IoT Now: ISSN 2397-2793
DECEMBER 2016/JANUARY 2017 • VOLUME 6 • ISSUE 5
IoT EVOLUTION EXPO SUPPLEMENT
NUMEREX INTERVIEW Sri Ramachandran, CTO, says volume, diversity, use cases and security are the new challenges facing IoT
INSIDE: Four-Page IoT Evolution Expo event preview including exhibition floorplan • Aeris explains why IoT apps need network optimisation to bring down costs and enable flexible scalability • News from around the IoT industry • Latest news online at www.iot-now.com
www.beechamresearch.com
CONTENTS
IoT Evolution Expo
S5
S10
NEWS
EVENT PREVIEW
S6
S15
INTERVIEW
INTERVIEW
IN THIS ISSUE S4
NEWS Blackberry in deal with Ford for security software; Libelium IoT platform powers smart cities
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NEWS HomeServe partners with Aviva for LeakBot; Eurotech announces new development kit for IoT apps
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INTERVIEW: IoT’s new challenges Sri Ramachandran, the CTO of Numerex explains how he sees the IoT market developing and how a comprehensive IoT platform remains a powerful differentiator
S10 EVENT PREVIEW Four pages detailing the key participants and sessions at the forthcoming IoT Evolution Expo and Conference to be held on 7-10 February, 2010 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA S15
INTERVIEW Syed Hosain, the CTO of Aeris, explains why IoT apps need network optimisation to bring down connectivity costs and enable flexible scalability
Numerex Corp. (NASDAQ:NMRX) is a leading provider of managed enterprise solutions enabling the Internet of Things (IoT). The company's solutions produce new revenue streams or create operating efficiencies for its customers. Numerex provides its technology and services through its integrated platforms, which are generally sold on a subscription basis. The company offers a portfolio of managed end-to-end IoT solutions including smart devices, network connectivity and service applications capable of addressing the needs of a wide spectrum of vertical markets and industrial customers. The company's mission is to empower enterprise operations with world-class, managed IoT solutions that are simple, innovative, scalable, and secure. Numerex is ISO 27001 information security-certified, highlighting the company's focus on data security, service reliability and around-the-clock support of its customers. For additional information, please visit www.numerex.com.
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Supplement IoT Now - December 2016 / January 2017
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NEWS BlackBerry in deal with Ford for expanded use of QNX and security software NEWS IN BRIEF Orange supports IoT in Brazil with Portoseguro Conecta Orange and Porto Seguro Conecta are collaborating to support IoT (Internet of Things) projects in Brazil to meet the demand from multinational corporations. The agreement between the two companies enables Orange to provide its global customers with IoT coverage in Brazil through the Porto Seguro Conecta connectivity and mobility platform. Porto Seguro Conecta’s extensive experience in IoT connections in Brazil, used for tracking car and residential alarms and IoT applications, is instrumental for local support, and complements the Orange global footprint. “Brazil is a strong market for IoT solutions in various sectors, such as utility, consumer appliance and electronic, automotive, medical and financial services. With an eye on this demand, Orange can offer its customers, via Porto Seguro Conecta, a dedicated connectivity service. We are prepared to implement new applications and broadband requirements that are essential to IoT communications,” said James Galli, head of Porto Seguro Conecta.
eir Business launches IoT Connect using MDS’ customer management platform eir Business has deployed MDS’ Customer Management Platform (CMP) to allow small, medium and large enterprises to connect their Internet of Things (IoT) assets in the field. IoT Connect is a machine-to-machine communications (M2M) selfmanagement portal that provides private network solutions and enables real-time, comprehensive data control. eir Business is reportedly the only operator in Ireland offering the IoT market such a scalable solution. CMP, MDS’ flagship billing and customer management solution, provides customer management, product configuration, order management, service charging, and convergent rating and billing, on a single unified database. With the ability to manage small to medium-sized enterprise (SME) to corporate customers with complex hierarchies, it enables eir Business’ healthcare, manufacturing, transport, security and retail customers to rapidly and securely prototype, build and deploy competitive new commercial services using IoT Connect.
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BlackBerry has signed an agreement with Ford Motor Company for expanded use of BlackBerry’s QNX and security software. The deal is described as signifying an acceleration John Chen, in BlackBerry’s pivot from Blackberry hardware to software in support of the automaker’s goal of providing connected vehicles and mobility to its customers. “The future of the automobile is all about embedded intelligence. I believe our expertise in secure embedded software makes us the preferred technology provider to put the smart in the car,” said John Chen, executive chairman and chief executive officer at BlackBerry. “Ford is an industry leader and the opportunity to contribute our world-class technology to their products is a privilege. Ford’s expanded application of our software and services illustrates the diverse and broad value we can bring to market.” As part of the agreement, BlackBerry
will dedicate a team to work with Ford on expanding the use of BlackBerry’s QNX Neutrino Operating System, Certicom security technology, QNX hypervisor and QNX audio processing software. The terms of the deal are confidential. “With the success of our SYNC 3 system globally, which is based on the BlackBerry QNX operating system, we understand the importance of the connected car experience to our customers,” said Raj Nair, executive vice president Product Development and chief technical officer at Ford Motor Company. “Growing our expertise, experience and use of the BlackBerry QNX embedded software platforms will help ensure we deliver the high-quality, highly secure experience that our customers expect.” The combination of BlackBerry’s expertise in security and QNX’s mission-critical operating systems and software for automotive applications, allows the company to offer the most secure, trusted and reliable platform that can power every aspect of the connected car.
