IoT Now magazine september october 2017 by Prestige Media

IoT Now: ISSN 2397-2793

OCTOBER 2017 • VOLUME 7 • ISSUE 4

TALKING HEADS Telit's Yosi Fait on why selecting a supplier with IoT in its DNA is vital for successful digital transformation

eUICC Have SIM cards had their chips?

LOW POWER NETWORKS SUPPLEMENT How to choose the right technology for your IoT app or service

SMART CITIES

TRANSPORT

INDUSTRIAL IoT

SMART ENERGY

IoT GLOBAL NETWORK

Clever networks and cool apps to transform city living See our Analyst Report at www.iot-now.com

Connections for a moving industry. See our Analyst Report at www.iot-now.com

The new interconnected manufacturing environment. See our Analyst Report at www.iot-now.com

New efficiency for living, working and playing. Read our exclusive Analyst Report inside this issue

Log on at www.iotglobalnetwork.com to discover our new portal for products, services and insight

PLUS: 10 PAGE SMART ENERGY INSIGHT REPORT • Wireless Logic on ownership-like connectivity experiences • Can IoT help avert the 2050 food crisis? • Cumulocity CEO discusses continuous innovation as part of Software AG • The four elements for smart city success • Inside CyanConnode's Swedish smart metering deployment • Telia's IoT verticals chief shares his market vision • News at www.iot-now.com

“Wiﬁrst manage the connectivity for a multinational conglomerate so we chose O2 as our IoT par tner. Their global roaming gives us unprecedented reach. And we really value how their people always go the extra mile. I’ve got nothing but good things to say about O2.” Alex Louisy,, Head of International Operations, Wiﬁrst, O2 Partner since 2014. More for you.

Discover why IoT solution providers feel at home with O2 Check out O2 connectivity for IoT. O2connect@O2.co.uk

CONTENTS

IoT NOW ANALYST REPORT

TALKING HEADS

CONNECTED CARS

eUICC

IN THIS ISSUE 4 EDITOR’S COMMENT Why IoT pioneers should look out for confused consumers 5 COMPANY NEWS Sierra Wireless to buy Numerex, Accenture strengthens interactive design unit with MATTER deal 6 MARKET NEWS Wearables shipments to hit 262m in 2021 says Berg Insight, Deutsche Bahn to offer data to start-ups 7 PRODUCT NEWS DRIVEN consortium vehicles hit UK streets, Yepzon launches wearable tracker 8 THE CONTRACT HOT LIST A round up of the latest Internet of Things contracts 9 DEPLOYMENT NEWS Inside the LoRa network deployment at the new Plexal innovation centre 10 TALKING HEADS Telit’s Yosi Fait explains why in-depth understanding of IoT is vital for megavolume IoT roll-outs 14 FEATURE Siavash Alamouti explores why IoT needs edge cloud computing 15 INTERVIEW Investor discusses new financial interest in IoT companies

16 INTERVIEW Robin Duke-Woolley talks to Wireless Logic Group’s Oliver Tucker about the company’s ownership-like connectivity offerings 18 eUICC Antony Savvas examines whether eUICC is a real alternative to traditional SIMs 20 CASE STUDY Stream Technologies reports on the eUICC challenges and opportunities 22 INTERVIEW Bernd Gross says continuous innovation is at the core of development towards the IoT vision

IoT NOW INSIGHT REPORT – SMART ENERGY In the latest of an ongoing series of specially-commissioned, independent, analyst-written Insight Reports, Yiru Zhong, the principal analyst for IoT, Cybersecurity & Smart Energy at Beecham Research, assesses how IoT technologies are supporting transformation in the power and utilities sectors

42 SMART CITIES Haider Iqbal details the four essential elements for smart city success 45

IoT NOW LOW POWER NETWORKS SUPPLEMENT IoT Now publishes its first supplement exploring the low power network options available to organisations 46 TALKING HEADS Executives from Stream Technologies discuss the relative merits of low power radio connectivity options and the value of connectivity management platforms 50 LPWA George Malim assesses the competing technologies and finds simple solutions are creating complex choices

38 FEATURE Jeremy Cowan explores how IoT can help avert the 2050 food crisis 40 IoT SECURITY Robert Jones and Dan Caton explain how openness and security can go hand-in-hand

54 CASE STUDY How LoRa networks are being deployed to enable smart cities 56 INTERVIEW CyanConnode’s Geoff Sarney on the application of self-configuring, selfhealing mesh networks for smart meters 58 CASE STUDY Inside HM Power’s smart grid deployment 60 INTERVIEW George Malim talks to Telia’s Jens-Peter Meesenburg about connected cars 62 EVENTS DIARY Where to go and what to see

Cover Sponsor: Telit is the global leader in Internet of Things (IoT) enablement. The company offers the industry’s broadest portfolio of integrated products, platforms and services to support and enable IoT deployments from things to apps. The Telit portfolio of modules addresses all cellular communication technologies, GNSS and short-to-long range wireless applications. Telit’s IoT connectivity plans and IoT platform services help reduce the risks, time-to-market, complexity and costs associated with deploying and providing IoT services across industries and vertical markets worldwide. To learn more, please visit www.telit.com

IoT Now - October 2017

COMMENT

©Scania

IoT pioneers should mind the reality gap Chains of lorries are doing the conga on our roads, robots are doing local deliveries and driverless cars are cruising through cities. Rationally, the technology enabling this is known to fail less often than humans but should the IoT industry be focusing on making these advances less frightening to consumers, asks George Malim? Somewhere in the UK right now several lorries are following each other bumper-tobumper on one of our motorways, in a major city robots are wandering pedestrian areas with missions to deliver take-away lunches and cars without drivers are tentatively trialling their way through some of our towns. What fabulous news, the promise of autonomy enabled by IoT is becoming a reality at last but the IoT industry needs to tread carefully here and not overwhelm the population with our enthusiasm. We need to prepare ourselves for how we talk to consumers who are frankly petrified by the idea of cars pottering around with nobody driving. They’re not re-assured by car makers stating that, in the future, no one will die at the wheel of one of their cars, nor by repeated assertions that platooning of lorries is both ecologically sound, cost effective and safer than having a human in charge.

learning and previously unconsidered issues will come to light during trials. It’s therefore important that trialists communicate clearly and use the opportunity to explain what’s happening, to keep technology enthusiasts on board and to demystify these unfamiliar concepts for technology refusers. We’re currently using machines with complex mechanisms for steering, accelerating, stopping and reacting to the world as it changes. For many, the most complex of all these is the human brain but the message that humans sneeze, feel tired, have wandering attention and even health issues needs to be used to counter a possible push back. In IoT it’s not familiarity that could breed contempt, it’s lack of familiarity. Pioneers should tread carefully and mind the reality gap between their connected, autonomous dreams and user’s familiarity and acceptance of these technologies.

Of course, all these examples are at an early stage and all have human professionals poised to leap into action if the robot, lorry or car needs them to intervene. Systems are

EDITORIAL ADVISORS

Robin DukeWoolley, CEO, Beecham Research

Andrew Parker, project marketing director, Connected Living, GSMA

Gert Pauwels, M2M marketing director, Orange Business

Enjoy the magazine! Robert Brunbäck, CMO, Telenor Connexion

George Malim

Contributors in this issue of IoT Now We are always proud to bring you the best writers and commentators in M2M and IoT. In this issue they include:

Robin Duke-Woolley, CEO, Beecham Research

MANAGING EDITOR George Malim Tel: +44 (0) 1225 319566 g.malim@wkm-global.com EDITORIAL DIRECTOR & PUBLISHER Jeremy Cowan Tel: +44 (0) 1420 588638 j.cowan@wkm-global.com DIGITAL SERVICES DIRECTOR Nathalie Millar Tel: +44 (0) 1732 808690 n.millarr@wkm-global.com

Antony Savvas, journalist

BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR Cherisse Jameson Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807410 c.jameson@wkm-global.com

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Saverio Romeo, principal analyst, Beecham Research

Aileen Smith, head of Ecosystem Development, Huawei Technologies

David Taylor, managing director, M2M, Telefónica UK

Bill Zujewski, SVP, IoT Marketing & Strategy, PTC

IoT Now - October 2017

COMPANY NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF

Sierra Wireless agrees deal to buy indebted Numerex for US$107m Canada-based Sierra Wireless, a provider of integrated device-tocloud solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT), has agreed to buy Numerex for US$107 million, reports Jeremy Cowan. Described as a “definitive merger agreement”, the deal has been approved unanimously by both boards of directors. Sierra Wireless will acquire Numerex in a stockfor-stock transaction valued at approximately US$107 million. The acquisition is designed to expand Sierra Wireless’ position as a global IoT pure-play and will, says the company, significantly increase its subscription-based recurring services revenue. On completion of the transaction Numerex will become a subsidiary of Sierra Wireless and Numerex shareholders will own approximately 10% of the common shares of Sierra Wireless on a fully diluted basis.

The Transaction is expected to close in January 2018 subject to the receipt of Numerex shareholder approval and certain regulatory and government approvals, and satisfaction of other customary closing conditions. “The acquisition of Numerex accelerates our IoT device-tocloud strategy by adding an established customer base, significant sales capacity, proven solutions and recurring revenue scale,” said Jason Cohenour, the president and chief executive of Sierra Wireless. “The combination of Sierra Wireless and Numerex will represent a powerful business and technology platform that will enable the company to drive a global leadership position in IoT services and solutions.”

Accenture acquires MATTER to strengthen Fjord interactive design unit Accenture has acquired MATTER, a design and innovation firm focused on designing products and experiences MATTER’s Cujo smart housing ﬁrewall product for the for protecting gadgets connected world. The acquisition strengthens Accenture Interactive’s design and innovation unit, Fjord, by adding physical product design to its service design and digital product creation. Based in San Francisco, MATTER specialises in producing innovative consumer products through collaboration and agile prototyping delivered through a human-centred approach. The combination of Fjord and MATTER creates leading capabilities that fuse physical and digital design to produce experiences that span hardware, software and digital services.

