IoT E-mag 2015

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Capitalizing on the Industrial IoT requires new business models

Q&A with Randy Littleson, Flexera Software

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Smart sensors for detection and ranging Dual-wireless protocol solutions

Sponsored by Flexera Software, LeddarTech, and Freescale

2015 Volume 2 Number 2

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FEATURING Capitalizing on the Industrial Internet of Things requires new business models and processes Q&A with Randy Littleson, Flexera Software

Smart sensors: Enabling detections and ranging for the Internet of Things and beyond

By Stéphane Duquet, LeddarTech

Dual-wireless protocol solution for the Internet of Things

By Tudor Stănescu, Freescale

Sponsored By

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Capitalizing on the Industrial Internet of Things requires new business models and processes Q&A with Randy Littleson, Flexera Software

In this interview with Randy Littleson, Senior Vice President of Marketing and Product Management at Flexera Software, we discuss why companies must rethink revenue models and business operations processes to capture their share of the trillion-dollar Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market. Littleson explains the four key business process areas that are key to monetizing the Industrial Internet of Things – licensing/security, entitlement management, delivery and updates, and in-product analytics. ’ve all seen the numbers e from Gartner and IDC on the expected size of the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market, but with all the hype the question becomes, how are businesses actually going to make money, or better yet save money, with IIoT?

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LITTLESON: The IIoT numbers are quite staggering and will require a transformational shift as companies evolve from a traditional hardware product mindset to an Internet of Things solution mindset.

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Companies of all sizes, from startups to conglomerates, must have monetization strategies in place to capture value at all stages.

At the heart of any IIoT solution is software. As a result, making money in the IIoT is not just limited to the initial product sale. With the IIoT, revenue should be captured from value-added services, subscriptions, as well as additional application functionality sales to drive new, predictable, and recurring revenue streams. We’re seeing an emerging class of intelligent device (hardware) manufacturers that are going

Transform Business on the IoT

through a business transformation that encompasses business model and core business operations changes.

If manufacturers are not already investigating this, they need to get started.

They need to align their strategy with their operations; they need to be thinking about what business model changes may be required to not only defend their current business but to capitalize on new IIoT opportunities, to be optimized for growth and scalability, as well as to go after new markets; they must mature their software monetization processes and have an infrastructure in place to rapidly enter and penetrate these new markets.

In the IIoT and connected-device world it is critical to have the ability to collect and understand usage of the device and the software that runs on it, as well as analytics on product use and report logs for preventative maintenance.

Flexera Software has worked with many manufacturers across a broad range of industries that had very different business models. A few use cases that come to mind include:

õõ õõ

A medical manufacturer that needed to meter how many times a doctor is allowed to use an MRI and store images in the cloud An audio producer that needed to enable customers to download apps from their app store, as well as update features on a device and then store that media in the cloud

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A networking manufacturer that used a gateway model where all end devices needed to send usage and profile data to a common gateway, and the application running on that gateway controlled the behavior of the end devices

All of these examples have a common theme, and that is making hardware more intelligent by using software. So a key consideration is to architect your IP with technology that enables you to protect and monetize in a variety of ways so that you can profit from the IIoT.

u talk about profiting o from IIoT and supporting new business models and processes. What operational and system requirements need to be considered and implemented to establish this transformational approach to business?

Y

Many hardware manufacturers and IIoT providers are shifting to hybrid hardware-plus-software business models.

This shift enables them to differentiate their devices with software, create new and recurring revenue streams, and improve margins. To be successful they need to ensure that business operations are aligned with strategic objectives. These operational imperatives are defined as software monetization business processes and are categorized across four key areas: 5

1. Licensing & Security, which enables you to implement business models by defining how products are packaged, sold, monetized, and protected against overuse and tampering 2. Entitlement Management, which enables you to track usage rights, what customers have access to what products, manage the license lifecycle, uncover cross- and up-sell opportunities, manage maintenance and renewal processes, and provide anytime, anywhere access and visibility into entitlements 3. Delivery & Updates, which enables you to automate the process of delivering both the initial software and subsequent product software and firmware updates such as security patches seamlessly and transparently to entitled customers 4. Finally, In-Product Analytics, which provides you with intelligence about how products are being used so that they can improve customer service and make better, smarter product decisions

i censing and security is a topic that always seems to be in the headlines. What can you tell us about securing the IIoT, strategies companies can put in place, and what to do in the event of a security breach?