Libelium IoT Platform powers smart cities in US adding LoRaWAN and Sigfox Libelium continues powering the Internet of Things (IoT) development adding LoRaWAN and Sigfox wireless connectivity for North America to Waspmote OEM and Waspmote Plug and Sense! sensor devices. San Francisco is one of the first cities to deploy this technology, where Libelium is already developing a Smart Water project with Sigfox and San Francisco County. In Colorado, Libelium technology is also enhancing new projects to monitor weather and environment conditions with LoRaWAN connectivity. Libelium keeps offering the widest interoperability in the great array of connectivity choices for the IoT. The company is joining forces with LoRaWAN and Sigfox global network in response to strong demand for low-energy, longrange and cost efficient IoT connectivity in North America. In terms of network coverage, Semtech is partnering with Comcast to deploy LoRaWAN networks in 30 cities while Sigfox is expanding its network to 100 US cities. “We are successfully offering these protocols in their European version since 2015 and checking its viability for environment, pollution, water quality and smart parking applications. We
strongly believe that making them available in their American version will speed up market adoption in the 900 MHz markets” stated Alicia Asín, Libelium’s CEO. Customers can make their choice of LPWAN preferred protocol for Waspmote Plug & Sense! in 900MHz or 868MHz bands – depending on geographic destination – when ordering except for the Smart Parking model, where both radios (LoRaWAN / Sigfox) are always included. “We have managed to offer a dual radio in our Smart Parking node at a very competitive price, which increases our customers’ options, one of our design principles. They can compare the performance of both technologies in one installation, work in hybrid networks or change from one to another easily from the Cloud. We consider this kind of features crucial to keep a healthy and competitive IoT landscape” explained Asín.
Waspmote Plug & Sense! Smart Environment features Sigfox and LoRaWan connectivity
Supplement IoT Now - December 2016 / January 2017
NEWS HomeServe partners with Aviva to offer customers LeakBot smart water leak detector HomeServe, a home assistance provider in the UK, is strengthening its partnership with general insurer, Aviva, with the announcement that Aviva is the first insurer to offer LeakBot to its customers. LeakBot is a smart connected water leak detector, developed by HomeServe Labs. LeakBot aims to offer a solution to this issue, through its ability to detect leaks anywhere on the mains water supply in a home, spotting them before they have the chance to become big problems. The device uses Thermi-Q technology and is said to be installed easily by clipping the LeakBot to a pipe near the stopcock. It monitors the mains water supply 24/7 to detect and alert Customers via their smartphones to issues such as dripping taps, hidden leaks on pipes and taps being left running. Customers can then choose to access on-demand repair assistance from HomeServe. Aviva has already tested a small number of devices, and the success of that initial trial has led the insurer to offer LeakBot to selected Aviva Customers. Martin Bennett, the chief executive of HomeServe Membership, said, “HomeServe and Aviva are organisations who are both focused on making things easier for Customers. From the beginning of our partnership, we have been excited about what we will offer Customers in terms of market leading
connected home innovation, and LeakBot, is a significant step forward on that journey.” Stephen Pond, managing director, Prevention and Services for Aviva, added: “Many people will have encountered a leak in their homes at some point, so it’s no surprise that repairing damage caused by leaks accounts for more than one in five of Aviva’s home insurance claims. Unfortunately, many leaks happen behind the scenes, which mean they can sometimes go undetected for weeks, months or even years, meaning water damage can be extremely extensive, destructive and disruptive to put right. So, catching leaks early and fixing them before much damage is done is definitely the way to go.”
The ECDK 4001 Development Kit provides an ideal, all-inclusive environment to software developers and operational engineers, where they can model their use cases starting from a realistic template that integrates all the key elements typical of an industrial IoT chain (Gateway, PLC, field devices, field protocols, cloud services). The EDCK 4001 Development Kit includes a ReliaGATE 10-11, Eurotech’s IoT Gateway for industrial applications based on the CortexA8 processor family, and a PLC connected to a demo board fitted with digital and analog controls. The ReliaGATE 10-11 provides an Oracle Java SE Embedded 8 Virtual Machine, and Everyware Software Framework (ESF), Eurotech’s IoT device middleware, which builds on Eclipse Kura, the open source
Supplement IoT Now - December 2016 / January 2017
Vodafone signs roaming agreement with Inmarsat for IoT communications Vodafone announced it has entered into a roaming agreement with Inmarsat, with the ambition to enable international satellite and cellular roaming connectivity for the Internet of Things (IoT). Thanks to its ubiquitous coverage and high network availability, even in extreme environmental conditions, satellite-powered IoT allows organisations to extend their services beyond terrestrial networks, where they have remote connectivity requirements, for example in the agri-tech, utilities, oil and gas and transportation sectors.