IoT Now - October 2017

“As digital is increasingly embedded in the physical world, brands are coming to us to create connected experiences that capitalise on the potential of the union of digital and physical realms,” said Baiju Shah, global colead, Fjord and managing director, Accenture Interactive. “MATTER allows us to fully address our clients’ needs to connect their physical products and experiences with digital services, furthering our ambition to improve the full human experience with brands.” Founded in 2012, MATTER has worked with iconic brands including Intel, Samsung and Sonos. The firm is known for its inventiveness in using emerging digital technologies to embed interactivity into physical objects and environments. It is led by renowned product and interaction designer, Max Burton, who contributed to the inception of Nike+ while at Nike’s Tech Lab and to MyMagic+ and the Disney Magic Band.

Huawei and Festo sign MoU for smart manufacturing collaboration with 5G slicing technology Huawei announced that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Festo to jointly explore the 5G network application of manufacturing and to promote the digital transformation of the manufacturing industry with 5G Slicing Technology. This MoU is based on 5G Cloud Robotics to test the Robot as a Service (RaaS) concept, which is part of the manufacturing digital transformation that supports the shift from mass production to mass customising and offers value-based services in smart factories. According to this concept, computation is moved from the robot to the fabrication cloud. Due to the strong requirements of the low latency control loop, 5G radio technology must be used to link both cloud and robot. The 5G Cloud Robot project is based on a moving robot platform that consists of a handling apparatus (robot arm) with six degrees of freedom. The 5G-based link utilises 5G slicing network principles. An uRLLC (Ultra Reliable and Low Latency Communications) slice is used to fulfill the strong real-time and high reliability requirements of the closed control loop. 5G slicing technology can guarantee service SLA to meet diversified business requirements, which can also enable dynamic engineering solutions on demand tailored with QoS according to dynamically assigned safety levels.

Litmus Automation and HMS Industrial Networks partner to offer a complete IIoT gateway solution Litmus Automation, an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) platform provider, and HMS Industrial Networks, an industrial communication networking provider recently announced an end-to-end IIoT solution with LoopEdge installed on the HMS Edge Gateway. By utilising LoopEdge on the HMS Edge Gateway, data can be aggregated from any industrial protocol and passed to the Loop IIoT platform for further processing and monitoring. The solution allows for device management down to the edge and data normalisation before it seamlessly integrates data to various enterprise systems. “HMS is a leading supplier of hardware and software for industrial communications and our partnership has created an ideal solution for industrial OEMs and machine builders, as well as manufacturing companies,” said Vatsal Shah, the co-founder and CEO of Litmus Automation.

MARKET NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF IoT impacting IT infrastructure from edge to the cloud, says 451 Research 451 Research has unveiled the latest trends in IoT use and finds that the massive amounts of data generated by the Internet of Things (IoT) is already having a significant impact on enterprise IT. In the latest Voice of the Enterprise: IoT – Workloads and Key Projects, analysts report that organisations deploying IoT are planning increases in storage capacity (32.4%), network edge equipment (30.2%), server infrastructure (29.4%) and off-premises cloud infrastructure (27.2%) in the next 12 months, to help manage the IoT data storm. 451’s analysts find that spending on IoT projects remains solid, with 65.6% of respondents planning to increase their spending in the next 12 months and only 2.7% planning a reduction. Today, IT-centric projects are the dominant IoT use cases, particularly datacenter management and surveillance and security monitoring. Two years out, however, facilities automation is likely to be the most popular use case, and lineof-business-centric supply chain management is expected to jump from number six to number three.

Shipments of connected wearables will reach 262 million in 2021, predicts Berg Insight Berg Insight, the M2M/IoT market research provider, released new findings about the connected wearables market. Shipments of connected wearables reached 96.5 million in 2016, up from 75.1 million devices in the previous year. Growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.2%, total shipments of smartwatches, smart glasses, fitness and activity trackers, people monitoring and safety devices, smart clothing and medical devices as well as other wearable devices are forecasted to reach 262.5 million units in 2021. Bluetooth will remain the primary connectivity option in the coming years. A total of 26.8 million of the wearables sold in 2021 are forecasted to incorporate embedded cellular connectivity, mainly in the smartwatch and people monitoring and safety categories.

Deutsche Bahn AG seeks to change the future of transport with start-ups and data German rail company, Deutsche Bahn, is making its data available to start-up businesses and SMEs as part of Data Pitch, a new European Commissionfunded initiative which is supporting open innovation with data. The company is seeking to work with startups to develop new products and services and to generate ideas which could change the future of the transport industry. Start-ups have until 1 October to apply. Deutsche Bahn is one of five organisations working with Data Pitch, providing data to help tackle its own company challenges, and those in wider industry. The others are: Portuguese retailer Sonae, German data management provider Uniserv and Italian big data and machine learning company SpazioData. Also taking part in the programme is imin, an open data scale-up in the UK working with physical activity data, and a graduate success story from the previous ODINE programme. Transport is one of many sectors where the improved flow of data can fuel innovation. A paper published by the Transport Systems Catapult in March 2017, using data from the Open

Deutsche Bahn to make its data available to start-ups

Data Institute and Deloitte highlighted the importance of data sharing to unlock a potential £14bn of benefits from new innovations by 2025, and called for a framework for shared data to help bring about improvements. Deutsche Bahn is Europe’s largest railway operator and infrastructure owner, and the second largest transport company in the world after Deutsche Post/DHL. It operates in over 130 countries and in 2010 DB Group acquired Arriva, which runs bus and rail companies across Europe, including the UK. It also operates Chiltern Railways, Cross Country, Grand Central and Northern Rail and London Overground.

Uber for trucks causes major disruption for traditional ground logistics and freight brokerage market Connected trucks will be integral to future logistics and freight operations as smart trucks will be a necessity in smart cities. By 2020, 35 million trucks are expected to be connected with digital freight solutions and autonomous technologies, transforming the trucking industry into a smarter, efficient and more productive sector. The unaddressed challenge of underutilised truck capacity will provide original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and telematics service providers (TSPs) the opportunity to invest or partner with freight aggregation companies and become one-stop solution providers for fleet operators. Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, ‘Developments in the Global Connected Truck Market Shaping the Future of Logistics’, finds the market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 40.9%, garnering

$20.5 billion by 2020. The study examines key trends in the connected truck market that will influence the future of logistics including Uber for trucks, Internet of Things (IoT) in trucks, artificial intelligence, autonomous technologies and 3D printing. “The logistics industry is expanding to include unconventional players, resulting in innovative and unique value-added services,” said Frost & Sullivan Mobility senior analyst Krishna Chaithanya Bathala. “As logistics service providers (LSPs) shift from mere outsourced logistics to more non-asset-based and end-toend, integrated, demand-driven logistics, with an extensive e-business focus on all logistics operations, technologies such as real-time data, sensorisation and intelligent autonomous machines, will accelerate the transformation of the logistics and supply chain industry.”

IoT Now - October 2017

PRODUCT NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF Silver Spring platform to connect 28,000 more London smart street lights

DRIVEN consortium to unveil first self-driving vehicles at LCV 2017 public roads around Oxford and then along the Oxford to London corridor.”

DRIVEN’s Ford Mondeo in Oxford, UK

The DRIVEN consortium unveils the first three of its proposed fleet of six selfdriving vehicles, a white and blue 2014 Ford Fusion Titanium hybrid, a 2017 Ford Mondeo hybrid and a Range Rover Evoque. DRIVEN project director and Oxbotica CEO Graeme Smith said: “We’re hugely excited to be unveiling the cars we’ll be using to run our autonomous driving trials in our special DRIVEN livery. While local residents around our Oxford office will have had a few sneak previews of our first vehicle, now everyone can see our Range Rover Evoque, Ford Mondeo and Ford Fusion as they will appear early next year in self-driving mode on

Also commenting, Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation said: “Testing the technology that enables autonomous driving is clearly an important part of the development process. High visibility branding of the test vehicles is a good thing, as they move from extensive off-road trials to streets where they’ll be mixing with everyday traffic, so that we know not to panic when we see one approaching with no-one holding the steering wheel.” DRIVEN, which is in receipt of an £8.9 million (€9.74 million) government grant designed to stimulate the development of new technologies, is an ambitious project that will see a fleet of Level 4 autonomous vehicles being deployed in urban areas and on motorways, culminating in multiple end-to-end journeys between London and Oxford in 2019. By operating at Level 4 autonomy a vehicle has the capability of driving itself most of the time without any human input.

Yepzon brings wearable tracker to the world with IoT services from Orange Business Services Orange Business Services is supporting Yepzon Group’s global ambition with a new three-year agreement for worldwide IoT connectivity and SIM cards for 100,000 locator devices. With headquarters in Finland, Yepzon Group develops wearable technologies and smart clothing applications. It has quickly evolved from a bright idea to a successful international business in just three years and is now heading for the global market. Yepzon Group’s wearable locator device uses Bluetooth, GPS and mobile network technologies to provide accurate location information through a mobile application for iOS, Android and Windows phones. The Yepzon locator is targeted at a range of different applications that boost safety and peace of mind. They include monitoring elderly relatives, locating family pets or tracking the location of various types of equipment. The Orange IoT service provides tangible business benefits for Yepzon. They include: seamless SIM card ordering, simple activation and tracking through a dedicated portal; one price per SIM card regardless of location; and

IoT Now - October 2017

scalable connectivity reaching 220 countries and territories. “A reliable IoT communications infrastructure, global presence and an attractive business model are key to our global expansion and further success,” said Otto Linna, the chief executive of Yepzon Enterprises. “Orange is our partner of choice to support our growing business because of the company’s international footprint and IoT and analytics expertise.”