L

We’ve found that security can be effective if it is designed into the product and applied in layers. In the past, hardware 6

vendors would normally rely on physical security, but as more vendors move away from proprietary hardware security plays an enormous role in both hardware and application development. Now manufacturers need to look at all the security layers that make up the IIoT. For example:

õõ õõ õõ õõ

Device security OS security Application security Network security

As mentioned, applying security throughout the product lifecycle is critical. If you think about security in layers, it might look something like this: 1. At the device layer, use secure booting to ensure that the system only runs trusted software during the boot up process 2. From an OS layer, use containers to sandbox the application so if or when it does get compromised or crashes it does not affect the integrity of the overall system 3. From an application layer there are two approaches: õõ The first is to always make sure you apply best practices to your development process, for example, making sure you validate all input parameters to prevent malicious code injection õõ And second, to harden all applications. For example, use tamper-resistant applications to prevent hacking. It provides a layer of code obfuscation and another that detects whenever

Transform Business on the IoT

õõ

a binary has been tampered so that you can take action (normally many would simply shutdown the apps); it also provides a resistance layer that makes it difficult for hackers to debug or spoof the application signature And lastly, from a network layer, always make sure that data in motion is encrypted and leverage secure communications as much as possible to prevent eavesdropping

There are four considerations and recommendations that I would offer to IIoT device manufacturers:

••• Figure 1 Licensing and security, entitlement management, delivery and updates, and in-product analytics are four key areas supporting transformative Industrial IoT business models.

1. Security is most effective when it is designed into the product 2. Always apply security in layers. For example: õõ Use secure booting to make sure only trusted firmware is booted õõ Apply secure network communications by using TLS or SSL to exchange data, or build an internal device firewall to prevent privacy leak õõ Apply application security to harden the application from malicious attack that can compromise the device

3. Implement licensing security and cryptography technology to prevent license tampering by making it difficult to generate illegal licenses, or to prevent users from changing the term of the license and entitlement 4. And most importantly, because the threat of hacking is always a possibility, a key requirement is to make sure that you have self-healing and self-updating capabilities so that a secure fix or patch can be deployed to customers quickly

u touched on entitlement o management earlier. What is it, and why is it needed in the IIoT?

Y

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Watch Video

••• Video 1 How security fits into your software monetization strategy.

Entitlement management is an essential back-office process for any software business. It enables them to track and manage which customers have rights to access, and to use, specific products and for how long. It enables customers and channel partners to self-manage the entire license lifecycle, including returns, modifying and re-hosting licenses, reassigning entitlements, managing subscriptions, and more.

Managing software entitlements is very unique to software and the license lifecycle, so you want to be sure to get a purpose-built solution for managing these essential revenue-generating entitlements.

As IIoT providers become more software-centric, the ability to manage all the post-sales transactions related to 8

software is critical to providing customers with a great experience, driving new and predictable revenue, managing crossand up-sell programs, and reducing operating costs and complexities.

a stly, what are some of the specific new business models you see on the horizon as the IIoT evolves?

L

The shift to hardware-plus-software has, and will continue to, transform IIoT business models. There are tremendous opportunities for these companies to create new usage-, value-, and outcome-based revenue models, as well as establish new and recurring revenue streams. We are just now seeing companies adopt these new models and expect there to be more models introduced as IIoT evolves. Here are a couple examples:

Transform Business on the IoT

software usage in addition to the device, and their customers only pay for what they use so they don’t feel like they’re paying too much.

In addition, we have already seen many of the big IIoT players begin to establish ecosystems with partners. We expect this to continue, and see software monetization is a ••• Figure 2 key platform for making Entitlement management enables software entities to easily money in the IIoT. It’s an manage the entire license lifecycle, empowering them to provide exciting time, and comnew services, generate new revenue streams, and reduce operating panies that put a software cost and complexity. monetization platform in õõ A medical device manufacturer in place now will be poised to capture their Europe is now capturing additional share of the IIoT market. revenue from subscription licensing. In addition to the Randy Littleson is Senior Vice President device sale, they now offer an of Marketing and Product Management annual subscription so that their at Flexera Software. customers can have access to usage data in the field, which Flexera Software helps them understand things like how best to deploy their devices.  www.flexerasoftware.com The manufacturer can also up-sell additional devices and/or services. @flexerasoftware õõ A U.S.-based telecom equipment manufacturer is now offering Facebook usage-based licensing models, which means that their customers LinkedIn pay for how much they actually use (i.e. gigabytes of data). It’s a Google+ win-win in several aspects since the telco manufacturer can sell the  YouTube

