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Design Guide STARTS ON pg. 19
PLUS IoT Infrastructure The challenges of microcontrollers living on the edge (of the IoT) pg. 6
IoT SECURITY
5 security questions for your next IoT deployment pg. 16 KONTRON SYMKLOUD MS2900 Media
PG. 20
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IoT design guide
10 IoT Infrastructure
19 Cloud 21 Gateway Solutions 23 Networking & Connectivity 25 Processors, Chipsets, & IP 26 Services 27 Software & Operating Systems 31 Storage
he challenges of microcontrollers living on 6 Tthe edge (of the IoT) By Markus Levy, EEMBC, and Mark Wallis, STMicroelectronics
Consistent connectivity drives success of IoT
10 Changing network architectures and cultures – 12 NFV and the IoT By Jeff Shamblin, Ethertronics
By Alex Henthorn-Iwane, QualiSystems
IoT Security 5 security questions for your next IoT deployment
16 A VPN isn’t the right tool for IoT security 18 By John Horn, RacoWireless By Bob McIlvride, Skkynet
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IoT Design Guide
More on embedded-computing.com Moore's Law? about Metcalfe's Law How for the IoT?
By Ron Sege, Echelon Corporation http://opsy.st/MetcalfesLawforIoT
Regulating the Internet of Things Roger Ordman, Red Bend Software Byhttp://opsy.st/RegulatingIoT hat the "Internet of Things" means Wfor an embedded developer By Valter Minute, Toradex http://opsy.st/IoTforEmbeddedDev
like a hacker for IoT security Think Interview with Jeff Ittel, Avnet, Inc. http://opsy.st/ThinkLikeaHacker www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
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Advertiser Index
Advertiser Information Page Advertiser 13
ADLINK Technology, Inc. – Smart IoT gateway solutions
32
American Portwell Technology – Portwell empowers intelligent solutions
3 Kontron – Kontron in the Internet of Things 1 Kontron – SYMKLOUD MS2900 Media 9
Micro Digital, Inc. – SMX RTOS is IoT ready
5
Nordic Semiconductor – Stay connected – Nordic IoT technology is all around you
15
RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. – Your IoT needs reliable building blocks. We have them.
Profile Index Page Advertiser 26 Astronics – Services 22
congatec, Inc. – Gateway Solutions
28 Echelon Corporation – Software & Operating Systems 19 Eurotech – Cloud 20 Kontron – Cloud 21
Logic Supply – Gateway Solutions
29 Micrium – Software & Operating Systems 30 Micro Digital, Inc. – Software & Operating Systems 31
Micron Technology – Storage
23 Nabto – Networking & Connectivity 24 RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. – Networking & Connectivity 25 Vivante – Processors, Chipsets, & IP 27 Wind River Systems, Inc. – Software & Operating Systems
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IoT Infrastructure
The challenges of microcontrollers living on the edge (of the IoT) By Markus Levy, EEMBC, and Mark Wallis, STMicroelectronics
Ultra-low-power (ULP) microcontrollers (MCUs) are the compute engines powering the edge of the Internet of Things (IoT), but ensuring ULP operation over periods of months, years, and decades presents application developers with a number of optimization challenges. From MCU design criterion to datasheet analysis to standardized MCU benchmarking, the following details considerations for selecting a ULP MCU that will live life on the edge. From a highly simplified perspective, the structure of the Internet of Things (IoT) is comprised of three conceptual elements: the edge nodes, the gateway nodes or hubs, and the cloud or datacenter. An edge node is the ‘thing’ in the Internet of Things. An edge node provides an interface between the virtual, digital world of the Internet or local network, and the real, analog world. Depending on the application, the edge node can gather data, receive data, or both. If it’s a gatherer, the edge node typically derives data from transducers (or sensors), processes the data, and transmits it to the network. If the thing
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receives data from the network, it processes the data and in some way drives the connected transducers. The functionality of an edge node can be described by four characteristics (Figure 1). One characteristic is the type of transducer it uses to convert realworld information to electrical signals, and vice versa (e.g., temperature, pressure, blood chemistry, or brain waves). Another way to characterize an edge node is by the interfaces it uses to connect the transducers and the processor or microcontroller (MCU), for example using SPI/I2C, GPIO, PWM, or ADC/DAC.
The functionality of the edge node is also described by the processing required to adapt the transducer information to the network, and vice versa (e.g., encryption, compression, error correction, protocol stack, and data analysis). Lastly, the edge node can be described by its communication mechanism and the protocol used to send or receive information between the thing and the network (i.e., a wired or wireless communications channel).
Categorizing edge nodes Edge nodes can be grouped more or less arbitrarily according to their application www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
a trend moving from 8- and 16-bit CPUs towards 32-bit CPUs to help achieve quicker execution of the active mode tasks. The quicker a task is executed the less energy is consumed because the energy wasted due to static currents is proportional to the time spent in active mode, whereas the useful energy spent in executing the task is more or less a constant value.
›
Figure 1 | An edge node’s functionality is described in terms of its integrated microcontroller and the associated transducers, interfaces, processing, and communication to the network.
domain. For example, home automation encompasses anything that is used to control or monitor home or office systems and devices, such as lighting or environmental control, or appliances (e.g. freezer, washing machine, coffee maker, fire alarm). On the other hand, “wearable” or “portable” is anything that is worn or carried on the person while in use. Examples include smart watches, smart glasses, heart rate monitors, pedometers, GPS tracking devices, blood sugar monitors, music or video players, and wireless headsets or microphones. There are also categories for health, environmental, and of course the traditional machine-to-machine (M2M) applications. There is a considerable degree of overlap between categories, for example a heart-rate monitor falls in both the “health” and “wearable” domains. Many edge nodes, especially in the “wearable” domain, are ultra-low-power (ULP) applications. These applications are characterized as battery-powered, with short, occasional periods of activity interspersed with long periods of inactivity, and possibly infrequent human intervention. Ultra-low power highlights energy efficiency as a key performance criterion for such devices, and dictates battery lives of weeks, months, years, or even decades.
ULP MCUs for IoT applications Now that you’ve digested all the acronyms of this section’s subhead, recall from www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
our previous discussion that many “things” living on the edge must utilize ULP MCUs to handle user interfaces, collect and transmit sensor data, provide security functions, and manage other tasks. One issue that “thing” designers face is determining if these MCUs are optimized to meet their application’s performance and efficiency requirements to enable the long battery lives that are expected. Ultra-low power implies different things to different applications. In some cases, the lowest active current is required when the power source is severely limited (e.g., energy harvesting). Alternatively, the lowest sleep current is required when the system spends most of its time in standby or sleep mode, waking up infrequently (periodically or asynchronously) to process some task. Furthermore, ULP can also imply great energy efficiency whereby the most work is performed in a limited time period. Overall, the application will require a combination of or tradeoffs on all of the above. There are many factors that enable an MCU to earn its ULP title. One factor is the type and degree of intelligence available through an MCU’s peripherals. For example, peripherals such as SPI, GPIO, PWM, and ADC that we mentioned earlier, if designed correctly by the vendor, can significantly help offload the CPU and thereby allow the device to spend more time in sleep mode. There’s also
Other factors that help yield an ULP MCU include choices of physical IP, low-leakage process nodes, and lowpower memory technologies. Using smaller geometries reduces active power due to smaller gate capacitance and lower operating voltages, but tends to increase leakage current when the clock is stopped. For this reason, power gating becomes more important at smaller geometries. Also from a chip design standpoint, a vendor can implement various forms of gating. Clock gating automatically switches off clock signals to various blocks of circuitry whenever possible. Even more effective is power gating, which switches off power to blocks inside the chip when possible. Even further energy efficiency can be achieved by the use of state retention power gating (SRPG), whereby power is switched off to most logic blocks inside the chip with the status of the digital circuits held in retention elements. One of the biggest factors affecting energy efficiency is the use of low supply voltages. Since power is proportional to the square of the voltage, moving from 3V to 1.5V gives a four-fold reduction in energy, all other things being equal. High efficiency step-down regulators allow this even if the battery voltage is much higher.
IoT designers beware of datasheet parameters While datasheet parameters are typically accurate and essential for anyone doing a system design, one must take care when using these parameters to analyze and compare different devices (this includes MCUs and just about everything else). Vendors tend to utilize IoT Design Guide
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IoT Infrastructure different specifications when quantifying parameters. For an MCU, for example, what workload should be used when performing the power analysis? The workload could be something as simple as a few lines of code running a “while (1)” loop, or something a bit more real world. Some vendors are moving towards using the EEMBC CoreMark benchmark as the standard workload for power and/ or energy measurement. In general, CoreMark is sufficient for low-power MCUs, but for ULP it’s going to go off the charts. In an experiment, the life time of a CR2032-230 mAh / 90 percent usable battery was calculated running CoreMark at 16 MHz and 1 iteration per second. On the 32-bit MCUs used, the battery life time came out to 46-59 hours, compared to the MCU’s real-time calendar function that would operate between 9-11 years – this represents a several orders of magnitude difference. However, a smaller workload than CoreMark would be required to determine ULP energy efficiency, and furthermore CoreMark only applies to active mode power without taking into account the fact that most ULP applications spend a large amount of time in idle mode with the processor stopped. Besides the workload determination, what should the conditions and physical setup be for the device under test (DUT)? What duty cycles should be used to represent the transitions from an active to low-power state? How should the clock source be utilized? Should the workload run from flash or RAM? What is the input voltage? All of these details must be specified and utilized by all vendors in order to allow a system designer to make apples-to-apples comparisons.