Yepzon Freedom 2 locator tags

Silver Spring Networks is to deploy its Starfish platform-as-a-service (PaaS) across the City of London and the London Borough of Barking and Dagenham. This adds to the previously announced London deployment in the City of Westminster. Through urbancontrol, the newest company within the DW Windsor Group, Silver Spring’s Starfish is expected to connect approximately 12,000 smart street lights in the City of London and 15,500 smart street lights in the Borough of Barking and Dagenham. Starfish is based on Silver Spring’s wireless network and data platform, said by the company to be proven, secure, and reliable. It is built on the Wi-SUN IoT mesh technology specification. Silver Spring is a founding member and co-chair of the Wi-SUN Alliance, which drives the interoperability for wireless solutions based on the IEEE 802.15.4g standard.

Lantronix products now available globally from Digi-Key electronics Lantronix, a global provider of secure data access and management solutions for Internet of Things (IoT) assets, announced that its IoT modules, embedded and device gateway solutions will be available for immediate shipment worldwide through Digi-Key Electronics, a global electronic components distributor, as a result of a new distribution agreement. Lantronix has been delivering robust and secure connectivity solutions for machine to machine (M2M) and IoT applications for more than 25 years. Lantronix IoT embedded and device solutions are known for enabling industrial OEMs and their partners to dramatically simplify the development of connected products and deployment, and management of IoT projects. Featuring industrial grade security, rugged design, embedded networking and management software and advanced wired and wireless connectivity, Lantronix products have been deployed by Fortune 1000 companies worldwide in millions of machines serving a wide range of industries, including industrial, medical, smart buildings, transportation and retail.

THE CONTRACT HOT LIST

IoT Now July/August 2017 It's free to be included in The Contract Hot List, which shows the companies announcing recent contract wins, acquisitions or deployments. Email your contract details to us now, marked "Hot List" at <j.cowan@wkm-global.com> Vendor/Partners

Client, Country

Product / Service (Duration & Value)

Awarded

Aeris

Wisepill Technologies, South Africa

Collaboration to introduce IoT-enabled smart pillboxes

8.17

BLIP Systems

Bilund Airport, Denmark

Implementation of Blip Track passenger flow system to provide visibility into passenger movements

7.17

Ericsson

Chunghwa Telecom, Taiwan

Ericsson selected to build end-to-end narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) system for trialling IoT devices and applications

7.17

FreeWave Technologies

Mount Washington Observatory, USA

Deployment of ruggedised industrial IoT (IIoT) data radios to deliver real-time weather data

8.17

Gemalto

Lenovo, 160 countries

Gemalto selected as preferred remote SIM provisioning provider for the Lenovo Connect service

7.17

Homeserve

Legal & General, UK

Partnership agreed with home insurance provider for Homeserve to offer its LeakBot leak detector

7.17

mPrest

Bezeq, Israel

Collaboration with Israeli telecoms provider to deliver mission critical monitoring and control software for smart city/ smart campus software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering

8.17

Orange chosen to provide global IoT connectivity for 100,000 Yepzon locator devices in up to 220 countries

8.17

Orange

Yepzon, global

OT-Morpho

Telefónica, global

Agreement to provide OT-Morpho M2M subscription manager platform to support IoT and M2M market growth

7.17

Silver Spring Networks

ESB Telecoms, Ireland

Collaboration to roll-out industrial IoT platform incorporating Silver Spring’s Starfish platform-as-a-service (PaaS) to augment ESB’s telecoms infrastructure

8.17

Taoglas

STATSports, global

Taoglas IoT antennas selected for STATSports’ new Apex line of GPS-based sports performance monitors

8.17

Tantalum

SAP, global

Agreement to integrate SAP Vehicles Network into Tantalum’s Pay.Car platform for connected cars

8.17

Vodafone IoT

Amscreen, UK

Deployment of Vodafone IoT solutions to support UK network of more than 15,000 connected interior and exterior media screens and kiosks

7.17

CyanConnode announces the extension of smart metering contract in Bangladesh CyanConnode, a provider of narrowband radio mesh networks, has announced receipt of a US$10 million (€8.40 million) purchase order extension from its energy management systems customer for a smart metering contract in Bangladesh, South Asia. This new order more than doubles the accumulated orders from the customer to date to $19 million (€15.96 million), with the initial order already having been extended from $5 to $9 million (€4.20 to 7.56 million) in June 2017. This latest extension for CyanConnode’s Advanced Metering Infrastructure (“AMI”) solution is for an additional 300,000 units, bringing the total order size to date to 550,000 units.

John Cronin, Repeat order demonstrates scalability of business model

This latest extension will enable the customer to meet the increased requirements of the geographic territory in Bangladesh that has been awarded to the energy management systems company based in Eastern Europe. The energy management system company, which manufactures approximately 1.5 million utility metres per year, will integrate

CyanConnode’s hardware with its metres and shipment to their production facility will take place over the next 18 months. CyanConnode will also provide head-end server software, which will be hosted by the energy management system company, with annual software licence income being recognised over a ten-year contractual period following successful smart metre implementation. The recurring revenue software licences and annual maintenance contract, which represents approximately 55% of the purchase order value, will be paid annually and charged on a per metre per year basis. John Cronin, the executive chairman of CyanConnode, said: “The size and speed of this further order from our partner for their smart meter deployment in Bangladesh highlights the significant opportunity in the region with the repeat order demonstrating the scalability of our business model. Furthermore, the order size and revenue visibility provided by this ten-year contract further reflects the company’s leading position within the smart metering industry across both emerging markets and Europe.”

IoT Now - October 2017

DEPLOYMENT NEWS

Plexal creates IoT ecosystem in East London with LoRa network support from Stream Technologies From wearables that track your heart rate to wireless soil sensors that come with an advanced analytics platform for farmers, the Internet of Things (IoT) is reaching every corner of our lives. In fact, research company Gartner predicts that there will be 20.4 billion connected devices in the world by 2020 while the UK government has pledged an investment of £32m in IoT. As our homes, cities and workplaces become ever smarter and a Wallace and Gromittype setup becomes more and more feasible, entrepreneurs are continually uncovering new IoT solutions. And hoping to provide these entrepreneurs with the conditions needed to both test their ideas and turn them into successful businesses is Plexal: the innovation centre based at Here East in Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Launched in June 2017 and founded by Claire Cockerton, Plexal’s aim is to nurture an ecosystem that supports innovators in high-growth areas like artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, IoT, smart cities, data analytics, fashtech, cybersecurity, fintech, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and health technology. It’s bringing startups, scaleup and corporates together in a collaborative environment. Up to 800 tech entrepreneurs can choose to hot desk, have a fixed desk or rent a private office as well as benefit from having professional services companies on-site to advise them on everything from marketing to recruitment. Plexal also provides meeting rooms, innovation programmes and an events space for hosting either intimate meetups or larger conferences. It’s been designed as a mini-city and features a high street, an interactive living wall that you see when you first walk into the space and an indoor Plexal Park. Step outside and you’ll bump into other Here East tenants like Loughborough University and Studio Wayne Mcgregor.

industry experts, academics and enterprises. It's Stream's objective to nurture the development of the IoT and foster growth throughout the industry.

Matchesfashion and University College London are moving to Here East too while Ford will be seeting up its Smart Mobility Innovation office there.

IoT company Stream Technologies relocates to Plexal This set-up was enough to attract Stream Technologies, which has chosen to move its London office from Canary Wharf to Plexal. Mohsen Shakoor, who leads IoT-X strategic partnerships for the company, relocated to Plexal to explore the growing number of strategic partnerships and adopters of IoT-X. He also wants to develop Stream's presence in London. "The relocation of Stream's London office is motivated by the unprecedented levels of growth the company is experiencing,” he said. “My move from Glasgow to the new London office is indicative of the emphasis that Stream is putting on supporting strategic accounts and fostering new relationships on an international basis.”

LoRa network deployment at Plexal In addition to being a member of the Plexal community, Stream is deploying a LoRa network across the site and wider area. The network will support the enterprises, academic institutions and startups located at Plexal, helping them realise their IoT potential. With incubator LoRa networks deployed in Glasgow, Liverpool and London, Stream is providing an entryway into LoRa technology and encouraging collaboration between

IoT Now - October 2017

Speaking about the deployment, Nigel Chadwick, Stream’s chief executive, said: "Our new office at Plexal provides Stream with a fabulous base in one of Europe's leading technology hubs. This will lead to a build-out of a LoRa network and other IoT technologies around the Plexal site and the wider London area, as IoT continues to take off globally. Plexal’s location and facilities are world class; they will help accelerate innovation and the commercialisation of not just IoT, but robotics, VR and AI too, among other technologies. The office and facilities at Plexal will help accelerate Stream's expansion nationally and internationally." From Plexal’s point of view, the LoRa network offers a solid, long-range, lowbandwidth network that's globally compatible and ideal for companies working within IoT. Its frequency, which is available worldwide, means people working with connected devices or supporting connected devices can build and test their solutions at Plexal. The LoRa network also allows companies to monitor the environment in a smarter way. For example, users could place small sensors around Plexal that would collect very small chunks of data without having to worry about it going offline. “The LoRa network allows Plexal to be a home for entrepreneurs working with connected devices, smart homes, smart cities and data,” said Andrew Cunningham, COO of Plexal. “The future is a connected one and we’re looking forward to seeing innovative new solutions taking shape here. If you work in areas like data analytics, cybersecurity or IoT, we want to hear from you.”

TALKING HEADS

Telit has IoT in its DNA so it can support organisations in their digital transformations Yosi Fait is the interim chief executive of Telit, having previously served as the president and chief financial officer of Telit. He began his career as an accountant with Ernst & Young Israel before serving as chief financial officer of Pelephone, the first cellular operator in Israel. In addition, he has CEO experience at Alony Group and H&O. Here, he tells IoT Now about Telit’s development plans as the IoT market matures and growth in device deployment volumes accelerates IoT Now: You've recently taken over the leadership of Telit following the departure of former-CEO Oozi Cats. Does this signal a new direction for the company? Yosi Fait: At this stage I’m interim chief executive and a decision about the position will be announced later in September 2017. From a strategic point-of-view, the company is welldirected so we’re not going to be making changes. Our way to create best of breed solutions won’t change and we’re well-positioned in the extremely exciting IoT market. In terms of details, I believe we may become more focused on growth. The growth of the IoT market is set to be enormous and it will therefore be important for us to continue to demonstrate our leadership on cost as device volumes ramp up, and the innovation required to engable the IoT for our customers. IoT Now: Please give some more detail on the main areas Telit will focus on and the direction it will take under your leadership?

