features such as media transcoding and SIP interworking that make UC applications work better. They also act as a sophisticated firewall designed specifically for real-time communications. SBCs provide security features such as media and signalling encryption, backto-back user agents, network topology hiding and grey/ blacklisting designed specifically for SIP communications.

But SBCs and firewalls should not be treated as separate security entities and an SBC is not a firewall replacement. SBCs and firewalls need be thought of as co-network defenders, sharing information across an enterprise, data and policies. This would mean that as every SBC and firewall detects an attack, they could immediately blacklist the source IP address and phishing and DDoS attacks could be halted.

With SBCs and firewalls working holistically and sharing security information together, the security of the whole network would be greatly increased.

Furthermore, a network should be able to become smarter over time. SBCs shouldn’t be ‘dumb’ sentries. They should leverage behavioural analytics to help drive customised and dynamic policies for your enterprise to more accurately identify anomalous and suspicious traffic, and safely quarantine that traffic until a determination can be made.

“Most people don’t realise that UC applications are prone to the same type of data security attacks that have been plaguing businesses for many years.”

IHS predicts that the number of unified communications (UC) and voice over Internet Protocol network (VoIP) subscribers in the Cloud will reach over 75 million by 2020. Growing together with this are cyber-attacks over SIP protocol, which can cost companies hundreds of thousands of dollars. In fact, toll fraud is even higher than credit card fraud.

Although there is no one solution that is going to completely secure the enterprise, in terms of UC, SBCs and firewalls working together are a good start.

The problem is over one-third of all enterprises (37%) that have SIP trunks coming into their business do not have an SBC in place to secure those communications.

So, if you are moving your unified communications to SIP or the cloud, remember to consider an SBC and firewall combination for a truly unified and secure experience.

Sonus 01403 788 114, sonus.net

NEXT TIME…

IP Security

Cloud Computing & Virtualisation

Industry Focus: Intelligent Buildings

In addition to its regular range of features and news items, the December issue of Network Communications News will contain an industry focus on intelligent buildings. The special features will be UPS and wireless networks.

It will comprise major articles and a comprehensive product round up which will be used as a reference point by network cabling infrastructure installers, integrators and end users.

To make sure you don’t miss the oppor tunity to adver tise your products to this exclusive readership, call Kelly on 01634 673163 or email kelly@allthingsmedialtd.com Network Communications News

November 2017 | 37

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Why Mayflex? All together. Products, Partners, People, Service. Mayflex brings it all together.

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Excel House, Junction Six Industrial Park, Electric Avenue, Birmingham, B6 7JJ Tel: 0800 75 75 65 Email: sales@mayflex.com Website: www.mayflex.com

CABLING SPECIALIST

CMW Ltd are a leading supplier of cable management and containment products to the networking and data industry.

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To advertise in the NCN business directory contact Michael on 01634 673163 or email michael.sheridan@allthingsmedialtd.com

CABLE MANAGEMENT WAREHOUSE LTD Units 5 & 6 Arkwright Road Industrial Estate Arkwright Road, Bedford, MK42 0LQ T: 01234 848030 E: sales@cmwltd.co.uk

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Business directory CABLING SUPPLIES

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Corning Optical Communications, part of the Corning Incorporated telecommunications segment, is a leading manufacturer of fibre optic communications system solutions for voice, data and video network applications worldwide.

Tel: 00 800 2676 4641 Email: cc.emea@corning.com www. corning.com/opcomm

We offer the broadest range of end-to-end fibre optic and copper product solutions for customers’ telecommunications networks. We put companies at the forefront of network innovation, pioneering many

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Our commitment to total quality and superior customer satisfaction distinguishes us as a leader in the telecommunications industry.

YELLOWbook Network & AV Editions

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ORDER YOUR COPY!

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A leading distributor and manufacturer of structured cabling, cable management and specialist tooling and equipment for internal and external communications infrastructure.

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Business directory CABLING SUPPLIES

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2598 NCN Directory fusion panels:Layout 1

COPPER CABLING

Cat 5e & Cat 6 Integrated Structured Cabling Solutions The Fusion product range has been extensively researched to provide an ‘altogether better’ solution for structured cabling products

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Official Fusion Distributors: Mills Ltd Tel: 020 8833 2626 Nimans Tel: 0161 925 1980 Middle East Agent: Total Empower Est. Po Box 567, Post code 115, Madinat Qaboos, Sultanate of Oman. Tel: +968 92801196

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13/12/2016 16:46:17

TESTING TOOLS UPS

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