For the benefit of designers of things and other ULP applications Deriving an industry-standard benchmark for energy efficiency powering ULP devices is far more complex than a straight-up performance benchmark. At a minimum, all questions in the preceding paragraph must be answered, but the toughest challenge is getting all vendors to agree on a consistent methodology. With the hard work and
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›
Figure 2 | The EnergyMonitor graphical user interface (GUI) controls and records energy measurements for ULPBench. ULPBench runs with a duty cycle where the device is expected to wake up once per second, and EnergyMonitor captures energy consumption data for 10 seconds.
determination of representatives from Analog Devices, ARM, Atmel, Cypress, Freescale, Microchip, Renesas, Silicon Labs, Spansion, STMicroelectronics, and Texas Instruments, EEMBC established the ULPBench, a benchmark that provides a consistent method for measuring energy efficiency demonstrating both active power and idle (sleep) power states. In addition to establishing the run rules and operating environment, the group also realized that for ULPBench to proliferate, an accurate energy measuring tool in the sub-$100 price range was needed. Although most MCU vendors in the ULP domain have integrated proprietary tools for measuring power into their evaluation/development boards, there is still no commonly agreed upon method. To accommodate this need, EEMBC produced EnergyMonitor, a USBpowered voltage/current supply for the target DUT. It connects to a target device through a 100 mm, 2-pin header, and can measure the energy consumption of literally anything running on 3V up to 28 mA. The intended application of the EnergyMonitor is to measure MCU energy consumption, but it can also be used to measure energy consumed by sensors or other components used in IoT applications. However, most importantly, it integrates directly with EEMBC ULPBench to provide a standardized method for measuring energy consumption (Figure 2).
The MCU vendors are creating ULPBench in phases. Phase 1 – called the Core Profile – focuses on energy consumed by the core as well as the automatic wakeup function. Phase 2 and all subsequent phases will focus on more of the system integration, including the use of various peripherals. With the Core Profile, the workload consumes 10,000-20,000 CPU cycles during each duty cycle, depending on the efficiency of the MCU’s architecture. The device uses a low-power timer to wake up the MCU once per second to perform the workload (as seen by the staircase effect in Figure 2).
Quantifying data sheet numbers ULPBench is definitely a step in the right direction for establishing consistent rules for specifying energy values in datasheets. The user must still look carefully at the exact details. For example, the duty cycle (the length of time spent in active mode versus the time spent in idle mode) of the application must be compared to that of ULPBench. If the application wakes up often or for long periods of time then the active mode energy will dominate, and, conversely, if the application wakes up infrequently and briefly then the idle mode energy will dominate. In such cases, the ULPBench score could be misleading, since it tries to achieve a balance between active mode and idle mode energy. Additionally, the user should look at what low-power mode was enabled (this www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
will be a balance between the lowest energy state and the latency or time required to transition to active mode). Since a significant portion of the energy is consumed during the active mode of the test, it’s best to use workload code that is compiled for maximum performance (minimizing the active cycles). Ideally, results will be shown for multiple compilers and compile options.
designs. The energy consumption of MCUs varies tremendously, so choose carefully – a few extra μJ per second can mean the difference between one year and 10 years of battery life.
“TO MEET THE FORECASTS OF 10 TO 20 BILLION NODES IN
Markus Levy is President of EEMBC.
THE NEXT SEVERAL YEARS, DEVELOPERS NEED TO UNDERSTAND
Mark Wallis is a system architect, Microcontroller Applications Division at STMicroelectronics.
AND ADDRESS OBSTACLES SUCH AS EXTENDED BATTERY LIFE AND EFFICIENT DESIGNS. THE ENERGY CONSUMPTION OF MCUS VARIES TREMENDOUSLY, SO CHOOSE CAREFULLY – A FEW EXTRA
EEMBC www.eembc.org @eembc_org LinkedIn
µJ PER SECOND CAN MEAN THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN ONE YEAR
AND 10 YEARS OF BATTERY LIFE.”
ULPBench is available for free with the purchase of EnergyMonitor, enabling users to run tests themselves and even post the results on the EEMBC website. This will open the community of developers of ULP applications as the number of IoT applications continues to shatter expectations and estimates, and challenge engineers and management to create products that rise above the hype and generate real value. To meet the forecasts of 10 to 20 billion nodes in the next several years, developers need to understand and address obstacles such as extended battery life and efficient
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IoT Design Guide
10/8/14 95:47 PM
IoT Infrastructure
Consistent connectivity drives success of IoT By Jeff Shamblin, Ethertronics
The Internet of Things (IoT) is a diverse market with substantial revenue potential. In fact, IDC predicts that by the end of this decade, the global IoT market will grow to roughly 212 billion devices and $8.9 trillion. While as varied as the applications may be in this multi-trilliondollar market – from fitness trackers and shipping containers to refrigerators and animal collars – one thing remains the same: all IoT products need consistent connectivity. Achieving this connectivity, however, can be riddled with challenges such as an assortment of RF environments, a wide range of bands to support (including the low LTE frequency bands of 700 MHz and 900 MHz), and price pressure.
Diversity in applications equals an assortment of RF environments Along with a range of IoT applications comes an array of RF environments, which can greatly impact reliability and performance. Antennas react differently to RF environmental conditions – such as the proximity of the user’s head, hand, or a nearby object. Those differences make it challenging for manufacturers to create an IoT device that provides consistently
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high performance across all bands and in a wide variety of RF environments. Let’s take wearables, for example. Wearable devices such as exercise trackers, offender tracking, and medical monitors are subject to frequent antenna detuning from heads, hands, and other body parts. A device that works fine in free space may not be able to connect to the network when placed on a person’s ankle, for example. In some cases, unreliability and inconsistent connectivity can mean the difference between life and death. Because the IoT opportunity is so big, it’s attracting many companies – such as consumer electronics and medical equipment manufacturers – that have little to no experience with wireless. That puts them at a competitive disadvantage in terms of timeto-market and cost.
LTE and a wide range of frequency bands IoT applications need to support a wide range of frequency bands, including lower-band LTE, which can be a major challenge for the IoT. Although this 4G technology’s multi-megabit speeds might seem excessive for the vast majority of IoT applications, it’s a mistake to use that to rule out LTE. The entire www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
mobile ecosystem is migrating to LTE. For IoT applications that will remain in the field for 5, 10, or 15 years – such as utility meter reading and in-vehicle infotainment (IVI) – LTE makes immediate sense because it eliminates the expense and hassle of replacing modules as more operators phase out their 2G, 2.5G, and possibly 3G networks. The catch is that LTE creates several new challenges for IoT manufacturers. For example, it’s designed for use in more than 40 bands, half of which are currently in use. To enable global roaming with GSM/GPRS/EDGE/UMTS (3G), a single SKU, or both, an IoT device would need to support only three to five bands. To achieve a single SKU, global roaming on LTE (4G), or both, an IoT device would need to support a dozen or more bands. IoT manufacturers typically don’t have the experienced in-house RF engineering staff of smartphone and tablet developers to design, integrate, and go through the iterative process antennas require until the product passes operator certification. Where 3G required just one, MIMO requires at least two antennas. That amount will increase as MIMO designs shift to 4x4 and 8x8. And that’s just for LTE. Many IoT applications require some combination of 3G/2.5G/2G fallback, Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Bluetooth, NFC, or GPS, which often means additional bands and thus additional antennas. Finding enough room inside an IoT device to support multiple antennas is challenging, especially those sold directly to consumers, whose form factor expectations are set by increasingly thin tablets and smartphones. Even if the IoT application doesn’t require global roaming, there’s still the challenge of finding room for the physically larger antennas required for lower frequencies such as 400 MHz, 700 MHz, and 900 MHz. Lower frequencies are common for IoT applications for reasons such as better inbuilding penetration and LTE bands in North America.
Price sensitivity adds to the challenge The IoT market is notoriously price-sensitive – oftentimes more so than the tablet and smartphone markets. This is why device manufacturers rely on RF solutions that they can quickly and cost-effectively add to their IoT products, instead of having to develop antennas and other RF components entirely in house or heavily customize off-the-shelf products. The more development overhead, the tougher it is for manufacturers to price their IoT products competitively yet profitably. Savvy companies are turning to antenna system experts with extensive experience providing turnkey antenna system solutions for complex products. This approach helps device manufacturers bring products to market quickly and at considerably less cost.
An ideal solution for IoT: Turnkey antenna systems approach The best way for device manufacturers to overcome these and other challenges is to employ an antenna systems approach for their IoT products. This approach starts with an experienced antenna and RF supplier offering a broad range of products, including design, integration, and testing services, to determine the best technology for the product – whether it’s a passive off-the-shelf antenna or an innovative active antenna system. This approach makes it easier and faster to meet each www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
“ALTHOUGH THIS 4G TECHNOLOGY’S MULTIMEGABIT SPEEDS MIGHT SEEM EXCESSIVE FOR THE VAST MAJORITY OF IOT APPLICATIONS, IT’S A MISTAKE TO USE THAT TO RULE OUT LTE.”