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Smart sensors: Enabling detections and ranging for the Internet of Things and beyond

By StĂŠphane Duquet, LeddarTech

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Connected devices already outnumber the world’s population by 1.5 to 1. By 2020, the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to connect 50 billion smart objects to the network.[1] The IoT consists of things, objects, devices, or machines that are connected to the Internet over fixed and wireless networks; they are able to collect data and share it with other devices.

A key enabler for IoT is the development of next-generation sensors that provide a wealth of quality data from which to build new applications and capabilities.Their small footprint, low cost, low power consumption, high reliability, and adaptability allows for easy integration into a variety of devices.

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Scalable IoT Connectivity

What are smart sensors and how important are they?

To better understand the role of smart sensors in the IoT, let’s first define the smart sensor. What makes a smart sensor “smart” is its onboard signal/data processing capabilities. According to one definition, a smart sensor “includes a microprocessor that conditions the signals before transmission to the control network. It filters out unwanted noise and compensates for errors before sending the data. Some sensors can be custom programmed to produce alerts on their own when critical limits are reached.”[2] They often integrate VLSI technology and MEMS devices to reduce cost and optimize integration.

Sensors are very closely linked to the IoT, as its core function is to collect valuable data, and the IoT will be built around autonomous sensors with radio communication capabilities. As such, an IoT sensing device requires at least three elements – sensors, microcontrollers, and connectivity to the Internet, as shown in Figure 1.

Hence, the IoT can collect large amounts of quality sensor-based data anytime and from anywhere, and transmit it over a network in real-time. This provides enhanced awareness of our immediate or remote environment, bringing forth opportunities for faster and better decision making, as well as gains in efficiency and productivity.

Smart detection and ranging sensors: Applications and required characteristics An important sensing category for the IoT is remote sensing, as it consists of acquiring information about an object without making physical contact with it; the object can be nearby or several hundred meters away (or further for longer range applications).

Multiple technology options are available for remote sensing, and they can be divided into three broad functions:

••• Figure 1 Fundamental components of the IoT-enabled smart sensing device.

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õõ õõ õõ

Presence or proximity detection – When just determining the absence or presence of an object is sufficient (e.g., security applications). This is the simplest form of remote sensing.

Speed measurement – When the exact position of an object is not required, but accurate speed is (e.g., law enforcement applications).

Detection and ranging (DAR) – when the position of an object relative to the sensor must be determined precisely and accurately.

DAR is the most complex of the three. From the position information, presence and speed can be retrieved, so technologies capable of DAR apply to all remote sensing applications.

A wide variety of applications in numerous fields currently leverage smart DAR sensors to improve processes, consumer products, safety, and energy consumption.

Smart vehicles make transport and commutes safer with automotive driver assistance and collision avoidance systems. Smart homes and buildings improve our quality of life with applications like perimeter control, lighting management, and smart appliances.

Manufacturing and industry is made smarter by improving safety and efficiency through collision avoidance, perimeter control, security and surveillance, and level sensing or bulk measurement applications.

Smart cities use DAR sensors to take on growth and sustainability challenges with intelligent transportation systems, traffic supervision and flow control, parking management, smart lighting, etc.

••• Figure 2 LeddarCore, a family of integrated circuits (ICs) providing Leddar technology, enables the development of high-performance optical timeof-flight sensors.

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No matter how much they differ, such applications share common re q u i re m e n t s to meet the demands

Scalable IoT Connectivity

of anticipated mass deployments in challenging environments: reliability, accuracy, robustness, cost-effectiveness, adaptability, a small form factor, and minimal power and bandwidth consumption.

Smart DAR: Main technologies Now, let’s review some of the main DAR technologies and how they compare to each other. The first step is to distinguish between passive and active approaches.

Although it is possible to obtain distance information with passive technologies (e.g., stereo triangulation of camera images), active technologies are more common.