The LeakBot app on a smartphone
Eurotech announces new development kit to create IoT applications from field-to-cloud in minutes Eurotech, a provider of embedded systems, Machine-to-Machine (M2M) platforms and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, announced the EDCK 4001, a new Everyware Device Cloud Development Kit that bundles all the hardware and software needed to prototype, develop, test and integrate a complete IoT solution that bridges the gap between sensors, devices and the cloud.
NEWS IN BRIEF
Java/OSGi application framework for IoT gateways. Distributed and supported by Eurotech, ESF adds advanced security, diagnostics, provisioning, remote access and full integration with Everyware Cloud (EC), Eurotech’s IoT Integration Platform. The EDCK 4001 Development Kit includes a trial license of EC, which provides cloudbased access, visualisation and management of the device, and additional services like data storage, analytics and remote software deployment and update.
The EDCK 4001 IoT Development Kit
Inmarsat’s Broadband Global Access Network (BGAN) complements Vodafone’s current connectivity portfolio with lower bandwidth, lighter weight, more portable satellite terminals and satellite communications resilience in harsh weather.
Huawei and UC Berkeley create US$1m partnership for AI research The Noah’s Ark Laboratory of Huawei and the University of California, Berkeley, have formed a strategic partnership in basic research into artificial intelligence (AI). Huawei will provide a US$1 million fund to UC Berkeley for research into subjects of interest in AI, including deep learning, reinforcement learning, machine learning, natural language processing and computer vision. The Research and Development (R&D) teams of Huawei and the Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR) Lab will collaborate to achieve breakthroughs in AI theories and key technologies. The two parties believe that this strategic partnership will fuel the advancement of AI technology and create new experiences for users.
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IoT’s new challenges are the volume involved, the diversity of use cases and security Sri Ramachandran is chief technology officer of Numerex. He joined the company at the start of 2016 and is responsible for driving the company's technology strategy with a focus on product development and engineering execution. He most recently served as CTO of Utilidata, an IoT and data analytics company driving energy efficiency in the electric power grid. Prior to that, he was CTO of Telcordia/Ericsson Interconnection Solutions, where he launched and established a new mobile messaging business. Here he tells IoT Now how he sees the IoT market developing and how, while everyone seems to have an IoT platform offering, a comprehensive IoT platform remains a valuable differentiator
IoT Now: Given the recent DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks from internet-connected devices, what is your take on securing IoT devices? What are the other security implications, for example, malicious data manipulation? Sri Ramachandran: The recent DDoS attack on 21 October 2016 that crippled critical internet sites such as Netflix, Paypal and Twitter, especially in the eastern half of the US, was found to have been launched by millions of internet connected devices. More specifically, a malware called the Mirai botnet was deployed to infect vulnerable internet connected cameras and digital video recorders that then coordinated this attack against the DNS infrastructure of one specific DNS provider, Dyn. The devices were considered open because the default administrator credentials were not changed after deployment. This clearly exposed the vulnerabilities of IoT devices, the failures in deployment best practices, and how their scale of deployments, and their always on nature can be exploited to make malicious attacks on broad internet infrastructure as well as targeted sites. This is a wakeup call to device manufacturers – as well as enterprises – that special measures must be taken to ensure IoT devices cannot be exploited. At Numerex, security of devices starts with design and system architecture. Our philosophy is that security must be dealt with not only in technology, but also in process. Technology-wise, each device has its own internal firewall to prevent malicious inputs. We also ensure that all configuration and software updates delivered to devices go through a strict validation
process that ensures confidentiality and integrity. Our delivery and deployment processes are tightly coordinated with the customer and their internal IT controls. Ultimately, IoT devices are only as good as the data they send out. If the data is manipulated either through deliberate erroneous inputs to the IoT device sensors, or while the data is in transit, it can lead to bad results. Imagine a bedside monitor of a critical patient’s vitals sending information to the doctor’s office. The consequences may be dire if the data is manipulated. Another example is tracking emergency supplies during a natural disaster recovery situation – having the right data at the right time is imperative to dealing with the circumstances. There are many other examples in industrial applications and large-scale systems such as the electric power grid, where the integrity of the data is critical. The consequences of bad data can range from minor inefficiencies to the enterprise to the worst case of catastrophic outcomes. IoT Now: Besides connected car and connected home, what are the other areas in which IoT is making big inroads? SR: Today, when one mentions IoT, the most common applications that come to mind are related to connected home and connected car. Both areas are seeing a lot of activity and the innovation seems boundless. The connected home started from three different sub segments that have now merged. The first one is home monitoring – essentially checking on pets, children and others who are entering or leaving the home. There are many solutions that comprise this segment, ▼
Ultimately, IoT devices are only as good as the data they send out. If the data is manipulated either through deliberate erroneous inputs to the IoT device sensors, or while the data is in transit, it can lead to bad results
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including video monitors, motion detectors and sound monitors. The second is climate control and energy use monitoring. Controlling energy usage of a home contributes directly to the family’s monthly savings, making this an important area that has seen a lot of innovation. Companies such as Nest and a few major security companies have made great strides in this area. Control aspects have moved on from just climate control to include water heaters, lighting, water pumps, and sprinklers. The third is home security. With improvements in technology, the once stand-alone industry of home security has now been inducted into the connected home space. Now homeowners have cloud-based apps that are accessible on a smartphone for home monitoring and control. Alarm panels can operate on a wireless network, notifying a dedicated call centre in the case of intrusion events. The home security market is very strong, and is incorporating the home monitoring segment into it, allowing service providers to deliver robust products offerings. Numerex has a strong brand and solution offering in this part of the connected home market.