Cellular connectivity will, of course, be a key part of any deployment so we’ll continue to invest in that alongside our short range offerings. This effort includes initiatives such as our SIMwise virtual SIM offerings that will run on Telit modules. We’ll build on that and our incredibly good partnership with OT-Morpho to enable Cat-M devices to spread globally. IoT Now: What are you seeing driving the market? What's your outlook for the market? YF: The IoT market includes major technologies and security that enable solutions in smart energy, telematics and manufacturing. Solutions in these verticals have been with us for 25 years and they will continue to drive parts of the market. Our belief is that a great driver for growth will be enterprise and small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) that are making significant investments to digitally transform their businesses, create new revenue streams, servitize by moving from selling products to becoming service providers. More and more companies are now exploring how IoT can be utilised to help them grow. Within Telit, we help companies that know nothing about IoT but have a great business idea, challenging use case, or new business model. We collaborate, design, and show how Telit can deliver the

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YF: In the last two years Telit has acquired two business in the short range radio area, GainSpan and Stollmann, because we believe the sensor-tocloud business will be a material business. We’ll continue to bring the best cloud solutions to market with embedded security and that are easy to deploy. These attributes are fundamental to the success of the sensor-to-cloud market which is

poised to see enormous volumes of sensors being connected in the coming years.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH TELIT 10

IoT Now - October 2017

business outcomes they are expecting from the IoT. We provide a turnkey solution in many cases that redefines our customers’ businesses. In order to enable that, we’ve invested for many years to build our capabilities so we can support a Fortune 100 company or a US$200m organisation. IoT Now: What is Telit’s approach to helping customers understand the new opportunities that are open to them? YF: The convergence created by mashups of hardware and software solutions is becoming important in the decision making process as companies look to their business transformations. You see many customers that are looking to Telit to provide modules, connectivity, and platforms to help them accelerate their digital journey. We bring genius-level knowledge that is truly unmatched in the industry. IoT is in our DNA. Over the last years, many assumed the easy part was at the edge. However, this is perhaps the most complex part of the digital journey for many, and Telit are the global leaders here.

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Our experience, and depth of knowledge becomes a powerful tool for our customers when challenged by complex use cases. There is likely not a business challenge we have not experienced, and this genius level expertise of our team helps our customers accelerate projects, and ultimately get to the business outcomes. Yosi Fait, Telit

IoT Now - October 2017

TALKING HEADS

IoT Now: Looking ahead what is your strategy for 2018? What investments do you plan to make?

where we are able to build comprehensive, combined solutions that utilise multiple technologies from our in-house portfolio.

YF: If we start with the products side of the business, we’ll continue to make investments in the 4G area. These will be in the lower categories, such as narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), and where our personalisation systems are able to embed each module with virtual SIM. We’ll also address the high end categories, such as Cat 12, with continued investment.

IoT Now: Partnering is at the heart of IoT success. What's Telit's approach to partnering and what types of organisation are ideal partners?

Aside from 4G, Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are also areas in which we will continue to invest. These will be very important because, in the future, multiple technologies will be used to go to the cloud and the ability to connect them in the most appropriate way is important. We’ll also strengthen our ability to provide customers with very strong professional services. This ties in with what I was mentioning earlier about our deep understanding and knowledge of this market place. We need to improve how we make this accessible to help customers take their ideas from concept to reality. For this reason we’ll invest heavily in professional services. This is where some customers need us to help on their digital journey. Of course, the traditional players from the 1990s don’t need our professional services. They’ve done this type of work themselves for years and know what to do so we’ll continue to serve these companies as usual. It’s the new and emerging market that needs our professional services. IoT Now: What do you see as the highlights in Telit's roadmap? YF: 4G both in high and low categories will have lots of exciting developments which will be accompanies by significant advances in our short range capabilities. The combination of these into a situation where multiple technologies would be very easy to evolve into the cloud so the data can be analysed and pushed back to the device cost effectively is the goal.

In enterprise IT we have partnerships with companies like SAP which provides us with access into large enterprises. In systems integration we partner with large providers such as Tech Mahindra and Freudenberg IT. These types of company are running big customer projects and use our tools. Another type of player we partner with are mobile network operators. We have very strong relationships with several of these around the world including very innovative companies such as Tele2, Telefónica, AT&T and Verizon to name just a few. We’re continuing to build on these relationships which we see as very important for the development of our business. We’re also partnering with chipset providers and massive cloud services providers. Companies like these see Telit as a way to connect edge devices to the cloud and this is an ecosystem that we’re looking to address for SMBs either directly or in big partnerships with global systems integrators. IoT Now: Please can you provide an example of how Telit partners? YF: We’re working with Yokogawa, which is a global leader in the industrial automation and control, test and measurement, aviation, and other business segments, on a brand new Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) architecture created with the goal of propelling Yokogawa’s business model into a connected future. By combining our technological portfolio of communication modules, sensor onboarding and device management capabilities with Yokogawa’s more than 100 years of experience in providing devices,

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That’s not a change for us, we’re not changing our strategy of the last few years. The journey isn’t over but Telit now has a unique set of capabilities

YF: It’s not an exaggeration to say that partnering is the oxygen of IoT. If you want to work with Fortune 100 companies you need to form partnerships in order to serve them with the best offerings.

IoT Now - October 2017

It’s not an exaggeration to say that partnering is the oxygen of IoT. If you want to work with Fortune 100 companies you need to form partnerships in order to serve them with the best offerings

analytical instruments, and other industrial solutions, Yokogawa will be able to create new value for its customers. We’re contributing three critical components to the Yokogawa IIoT Architecture: a broad portfolio of wireless IoT communication modules whose common form factors necessitate only one hardware design per global deployment, a diverse collection of industrial drivers and edge analytics which enable a robust sensor onboarding capability, and powerful connectivity and device management capabilities. Through our collaboration, Yokogawa will be able to provide an endto-end sensor-to-cloud solution composed of sensing, control and cloud-based processing. Our cloud platform will act as an industrialclass device on-ramp to Yokogawa’s managed cloud architecture, ensuring bi-directional device compatibility and control with a host of industrial sensors. IoT Now: Many of your partnerships are horizontal, enabling use cases regardless of the sector or industry. Do you envisage Telit partnering to address specific the requirements of specific vertical markets? YF: What we are building is a horizontal business but that’s not to say we won’t consider becoming vertically integrated if we see good opportunities. However, it is mandatory for us not to compete with out customers. We would only consider vertical solutions if we see that they have no potential to damage vertical relationships with our customers. IoT Now: What do you see as the greatest challenge the IoT industry faces? YF: Scalability. As deployments scale up they become much more complex and costly to manage. When you have 100 units to manage it’s not important but when you have 100,000 that ability to manage and solve problems very quickly and cost effectively becomes critical to the success of a project. The ability to effectively scale is an issue. The Telit IoT Portal is a very important, second-to-none offering. This has excellent tools to enable customers to management their deployments including connectivity management, device management, remote access monitoring and security. We’ve invested in the development of a comprehensive portal so customers can manage their deployments remotely and solve problems online. This is vital because end devices include agents that give customer significant capabilities that they can use to manage their operations. This is one great challenge in the industry, but Telit thrives on innovating to stay in front of these challenges and deliver solutions like our portal. We are confident that this is what sets Telit apart from our competition.

IoT Now - October 2017

Yosi Fait: It will be important for us to demonstrate our leadership on cost as device volumes ramp up

www.telit.com

FEATURE

The Internet of Things needs edge cloud computing Internet of Things is no longer a trend or a future dystopia; it is happening today, is growing rapidly and will surely revolutionise many industries. As a result, there will soon be too many devices generating too much data for central cloud to operate efficiently. Bandwidth and latency will become bottlenecks for many IoT applications, says Siavash Alamouti, the president and chief executive of mimik technology Siavash Alamouti, mimik technology

Edge cloud is faster, more efficient, scalable, more private and possibly the only way of addressing challenges with scaling of IoT

Thankfully, the answer to this challenge is not apocalypse but edge cloud computing. Edge devices are common: personal computers, game consoles, set-top boxes, tablets, smartphones, gateways, or routers are examples of such devices. They can become mini cloud servers, independent of central cloud since most of the time they can process data independently and communicate, share resources and collaborate. Research by IDC estimates, 10% of the data worldwide will be produced by edge devices by 2020 indicating a significant trend at this early stage. Deploying new infrastructures to cope with the increase in traffic at the data centres is not feasible as IoT requires orders of magnitude more in capacity and much lower latencies than what central cloud computing can deliver. Instead, we can take advantage of the ever-increasing computing capabilities of edge devices and move as much of the central cloud functions as possible back to the edge. The opportunity is immense as there are billions of potential edge servers today and there will be tens of billions more tomorrow. These devices are idle most of the time and, thanks to Mooreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s law, computing, storage and memory in edge devices is growing rapidly every year. In the past decade, central cloud computing has been a great source of disruption and its natural evolution is to extend all its capabilities to the edge to cope with the explosive growth of data produced at the edge.

Edge cloud is faster, more efficient, scalable, more private and possibly the only way of addressing challenges with scaling of IoT. Using edge cloud computing, data can be immediately processed and put into action saving bandwidth and reducing latency on the network to cope with the huge number of connected devices. Edge computing also brings other benefits that are vital to the development of Internet of Things: a decrease in power consumption â&#x20AC;&#x201C; resulting in smaller IoT devices with longer battery life, a lower total cost of infrastructure, and a lower negative impact on the environment. It will also contribute to privacy, given that data is processed on-site, not leaving the edge device. The data will remain local and not have to cross regional or national boundaries simplifying national law compliance, or adherence to data privacy requirements of various industry verticals. There are many potential use cases for the combination of IoT and edge computing: connecting electronic gadgets and appliances directly, enabling self-driving features on cars and trucks, connecting drones for collaboration, turning devices such as mobile phones to sensor hubs used in agriculture and mining to collect and process data and other sectors. Edge cloud computing is indispensable for the future and will accelerate the growth of IoT. It will help revolutionise businesses across many industries and redefine many aspects of our lives.