application’s unique performance, reliability, cost, and technology requirements. Active antenna systems can fit into small devices, be dynamically tuned to support wide bandwidths, and provide more degrees of freedom in the design process. They also ensure reliability and performance in challenging RF environments, such as being mounted deep inside a building or in an underground utility vault. An active antenna system can also support a dozen or more LTE bands, plus the bands for 3G/2.5G/2G fallback, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, GPS, and NFC. For example, a single active antenna structure can be tuned across bands as widely spaced as LTE Band 17 (704 MHz to 746 MHz) and LTE Band 41 (2496 MHz to 2690 MHz). Another major benefit of an active antenna systems approach is that it frees manufacturers from the cost, time, and hassle of sourcing the antenna and chip from multiple suppliers and then integrating everything themselves – and that’s assuming a manufacturer has the extensive cellular experience necessary to tackle integration. Either way, they can’t look for help from their chip suppliers, which typically don’t have experience designing and optimizing antennas. The exception is chip suppliers with an antenna engineering heritage. They’re the only ones capable of providing a turnkey, integrated system, decreasing optimization time and challenges while improving the ability to pass mobile operator certification on the first try. Opportunities in the IoT market are endless. Partnering with an experienced RF supplier enables device manufacturers to not only slash development costs and time-to-market, but also provide the market-leading performance, affordability, and reliability that consumers and enterprises expect from IoT. It’s those device manufacturers who harness the latest technologies available to them – like active antenna systems – that will position themselves at the head of the Internet of Things. Jeff Shamblin is Chief Scientist at Ethertronics. Ethertronics www.ethertronics.com @ethertronics LinkedIn Facebook Google+ YouTube
IoT Design Guide
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Changing network architectures and cultures – NFV and the IoT By Alex Henthorn-Iwane, QualiSystems
In the past five years, networking has experienced several industry disruptions, new paradigms (and not just new protocols), new architectures. This article addresses the changes in network architectures and the culture of how the new network is developed, tested, deployed, and maintained, touching on network functions virtualization (NFV) and the Internet of Things (IoT). The rise of a utility-grade, global internetwork has enabled some truly amazing innovations at the edge of the network. All the tech running in datacenters and in users’ hands that communicates across networks has gone through a profound revolution. Server and desktop virtualization, cloud computing, infrastructure as a service (IaaS), software as a service (SaaS), the smart device, and mobile app ecosystem are evidence of this revolution. The cultural impact on users is known as IT consumerization – the expectation that all information technology should be fast, easy, and self-served. All of this happened because the Internet serves as the communications platform and enabler.
Internet of Things The Internet not only makes it easy for humans to use and communicate via their computing and communications devices, but it also enables data communication between embedded computing devices (things). One of the key Internet developments that has enabled the Internet of Things (IoT) is the practical availability of massively increased IPv6 address space. The IoT encompasses a huge variety of use cases. One is connected homes with household appliances, lighting, power, heating/cooling, entertainment, and security all Internetenabled to communicate with each other and management
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applications that monitor, alert, schedule, and enforce preconfigured policies. Other use cases include connected cars, industrial applications applying sensors to monitor thousands or even millions of points in a utility grid, energy pipelines, or manufacturing plants. The implications of the IoT on how networks must work are tremendous. To begin with, the exponential rise in the number of connected endpoints will create networks of unbelievable scale and complexity. There’s a real quality of service (QoS) issue too. When you’ve got so many different machine-tomachine (M2M) traffic flows happening alongside traditional human-based use cases, how do you effectively prioritize traffic? For example, a home health monitoring system that has distributed devices taking measurements of all sorts of patient and environmental conditions for an elderly, shut-in patient should definitely get priority over most other traffic, especially when something amiss is detected. This feeds back into the genesis of software-defined networking (SDN) – there needs to be a way for the applications that run distributed M2M communications to programmatically set priorities against a unified control plane (Read “Changing network architectures and cultures – SDN at opsy.st/RiseofSDN”). Therefore, the IoT looks like it will be a driver for SDN adoption. www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
Network Functions Virtualization
õõ
Network functions virtualization (NFV) is, in a sense, really simple, and you can reduce it to these three steps: 1. Take any function that performs or is part of a network service (such as a firewall, load balancer, traffic optimizer, or LTE mobile control plane gateway) 2. Remove that function from dedicated hardware appliances that typically get severely underutilized and are very difficult to manage in combination with other appliances because of the time and physical space required to rack and cable appliances together 3. Put that function onto a virtual machine (VM) whose hardware resources can be elastically managed via software, and which can be configured fairly easily in series – or service chain – via software The benefits of NFV boil down to a few things:
õõ
You can rapidly, flexibly create service chains without going through a hardware management process, which means that you can go from concept or customer request to implementation in a much more competitive timeframe.
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You can manage hardware capacity flexibly, which is particularly important when considering that traffic may vary quite a bit based on time of day, day of week, and special events. You can move many of these functions onto commoditized datacenter hardware and away from many separate, specialized appliances, which reduces capital expenditures (CAPEX) as well as operating expenditures (OPEX) as you consolidate training, upgrades, and management systems, and gain greater efficiencies from high-scale datacenter equipment versus individual appliances.
One of the technical implications of NFV comes from service chaining. If you’ve gained the speed and efficiency of virtual network functions (VNFs), you certainly don’t want to be doing slow, manual network configurations to connect these things together. Again, SDN comes into play here. By being able to efficiently manage network paths and QoS between VNFs in a service chain via software, you can achieve overall time to market and ease of deployment improvements that are a quantum leap over the traditional way of doing things.
The culture change accompanying the NFV network architecture shift Due to the relative opacity and inaccessibility of the inner workings of networks to the outside world (including both network
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IoT Design Guide
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IoT Infrastructure management and client applications), network engineering has remained one of the least automated domains of IT and telecom infrastructure. The ongoing assumption is that design, assembly, and testing of networks is a slow, engineer-driven process because it takes so much knowledge, experience, and intuition to understand how things work. As a result, networks tend to have change and certification cycles that follow the waterfall model. A prime example is the fact that it takes on the order of six-to-nine months to certify new network upgrades and changes in service provider settings. Here’s the problem: the whole idea behind SDN and NFV is predicated on agility – speed in conceiving and deploying VNF service chains; speed in creating applications that can simply talk to a unified network control plane API through centralized controllers and request specific services from the n etwork. That’s all well and good, but if it takes you eons to certify network changes this becomes a real bottleneck. Imagine a new SDN-enabled application is rolled out and/or upgraded – you’ve got to certify that it will work against all the underlying hardware in the network. After all, just because the northbound API works doesn’t mean that everything in the southbound direction will come up roses. If you’re trying to have agile application development cycles push out new functionality rapidly, things are going to get pretty tangled in multi-month certification cycles. That’s the top-down application view, but it also applies to bottom-up. Large networks are continuously changing OS images, getting hardware upgrades, etc. How do you certify that the application layer will work with the new network layer stuff? These issues aren’t just about SDN; let’s think about just the certification challenges of NFV. We know that with NFV you can create any service chain quickly and with enough flexibility to respond to customer opportunities and requests, evolve service offerings, etc. The throttling mechanism on this before was hardware reconfiguration, but with that out of the way, there’s no end to the creativity and agility you can exercise. Oops, that does sound like a QA nightmare doesn’t it? How big will the service chain QA matrix grow? Well, infinity would be hyperbolic, but let’s just say it’d be very large and constantly growing. How do you address this continuous barrage of new service chains to certify? The answer is that internal network operations must go through a culture change – away from the almighty network engineering hero who with brains, experience, and superior intuition that rules processes, and towards a collaborative, agile, and automated process. AT&T, in its Domain 2.0 white paper, which describes the company’s vision for essentially turning a lumbering telecom giant into a nimble software/digital enterprise, says it this way: “There remains much to do before this vision [Domain 2.0] can be implemented, including pivots from networking craft
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IoT Design Guide
“... NETWORKS TEND TO HAVE CHANGE AND CERTIFICATION CYCLES THAT FOLLOW THE WATERFALL MODEL. A PRIME EXAMPLE IS THE FACT THAT IT TAKES ON THE ORDER OF SIX-TO-NINE MONTHS TO CERTIFY NEW NETWORK UPGRADES AND CHANGES IN SERVICE PROVIDER SETTINGS.” to software engineering, and from carrier operations models to cloud “DevOps” models. We also see an important pivot to embrace agile development in preference to existing waterfall models.” Having spoken to network engineers within AT&T, I can say that there is a palpable feeling that you’re either going on this journey or you’re not going to be on the train in a c ertain amount of time. In the words of one engineer: “Either you change, or you don’t have a future career with AT&T.” How does this culture change happen? Obviously, top-down management mandates have a critical impact, but practically speaking for organizations that have a lot of networking infrastructure in place (especially with years and perhaps decades of accumulated assets), one of the primary thrusts needs to be aiming for agile/continuous cycles based on an ever-increasing automation of the infrastructure. Infrastructure automation in particular cannot be underestimated. Let’s look at the test cycle some more because it’s a great example. With the heroic (and gruesomely time-consuming) cycles it can take to manually set up network testbed environments, engineers are understandably reluctant to give up that gear once they’ve got it just right. The manual, engineercentric way of doing things means (even if millions of dollars of equipment sits idle) shedding thousands of CAPEX writedown dollars per hour and consuming costly space, power, and non-stop cooling because it is so rare to find the skilled engineers who can do the work. However, if you can automate the entire test infrastructure so that it functions like a cloud, then QA engineers are focused on where their knowledge really counts – in designing and automating increasingly broad and deep tests to ensure that applications, service chains, and infrastructure all play nicely together. If you think about things in this manner, then there are some important take-aways. First off, there needs to be a realistic assessment of:
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The current state and likely evolutionary process of the network infrastructure – It does no good to pretend that there aren’t millions or billions of dollars of non-SDN, fullmetal networking devices in place, and that they aren’t going away anytime soon. It also isn’t wise to think of the DevOps culture as something that will only work over the www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
õõ
newest infrastructure. The reality of the hardware is that it has to be part of the culture change. The skills mix and attitudes of the engineering team – it is very tempting to try to hire software engineers from a web company who have a DevOps background to come in and “transform” everything. If collaboration is key, then setting up personnel silos isn’t helpful either. Culture change is not the same thing as a tiger team. That said, obviously there will also need to be leaders, and it’s also important to assess who in the organization is open to change and who is determined to dig in their heels and resist. Beyond attitude, recognizing that a current team composed 98 percent of vendor-trained domain experts who may have some scripting skills but who aren’t professional software programmers means that you have to look for ways of doing automation and process that can leverage their skills without losing their expertise and contributions.