The author, Sri Ramachandran, is chief technology officer of Numerex
Industrial IoT (IIoT) is not talked about much, but it is a larger market and has a diverse set of applications that rely on a range of devices and capabilities. Asset tracking in the supply chain using our iManage solution, and bulk liquids tank monitoring under our iTank managed service are two very robust areas where Numerex offers complete solutions. Tanks storing bulk liquids, such as petroleum products, chemicals, gases and even water are in general in need of remote, electronic monitoring. The business processes around measuring, draining, replenishing and distribution of liquids in these tanks have been built around highly manual and inefficient practices. Automating the business processes clearly brings a significant uplift in efficiency and return on investment in IoT. IoT Now: What have been Numerex's major product and technology accomplishments recently? SR: Numerex has made major strides in its product and technology roadmap in 2016. We have launched several connected home ▼
The connected car sector is, again, a very large market. The automobile, for an individual or family, is their second most expensive asset after a home, and hence has a lot of economic value ascribed to it. The ecosystem of service providers that play a part in the lifecycle of an automobile is also extensive – insurance providers, service centres, infotainment providers and others. By connecting a car, it allows the entire ecosystem of service providers to play a role and enhance the experience for the car owner.
As a result, we have seen many sub-segments emerge in the connected car space – usagebased insurance (UBI), fleet tracking, maintenance tracking, car digital video recorders and other entertainment systems, with each segment growing very rapidly. With devices that can connect aftermarket cars, the market is no longer dependent on newer models only which have the OEM-enabled connectedness. Driver behaviour, energy usage and other pertinent data can also be gleaned from the connected car. Numerex has been present in the fleet tracking space for many years and has plans to continue upgrading and improving that offering into 2017.
Supplement IoT Now - December 2016 / January 2017
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INTERVIEW
At the same time, we launched a Lone Worker Safety (mPERS) product that is gaining traction. In the industrial IoT applications, such as asset tracking and tank monitoring, we have launched several new devices, one of which is certified to be Intrinsically Safe and hence can be used with flammable liquids. Among the new devices are those capable of using both cellular and satellite networks, which makes them applicable in versatile environments. We are also launching devices with rechargeable batteries – with these we can extend the life of the device to more than seven years. These devices can be charged by a small solar panel, making them attractive for deployment in remote environments. We have also been advancing the software platform capabilities to improve scale and support migration of our customers from 2G networks to 3G and beyond. IoT Now: Many IoT companies, including Numerex, provide an IoT platform. What are the key differentiators of your IoT platform? How do you see it enabling a growing IoT market? SR: The term IoT Platform is very common today. Most companies claim they have one, and there is no standard definition of what the platform is. The way Numerex defines a platform is that it: • Is a cloud-based software system using network-as-aservice to connect any number of IoT devices over different transport networks – such as cellular, satellite, LPWA and WiFi. • Employs rich device and connection management capabilities via gateway services to allow customers to change configurations of their devices, update and upgrade the firmware. It also has very sophisticated high throughput message translation capabilities so that many different device types can be easily connected to the platform. • Has adaptive security, so it can provide security at message, transport, device levels as well as enable different trust models between applications and the devices. • Uses very advanced application enablement through application programme interfaces (APIs) that our customers and partners use for rapid integration. • Is capable of very sophisticated billing, operations and management capabilities. The platform can support billing across any network type and any mode, such as flat rate, usage, tiered and others. • Is supported 24x7 by our network operations centre (NOC) and technical professionals. One of the many differentiators of our nxFAST platform is that it has operational maturity – we have more than two million IoT device connections live on the platform, supporting in excess of 1,000 different use cases. The platform supports many device types and many network types and a sophisticated rules engine so that we can enable what is called intelligence at the edge for IoT networks. These are significant differentiators that we don’t see deployed in the industry, but that our customers can take advantage of.