This article was originally published online at IoT Nowâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s sister website www.iotglobalnetwork.com

IoT Now - October 2017

INTERVIEW

IoT is still in early stages of development, say investors backing Wireless Innovation and Sabio Lyceum Capital has been in the news lately. On 16 August, www.IoTGlobalNetwork.com reported that the company was an investor in customer contact specialist Sabio, which has amassed a €35 million warchest. CEO, Andy Roberts told the website exclusively what the company would spend it on. One week later, Lyceum was back in the headlines announcing another investment, this time in Wireless Innovation. Here, Jeremy Cowan talks to Simon Hitchcock, partner at Lyceum, about what has sparked this strong new financial interest in the Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT Global Network: What was your first investment in the Internet of Things? Simon Hitchcock: A number of our portfolio companies are in the wider IoT ecosystem including TotalMobile and Isotrak, but Wireless Innovation is our first investment purely dedicated to connectivity in the IoT market. IoT Global Network: What persuaded you to invest now? SH: We have been following the development of the IoT connectivity market for a number of years, looking for the right investment opportunity. Wireless Innovation represented an attractive opportunity to back an existing team to continue to grow organically at double digits and to accelerate that through acquisitions, in what remains a fragmented market. IoT Global Network: What was it about Wireless Innovation that singled the company out for you? SH: The CEO and founder, Phil Rouse, has achieved very impressive organic growth, which the business is well positioned to continue. Other factors included its high quality and well invested connectivity management platform, and comprehensive managed service offering, as well as the wide range of clients and end markets it serves. IoT Global Network: How much have you invested and what’s it for? Acquisitions? If so, what kind? SH: Lyceum Capital has committed £20 million (€21.7 million) of funding to the buy and build. We plan to acquire complimentary businesses to expand the geographic and sector reach of the investment. IoT Global Network: Is this a fixed-term or open-ended investment? If fixed, for how long? If open, what are your objectives? SH: Lyceum Capital is a long-term investor, typically holding our portfolio companies for a minimum of five years. Our plan is to develop Wireless into a leading player in the market. IoT Global Network: What do you look for in IoT investments? Are there any golden rules? SH: We focus on businesses with high recurring revenues,

IoT Now - October 2017

Simon Hitchcock, Lyceum Capital

mission-critical use cases, strong organic growth and strong gross margins. We like businesses that have developed a level of their own intellectual property and real value-add in their service wrap. IoT Global Network: Do you plan further IoT/M2M (machine-to-machine) investments in the near term? SH: We plan to make a number of acquisitions for Wireless Innovation, both in the UK and internationally in the coming years. IoT Global Network: Do you see other investors looking at the Internet of Things? If so, are they larger or smaller investors? SH: The growth in the IoT market makes it attractive for investors, we would expect a range of different investors to be attracted to it for this reason. IoT Global Network: How are IoT/M2M services and technologies viewed by investors? SH: We view the market as still being in the early stages of its development, although it has come a long way. We see significant short-, medium- and long-term growth potential in it as costs reduce and use cases increase.

INTERVIEW

Connectivity and infrastructure platform means customers feel like they own their own connectivity Robin Duke-Woolley, the founder and chief executive of Beecham Research interviews Oliver Tucker the chief executive of Wireless Logic to learn more about how customers can receive the experience of owning their own connectivity to support their IoT applications

Oliver Tucker: The seismic shift for us is to deliver more control and inﬂuence directly into our customers’ hands by placing our connectivity and infrastructure platform at the core

Oliver Tucker: Firstly, we acquired Nucleus Networks late last year, enhancing our high bandwidth applications in terms of offering a more complete managed service. This not only included the management of connectivity, but the bundling of routers and gateway devices as well. As a direct result, we are seeing more and more business in verticals, such as retail, where there is a growing need for multiple hardware solutions – back-up/failover, temporary stores and electronic point of sale (EPoS). Further examples include ADSL back-up and CCTV scenarios where Nucleus enables us to provide managed connectivity combined with pre-configured hardware which is integrated with our management platform, enabling total control end-to-end. It also enables us to offer enhanced security packages, for example creating and managing secure mesh networks for customers. This acquisition has opened the way for us to offer more of the overall solution in a way that gives users better control through a world-class platform. Secondly, we took a strategic decision to make a significant investment in our own infrastructure, resulting in a transformational realignment with our own core network as a full MVNO. This has been supported by the acquisition of Cloud 9, an MVNE travel and mobile data specialist. The investment and on-going development has enabled us to create what we believe is an unrivalled platform offering focused solely within the IoT market. The acquisition has included a consumer-focused interface which will add multiple user-experience options as IoT applications become more household in their nature, and as the value-chain extends to be more conjoined directly from the OEM to the endcustomer. Importantly, this does not conflict with our relationships and agreements with MNOs which have grown in stature over the last ten years. There will always be a demand for local and standardised global connectivity solutions which typically are found within the M2M/IoT aftermarket. The seismic shift for us is to deliver more control and influence directly into our customers’ hands by placing our connectivity and infrastructure platform at the core. We use the phrase: “You can now own your own connectivity.” Our new IoT platform will empower users to shape their communication structures more specifically

to their applications' needs, and become more cost-effective and accountable by managing their expenditure in line with usage patterns. For OEMs, globally-based service providers and other specific markets, this control and flexibility is now on a new level. With multi-international mobile subscriber identity (IMSI) technology, over-the-air (OTA) programming and by owning our own home location register (HLR) and gateway GPRS support node (GGSN), the opportunities for a more focused and service-backed connectivity platform are immense. Wireless Logic is now a GSMA member and standards contributor and will shortly have the capability to become an embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) certified provider. Our enhanced positioning is designed to have a positive influence within the IoT eco-system. RD-W: So how does this all fit with Wireless Logic’s IoT platform SIMPro? OT: We created the first iteration of SIMPro back in 2006. Consequently, in the last ten years the platform has evolved considerably. A lot of it has been driven by our customers and that’s originally where it came from – the services our customers were demanding, the controls, the management and the connectivity. It has evolved to become a totally unique service offering – it is network agnostic, bearer service agnostic and truly platform agnostic integrating into Jasper’s platform, Vodafone’s platform (GDSP) and into Ericsson’s platform. We also provide a platform where platforms don’t exist and that is how the market has grown and developed. If you take a Vodafone or O2 UK SIM, they haven’t had management platforms for users to observe and control their connected device estates out in the field. In fact, management was really by way of a spreadsheet. With SIMPro we provide our users with one window across multiple MNOs, irrespective of where they are across the globe, with continuity and a unified set of controls across all the different networks and services. This has been unique with real-time data monitoring, usage reporting, spend controls and location tracking, all designed to optimise their assets’ connectivity performance. Previously, they would not be able to get that level of control from the MNOs directly. When we consider that of our top 50 customers, the average number of networks that they use across their estate of SIMs is about five. So, what’s the alternative? Using five different and unlinked platforms is not tenable. That’s where our one▼

Robin Duke-Woolley: The Wireless Logic Group has made two strategic moves recently. Can you say more about those and how that has impacted on what the company offers?

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IoT Now - October 2017

window SIMPro has come from and in ten years it has changed dramatically – in its functionality, its usability and in its relevance to the way customers now need to manage their connectivity. Today, the platform provides more than connectivity management. Providing bolt-on services such as mapping with HERE and Google Maps is a natural extension to deliver more to each connected asset. And in an era of selfservice SIMPro will become more multi-levelled in terms of access and controllability – enabling users to develop applications where connectivity is seen as a service-focused proposition throughout the value chain. This can now be achieved by our positioning as an MVNO with our own HLR. We will be developing new layers of service which are tailored to the needs of the M2M and IoT eco-systems. RD-W: What sort of services do you have in mind? OT: They fall into seven main categories: Security and monitoring, spend management, network management, service automation, high value/flexible propositions, 24x7 support and pre-integrated platforms. For security and monitoring, our services include device traffic restrictions, activity intelligence and managed VPN services. We are now able to provide far more detailed services than we could previously as we now have the ability to integrate directly with the GGSN and the mobile core. For spend management, as we move further into the IoT space, we will be developing more specific services for B2B2C type situations. So, for example where product manufacturers want to provide more direct services to their users, we can now offer payment services related to the use of products and services consumed. Through the platform, we will be able to collect monthly connectivity subscriptions along with other customer payments, creating a one-stop billing service which will enhance a manufacturer’s customer journey. For contracts, we can now rewrite the rulebooks in relation to contract terms. Rather than having a fixed period contract of 12, 24 or 36 months, we can create payment solutions such as pay as you go, payment via credit card, or online transactions. Spend management can also be influenced by controlling data usage. Through the platform, users can now manage usage by utilising a number of tools which can shape their assets’ connectivity patterns including data capping, throttling and service pooling. These, and other functions, will change people’s approach to what were previously limited and unwieldy connectivity solutions where flexibility and control had always been lacking, across the market. RD-W: Can you say more about network management? OT: For network management, our offering is multi-bearer. Whilst virtually all our business today is cellular-based, we can deliver fixed line, satellite and will also integrate others such as Wi-Fi, LoRA, NB-IOT and LTE-M solutions as they gather momentum. We are building a platform where users can now access all connectivity and infrastructure solutions, with services honed to the needs of connected IoT assets. Along with an opex-based, ready-built and future-proofed secure infrastructure with public/private access point names (APN), fixed public and private IP, users can now build solutions for today and tomorrow. In addition, users have control of the networks with IMSI management, automated network selection and failover, profile management, live connection status, together with OTA programming for profile and device management updates. That’s how SIMPro is evolving. With our own core network, users can genuinely own their own connectivity.