Network infrastructure: Automate everything A relentless commitment to automating all the infrastructure in a way that is cognizant of the above realities will yield tons of productive results. It might be that the first stage is to move from manually operated design and QA labs to cloud-like, automated infrastructure, even though the way that design and testing is done is still pretty manual. This might seem like
a no-brainer, but it does require culture change as people are invited to adopt new ways of working and thinking, knowing that their deliverables remain under the same deadlines that have been so hard to meet in the past. The experience of many network manufacturers and telecoms shows that just this step alone can dramatically cut down test cycles from months to days in some cases. Success inspires folks to come on board. Top-down commitment to continuing an iterative, collaborative process of improvement will capitalize on these early gains and help organizations move down the road to dynamic sandbox-based network service and topology design, network test automation, data-driven network testing, continuous integration, and continuous deployment (where relevant). Alex Henthorn-Iwane is VP of Marketing at QualiSystems. QualiSystems Ltd. www.qualisystems.com @QualiSystems LinkedIn Facebook Google+ YouTube
Your Internet of Things (IoT) needs reliable building blocks. We have them. RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. designs and manufactures a complete suite of robust, scalable board-level and system-level IoT solutions. Our comprehensive products give developers the tools they need to link valuable data to the people who need it. Whether it’s off-the-shelf or completely custom – for your embedded IoT needs, RTD is a one-stop shop. Visit www.rtd.com to learn more.
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IoT Security
5 security questions for your next IoT deployment By John Horn, RacoWireless
The Internet of Things (IoT) has taken center stage in our increasingly technological world. Connected devices are becoming more practical and affordable for mainstream consumers, as well as an integral part of many businesses. We trust machine-tomachine (M2M) applications to transmit confidential and personal information, monitor valuable assets, and control mission-critical devices. However, as we are beginning to witness the limitless potential to save time, cut costs, increase efficiency, and improve quality of life, we are also made aware that with all these potential benefits, there is also potential for new instances of data vulnerability and security breaches. A recent study released by HP Security Research reviewed 10 of the most popular Internet of Things (IoT) devices that included some form of cloud service and mobile application. The results revealed that an alarming 70 percent were subject to serious security vulnerabilities. Some of these concerns included insufficient authentication/password strength, lack of transport encryption, weak web interface credentials, and insecure software updates. As a growing number of players enter the market with new connected devices and applications, security will not be viewed as a point of differentiation – it will be an expectation. Consider the following five questions prior to deployment that can help secure a connected application:
1. Data Encryption – Is your data protected?
The aforementioned report suggests that up to 90 percent of machine-to-machine (M2M) devices collect some kind of personal information, which makes it critical that applications are able to keep this information confidential. Encryption is necessary for any M2M application transmitting confidential information through the network such as POS system (credit card information), mHealth (patient data), or usage-based insurance (GPS coordinates & vehicle information). While encryption may be widely practiced in many Internet applications, M2M presents some unique challenges. At a
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glance, many developers may be inclined to use SSL for secure communications. However, this can be problematic in an M2M application due to the additional processing power and memory required in a device to support SSL, and the increased wireless data costs that are a product of the increase in network communications overhead. One might also attempt to create a virtual private network (VPN) tunnel from the device side in devices running a fully featured operating system (OS) like Linux. Unfortunately, device-side encryption may not always be practical in M2M. The most practical solution is to create a site-to-site VPN tunnel from the M2M operator to the backend server’s network. This allows for encrypted data transmission across the most vulnerable segment of the network path – the Internet. Site-to-site VPN also creates efficiencies by not increasing the amount of wireless data consumed and by offloading all encryption and decryption processing to powerful network appliances. Before choosing a site-to-site VPN tunnel, a developer must assume that the networks of the mobile network operator (MNO) and M2M operator are trusted (more on that later), and be comfortable with the encryption algorithms used to secure wireless communications between the connected endpoint and the MNO’s systems. www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
2. Controlling access – Who can access your data/system?
While encryption is demanded for private information, in some instances, confidentiality may be far less important than access and authentication. For example, the data transmitted with a wireless command to open your car door may not be confidential, but it is critical that no unauthorized parties have access to unlock the door through that system. Security requires a methodical approach that leverages every element in the technology stack. Beginning with the OS and down through the hardware level, it is critical to understand that no single line of defense is sufficient for complete protection. M2M hardware should be designed with internal components that allow for wireless connectivity to be enclosed and protected. Ensure that devices with a removable SIM card have taken measures so that the SIM is not easily accessible. A stolen SIM could result in unexpected wireless data charges, or even worse, allow a hacker to have direct access to your backend application servers. In addition to secure hardware, you should also take steps to prevent access to your software systems. Consider using secure over-the-air (OTA) application updates. Data signing can also be used to ensure authenticity and integrity of transmitted data.
3. Monitor at every layer – Do you know when something goes wrong?
Even the best preventive security systems are not foolproof. It is important to have monitoring systems in place when an event has occurred. Once the event has been detected, a responsive action must be triggered to prevent any malicious use of the device or active SIM. A backend application should have functionality in place that can log abnormalities in the data it is receiving. If, for example, a device is programmed to intermittently send sensor data but inexplicably breaks pattern, the system should notify administrators and, if possible, block the device from communicating with the server. One advantage of having the site-to-site VPN tunnel in place between the application server and the M2M operator is that the misbehaving device will have a fixed IP address, making it easier to isolate and block. Your M2M operator should offer alerting tools that can be used by the solution provider to assist with fraud detection and prevention. You may choose to correlate GPS with location and timestamp information to verify positioning data received in the backend system. You might also consider monitoring for malicious interference using digitally signed data messages between a mobile device and an M2M server to identify altered messages, scanning frequency spectrum for international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) catchers, or setting tampering alerts on hardware to trigger a server notification.
4. Network Partners – Are your network partners secure?
A successful and secure M2M application requires quality partners. The majority of M2M applications that rely on cellular www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
connectivity transmit data over three networks: the MNO, the M2M operator, and the Internet – which are usually managed by three separate organizations. Application developers should perform their own due diligence to verify any networks managed by third parties meet the necessary security requirements. Some possible questions that should be asked as part of the security due diligence for an MNO or Internet provider include:
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Are all servers and network components within the organization’s network updated with the latest security patches and updates? Is there a process in place to apply new patches and updates in a timely manner? What model firewalls are used? Is there an intrusion prevention system (IPS) in place? Is there a distributed denial of service (DDoS) defense system in place? Are background checks performed on all individuals with root access to the servers and network devices? Are all security events logged? How long are those logs kept? Is there a security information and event management (SIEM) solution in place to provide analysis and correlation of security events? How often are root passwords changed? What systems are in place to secure and authorize access to physical servers and network components (PIN code, ID badge, biometrics, etc.)?
5. Secure foundation – Are you building with security in mind?
Make sure your M2M application has a strong foundation by building with security in mind. Decide early that security will be a priority. If possible, assign at least one member of the development team to be focused on the security of the application. This person should work to identify risks and recommend solutions to avoid them. It is recommended that this individual obtain an industry standard security certification such as the Certified Secure Software Lifecycle Professional (CSSLP). It is also important to establish good protocol for internal security and regular testing. Testing might include scanning of your web interface, reviewing your network traffic, analyzing the needs of physical ports, as well as assessing authentication and interaction of devices with the cloud and mobile applications. In short, make sure security is and remains a key element of your product design and management, from the ground up. John Horn is President of RacoWireless. RacoWireless www.racowireless.com contact@racowireless.com @RacoWireless LinkedIn Facebook Vimeo
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IoT Security
A VPN isn’t the right tool for IoT security By Bob McIlvride, Skkynet
My grandfather used to say, “Use the right tool for the job.” He was a production engineer, responsible for the manufacture and assembly of freight elevators and doors. Whenever, in my youthful enthusiasm, I tried to chisel wood with a screwdriver or tighten a nut with a pair of pliers, he would send me back to the toolbox to get the right tool. Manufacturing has adopted new technologies since his day, but that lesson hasn’t changed much. To do the best job, use the right tools. Take, for example, the job of securing the Internet of Things (IoT). When you think of security on the Internet, one of the first things that may come to mind is a virtual private network (VPN). And why not? Virtual private networks are good at what they were designed to do. They’re used worldwide to secure private networks on the Internet. However, when applied to the IoT, a VPN can leave you exposed.
But this assumption isn’t necessarily justified in the IoT. Devices on the IoT could be located just about anywhere – in homes, cars, and streets, as well as factory production lines, solar grids, and oil pipelines. Most of these devices will have the necessary means to connect to the network automatically. The chance of some untrusted individual gaining access to one of these devices is significant.
Sure, a VPN provides a space on the network that’s securely isolated from all other traffic. However, within that space, all nodes are accessible by any participant. Think of an office building with one highly secure entry door. Only the holders of the key can get in. But once inside, they find the doors to every room on every floor unlocked. Thus, it becomes critically important to keep any keys to the building in the right hands.
In addition to the devices themselves, customers may want to work with their data from tablets and smartphones. It is the IoT after all, right? But a phone is a bigger risk than a laptop, simply because it goes with the user practically everywhere, and it can get lost or stolen more easily. According to Clemens Vasters, Senior Program Manager at Microsoft’s Connected Systems Division, “The security of a virtual network space solely depends on controlling and securing all assets that connect into it, which obviously includes physical access security.”