Supporting numerous device and network types is essential to the growing IoT market. Numerex’s platform provides just that. Based on the diversity of use cases we already support, there are going to be many more as business processes increasingly get automated. IoT Now: The IoT market is growing very rapidly. What are your key initiatives to keep ahead of the market? Sri Ramachandran: The challenge of IoT is the volume and diversity of use cases. Since IoT in the enterprise is primarily used to drive business process automation, we see that the number of use cases are very plentiful. Even in just one market, bulk fluid tank monitoring, we see many diverse use cases. The solutions that are deployed are different for tanks that move which require GPS based trackers, tanks that are stationary, tanks that are indoors and external tanks. The form of the solution that is deployed in each of those cases is very different and requires different devices, different data reporting characteristics, different applications, and different ways to control and manage them. We want to make it very easy for our customers to do business with us. To this end, our business model is to provide a complete solution that our customers can deploy as a fully managed service from Numerex. This makes the rapid deployment and turn up of service paramount. Our modular device capabilities and the world-class software platform enable customers to quickly tackle their business problems. We have several initiatives going on to enable our customers to streamline their businesses. They want to integrate all the data generated from their deployment into their enterprise resource planning (ERP) or other business workflow solution. While batch processing is common, we are working on a rich API framework that will make this integration more streamlined and seamless. The second technology initiative is around data mining and analytics. As our customers scale their deployments of our solution, they are generating significant amounts of device, process and business data. While the data is used to optimise day-to-day business operations, the data has not been used to address enterprise wide business decisions, especially in combination with other data. For example, in our tank monitoring scenario, the data from the tank monitors are used to make day-day tank fill route optimisations – such as how much fluid to carry, how much fluid to order, the most optimal route to take and others. However, when combined with bulk pricing data, weather/climate data, demographic and other macro information, our data analytics software can offer insights for the business as to optimise purchasing, inventory and route distribution decisions. A third technology initiative is to refresh all our products to support LTE and its IoT variants. This enables us to easily track carriers’ LTE deployment roadmaps – for Cat1, CatM1, and CatM2. We have taken a platform approach to our software and hardware. The software platform deployed in the Numerex cloud provides the key capabilities to enable support for diverse use cases – such as a sophisticated rules engine, high
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products under the Uplink brand, and one product focused exclusively on the fire and security market. In the offender monitoring segment, we released a major upgrade of our application, that customers are eagerly migrating to.
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Sri Ramachandran: Data analysis technologies will gain even further prominence as more devices come online
throughput message translation and transaction processing, advanced application enablement and a rich data model for supporting different device types. The hardware platform takes a modular approach to key IoT capabilities – such as network type, sensor inputs, power input and battery. These make it the most flexible technology approach to deal with the growing IoT market. What is the future for IoT? How do you see it evolving? Are there other new markets that IoT will spawn? SR: IoT is going to become a broad term that is going to signify many things. Today the focus is on things – gadgets and devices that we use to monitor and control. Most common applications of IoT today use the paradigm of monitor and control – this can be in connected lighting, industrial settings and many, many more. Gradually, we will see that the monitoring and the control will evolve independently. Monitoring is essentially time series data
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being generated by these myriad devices – and the focus will move up from the device itself to the data that it is generating and all the models that can be applied to data. Data, especially time-series data, can be massaged, manipulated, aggregated and analysed to generate meaningful results – such as pattern recognition, trend generation and predictive projections. Data analysis technologies will gain even further prominence as more devices come online.
IoT is going to become a broad term that is going to signify many things
Similarly, when we look at control, we see steady evolution towards hierarchical and multi-tiered control. Industrial automation already has seen these advances in process control. Using IoT, we can extend these concepts to industrial business process automation. In that sense, IoT is similar to the PC revolution. As the costs of computing, network and storage continue to go down, the focus shifts up to data analysis and what can be done with the data and how it helps run the business. Just as PCs are tools to run the business, so will IoT.
www.numerex.com
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EVENT PREVIEW
www. iotevolutionexpo.com
Five conference tracks bring together speakers and exhibitors from across the IoT market IoT Evolution Expo and Conference returns to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA on 7-10 February, 2017, for its 17th event. Here, IoT Now previews what’s in store for attendees
Enterprise IoT operations Connected building and cities IoT enabled transportation solutions IoT developers Business intelligence/machine learning The conference tracks all highlight the robust nature of IoT by focusing on sets of solutions and technologies that address the vast array of business challenges that every company faces.
Conference highlights IoT Evolution returns to Fort Lauderdale, Florida with a strengthened focus on the enterprise and how IoT solutions will impact how companies operate and drive revenue.
There are several new additions to the programme, most notably the all-new Industrial IoT Conference, Machine Learning Certification, Telit IoT Innovation and the Best Practices Showcase. • All-new Industrial IoT Conference A partnership with the Industrial Internet Consortium, this new collocated conference will highlight how the convergence of machine and smart data is transforming manufacturing and supply chain functions. Here attendees will learn about industrial IoT solutions that will dramatically improve performance, lower operating costs and increase reliability. • Telit IoT Innovation Telit IoT Innovation connects more than 400 business leaders, executives, engineers and developers who want to utilise the expertise of the Telit IoT ecosystem to get to market faster, save money and improve compliance. Listeners will hear from industry leaders who will share valuable insights to help translate ideas into measurable business outcomes.