IoT Now - October 2017

RD-W: Just picking up on that last one in your list – what do you mean by pre-integrated platforms? OT: By adding other platforms, whether they are middleware platforms, device management or analytics. For example, it’s the ability for us to be able to provide integrations such as Zapier into our overall solution. We can help the management of connectivity from within other business systems already in use by our customers such as Salesforce or Zendesk, or the integration of the Teltonika management platform side-byside with SIMs and connectivity. Ultimately, while we don’t want to go down the vertical solution route, the ability to be able to integrate middleware platforms into SIMPro should help our customers get to market faster with their own products. We are also starting to work with cloud providers, solution providers and OEMs who have their own platforms allowing us to pre-integrate SIMPro for their customers to enable them to provide end-to-end solution management from a single window. There is then the opportunity to link up local platforms across an international infrastructure, linking different markets in different countries. And with the arrival of multi-IMSI technology, OEMs will look further to develop connectivity solutions as part of their value chain. SIMPro is truly a platform without borders. By creating a ‘one platform fits all’ scenario, we will be able to support global programmes whether from one country or multiple locations, linking up markets, customers and consumers with one seamless experience, and an opportunity to extend customer relationships as the OEM remains connected for longer with the end-user. RD-W: Where do you see things going with SIMPro? OT: SIMPro is evolving and it is very much the DNA of the group. It offers multiple bearer services, the many new opportunities of remote network switching and eUICC technologies, and the ability to give customers complete ownership of their connectivity solutions. So, whether there is a need for a traditional SIM card, an embedded SIM, or a soft SIM, complemented by one or more other services which may be outside of the realms of cellular, we will have the answer. RD-W: So how is Wireless Logic positioning itself in relation to MNOs? OT: Wireless Logic’s positioning is clear within the IoT space. Our USPs are ready-made management and infrastructure platforms, inherent flexibility, network agnostic capability with access to more than 600 global networks, and an ability to layer on additional services shaped to a customer’s application. Our approach to the market is typically a more consultative one with teams of specialists providing first-hand expertise across many verticals. Consequently, our solutions can often favour organisations that require a suite of platform services over and beyond mainstream connectivity. These are carrier-grade services that a vast array of businesses depend on, but can rarely access via other providers. As a European and global business, we have 2.4 million SIM subscriptions today. Wireless Logic Group continues to be ahead of the growth curve and our services are evolving with influence by the rapidly growing market. Our platforms and services will become more business-critical for users as applications become more intrinsic and accountable to their business operations.

www.wirelesslogic.com

EUICC

Easier and cheaper enterprise IoT, it's all in the SIM Connecting individual consumers over mobile networks is one thing, but connecting a business's multitude of IoT devices over many different global networks is another challenge altogether. Up to now though, in most cases, the same inflexible SIM technology has been deployed in both scenarios, which isn't ideal for mission critical business data. An alternative solution for business IoT connectivity in the form of eUICC is now coming into play, Antony Savvas looks at whether it really is the game changer it's being described as

The connectivity that will underpin the Internet of Things will not be in the form of a single network, but will be a complex mesh of complementary network technologies blended together to offer complete coverage, and eUICC serves this need

And the advantage for IoT device vendors is that SIMs equipped with eUICC technology can be hard-wired at source and need never be removed over the lifetime of the device, which in some cases could be a decade or more. This is because eUICC allows customers to make service changes over the air using software, not by changing the SIMs in the device – which can be costly, time consumer and service-interrupting. Nick Sacke, head of IoT and products at connectivity specialist Comms365, says: “Traditionally, the end user has been tied to a single operator for connectivity without any option to amend tariffs or move to another network – this imposes a punitive, fixed longterm cost for an IoT project that may last many years. But eUICC technology is a game changer as it allows complete network flexibility through a container system, where the best local and global mobile network operator (MNO) profiles are loaded into and managed over the air. This empowers users as they benefit from the most cost-effective connectivity tariff with no need to visit sites to do SIM swaps.” The technology, says Sacke, also opens up the world of blended IoT connectivity service platforms that incorporate low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies, such as NB-IoT, SigFox and Cat-M1. These can be easily integrated with LoRaWAN network solutions – long range, low power communications platforms for building and managing IoT networks - like that supplied by Stream Technologies and other vendors. Stream Technologies is helping to build

citywide and countrywide IoT networks in places including Newport, South Wales; in Jersey; and across Scotland in partnership with local authorities and national governments, with the use of of its IoT-X LoRaWAN platform. Now, eUICC is set to become an increasingly used solution for efficiently and securely transmitting the data public authorities are generating in such networks. Stream’s eUICC-enabled SIMs, for instance, can be re-programmed remotely using its IoTX connectivity management platform. The connectivity that will underpin the Internet of Things will not be in the form of a single network, but will be a complex mesh of complementary network technologies blended together to offer complete coverage, and eUICC serves this need.

Service provider alliances But to give enterprise customers the coverage they need to benefit from such technology, IoT service providers must make alliances to fully serve their customers. Companies have to make sure their eUICC systems – which could be inside moving vehicles, freight containers, utility meters, remote processing stations and other locations – are always available to send data irrespective of global position, business operational changes or indeed service provider changes. That said, Derek Long, head of telecoms and mobile at Cambridge Consultants, warns that some MNOs may not be too keen on eUICC for their own business reasons. He says: “There is real potential for eUICC, but MNOs have worked long and hard to reduce customer churn rates by reducing costs, improving service quality and providing innovative services. The dominant MNOs are unlikely to volunteer to drive a technology like eUICC, which could ultimately ease [speed] churn. Just look at the methods which had to be employed in the past to force MNOs to use number portability, for instance.” ▼

The embedded Universal Integrated Circuit Card (eUICC), also known as an eSIM, is smart technology that supports enterprises in their deployment of IoT devices that offer ubiquitous coverage for indoor, rural and urban environments, and in many cases, across a number of countries and continents.

IoT Now - October 2017

Nick Sacke: eUICC technology is a game changer as it allows complete network ﬂexibility through a container system

Derek Long: The dominant MNOs are unlikely to volunteer to drive a technology like eUICC, which could ultimately ease [speed] churn

Pierre Lelievre: eUICC can provide a longer life-cycle, and increased ruggedness and resistance to heat or shocks that might be needed in applications such as connected cars or industrial machines

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But other service providers are moving in the direction that eUICC requires, partly driven by the release of eUICC version 3.1 by the GSMA last year, which addresses many security and interoperability issues with the technology. For instance, in June this year, China Telecom struck various deals with European-based operators to keep the data coming no matter where the eUICC SIM was located. This included agreements between China Telecom and both Orange and Telenor Connexion. Karsten Selle, vice president for finance and administration at Orange Mobile Enterprise, said at the time of the agreement with China Telecom: “We are looking forward to creating together with China Telecom true business benefits around the global IoT projects of our respective customers. With this extended footprint in Asia, we further strengthen our IoT and data analytics offering, Datavenue, with enhanced global connectivity capabilities.”

Manufacturing success Whatever the mobile operators are doing though, Long says eUICC may well be more strongly driven by the IoT device manufacturers. “For cost reasons global product manufacturers are compelled to reducing the number of product variants and increasing the addressable market for their products. Being forced into creating regional product variants because of the limited geographical coverage of MNOs does not support this goal.” Hence, says Long, the market is seeing increasing interest in embedding eUICC in products for the global market place. Pierre Lelievre, marketing director for connected and embedded software at Gemalto – which provides eUICC solutions – says practical operational factors will drive any success for eUICC. “By being embedded in the device – as opposed to a removable card – eUICC can provide a longer lifecycle, and increased ruggedness and resistance to heat or shocks that might be needed in applications such as connected cars or industrial machines. Adding an eSIM to a device provides manufacturers and network operators with new design possibilities and opportunities to develop new services and innovative business models,” he maintains.

Utility SIMs Robin Duke-Woolley, the founder and CEO of Beecham Research, says: “The traditional removable SIM card is not suited for the IoT market and particularly not for applications

IoT Now - October 2017

like smart metering – eUICC improves reliability, flexibility, security and trust, while reducing cost and complexity and reducing commercial risk.” He points out that eUICC has already been introduced into the automotive and other sectors and that well over 20 mobile operators worldwide have launched commercial solutions. Duke-Woolley says the utility industry is particularly set to benefit from the technology. “Utilities face increasing pressures to balance electricity supply and demand,” he says. “As well as increased reliability to reduce site visits, the embedded SIM approach allows over-the-air management of operator subscription profiles without the need for a physical change of SIM, solving the problem of operator lock-in.”

Powering the market One utility player adopting eUICC is Aidon, which focuses on metering technology in the European electricity market, including in Norway and Sweden. It helps its utility industry customers ensure the efficient delivery of electricity to end users through smart metering systems and the utilisation of grid data. Aidon’s meters constantly collect data on usage and twenty other metrics to ensure accurate billing, reliable diagnostics data and quality distribution. To enable this, Aidon needed reliable communications between its metering devices in consumers' homes and its back-end systems, including strong indoor coverage and connectivity across both urban and rural areas. And because of the expected long lifespan of electricity meters, Aidon wanted a solution that would provide secure, long-term coverage for more than 15 years, utilising 4G cellular connectivity. To address all of these requirements, Aidon selected Sierra Wireless' eUICC solution, including its Smart SIMs and the AirVantage IoT platform for device management, which offered the required coverage with multi-operator connections. eUICC is certainly carving out a significant market niche for itself in the IoT market, and any service provider laggards not endorsing the embedded approach may experience some disgruntled customers jumping ship if they don't move quicker towards the technology.