Of course, for certain jobs like networking the notebooks of remote staff or linking a company’s datacenters over the Internet, a VPN is often the right tool. The IT manager can put safeguards into place to ensure that the physical hardware used to log onto the network is in a safe place, in authorized hands.
Another consideration is multi-institution connections. For some people, the vision of the IoT includes connecting devices that belong to different companies. Maybe you want to give certain suppliers access to the latest data in your production system, or permit consultants to poll devices in the field. Or
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perhaps several companies need to work from a common data set. Few IT managers would be willing to provide all these participants access to a corporate VPN. And finally, there are the sheer numbers. The vision for the IoT is for millions of devices to be connected. Although not every device will be linked to every other device, the scale still dwarfs most current implementations of VPN. Each additional device becomes one more security risk, and adds to the tasks of maintaining the system. The per-device resources needed to support a VPN are significant, as are the requirements on the server side to manage such a vast network. The costs and workload add up quickly. For all these reasons, a VPN is not the ideal solution. I encourage anyone who needs to connect securely to the IoT to dig deeper, carefully weigh the options, and then choose the right tool for the job. Bob McIlvride is Director of Skkynet Cloud Systems. Skkynet Cloud Systems www.skkynet.com bob.mcilvride@skkynet.com @RealTimeCloud LinkedIn
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Cloud
ADVERTORIAL
With the proliferation of billions of connected devices in the marketplace, there is an increasing need for embedded technology to converge with enterprise technology to bring value into the enterprise in real time via cloud technology. In the past it could take months and even years to plan and deploy the IT infrastructure to connect embedded devices to the cloud and capture valuable data. Now with an M2M integration platform, embedded engineers can connect an M2M solution to the cloud in a matter of minutes. Purposebuilt solutions from Eurotech address interoperability and seamlessly connect, aggregate, filter and share data from the edge of the network to the cloud.
Cloud-ready M2M integration platform An M2M integration platform designed to act as an intermediary system between the distributed devices and the applications making use of the data can reconcile the varied technologies found in complex M2M projects and help customers connect to the cloud quickly. An effective M2M integration platform must act as an operating system for the IoT, enabling the transfer of device data independent of any programming language, platform, or underlying technology. Eurotech enables the Internet of Things with their M2M integration platform, the Everyware Cloud. It is an integration platform as a service (iPaaS), designed to act
as an intermediate system between the distributed devices and the applications making use of the data coming from these devices. Everyware Cloud simplifies device and data management by connecting distributed devices over secure and reliable cloud services (Figure 1). Everyware Cloud has been built from the ground-up to provide an infrastructure that is specialized in optimum device data communication, collection, analysis and management. By decoupling sensors and applications, the Everyware Cloud allows customers to create flexible, many-tomany relations at the business level to enable new services. The platform allows embedded developers to dynamically control, configure and evolve the application that runs on the field device through a fully integrated feature-rich device management layer. Data management is flexible with Everyware Cloud as device data is automatically stored into a schema-less, distributed, decentralized database that is fault tolerant and elastically scalable. This database stores any data in any format for the market’s longest queryable period. The database also enables access to real-time data, in its native form, for use by the final application. Eurotech allows for optimum device connectivity by optimizing bandwidth and
employing an open, data agnostic message oriented transport protocol for efficient network usage with the Everyware Cloud. Everyware Cloud is hardware independent and provides an easy path to connect cloud-ready devices to IT systems and/or applications. Eurotech’s portfolio of preintegrated hardware and multi-service gateways further simplify development of cloud-connected M2M solutions.
Multi-service gateways Multi-Service gateways are ideally suited for M2M applications as they connect sensors, actuators, and devices to the business enterprise. Eurotech’s ReliaGATE Multi-Service Gateways are ready-to-deploy industrial grade smart devices that enable communications, computation power, simplified application deployment and M2M platform integration for immediate service generation.
Everyware Software Framework The Everyware Cloud is a complete, scalable infrastructure that, working together with Eurotech’s Everyware Software Frame work, enables intelligent devices to effectively communicate with the IT world on the enterprise side either on-premise or in the cloud, allowing applications, databases, business intelligence and analytics software to act on valuable data from the field. The Eurotech EverywareTM Software Framework (ESF) acts as an overlay to the gateway hardware and operating system for a full application-ready, Java-based software stack designed to simplify connection of legacy devices to the cloud.
Conclusion Many companies want to implement M2M solutions to connect devices to the cloud, but lack the expertise. Eurotech’s Everyware Cloud coupled with solutions built from Eurotech Multi-Service Gateway running ESF eliminate the gaps between disparate systems to enable the Internet of Things and connect to the cloud quickly.
Figure 1 The Eurotech Everyware Cloud enables embedded devices to connect to the cloud quickly www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
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Connecting M2M applications to the cloud
Cloud IoT Design Guide
embedded-computing.com/p372477
www.kontron.com
SYMKLOUD MS2900 Media Cloud platform solves the power costs, space constraints, and cluster management challenges of hosted services environments Now supports the newly released 4th generation Intel® Core™ i7 Quad-Core processor
The Kontron MS2900 is designed from ground up to improve how service providers deploy any web-based hosted services in four key areas: › Multifaceted approach towards achieving the best Power
Efficiency;
Designed for the media optimization applications for cloud infrastructure and next-gen data center requirements. With mobile devices challenged by power consumption and the usage of bandwidth-hungry video content, the need for efficient transcoding in the cloud has never been greater. As transcoding for mobile devices are moving in to the Cloud to offload the required processing on the mobile device, the result is better power efficiency on the mobile device. Working with Intel, Kontron has created the optimal solution that addresses the issue of energy efficiency, scalability and cost, and results in a better user experience. The Kontron SYMKLOUD Media platform is also designed to complement M2M applications as a connecting element for Video Surveillance-as-a-Service (VSaaS).
› Integrated Switching and Load Balancing for more elegant and
seamless Cluster and Rack Scalability; › Simplified Management that slashes system-level update times; › Integration Servicing of all required hardware and software to
match requirements of client's infrastructure applications › Its overall modular approach makes the Kontron SYMKLOUD
Media platform also capable of running multiple applications – including transcoding – across multiple independent low-power, high-performance processors.
The SYMKLOUD MS2900 Media platform features up to: ›
18 Intel® Core™ i7 Quad-Core Processors, and is future-proofed to accommodate next generation Intel processors. – Designed from the ground up to integrate switching, load balancing and processing in a 3-in-1 modular approach – Power efficiency for significant OPEX savings – Simplified 1-click updates – Seamless cluster and rack scalability – Designed for IPTV, Cable, Cloud and Mobile Cloud service providers to introduce new applications used for mobile and fixed video transcoding, unified communications and Video Surveillance as a Service (VSaaS)
http://www.kontron.de/products/systems-and-platforms/cloud-computing-platform-solutions-app/symkloud-ms2900-media.html
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Gateway Solutions
ADVERTORIAL
IoT Design Guide
How IoT gateways are helping to bridge the technology gap Data is the lifeblood of modern business. But as technologies evolve to change the way we collect, process and act on data, what becomes of legacy devices without the capabilities or connectivity to interface with emerging data systems? The Internet of Things is enabling businesses to access and react to data in new and exciting ways, but bringing existing technologies up to speed continues to be a challenge. Enter IoT gateways from Logic Supply.
Logic Supply rugged IoT gateways offer a wide range of benefits to businesses interested in leveraging the versatility of cloud connectivity by:
IoT gateways, as their name indicates, act as the go-between for embedded sensors and the cloud. Gathering, storing and sometimes partially processing incoming data before it’s transmitted, IoT gateways serve an increasingly vital role in today’s IT infrastructure. When the “thing” in your system doesn’t possess the requisite connectivity or capabilities to communicate with the cloud or other newer systems, Logic Supply IoT gateways serve as your communications hub, allowing you to make those vital connections without the expensive undertaking of replacing legacy hardware.
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Evolving Needs The requirements of an IoT gateway differ greatly depending on the specific application in which it’s being deployed. Designing the ideal system for a given installation requires understanding the full scope of the project. Space constraints, environmental concerns, I/O needs, data processing capabilities and mountability all play a role in determining the ideal gateway solution. At Logic Supply we’re developing fully customized, small form factor, intelligent gateway solutions that leverage the latest in processing and enclosure technology, connectivity and networking functionality to match the needs of modern IT professionals. As the IoT expands well beyond the climate-controlled confines of office buildings and manufacturing settings and into the traditional and alternative energy sector, mining, mobile and industrial environments, new rugged gateway systems must keep pace to ensure reliable communication between devices and the cloud. Logic Supply fanless and ventless x86 gateways allow for remote operation in any setting, providing data acquisition, analytics and cloud access at the point of collection, no matter how remote. Embedded systems that once needed to be frequently monitored can now be operated remotely, delivering their collected data to the cloud where it can be accessed anywhere at any time.