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With five tracks of content, IoT Evolution covers all functional areas of the enterprise and highlights the IoT solutions and strategies that will drive success. The conference tracks include:
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Keynote speakers:
Other speakers include: Don Barnetson, CTO, Lunera Lighting
Lisa Peterson, vice president of Marketing and Connected Aircraft, Gogo Business Aviation
James Brehm, James Brehm & Associates
Dr. Richard Soley, chairman, Object Management Group & Industrial Internet Consortium
Chris Chang, CEO, Alien Technology
Fred Yentz, CEO, IoT Platforms, Telit
Carl Ford, CEO, Crossfire Media
John Horn, CEO, Ingenu
Andy Germano, vice president, Bec Technologies
Alex Brisbourne, CEO, Kore
Lee Gruenfeld, vice president of Strategic Initiative, Support.com
Richard Brennan, CTO, Telxxis Ven Dixit, Nimbelink Ron Felice, automotive engineer, IBM
Dr. Brandon Hart, technical business development, Nimbelink Mark Heckler, principal technologist/developer advocate, Pivotal.io Kaynam Hedayat, vice president of product marketing and marketing, Digital Lumens
IoT Evolution Expo has a strengthened focus on the enterprise and how IoT solutions will impact how companies operate and drive revenue
Ken Hosac, vice president business development, Cradlepoint Marc Josephson, CEO, Corisecs John Keever, CTO, Telit Dave Kjendal, CTO, Senet Kevin Kostiner, senior vice president and general manager for IoE Connectivity, BeamSmart Maciej Kranz, vice president, Corporate Strategic Innovation Group, Cisco Matt Lear, director, Product Management - IOT iConnectiv Robert Lutz, director, Product Management and Business Development, Systech Mary Maguire, Harman Giuseppe Mascarella, adjunct professor, Florida Atlantic University
• Best Practices Showcase The Best Practices Showcase will highlight and define the various stages of IoT development and the best practices required in order to deliver a successful IoT solution that offers value, operational efficiencies and profitability. • Machine Learning Certification Combined with the general IoT Certification taking place in the morning, these afternoon sessions will focus on what machine learning is, how it will impact IoT implementations and identify the ecosystem to support it. • Security Summit: Security in the IoT: Incompetence, Malice and Solutions Hear about the most critical issues related to the privacy and security of the IoT industry's interconnected devices. Identify typical IoT security flaws and understand what measures you need to take to overcome them. Get educated on a wide variety of security solutions, new device encryption methods, ways to protect your enterprise and more. • CEO Innovation Summit The IoT Evolution CEO Innovation Summit is for the corporate leaders who drive innovation and look to foster it within the organisation. This summit looks at how to take the functional aspects of IoT and integrate them throughout the organisation to transform the business into a fourth industrial revolution powerhouse.
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Alex Mateo, industry manager for Smart Cities, Libelium Marcus McCarthy, general manager, Trimble Rod McLane, Ayla Netowrks Angel Mercedes, manager, Services Sales NA, AirVantage IoT Platform, Sierra Wireless Steven Nguyen, senior director of marketing, BuildingIQ Mike Palermo, senior Alexa evangelist, Amazon Marc Petock, vice president of marketing, LynxSpring Vince Ricco, business development manager, Technology Partners Axis Dr. Richard Scott, principal, Scott Associates Vatsal Shah, CEO and founder, Litmus Automation Uzair Siddiqui, senior product and marketing manager for IoT Connected Solutions, Verizon Ian Skerrett, vice president of marketing, Eclipse Ravi Srivatsav, chief business developer, NTT Wayne Stargardt, Numerex Jessica Sweeney, senior director of Market and Product Strategy, Lilee Systems Keith Tamboer, James Brehm & Associates Andrew Till, vice president, Technology, Partnerships and New Solutions, Harman Dima Tokar, analyst, Mach Nation James Turino, partner, Redwood Capital Group Karl Weaver, OEM business development director, Oasis Smart SIM Doug Wilson, channel manager - IoT, Verizon Will Yapp, vice president of business development, Senet Marc Zionts, CEO, Numerex
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What makes IoT Evolution unique? IoT Evolution provides an unbiased and inclusive view of the IoT ecosystem. The direction of the event’s programme is not tied to any particular standard, association or user group. The exhibition includes companies that are competing for your business and are ready to show you how to integrate IoT into your business and corporate structure. The IoT Evolution conference programme provides an understanding of how IoT will be incorporated into business and operational plans now and well into the future. By highlighting the robust nature of IoT, conference sessions focus on a myriad of technologies, giving attendees an unbiased view of the full spectrum of solutions for their unique business needs.
Exhibitor List: Aeris Aizoon Altaworx Anritsu Arrow Electronics Aware360 Axis Communications
IoT Evolution offers a level playing field for visitors to evaluate all possible IoT solutions for their specific business requirements.
Azul Systems
Visit the event to become the change agent in your company and bring back ideas that show how IoT solutions can permeate nearly every business function in your company.
Berkeley Varitronics Systems
Bayshore Networks Connected Development Cradlepoint Delta Dense Networks Dunn Solutions Group Encore Networks Eurotech Gatetel IoT Solutions GeoTab Get Wireless Giga-TMS Harman Ingenu Intertek Ispirata Janus Remote Communications Kore Link Labs Litmus Automation Nimbelink Numerex Octo RealityAl Rev.io Script.io Senet Sprint Symmetry Electronics Systech Systena America Tactical Network Solutions US Cellular Verizon
The 2017 Exhibitor plan – where’s your next meeting?