These involve sending a pulse towards an object, collecting the echo signal, and analyzing it to determine the position of one or several items located in the sensor’s field of view. Since energy is intentionally emitted towards the initial object, they are considered “active”.

While some active technologies rely on the geometric location of the return echo to infer position information, others rely on the time characteristic of the return echo. These are generally known as time-of-flight measurement technologies.

Although the implementation differs, time-of-flight measurements can be accomplished with radio waves (radar), sound/ultrasonic waves (sonar), or light waves (lidar and Leddar).

Table 1 (Page 14) provides a brief comparison of different remote sensing technologies.

Leddar light processing: Highly efficient DAR that meets IoT requirements Each of the previously mentioned technologies presents strengths and weaknesses, so it is important to determine which is most suitable for a specific application. The latest technology is called Leddar, a highly efficient sensing approach that is perfectly suited to the requirements of IoT applications.

Using LEDs or other light sources, Leddar light processing is based on direct time-offlight measurements. However, a fundamental differentiator of Leddar is that, rather than working directly with the analog signal, it starts by sampling the received echo for the complete detection range of its sensor. Through patented methods, Leddar iteratively expands the sampling rate, resolution, and signal-to-noise ratio of this sampled signal, producing a higher range-to-power ratio. Finally, it analyzes the resulting discrete-time signal and recovers the distance for every object. Implemented in standard submicron CMOS processes, Leddar becomes the LeddarCoreT, an ultra-low-power sensor core that will maximize the performance of any optical time-of-flight sensor.

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••• Table 1 Summary comparison of active time-of-flight DAR technologies.

Some of the advantages of Leddar are its high sensitivity, immunity to noise, and powerful data-extraction capabilities. Leddar can also extract the distance for every object found in the field of view. Its unique ability to leverage a diffuse light beam (such as the one produced by LEDs) allows it to cover a wide area at once. The technology applies to sensors built with either a single detection element to perform a dedicated measurement, or with multi-element arrays, which could be used to build 2D or 3D sensors with fast parallel measurement and no moving parts, making the technology both highly versatile and robust.

Leddar provides three important benefits when developing DAR applications: a higher range-to-power ratio, the ability to detect targets in low visibility, and the ability to resolve multiple targets at once.

With its high efficiency and simple, flexible design, Leddar sensors can be easily integrated into a small footprint at a reasonable price while delivering consistent performance and reliability. Together, this makes Leddar ideally suited to ultra-highvolume deployments, fostering new possibilities for IoT applications.

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Scalable IoT Connectivity

Conclusion The IoT will soon interconnect all types of devices across numerous industries.

With its expected growth, ubiquity, and potential to reshape our daily lives, many anticipate that this trend will also lead to an explosion of the sensors market. It is projected that a trillion sensors will be deployed yearly within the next decade [1], and that up to 45 trillion sensors will be networked in 20 years [3].

••• Figure 3 Leddar optical time-of-flight signal processing.

Rapid advancements in sensing are only reinforcing this movement. Smart sensors may represent just a small part of the IoT, but they will definitely play a vital role in its deployment and represent a key enabler for many new applications.

Stéphane Duquet, MBA is Director of Strategic Marketing at LeddarTech.

LeddarTech  www.leddartech.com

 @Leddar_Tech  LinkedIn  YouTube Related content:

• Leddar Technology • LeddarCore Sensor IC References: 1. http://www.cisco.com/web/solutions/trends/iot/application-enablement.html 2. http://www.pcmag.com/encyclopedia/term/59600/smart-sensor 3. Dr. Janusz Bryzek, Introduction to TSensors and TSensor Systems, Stanford University, October 2013. http://www.tsensorssummit.org/Resources/TSensors%20Summit%20 Abstracts.pdf

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Dual-wireless protocol solution for the Internet of Things

By Tudor Stănescu, Freescale

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The Internet of Things (IoT) is here, whether we know it or not. More and more, the everyday objects around us are evolving to include capabilities that connect the real world to the virtual universe. From the edge sensor node in your home to the vast cloud infrastructure, data is flowing from physical devices and enabling a virtual representation. Whether it’s an IPv6 address, a QR 16

code, or some other means of identification, connectivity capabilities are rapidly enabling a mass deployment of the IoT. When designing silicon for these sorts of connectivity solutions, low resource consumption is key: low power, low cost of materials, and achieving just the right result with the least effort. These requirements, plus the proliferation of terminals

IoT Network Infrastructure

for mobile communications, have made wireless the preferred method of connecting the objects around us. Various protocols that were developed for earlier markets (such as handheld Bluetooth accessories or smart energy’s ZigBee/802.15.4, which met the requirements of the IoT space) were enriched with technologies such as Bluetooth Smart and Thread.