The Advantages of Rugged IoT Gateways Intelligent gateway solutions allow data vetting decisions to be made directly at the device, increasing operational efficiency and ensuring that valuable bandwidth isn’t wasted on unnecessary data transfer. Rugged IoT gateway solutions from Logic Supply have been engineered to stand up to the rigors of modern embedded projects. Our fanless and ventless designs prevent damage due to dust and other airborne particulates that can clog traditional hardware, causing performance slowdowns and failures. Resistant to shock and vibration, our gateway systems are in use at steel mills, mining operations, large-scale alternative energy management companies and in a huge array of other challenging hardware applications. www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
õõ
Combining networking, embedded control and data security Allowing for remote operation and centralized management of IT systems Offering advanced component protection, far superior to traditional fanned systems Allowing for operation in extreme temperatures Eliminating the cost of upgrading legacy hardware Enabling users to take advantage of emerging IoT advancements
Logic Supply was developing smart technologies for M2M (Machine to Machine) applications before the Internet of Things had a catchy name, but the adoption of cloud computing and the integration of embedded systems into increasingly complex devices has made intelligent gateways an integral part of today’s connected world. If you’re struggling to interface legacy systems with the Internet of Things, or looking for the most efficient way to connect your embedded project to the cloud, contact Logic Supply about our line of intelligent IoT gateways. Our hardware will help you bridge the gap between your existing infrastructure and the future of embedded technology. www.logicsupply.com
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Gateway Solutions IoT Design Guide
embedded-computing.com/p372478
www.congatec.us
conga-QA3 The conga-QA3 supports Intel’s 3800 series family of Atom SoC processors. At 70mm x 70mm, the conga-QA3 is a small form factor Qseven module that can be used as the core compute engine for a multitude of IoT specific solutions. The conga-QA3 is available with on board eMMC SSD and has the option for extended temperature ranges making it suitable for the harshest of operating environments. With quad-core per-
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conga-QA3 – Qseven Module
fit for mobile and battery operated devices. Used in conjunc-
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70mm x 70mm, small form factor
tion with an application specific carrier board, the conga-QA3
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Low cost, low power
gives the designer the most flexibility available from an off-
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Intel Atom 3800 series SoC
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Quad-core SoC with up to 8GB DDR3
sary BIOS modifications. The result is the perfect fit solution
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On board eMMC SSD
for the final IoT platform.
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Legacy-free I/O
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Latest display interfaces
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Extended Temperature Range option available
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congatec’s Embedded BIOS features
formance and low power draw, the conga-QA3 is the perfect
the-shelf embedded computer. congatec’s Embedded BIOS features enable the designer to take control over often neces-
the rhythm of embedded computing
congatec 858-457-2600 22
IoT Design Guide
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Networking & Connectivity
embedded-computing.com/p372479
IoT Design Guide
nabto.com/userver
N200 uServer N200 Realtime Remote Access Module The N200 uServer module from Nabto is a unique solution that provides both network connectivity and an Internet of Things (IoT) remote access platform all in just one module. Attach the module to your embedded design and you can remote access it from PCs, smartphones, and tablets, etc. All cloud services included. Use it as a transparent UART gateway or push your device data directly in realtime into the GUI of your end-users client devices.
› › ›
Need to deliver rich real-time HTML5 based GUI’s to your end-users so they can remote control your device? Need to connect from app or PCs to your device ... remotely, securely? Don’t have the time and money to configure or compile tedious TCP/IP-stack software into your firmware and don’t want the hassle of managing cloud services? Simply connect 4 wires to your PCB design and you have the ability to securely remote access your product and build rich realtime HTML5 based apps in no time. Using the n200 series gateways from Nabto you can add secure, configuration-free, remote access to any device with minimal integration effort. Whether you choose to use the remote serial port API or the HTML5 integration API or both, you get the Nabto communication framework along with all its client side interface options and tools for building both Human To Machine and Machine To Machine interfaces. Communication with your device is now as easy as opening a serial port or navigating to a web site.
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Real-time HTML5 remote access solution as a chip or module Deliver rich HTML5 cross-platform remote control apps for end-users in no time Life-time cloud-services included Built-in Ethernet MAC and PHY connectivity Integrated IP-stack state of the art security:
• Secure Authentication using X509/PKI and shared secrets • Encrypted Secure HMAC-SHA256/AES128 connections
› › › ›
Remote serial port option for transparent access to existing serial solutions Fine grained access control Hassle free upgrades via built-in bootloader Remote data-read out to data-bases for advanced analytics via supplied integration SDKs Module pricing, including life-time cloud service: 1 10 100 1,000
SMD chipsolution from $5.50
Supported platforms are Windows, Mac, Linux, Android and iPhone/iPad. All n200 series gateways is built on state-of-the-art well known security standards and employs an access control list that enables fine grained control over all aspects of the gateway, including how clients may reach the device. The product includes life-time cloud-services to the Nabto remote access platform, eliminating all the hassle of installing, managing and paying for such services.
Special Promotion Only for readers of the IoT Design Guide Get your evaluation board today! Special promotion offer for readers of IoT design-guide. Evaluation board + 2xN200 modules only $99
For high volume customers the N200 solution is also available as a chip solution that fits right into your SMD line.
Nabto +45-70218040 www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
$36.75 $29.25 $24.75 $19.50
(S&H not included, regular price $145)
Go to: http://nabto.com/userver and use promotion code: IOTDESIGN
Contact: sales@nabto.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/nabto_com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/nabto IoT Design Guide
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embedded-computing.com/p372481
IoT Design Guide
Networking & Connectivity
www.rtd.com/switch
Scalable GigE Switch Family RTD’s scalable Gigabit Ethernet Switch Family maximizes network connectivity and system flexibility to create IoT solutions in rugged -40° to +85°C environments. Our 8-port host module can connect directly to the PCIe/104 bus, or it can be used as a standalone GigE switch. The total number of Ethernet ports can be increased using 8-port expansion modules. Configured with RTD’s 88-watt synchronous power supply, a single system will support up to 56 total ports.
› › › › › › › ›
In board-level configurations, users can choose from RJ-45 jacks or 10-pin DIL connectors. RTD’s rugged, enclosed packaging can be configured with RJ-45 jacks or 37-pin D-sub receptacles.
› › › ›
Eight 1000/100/10 Mbps Ethernet ports per slice Boards/slices stack together to increase total GigE ports 10-pin DIL, 37-pin D-sub, or RJ-45 connectors BroadCom BCM53115 Unmanaged Gigabit Ethernet Switch Intel WG82574IT PCI Express Ethernet Controller for interface to optional host CPU Jumbo Frame Support (up to 9018 bytes) Auto MDI crossover Onboard LEDs Connectors for external LEDs Passive heat sinks included Available in stackable, rugged enclosures -40° to +85°C operating temperatures
Expandable Intel Core i7 Mission Computer RTD’s robust Intel Core i7 CPU offers high-performance for rugged applications in extended temperature environments. Choose from single-core, dual-core, and quad-core configurations. These systems feature a synchronized power supply, an integrated 2.5-inch SATA carrier, and standard I/O including Gigabit Ethernet, USB, Serial, SVGA, DisplayPort, and programmable digital I/O. The CPU is designed with soldered SDRAM and solid-state flash storage for high shock and vibration situations. The stackable PCIe/104 architecture allows system expandability for additional DAQ, I/O, storage, and network functionality. The Core i7 systems are compatible with RTD’s complete line of data acquisition and peripheral modules. Tailored solutions include conformal coating, watertight enclosures with cylindrical MIL-SPEC connectors, and a variety of custom mounting, LED, and paint options.
RTD Embedded Technologies, Inc. 814-234-8087 24
IoT Design Guide
› › › › › › › ›
Modular, scalable Intel Core i7 mission computer Quad-core, dual-core, and single-core configurations 1.5 – 2.1 GHz Processors with up to 3.1 GHz Turbo Boost Stackable, modular chassis milled from solid T-6061 aluminum Ideal for extended temperature environments Standard PC or cylindrical connectors with user-defined pinouts Optional watertight configurations with EMI suppression and RF isolation Board-level and enclosure customizations available
www.rtd.com/i7
Contact: sales@rtd.com
www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
Processors, Chipsets, & IP
embedded-computing.com/p372482
Tiny silicon footprint that maximizes performance-per-area for silicon constraine SoCs means vendors can add enhanced graphics functionality to their designs without exceeding silicon/battery power budgets and still maintain responsive and smooth UI performance.
www.vivantecorp.com
› Smart Composition:
GC Nano reduces composition bandwidth, latency, overhead and power by intelligently composing and updating only screen regions that change. GC Nano can do mult-layer, full/partial screen composition or work in tandem with the display controller for UI composition.
GC Nano Series GPU A well-designed IoT/wearable HMI (human-machine interface) has one goal – to make reading or glancing at the screen intuitive and natural. Since device screens are smaller, information needs to be displayed in a simplified, uncluttered way with only relevant information like text, images, icons, video, and graphics displayed onscreen. As visual displays become common across all sorts of connected devices, the GPU has become a necessary part of product requirements for mid/ high-end MCUs/MPUs and various IoT applications processors. The GPU also allows product differentiation so companies can create compelling, visual-centric solutions for their target applications. The GC7000 Nano Series GPUs (graphics processing unit) are dedicated processors specifically designed for these market segments. It is the industry’s smallest licensable GPU cores (OpenGL ES 2.0 and ES 3.x) complete with the latest API features and class-leading performance that bridges the gap between IoT/wearables and consumer products (mobile and multimedia). The GC Nano accelerates graphics applications, user interfaces, and 3D content in the smallest power budget and silicon area to enable days of use between charges. Advanced technologies and architectural enhancements that increase 3D performance and GPU computational efficiency, bring new levels of exciting 3D experiences to embedded and microcontroller-based devices.
Vivante Corporation www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
› Wearables and IoT Ready:
Ultra-lightweight OpenGL ES 2.0 drivers, SDK and tools help easily transition wearables and IoT screens to consumer level graphical interfaces. The GC Nano package also includes tutorials, sample code, and documentation to help developers optimize or port their code.
› Designed for MCU/MPU Platforms:
Efficient design to offload and reduce system resources through minimal CPU overhead, DDR-less and flash memory only configurations, bandwidth modulation, close-to-the-metal GPU drivers, and IoT-specific GPU features to shrink silicon size. The tiny driver code size puts less constraints on memory size, speeds up GPU boot-up times and allows instant-on graphics for screens that need to display information at the push of a button.