CASE STUDY

What is eUICC and what does it mean for you? Having recently rolled out embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC) tariffs in Europe and the Caribbean, with plans to launch more soon, Stream Technologies is at the forefront when it comes to delivering on the value that this technology promises to deliver. Stream’s eUICC-enabled SIMs operate throughout multiple countries and multiple regions, support multiple subscriptions and can be reprogrammed remotely using our award-winning IoT-X Connectivity Management Platform (CMP). eUICC opens the door to a range of use cases that cannot be supported by conventional SIMs and offers exciting opportunities to enterprises and mobile network operators (MNOs). This case study outlines the opportunities and challenges presented by eUICC connectivity, and examines how Stream’s eUICC offering enables enterprises and MNOs to benefit from serious value enhancement and immense competitive differentiation by embracing this new technology eUICC technology is transforming cellular connectivity for enterprises and MNOs. With conventional SIM cards, if a customer wants to change network operator, they need to swap the physical SIM inside their device. The development of eUICC-enabled SIMs means that enterprises can remotely provision SIM profiles over the air, without having to change the physical SIM card. For MNOs, eUICC represents an easy point of entry into the next wave of new, high net average revenue per user (ARPU) Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity revenue. The terms eUICC and embedded SIM (eSIM) are often used interchangeably, however it’s important to emphasise the distinction between the two. eSIM is an embeddable SIM card, while eUICC is a remotely programmable SIM card which is available in a range of form factors. There is a common misconception that an eUICC solution must be an eSIM. This is a miscommunication within the market which has confused operators and enterprises. Contrary to popular belief, eUICC-enabled SIM cards are available in all the standard SIM formats.

The eUICC opportunity Capitalising on the increasing presence of IoT connectivity represents the next big market opportunity for enterprises and MNOs. As IoT becomes commonplace, there will be an

acceleration of growth for robust, secure, easy to manage and cost-effective cellular connectivity on a global scale. Enterprises that embrace this digital transformation will see serious value enhancement and immense competitive differentiation, but only if they are able to address the patchwork and fragmented structure of the current global cellular network. The most agile networks are starting to recognise this, and are enabling access to solutions powered by the eUICC standard by acquiring or imitating net-new businesses. For enterprises and operators, the adoption of eUICC will require multiple evolved technologies which will open up immense scaling in cellular connected devices and the transit of data via existing cellular networks. Coordinating change on this scale is undoubtedly a complex challenge.

Solve the eUICC challenge To help scale eUICC connectivity on a global basis, two fundamental technologies are required. The first is a platform that enables simple and fast integration with IoT centred subscriptions on in-country MNO cellular bearer services. This must be a platform that can provide a single generic control layer of tariffs, SIM connectivity services and data-transit. Ideally this would be provided through a comprehensive suite of ▼

For enterprises and operators, the adoption of eUICC will require multiple evolved technologies

IN ASSOCIATION WITH STREAM TECHNOLOGIES 20

IoT Now - October 2017

application programme interfaces (APIs) and a single private access point name (APN) for multiple MNO bearer services across a range of countries and regions. The second is a platform, or an integration with a platform, that manages the downloadable profile and secure keys to the SIM. One without the other doesn't provide a solution that delivers the global or multi-country connectivity required by enterprise clients. Through integration between Stream’s IoT-X CMP and Oberthur’s M-Connect profile download platform, Stream provides an eUICC solution that is complete in its delivery.

Manage eUICC connectivity with IoT-X Through integration with Oberthur’s M-Connect profile download platform, IoT-X provides seamless management of SIM subscriptions and functionality, irrespective of the MNO bearer service. IoT-X has evolved into an agile and costeffective eUICC CMP, minimising the time, cost and resources required for enabling the onboarding and integration of multiple MNOs. IoT-X is designed to allow enterprise clients to self-manage connectivity. To this end the platform delivers all the functionality required to manage device connectivity directly into the hands of the customer. If required, Stream can provide IoT-X as a managed service to the enterprise. In terms of the countries needed by the enterprise for cellular connectivity, Stream engages with the MNO in that country and integrates them into IoT-X behind the scenes, at the same time taking care of the commercial agreements to align tariffs, terms and conditions.

An eUICC global hub IoT-X allows any MNO to integrate easily into an IoT CMP global hub. MNOs that are integrated into the IoT CMP global hub will be able to share in the connections and data traffic that will be generated in their country, on their network, by large enterprise clients who are headquartered in countries throughout the world. This can all be achieved efficiently, quickly and at minimal cost. An MNO could, if it so wished, also choose to utilise IoT-X to develop and manage IoT connections on its own network, generated from its own in-country customer base.

Those very customers could then be offered eUICC service options, alongside the more traditional in-country overseas network options, thereby enabling export opportunities. This functionality utilises a single CMP and single screen view, irrespective of the number of MNO services adopted. The home country MNO also benefits from retaining complete control of the end customer contractual and engagement relationships. By integrating with the IoT-X CMP, MNOs benefit from a high degree of future-proofing. For example, narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) functionality can be added to the platform as it becomes adopted. Similarly, LoRaWAN subscription and/or server network management capability can be added, as can predictive analytics, concerning network and device performance. Ultimately all this blends into an enhanced service capability around all connected IoT devices and support, resulting in high levels of customer satisfaction.

IoT-X is designed to allow enterprise clients to selfmanage connectivity, to this end the platform delivers all the functionality required to manage device connectivity directly into in the hands of the customer

Benefits for enterprises and MNOs The addition of eUICC to Stream’s existing portfolio of services provides enterprises and MNOs with the opportunity to capitalise on a wide range of benefits. From the perspective of the enterprise, Stream delivers the unified connectivity solution needed to deploy IoT services throughout markets across the globe. Stream’s existing partnerships with multiple global operators mean that enterprises have access to low-cost, multinational IoT connectivity, without the headache of integrating and interacting with multiple vendors and their various connectivity management platforms on an individual basis. From the perspective of MNOs, eUICC connectivity delivers the opportunity to join an ecosystem of partners for global deployment, with each MNO benefiting from increased connections of higher value IoT connections onto their network. Furthermore, eUICC connections represent a net new market to network operators. By enabling eUICC connectivity to operate on their network, MNOs stand to gain a greater share in the revenue that this opportunity offers, by increasing the number of high-ARPU IoT connections that are trafficked through their network.

For more information contact: info@stream-technologies.com, or call +44 (0)844 800 8520. www.stream-technologies.com

IoT Now - October 2017

INTERVIEW

Continuous innovation is at the core of development for the IoT vision The summer break is behind us. With a rested mind, we want to reflect on the status of the Internet of Things (IoT). There are many factors affecting the market place. On the technological side, continuous developments excite supply and demand: the return of relevance of connectivity forms with LPWAN and 5G, the evolution and sophistication of platform services, the questions on the relationships between IoT and robotics and IoT and artificial intelligence (AI). On the business side, there is an increasing attention from the demand side, the so-called IoT adopters, in understanding the objectives and the implications of IoT solutions and the technological, social, and regulatory environments within which IoT solutions are developed. To explore all that, Saverio Romeo, the principal analyst at Beecham Research, spoke to Bernd Gross, the chief executive of Cumulocity, which is now part of Software AG. He is an influential protagonist in the IoT market and shares his view on how the IoT vision is becoming reality as well as how Cumulocity fits into the IoT landscape

Bernd Gross: The market is moving decisively towards an informed understanding of the potential of IoT solutions. Therefore, we start to see solid and strategic investment in the Internet of Things. We are in front of very complex projects because of their strategic nature, but also because of their size and their sophistication. For example, we are working on projects involving more than 100,000 machines. And, the project does not only aim to monitor these machines, but to run sophisticated activities such as predictive maintenance of those machines. Bear in mind, 100,000 machines is just the beginning. The project is moving towards a global roll-out, which will involve a larger number of machines. Our customer portfolio in the Industrial Internet is becoming extensive with projects for companies such as Gardner Denver, Pfannenberg, TĂźnkers and Hubtex. SR: Do you see this level of maturity across sectors?

BG: The industrial and manufacturing sectors are strongly embracing the objectives and the vision of the Industrial Internet, or Internet 4.0 as used in Germany. And, if we take into consideration the complexity of manufacturing processes, it is encouraging to see a deep level of involvement of companies in IIoT projects. However, there are other sectors showing similar maturity. Telematics is one of those. We are working with leading telematics players such as Octo Telematics. Octo has been a key protagonist in segments such as usage based insurance (UBI) and its journey has been extraordinary, moving from in-house platform solutions to collaboration with Cumulocity because of the growth it is experiencing. There are interesting developments in the energy sector and in smart cities. Cumulocity is involved in smart city projects in Estonia and Australia. However, the speed of development is not as fast as in the Industrial Internet because of the types of stakeholders involved and their business models. And, finally, retail is also increasing IoT adoption. But, we do not see the same sophistication in retail projects that we see in manufacturing. The retail projects

â&#x2013;ź

Saverio Romeo: Bernd, tell us how you see the current Internet of Things market status.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH CUMULOCITY 22

IoT Now - October 2017

Bernd Gross: Industrial and manufacturing sectors are strongly embracing the objectives and the vision of the Industrial Internet

SR: A large portion of your examples are related to the enterprise world, what do you think about the consumer IoT? BG: The consumer IoT segment is also becoming more promising than it was in the past. We have several projects in the space. An interesting one I would like to share regards the connected bike segment. We collaborate with Winora Group to create the next generation of e-bikes. The project is not just about enabling the monitoring and control of the location of bikes, but, it includes other important features such as an emergency call system that is particularly useful in rural areas. In the context of this project, it is important to highlight that Winora Group is a very wellknown bike brand, which has produced bikes for different needs and tastes for the last 95 years. The group invests strongly in innovation through their subsidiaries such as Haibike, Sinus and XLC. Another successful project has been with

IoT Now - October 2017

Trackerando, a consumer product delivery company. They use a Cumulocity platform for enhancing consumersâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; experience in online and mobile tracking. SR: From your words, we are in front of a growing wave of Internet of Things activity. Cumulocity is riding this wave in a new form, as part of Software AG. What does being with Software AG mean and what are the objectives? BG: Since the market emphasis on the IoT vision started five years ago, Cumulocity has been there offering a reliable and scalable platform solution. Through those years, we have grown substantially in terms of customer base and geographic footprint. However, it was clear that to move to the next step, the next step being a truly global player, we needed a partner with a global remit. The internationalisation of Cumulocity was our strategic task. However, we wanted to execute that task without being absorbed into a large enterprise. We wanted an organisation able to give us the right focus for a global growth, but, open and flexible enough to

Since the market emphasis on the IoT vision started five years ago, Cumulocity has been there offering a reliable and scalable platform solution

â&#x2013;ź

seem to be more point solution driven rather than holistic looking at the entire operations and processes.