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Register to attend at www.iotevolutionexpo.com with the code NOW and save $500
IoT Evolution in numbers • • • • •
4,000 750+ 100+ 60+ 90+
expected attendees companies participating speakers exhibitors companies represented
Who should attend IoT Evolution Conference & Expo • • • • • •
M2M Platform Companies Device Manufacturers Sensors and Embedded Systems Companies Systems Integrator Service Providers – Fixed, Wireless and Satellite Enterprise Executives - Fleet - Supply Chain and Logistics - Manufacturing - IT • Developers • Retail Executives • Healthcare Management Executives
Conference sessions attract a crowd
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This year’s event is expected to attract 4,000 attendees
A lively showfloor at previous events
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IoT apps need network optimisation to bring down connectivity costs and enable flexible scalability Syed Hosain is the chief technical officer of Aeris where he is responsible for the architecture and future direction of Aeris’ networks, development programmes and technology strategy. He joined Aeris in 1996 as a member of the founding executive team of Aeris. Here, he tells George Malim that the sheer volume of IoT devices coupled with their excessive control plane message traffic is creating inefficiencies that will become substantial issues for IoT providers as deployments grow. Organisations should address IoT optimisation now before the connectivity issues impact on the ability of IoT solutions to scale up IoT Now: Does network optimisation matter given the typically low throughput requirements of IoT communications?
tremendous scale to contend with. Even small throughput at this scale means the impact will be enormous.
Syed Hosain: The reasons for optimising networks are not just technical, there are business reasons for network optimisation too. If you look at cellular IoT apps you might have low throughput and data volume from the app itself but the presence of a device could generate more control plane messaging than you might like to support.
IoT Now: Why should IoT network optimisation be looked at differently from telephony/internet network optimisation?
Another key point regarding why network optimisation matters is the sheer volume of endpoint devices involved in IoT. Assuming you believe the predictions that there will be tens of billions of devices there is going to be
IoT devices behave very differently to smartphone or telephony usage. Most people will be connected via their smartphones for relatively long periods with hard to predict bursts for activities such as downloads. IoT devices, in contrast, tend to communicate with much greater regularity. In addition, they’ve often been designed for extended battery life so they power up to transmit and then power down, which means there are important data management issues to deal with.
Syed Hosain: There is going to be tremendous scale to contend with
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An app, for example, might only need to send a few megabytes of data per device per month but the control plane messaging could have a dramatically higher volume. This is an important factor to take into account and one of the reasons that we don’t buy equipment from the traditional network equipment players. We build our own systems because we can rapidly ensure that their control plane messaging requirements are much lower as the network standards are evolved.
SH: The demands of IoT apps are quite different to the traditional smartphone environment which is why we need systems that are capable of handling a huge volume of relatively small data communications. Efforts such as NB-IoT and others are seeking to address part of this challenge but we should not be casual about the fundamental differences between IoT traffic and smartphone traffic.
IN ASSOCIATION WITH AERIS Supplement IoT Now - December 2016 / January 2017
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INTERVIEW
We see, generally, a lot of regularity in transmission which you don’t see with humans on their smartphones. This means we can monitor patterns and establish if a device isn’t working or something is happening that hasn’t happened before. This is essential for IoT because unlike the customer to service provider relationship with smartphones, we are managing hundreds of thousands of devices for a given application and enterprise customer. Therefore, if you can find the problem in an automated way and, ideally, predict it before it happens, you are providing a truly valuable service. IoT Now: How challenging is it to achieve network optimisation given the large volumes of IoT endpoint devices involved once deployments mature? SH: We’ve completed simulations to determine how many cellular devices you need to attach to our network before systems start to fall down and have found with our LTE networks, which rely entirely on cloud infrastructure, we can scale up easily. We can spin up how we support the network in a variety of ways and this is not tough in a cloud based solution. The fact we can distribute the data across multiple server locations very quickly is quite different from a traditional cellphone network provider which is very localised. Having said that, we are going to see a large number of devices and there will be customer challenges there. IoT Now: Is the need to flexibly scale a barrier to achieving network optimisation? SH: We certainly believe flexibility is an issue. We are approaching ten million devices in our network and we have simulated at 100 million
devices to ensure we can support 10x growth. You have to be able to handle not only the average load but also the peaks. For example, many IoT devices are set to communicate precisely on the hour and that creates a spike in traffic. In a smartphone environment, the more random nature of individual usage smoothes out the peaks and troughs but IoT traffic is less spread out so you have to ensure you have the flexibility to accommodate the peaks. The variance from peak to trough can be 10x but this is on a very regular lifecycle so there is greater predictability. IoT Now: What are the challenges of achieving network optimisation when different network technologies are used in different geographies and situations? How can you optimise when you have different flavours of cellular, narrowband, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi networks active? SH: This is definitely an issue that’s going to crop up for a lot of people. IP technologies can be treated similarly and we like to normalise between network technologies. With Wi-Fi, cellular or NB-IoT you’re going to get IP data but on Sigfox or other low power bearers they will need to be treated differently. We can deliver those as IP encapsulated messages. Having your own hardware in the network gives you appropriate solutions which, as everyone heads towards IP or methods that enable you to convert to IP, mean you’re ready and can also rapidly adapt to new standards and technologies. This global diversity is an opportunity to move to cloud-based systems and have a