› Ecosystem and Software Support:
Developers can take advantage of OpenGL ES to enhance or customize their solutions. Large industry support on existing Vivante products include Android, Android Wear and embedded UI solutions from key partners covering tools for font, artwork and Qt development environments.
Contact: bensontao@vivantecorp.com Twitter: @vivante_gpu
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› Silicon Area and Power Optimized:
IoT Design Guide
Services (Big Data, Lifecycle, Integration, and Design)
embedded-computing.com/p372483
TEST SYSTEMS www.astronicstestsystems.com/iot
Astronics Test Systems (ATS), headquartered in Irvine, CA, is an established leader in the design and production of test systems for a multitude of electronic applications. With more than 50 years in the test and measurement business, ATS is vertically integrated, with an ability to design and deliver the right test in the right place, at the right cost. Does your IoT device or product demand unique measurements? Our instrumentation design expertise enables us to design instruments with custom functionality. That instrumentation design experience is also applied to extract optimal performance from off-the-shelf instrumentation.
Layer 8
Your IoT device lives in an ecosystem; test should be systemic We tailor system-level solutions for comprehensive or “just enough” test – whatever is warranted by your target market. From chip-level to final product test, we’ve designed and delivered cost-effective solutions for all stages of manufacturing, and all levels of product integration. Test Software reflecting IoT Your device leverages the standardized constructs of the Internet and wireless protocols, not arcane languages specific to testers. Your test solution should too! Our ActivATE™ Test Platform is written entirely in Microsoft’s industry-standard .NET framework and supports industry-standard programming languages. ActivATE is deployed on over 150 semiconductor device and module test systems worldwide. The ActivATE Test
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IoT Design Guide
Platform is a proven, operator-friendly tool with re-usable functional test blocks that support real-time test sequencing modification. Support Putting a cost-effective test regimen in-place is only the beginning. Your revenue stream depends on continuing availability, uptime, and adaptation to new requirements. Today, we support high-volume manufacturing around the globe, and we’ll match an effective program of customer support and continuing consultation to your needs.
Your IoT Test Partner From testing the semiconductors for a universe of web-enabled devices, to testing the finished products themselves, we are THE test company to collaborate in design and deployment of custom test solutions for YOUR IoT products. • • • • • • • • • •
Test from silicon to finished IoT products Electrical, Thermal, and Mechanical Test Custom test solution design services Test for Product Validation, Production, and Field Service Test tailored for your volumes and economics: Individual or massively parallel Industry-standard platforms, languages, and technologies Co-engineering/Solutions teaming Test Automation, Mechatronics, Handling Complete product life cycle support
Contact: atssales@astronics.com
www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
Sofware & Operating Systems
ADVERTORIAL
IoT Design Guide
The RTOS as the engine powering the Internet of Things By Michael Weinstein, Senior Product Marketing Manager, Wind River
Driven by the convergence of cloud technology, rapidly growing data volumes, and increasingly connected devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) poses new challenges and presents a host of new opportunities that businesses of all sizes and industries can seize right now. Billions of intelligent devices and systems make up the IoT. The majority of these “things” are embedded systems, many of which are running a real-time operating system (RTOS). This article outlines the critical features and characteristics an RTOS must have in order to meet the specific challenges and realize the enormous opportunities of IoT.
new features and capabilities without changing the system core as standards and market requirements evolve.
To fully take advantage of the opportunity offered by the IoT, manufacturers of embedded systems must meet multiple challenges:
Safety is paramount in many embedded OS because they control machines that can endanger life, or their malfunction can cause injury or death. Although well established in aerospace, medical, and industrial markets, safety standards are now being applied by regulators to new markets. As standards evolve, manufacturers increasingly look to RTOS vendors to deliver the appropriate safety and security capabilities and certifications in order to make it easier to obtain required safety and security certifications for their end products.
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Bring connected devices to market faster Differentiate products with leadingedge features and capabilities Address security risks that pervasive connectivity in the IoT entails Build flexibility into existing products so as to be able to tap new market opportunities as they emerge Ensure the product offering remains relevant and competitive as markets evolve Reduce system development costs and risks
To help manufacturers of embedded devices meet these challenges, an RTOS must evolve to deliver the scalability, modularity, connectivity, security, safety, and cutting-edge feature set that are demanded by the new, highly connected, security-conscious, remotely managed world of the IoT.
Modularity An RTOS with a modular architecture will help manufacturers of embedded devices better differentiate their products and maintain them competitively over longer periods of time by enriching them with
www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
Scalability The IoT can create an incentive for manufacturers of embedded devices to maintain a broader product portfolio that includes different classes of devices, ranging from small form factor, simple, single-application devices to large-scale, complex, multi-application systems.
Security A good RTOS needs to support security features not only to protect against malware and unwanted or rogue applications, but also to deliver secure data storage and transmission and tamperproof designs. Operating system-level (OS-level) support for these features is critical, since adding them at the user or application level is ineffective, expensive, and risky.
Safety
Connectivity Embedded devices have traditionally been isolated, but are now increasingly connected to corporate or public networks for a wide range of applications, forming the Internet of Things. Small standalone sensor devices are connected together using low-power wireless technology. A reinvented RTOS for IoT needs to support industry-leading communications standards and protocols and deliver high-performance networking capabilities out of the box.
Cutting-edge feature set A broad feature set, delivered by the modern RTOS and its ecosystem of compatible third-party applications, is essential to enabling manufacturers of embedded systems to create a differentiated product offering and secure a sustainable competitive advantage.
Compatible software and hardware ecosystem An RTOS of the IoT era must support a broad ecosystem of tested and verified complementary hardware and software solutions. This allows device manufacturers to differentiate their product offerings with leading-edge features and capabilities, accelerate time-to-market through rapid, lower risk integration of best-in-class third-party technology, and cut costs by deploying systems integrated and validated out of the box. The era of IoT requires a modular, configurable, and expandable RTOS, adding improved scalability, connectivity, security, safety, and an extended feature set to the solid real-time performance, low latency, and multicore processor support of the RTOS of today. The RTOS of the future is here now with VxWorks, giving manufacturers of embedded systems a competitive edge in the world of IoT by enabling them to bring industry-leading devices to market faster while reducing risks and development and maintenance costs.
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IoT Design Guide
Software & Operating Systems
embedded-computing.com/p372484
www.echelon.com
IzoT FT 6000 EVK/Model #:10070R-43-54 The FT 6000 EVK is a complete hardware and software platform for creating or evaluating LonWorks and IzoT devices based on the Series 6000 Smart Transceivers and Neuron® Processors. You can use the FT 6000 EVK to create devices such as VAV controllers, thermostats, card-access readers, lighting ballasts, motor controls and many other devices. These devices can be used in a variety of systems including building and lighting controls, factory automation, energy management, and transportation systems. Whether you’re building large or small control network devices, IP enabled LonWorks or BACnet devices, the FT 6000 EVK makes your project development faster, easier, and more affordable. Development Kit for the IzoT Control Platform Creating control devices and networking them has a unique set of challenges that are quite different from traditional data or computer networking and also quite different from the consumer Internet of Things (IoT). Most high value assets such as electro-mechanical systems within buildings, machines on factory floors, public transportation, infrastructure for the delivery of public utilities and many others, require controlling and monitoring by special devices that are attached at key control and monitoring points and these devices together from the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT). The control and communication of these devices requires: C programming language, a high-level language based on ANSI C with extensions to simplify network communication, hardware I/O, and event-driven processing. The Neuron C language
Echelon
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supports up to 254 address table entries, 254 static network variables and 127 network variable aliases per device for devices based on a Series 6000 chip with Neuron Firmware version 21 or newer, subject to available memory. The IzoT NodeBuilder software supports applicationspecific interrupt handlers and a hardware semaphore that can be used for interrupt task synchronization. Interrupt sources include signals on any of the 12 I/O pins (rising edge, falling edge, either edge, positive or negative level), the highperformance on-chip timer and counter units, and a dedicated, configurable, high-performance periodic system timer. Ordering Information: IzoT FT 6000 EVK: Evaluation and Development Kit 10070R-43-54
› Supports the development of LonWorks, LonWorks /IP or
BACnet/IP devices on a common platform.
› Includes two FT 6000 EVB hardware platforms for initial
application development and testing.
› Includes sample I/O hardware with a 4x20 character LCD
display for easy I/O prototyping and testing.
› Includes the IzoT NodeBuilder software for application
development and IzoT Commissioning Tool EVK Edition for easy installation and testing of control networks.
› Includes one IzoT Router with FT and Ethernet interfaces and
a set of five FT 6050 Smart Transceiver chips.
› Open source Wireshark network protocol analyzer can be
used to capture, analyze, characterize, and display network packets so you can pinpoint network or device faults and identify potential solutions.
Contact: izot@echelon.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/echeloncorp LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/echelon Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/echeloncorp www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
Software & Operating Systems
embedded-computing.com/p372485
IoT Design Guide
http://micrium.com/spectrum/
Micrium® Spectrum™ Micrium® Spectrum™ is a pre-integrated end-to-end portfolio of embedded software, protocol stacks, cloud services designed to facilitate development of Internet of Things (IoT) from device to the cloud: • Real-Time Operating System: µC/OS-II® or µC/OS-III® • Local networking: Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth (classic and low energy) • IoT protocols: http client and server with REST API, MQTT and CoAP (coming in 2015) • Java support: Java Virtual Machine for deeply embedded systems • Cloud computing: Web services such as cloud-server interfaces, data brokering and cloud storage
Micrium Spectrum addresses the chasm in software engineering at the cloud barrier. Most embedded developers program in C, understand how to interface with hardware and to meet real-time scheduling constraints. Most cloud based developers program in HTML, Java, C++, Ruby, etc. Both “worlds” don’t typically understand the other. This is where Micrium comes in. We have partnered with Cloud solution provider 2lemetry to integrate a complete solution, which provides the main gateway between the cloud and Micrium. In the embedded world, there are hundreds, if not thousands, of devices on a single Internet connection, however the amount of information being transferred is quite low and includes data messages. For a service provider, aggregating all these IoT devices traffic can present a scaling problem. 2lemetry acts as a “bridge” between thousands of low data-rate embedded devices and your custom Cloud application or traditional Enterprise applications.