The IoT is as vast a concept as the Internet itself, with the ability to grow and spread like a living organism. The hardware that makes up this organism varies in terms of complexity and function. Sensor networks are vital organs within the system, acting as organic sensory appendages for all the data being created. As in any data network, gateways that bridge two networks or that connect a network and the cloud are essential. Protocols such as Thread define concepts like “border routers,” which route IPv6 packets between a sensor network and a regular LAN or WAN. Another essential concept for protocol specifications in the IoT space (particularly in wireless sensor networks) is network commissioning – the collection of procedures for creating a network to serve its intended purpose. One of the procedures in this operation is adding a new device to an existing wireless network. Usually this involves a method of authenticating the new device to the existing network using out-of-band (OOB) data. The OOB credentials can be obtained by using a secondary protocol.

The best example of this would be scanning a QR code on a home automation device that needs to be commissioned to the home automation network with a tool, such as a mobile phone.

Gateways and network commissioning present the need (and opportunity to fulfill that need) for wireless sensor network devices to have dual-protocol capabilities: the ability to be part of two networks as a gateway, or the ability to provide OOB data for commissioning.

Dual-mode devices are not a new concept, and they have been around since the first SoCs for mobile phones that integrated Bluetooth or Wi-F1i. The IoT, however, presents new challenges when it comes to combining dual-mode capabilities with resource consumption requirements for low-power and low-cost sensors. Because of these constraints, dual-mode devices in the wireless IoT space need to achieve the functionality of both protocols via a single radio frequency front-end through which the protocols are multiplexed.

Multiplexing protocols in a system with very low complexity (a limited number of logic gates in the silicon layout) becomes the real design challenge, and an opportunity for differentiation between manufacturers. To best approach this challenge, one must consider both the system architecture and the protocols themselves.

The system architecture involves hardware and software implementation of 17

the layers of the respective protocol stacks. In most cases, hardware starts at the lowest level (radio front-end in the case of wireless devices) and stops somewhere around layer 2, also known as the data link layer. Above this level, hardware automation/protocol acceleration becomes impractical for IoT devices because of their low resource consuming nature. The Open Systems Interconnectivity (OSI) model describes the data link layer as the collection of functions that achieve media access control and logical link control. This functionality presents the perfect opportunity for dual- or multi-protocol arbitration/multiplexing by making two data link layers (of two different protocols) aware of each other.

••• Figure 1 Link layer arbitration.

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This mutual awareness can be best translated in a set of rules that define the in-system coexistence of the two protocols. Rules can span various levels of the data link layer implementation, from managing access to the physical resource (electromagnetic spectrum) to managing duty cycles of the respective protocols.

Some standardization bodies (such as the Bluetooth Special Interest Group) have already begun defining high-level sets of rules for protocol arbitration, as described in Volume 7 of the Bluetooth specification Wireless Coexistence, also known as Mobile Wireless Standards (MWS) Coexistence. While these rules are aimed mainly at coexistence within the electromagnetic spectrum, they are ideal for protocol arbitration as well.

IoT Network Infrastructure

To allow for scalability and modularity of the system, it is important to achieve multiplexing at a given level of the protocol stack since higher layers can become agnostic. There can be cases where IoT application constraints and needs may dictate otherwise in the sense that the topmost application layer will evidently be aware of the fact that it has two protocols at its disposal and leverage both of them to achieve the desired functionality. Figure 1 shows a proposed system de-composition where the protocol arbitration is achieved in a firmware layer that runs directly above the data link hardware. This approach eliiminates

the gate count cost of having complex on-chip arbitration logic, which may be too rigid at design time to cover all the corner cases that can occur over the lifetime of a wireless microcontroller used in IoT applications.