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We certainly believe flexibility is an issue. We are approaching ten million devices in our network and we have simulated at 100 million devices to ensure we can support 10x growth
IN ASSOCIATION WITH AERIS S16
Supplement IoT Now - December 2016 / January 2017
IoT Now: How can optimisation be achieved when multiple connectivity providers are involved? SH: We encounter this more than you’d expect. We can provide services using 500 different operators which creates some challenges in device normalisation. For smartphones that’s not an issue because the manufacturer will address localisation issues but for IoT devices the challenge is greater. We frequently have customer deployments in multiple countries where we have to normalise the behaviour of the device. We’ve identified 20 global zones in which we treat several countries as one. For instance, we have zones such as Europe and South America so when a device is shipped to one zone it has a good understanding of what the billing will be and performance requirements. It’s very important that a device in London will operate in the same way as a device in Madrid. There will, of course, be some differences in the radio frequencies used but the back-end piece is essentially the same. IoT Now: How does Aeris help enable network optimisation? SH: We achieve this not only through utilising our own equipment for our deployments. We had a situation several years ago with an automotive industry customer. The problem was that a vehicle would send a crash notification SMS and the service would be followed up with a call from the driver in the car. The data centre people would correlate the information from the SMS with the
Supplement IoT Now - December 2016 / January 2017
incoming call but about 25-30% of the time the caller ID wouldn’t show up because the location could require utilisation of a small local carrier and public switched telephony networks. The data centre operators then had to use DTMF tone sequence analysis to identify who the call was from. The automotive company wanted us to find out who calls were from and recognised that we could extract a notification of a call delivery attempt so out systems would see a call being attempted. We could automatically engage an app to put the call on momentary hold and query it. Knowing the text had just been received from a specific location meant we could then route the call to an operator that has the SMS on screen. This process went from taking 60 to 90 seconds on those difficult calls to less than 15 seconds.
In the past we were purely a connectivity service provider competing with mobile operators but also in partnership with them for connectivity provision
This functionality drove the car manufacturer to select us and we went from identifying the problem to having a commercially deployed solution in eight weeks. IoT Now: Please can you give us some more detail on the Aeris Aercloud? SH: In the past we were purely a connectivity service provider competing with mobile operators but also in partnership with them for connectivity provision. The data would flow through our systems and we would deliver it to data centres to handle it. We decided to create systems that would look at the content in the data instead of just delivering it. Aercloud was created so we could store data and look at the content so the organisation could decide what to do. Aercloud stores, manages and enables us to
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completely software defined network. We’re going back to upgrade our 3G network to be cloud based for this reason.
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INTERVIEW
From a financial perspective, when you have an overage scenario, such as if a device goes haywire and starts to transmit continuously, you want to shut it off immediately
look at the data in a streaming fashion so we can provide appropriate alerts to the customer. Aercloud is added to our Aervoyance offering which provides analysis that looks not only at the streaming data but also enables you to look at the historical past to determine long term patterns and analyse issues. For example, we’ve deployed Aervoyance for a plane manufacturer and while partial insights can be gathered from communications when the plane is in the air, the bulk of the data is transmitted when the plane arrives at its destination gate. Aervoyance is able to look at the data and perform predictive analytics. We’re not able to provide automated choices or decision points to the customer yet but we’ll soon start using Aervoyance to look for patterns that humans can’t recognise using specific algorithms we’ve developed. We hope customers will be surprised at what we can uncover. IoT Now: What are the benefits of network optimisation? Does it really deliver on saving money, accelerating time to deployment, improving operating efficiency? SH: Yes to all of the above. It saves money by optimising throughput. Network optimisation improves efficiency because you manage the transport of data from the low throughput devices and IoT devices tend to be application-specific so we have customers that like to be notified and start running analysis as soon as the data arrives. There are also things you can do to save further money. From a financial perspective, when you have an overage scenario, such as if
www.aeris.com
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a device goes haywire and starts to transmit continuously, you want to shut it off immediately. We can set thresholds and limits and look out for situations that are abnormal. IoT Now: How can network optimisation enable better capacity planning? SH: It certainly helps capacity planning. IoT apps tend to be very uniform and send similar amounts of data each time they communicate so you can manage them effectively. That predictability means we can make upgrades in a timely way so the service doesn’t get caught out by an increase in devices and usage. The equation is simple, multiple by the average traffic by the number of devices deployed for the app and you get the likely network requirement. IoT Now: Should network optimisation be part of an IoT service provider's skillset or should this be managed by a specialist? SH: The answer is probably both. If you look at the monthly revenue from smartphones and compare that to IoT devices, there’s a tremendous difference. In the US, for example, there are a large number of IoT cellular devices yet the total connectivity revenue being generated by the carrier from them is less than 1% of their total revenue. However, all of those devices could have a significant impact because of all their control plane messaging. The industry needs to start looking at this in a very critical way and it will probably be addressed better by specialists because carriers focus on smartphone requirements so you won’t see changes being made to better optimise IoT devices as these are costly changes. Specialists like us will put the effort in where a carrier won’t to optmise the network and eliminate unnecessary control plane traffic from IoT devices.
To learn more about network optimisation for IoT, visit www.aeris.com/contact-us/ to read the Aeris whitepaper ‘How to achieve network optimisation for IoT’
Supplement IoT Now - December 2016 / January 2017
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