Micrium Inc. 954-217-2036 www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
› Solid software infrastructure, including a real-time kernel
plus additional services like TCP/IP, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth stacks, as well as cloud services to facilitate development of IoT-ready devices
› Runs on any processor architecture › Provides the necessary components allowing you to quickly
bring connectivity to your embedded system
› Helps embedded developers integrate with cloud-based
enterprise solutions and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) such as SalesForce or SAP systems, while still meeting real-time requirements
› Silicon vendor agnostic, allows design of proprietary and
differentiated solutions
› Facilitates the design of reliable, high-performance solutions › Available with a variety of licensing options
Contact: sales@micrium.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/micrium LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/micrium-inc.?trk=company_logo IoT Design Guide
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Software & Operating Systems IoT Design Guide
embedded-computing.com/p372486
www.smxrtos.com
SMX® RTOS Wireless communication is fundamental for IoT. Wi-Fi is popular and offers high throughput and long range (250 m), making connection convenient even when devices are not in immediate proximity to one another. We were among the first developers of an embedded Wi-Fi 802.11 stack, releasing smxWiFi in mid-2008. It supports 802.11a/b/g/i/n, and has drivers for most of the MediaTek/Ralink USB chipsets. Any combination of drivers may be used in the system, and smxWiFi will automatically select the correct one for the Wi-Fi dongle plugged in. Due to our early lead, we have since added support for other protocols: • Wi-Fi Peer-to-Peer (P2P) is the basis of the Wi-Fi Alliance certification program called Wi-Fi Direct . It allows easy, direct connection among Wi-Fi devices, anywhere, without need for an Access Point. TM
• Wi-Fi Simple Configuration (WSC) is the basis of the Wi-Fi Alliance certification program called Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS). This simplifies connection to an AP or other device, and supports PBC and PIN. TM
• SoftAP support is also offered by smxWiFi to allow your device to provide simple Access Point capability. USB Wi-Fi dongles offer numerous advantages over other approaches: ultra-low cost; can be plugged into most evaluation boards to allow developing wireless capabilities before custom hardware is ready; interchangeable since available from many different vendors; permit upgrading to newer technology without board redesign; use TCP/IP directly versus a proprietary protocol for a stand-alone chip solution to provide more flexibility and better performance. smxUSBH supports Wi-Fi dongles, and it is a leading USB host stack. It supports many other device types needed in IoT designs, such as: 3G modem, HID, mass storage, printer, RFID, serial, audio, video, and more.
Security is essential for IoT. We offer SSL, SSH, and SNMPv3 for our TCP/IP stacks; WPA2 and EAP for Wi-Fi; and a secure bootloader for field updates. Personal and Enterprise security are supported for Wi-Fi. The bootloader supports image decryption during installation or even during the bootloading stage to defend against hacking and reverse engineering, and to control optional software feature distribution. Communication is the essence of IoT, and it works better with strong multitasking support. smx is a hard real-time, small, high-performance RTOS kernel with a long list of features that are good for IoT designs: no-copy message passing, one-shot tasks, ultra-fast heap, and link service routines are just a few of many. Dual-language support permits writing high-level code in C++ and time-critical code in C. A fast heap provides good C++ performance. The smx++ class library is easy to use for C++ programmers. See the smx Special Features whitepaper for discussion of these features and others at www.smxrtos.com/rtos/kernel/ smxfeatr.htm.
For information about other SMX modules such as file systems and more information about those covered here, please visit www.smxrtos.com.
› smxWiFi 802.11a/b/g/i/n with P2P, WSC, SoftAP › smxWiFi supports MediaTek/Ralink chipsets:
›
IPv6 is a key requirement of IoT. smxNS6 is a dual IPv4/IPv6 stack that has passed IPv6 Ready testing. It supports IPv6 features such as Neighbor Discovery and Stateless Address Autoconfiguration. A dual stack allows a lower cost IPv4 entry, with the capability to migrate to IPv6 when needed. Both stacks support Multicast DNS (mDNS), which allows a host on the network to discover services provided by other hosts. It supports zeroconfiguration (zeroconf) IP networking with Apple Bonjour and the Linux/BSD Avahi package. A rich set of other protocols also useful in IoT projects is offered such as: SNMPv3, SNTP, and web server. Drivers are available for the on-chip Ethernet controllers on many of the latest SoCs.
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IoT Design Guide
› › › › › ›
• USB: MT7601, RT5572, RT5370, RT3572, RT3070, RT2870, and RT2573 • PCI: RT2860 TCP/IP supports IPv6, mDNS (e.g. Bonjour and Avahi), SNMPv3, SNTP, Web, and many more protocols; drivers for many SoC Ethernet controllers Security: SSL/SSH, SNMPv3, WEP, WPA2 Personal and Enterprise smxUSBH USB host stack class drivers: Wi-Fi, 3G modem, audio, video, and many more smx multitasking kernel with many special features and C and C++ APIs All modules integrated and interoperable Full source code in ANSI-C – royalty free 90 days support and maintenance included
Contact: sales@smxrtos.com www.smxrtos.com/iot www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
Storage
ADVERTORIAL
IoT Design Guide
Memory matters in growth of the Internet of Things By Amit Gattani, Sr. Director, Segment Marketing, Embedded Business Unit, Micron Technology, Inc.
Everyone agrees that the Internet of Things (IoT) has enormous economic potential. And everyone is thinking big around the vision: 50 billion connected devices delivering greater efficiency, productivity, safety, and comfort in every aspect of our daily life. From wearable devices and connected cars to connected homes, smart cities, and industrial infrastructure, the power and potential of the IoT is generating excitement and spurring innovation in products, services, and business models. Micron is further adding to this excitement by collaborating with other leaders in industry, government, and academia through groups like the Industrial Internet Consortium to develop interoperability standards and common architectures that connect smart devices, machines, people, and processes. As the IoT continues to roll out worldwide, and as new business models and product requirements emerge, Micron is well positioned to support megatrends feeding into it, like intelligent things, machine-tomachine (M2M) connectivity, mobility, networking, the cloud, and Big Data.
Data drives IoT, memory plays key role Value creation in IoT comes from the ability to make real-time, data-driven decisions. This requires data capture, transmission, analysis, and storage. Mem o ry solutions play a key role throughout all phases of this data and decision-making lifecycle. Data capture applications are comprised of billions of connected intelligent and semi-intelligent “things” that require M2M connectivity. Because these “things” are deployed in various infrastructure locations like city parking lots, traffic lights, energy farms, etc., they must be remotely managed for code, data analytics, security, and business policies. Data transmission requires multiple levels of connectivity and relies on the ability to connect distributed IoT devices to a decision-management system. Data analysis requires more compute power and memory – especially to
www.embedded-computing.com/topics/iot
drive real-time decisions. Data storage needs are growing as well due to the growth of digital and machine-generated content. These IoT trends are driving exponential growth across all type of memory and storage solutions – from non-volatile memory (NVM) used for code and data storage to DRAM used for execution and data processing to SSDs and storage appliances used throughout the infrastructure. Collectively, higher intelligence and more data are making memory subsystems a more strategic part of the system design.
System design challenges and tradeoffs In the new ultra-connected world the trend is toward higher semiconductor content. Designers face a difficult task of weighing the tradeoffs between power, performance, cost, capacity, security, and reliability when selecting memory solutions. A connected car making active safety and traffic routing decisions requires high-performance, highreliability, and highly secure memory solutions. Infrastructure deployments have very long lifecycles and need special attention to non-volatile flash data retention, endurance, and reliability. Then there are the billions of things and wearables designed to sense everything around us, which drive a different set of tradeoffs in power, performance, form factor, and security. As memory requirements continue to evolve and escalate in complexity it can be challenging to navigate the rapidly changing landscape and identify the right s olution at the right time to take advantage of market developments.
Memory – Choosing the right solution Working with a technology leader who understands IoT end-system requirements, memory usage models, and design constraints can be extremely advantageous. Micron engages with a broad customer base – from OEMs building billions of connected devices and creating massive networks of M2M connections; to OEMs engaged in data aggregation, transmission, and distributed analytics through networks; to companies driving high-performance computing solutions to address Big Data analytics associated with IoT. Micron is a global leader in memory and storage solutions, with a highly scalable manufacturing base across all memory technologies. With over three decades of experience developing advanced semiconductor systems, Micron’s memory solutions are optimized to enable the world’s most innovative computing, consumer, enterprise storage, networking, mobile, embedded, and automotive applications. Micron has the broadest embedded memory solutions portfolio in the industry, with a full range of products including DRAM, NOR/NAND Flash, and managed NAND solutions like e·MMC and SSDs, available in wide range of form factors like components, modules, MCPs, and die form. These highly reliable products are available in industrial and automotive grade and have been validated by leading SoC/FPGA/chipset vendors in a wide range of applications. Micron’s unique Product Lifecycle Solutions program (PLP) provides a stable roadmap and product availability for applications with long lifecycles. Our product offering, combined with embedded application expertise, a worldwide support network, and collaborative approach of working with our customers, is powering innovation in this Internet of Everything world.
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Mini-ITX
COM Express Module
PICMG SBC
www.portwell.com info@portwell.com 1-877-278-8899
Small Form Factor System
Network Security Appliance