Freescale’s solution for addressing multi-wireless protocols in the evergrowing IoT space is the Kinetis KW40Z MCU – an ARM Cortex-M0+-based ultra-low power wireless microcontroller platform. This platform includes dual wireless protocol support for Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) v4.1 and IEEE 802.15.4. The Kinetis KW40Z SoC

••• Figure 2 Kinetis KW40Z MCU block diagram.

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integrates a 2.4 GHz transceiver supporting a range of FSK/GFSK and O-QPSK modulations, 160 KB Flash and 20 KB SRAM, BLE link layer hardware, IEEE 802.15.4 packet processor, hardware security, and peripherals optimized to meet the requirements of its target applications.

These two protocols enable a multitude of use cases for BLE profile implementations coexisting with networking layers on top of 802.15.4 (such as ZigBee or Thread).

Furthermore, they serve as an ideal building block for implementing the gateway use case (routing packets between a ZigBee or Thread mesh and a Bluetooth Smart mesh network) and the commissioning use case (using BLE OOB data to commission a Thread/ZigBee device).

The Kinetis KW40Z MCU offers multi-protocol support that follows the exact model of link layer firmware arbitration as previously proposed.

••• Figure 3 Arbitration API calls 20

The upper layers (BLE host stack and Thread/ZigBee stacks) become agnostic of the dual-mode nature of the system.

The arbitration firmware layer manages the two link layer IP blocks for BLE and 802.15.4. This management takes into account the specifics of each protocol.

The asymmetrical BLE protocol includes two main states: pre-connection (advertising/scanning) and connection (with frequency hopping). Meanwhile, the 802.15.4 protocol simply transmits data point-to-point with a robust flow control mechanism.

Freescale’s protocol arbitration firmware implementation borrows from the MWS coexistence logical signaling, described by the Bluetooth specification. The concept of MWS is embodied by 802.15.4, co-located on-chip with BLE in the Freescale solution. Coexistence is managed via API function calls grouped in service access points between the software parts of the link layers for each protocol. These functions request access and inform each data link layer of the other’s activity.

The particular natures of the two wireless protocols implemented by the Freescale Kinetis KW40Z (especially the inherent lowduty cycle of the

IoT Network Infrastructure

BLE activity in the majority of profiles and applications) allow for a default mode of operation for the arbitration logic provided in the firmware from the Kinetis KW40Z enablement software packages. This essentially puts the BLE link layer in a “master” mode to control media access of the 802.15.4 MAC. In essence, whenever the BLE needs to perform an operation it preempts the 802.15.4 MAC for this purpose; whenever it is in the process of performing an operation (either advertising/scanning or connection data transfer) it cannot be preempted by the 802.15.4 MAC. Analysis has shown this to be very practical since 802.15.4 activity is minimally disrupted by the low duty cycle of BLE applications. This default mode of operation requires a single API function for signaling the 802.15.4 MAC during idle periods in the BLE link layer. With more intensive use of the BLE mode (such as in the case of a Bluetooth Smart mesh) the full set of API functions would be required to allow proper control of the protocol multiplexing.

The next generation of IoT-enabling Kinetis microcontrollers – Kinetis KW41 MCUs – will add even more value by allowing a physical layer-only capability that expands the use case landscape significantly (in addition to IEEE 802.15.4 and new BLE v4.2). This feature provides a generic FSK modem that allows configurable parameters for FSK modulation. Together with software data link layer implementations, this enables compliance of the

whole system with several other established protocols that use various flavors of FSK modulation. This also presents new challenges for protocol arbitration and multiplexing approaches, requiring adaptation to two hardware implementations of the 802.15.4 and BLE link layer plus one software implementation of another link layer that drives a custom FSK PHY. The robustness of the arbitration module implementation, coupled with the specific multitasking capabilities brought in by a real-time operating system, make the dual-wireless protocol multiplexing solution scale upwards to offer a multi-wireless protocol solution. It all begins with a configurable set of rules, which the protocol arbitration software module helps to configure and manage. And, as data begins to flow in greater volume from our physical devices into the virtual world, these and subsequent connectivity innovations will be a major life force of the IoT, allowing it to develop and grow on its own terms.

Tudor Stănescu is Software Development Manager at Freescale Semiconductor, Inc. Freescale Semiconductor  www.freescale.com

 @Freescale  LinkedIn  YouTube 21

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