INTERVIEW

enable us to proceed along our technological and strategic path. Software AG was the perfect fit. Software AG has 46 years experience in software, operating in 70 countries and with the right open and flexible approach for us. With Software AG, we are becoming a truly global IoT platform vendor. SR: Has being part of Software AG impacted your customer base? BG: We have been together since April 2017 so itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s probably a bit too early to run an assessment. But, we are seeing already a strong effect on us. That is not only about the number of customers, but, particularly, the size of our customer base located in different parts of the world. Mobile network operators from all over the world are using our platform from Deutsche Telekom and Telia in Europe to NTT in Japan, Telstra in Australia, and Etisalat in UAE. We have large customers such as Lyreco, MicroTechnology, and PayPal. Being with Software AG has also expanded our ecosystem of partnerships and involved us in new collaboration such as the newly announced ADAMOS. SR: Which changes do you see in terms of product and service proposition? BG: The potential of bringing together Cumulocity platform services and Software AG capabilities is enormous. The proposition expands in critical areas for enterprises such as

enterprise integration tools, process management, and artificial intelligence. In fact, Cumulocity IoT is our new IoT offering. It is not just about platform services. It brings together several services from the cloud until the edge. SR: Staying on the topic of IoT platforms, there are several organisations offering platforms or claiming to offer those, which are the key differentiating elements of the Cumulocity platform? BG: We have a strong commitment to innovating our platform. We have a strict approach to new releases. We actively invest in updating existing services and offering new ones. Consequently, we believe that Cumulocity offers a very reliable, scalable, and innovative platform. We offer capabilities that are not often seen in the market place. I wanted to highlight one: multi-tenant architecture. In some cases, multi-tenancy is used to describe multi-user access to platforms which present an intuitive UI to users and for multi-user management. However, this is just part of a multitenant architecture. Cumulocity offers multi-client architecture at database level. The data can be stored by customers completely separated at the database level. This ensures a strong level of data security. This aspect is becoming especially relevant in the Industrial Internet, in which the data volumes are growing continuously and in diverse ways. Following this, Cumulocity also offers a very flexible and expandable data sharing concept. This is important in the Industrial â&#x2013;ź

We have a strong commitment to innovating our platform. We have a strict approach to new releases

IoT Now - October 2017

Internet because applications require interactions between a variety of partners and stakeholders as in the case of the supply chain. SR: What other platform services are important in the Industrial Internet? BG: In Industrial Internet, development and deployment speed is crucial. If a project implementation takes too long, that can be disruptive for the company because the projects objectives can collide against new market conditions and companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s strategic goals. To avoid that, agility is essential. It is then important to launch a pilot project to have a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) as a proof of concept on which develop further. Agile methodologies are useful for that process. Tools such as Design Thinking, Lean Startup and Scrum are all very useful for the Industrial IoT. Another essential element for the Industrial IoT is providing companies with edge computing services to build distributed architecture. The cloud is fundamental, but, not all applications can be realized in the cloud due to specific context needs, which require stringent conditions on latency. Applications that require real-time monitoring and control require a certain degree of edge computing and edge analytics. This can happen through IoT gateways that gather data from the edge devices, execute initial analytics and transfer data to the cloud reducing the transferred volume. Cumulocity Edge provides all

IoT Now - October 2017

these features offering a continuum with cloud services. Our open approach also enables Cumulocity to integrate edge computing and edge analytics features from third parties. SR: Cumulocity is involved in some very important alliances such as EdgeX Foundry. Through Software AG, Cumulocity is now part of ADAMOS. What is ADOMOS and what are the objectives? BG: ADAMOS stands for ADAptive Manufacturing Open Solutions. It is a strategic alliance bringing together DMG Mori, DĂźrr, Software AG and Zeiss as well as ASM PT. The alliance wants to become a point of reference for machine builders and the entire machinery business ecosystem. The overall objective is to enable the middle-sized companies, either involved in niche machinery markets or working around large machinery enterprises, to fully embrace the digital transformation process through the Industrial IoT vision. ADAMOS then becomes a tool for machinery companies to offer tried and tested solutions for digitally networked production to their customers. And, our role is fundamental. ADAMOS revolves around four key pillars: ADAMOS Partnership, ADAMOS App Factory Alliance, Digital Marketplace, and the ADAMOS IIoT Platform. The ADAMOS IIoT Platform is based on the Cumulocity platform. Our services will enable the journey of several middle-sized machinery companies in the Industrial Internet.

In Industrial Internet, development and deployment speed is crucial. If a project implementation takes too long, that can be disruptive

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ANALYST REPORT

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CONTENTS

IoT REFERENCE ARCHITECTURE

DISTRIBUTION OF CONNECTIVITY IN DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS GLOBALLY 2015-2020

Applications

Communications Access in Global Distribution Networks, 2015-2010 1200.0

Application Development Layer

Data Management (Storage - Orchestration - Analytics) Device Management

1053.1

S E C U R I T Y

Communication Service Layer

1000.0

890.6 771.4

800.0 679.7 604.9 600.0

540.2

400.0

200.0

Networks / Infrastructure 0.0

2015

2016 LPRF

2017 Fixed

PLC

2018 GSM

2019 LPWA

2020

Others

ANALYST REPORT 30 IoT technologies to support power and utilities sector transformation

35 Selection of platforms, integration with applications, data and third parties, and security provision

32 Smart grid is IoT for the electricity system

36 The future of energy companies relies on finding new business models

33 Generation and transmission 34 Three IoT adoption challenges and selection of communications access

IoT Now - October 2017

37 Conclusion – IoT technologies are complementary to investment into smart grid

ANALYST REPORT

Yiru Zhong, principal analyst, Beecham Research

IoT technologies support power and utilities sector transformation The concept of a smart grid in the power and utilities sector took shape at around the same time as the Machine-to-Machine (M2M) sector began its own transformation journey towards Internet of Things (IoT). The official characteristics of a smart grid were defined in the United States at the end of 2006 while the European Union set up a smart grid task force in 2009 to drive the necessary research and development efforts. According to the US Department of Energy, a total of US$7.9 billion of private and government funding were invested in 99 smart grid projects with 228 utilities over a six-year period of 2010 and 2015. The European Commission Directorate-General Joint Research Centre on the other hand committed €5 billion between 2002 and 2016 in 950 smart grid projects act of reducing the carbon footprint in existing energy sources. Power generating companies are primarily the electricity actors to implement this by increasing the use of renewable energy sources. In the European Union, member states agree to a 20-20-20 climate and energy package of achieving 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from 1990 levels, to generate 20% of energy from renewables, and 20% improvement in energy efficiency by the year 2020. The European Commission reported that EU member states are on track to achieve this target by 2020 as the latest figures revealed that EU as a group were estimated to have 16.4% of renewables in their final energy consumption in 2015.

The M2M sector’s expectation that EU regulations will obliged EU member states to deploy smart meters did not materialise in the same scale and timelines. Instead, the power and utilities sector embraced IoT technologies at their own business priorities. Their sense of urgency in relying on IoT technologies became more acute as they face adapt or die scenarios from five key disruptive influences. These 5 factors create new market entrants, which makes a traditional monopolies or oligopolies incapable of responding to competition. IoT technologies enable power and utilities companies to address these five factors in a do-or-die scenario.

This is a disruptive factor to power companies because capital expenditure is required to reduce reliance on traditional energy sources such as nuclear and coal to integrating renewables such as solar, hydro, and wind power. These greenfield investments require significant financial outlay that power companies need to fund even as they receive government funding. The European Commission estimates that €379 billion is needed annually to support its 20-20-20 climate and energy targets. The intermittent nature of renewable energy sources requires additional investment by transmission systems and distribution network operators too. Both research and development and field tests are required to consider how the electricity grid will integrate

De-carbonisation: Decarbonisation describes the

▼

At around the same period, the M2M sector was growing out of a cottage industry between 2005 and 2007 to one where M2M modules manufacturers began to acquire assets to establish technology and market share leadership between 2008 and 2010. The M2M sector was optimistic that the power and utilities sector, particularly the distribution network operators, will drive connection volume and revenue significantly between 2010 and 2020 because millions of electricity smart meters have to be deployed globally within the decade. Reality was far from expectations; the sense of urgency within the M2M sector was not matched by the power and utilities companies.

IoT Now - October 2017

Decentralisation: Through the 20-20-20 climate and energy targets in the European Union, decentralisation of energy sources or distributed generation becomes a viable solution to address the energy efficiency target. Decentralisation is the act of generating energy in areas closer to consumption sites, away from such large nuclear or coal plants. With renewables and energy policies, smaller scale power generation communities such as co-operatives that run wind or solar farms become new stakeholders in a traditional energy grid. By siting community windfarms close to the source of consumption, the traditional flow of electricity from a massive generation company through transmission lines and distribution substations is disrupted. Transmission systems operators must now manage much more interactivity with the grid, making current objectives of balancing its transmission grid more complicated because there are new generation companies to be integrated into the grid. Distribution network operators on the other hand are also challenged to have to accommodate additional more sites. The overall impact of decentralisation is creating competitive pressures traditionally monopolistic organisations such as generation companies. The more frequent touchpoints into the grid requires traditional stakeholders to have more up to date information shared across a variety of users to make sure the grid remains balanced, stable and resilient. Deregulation: De-regulation affects the power and utilities sector in two well established ways. The first type of de-regulation is the demolishment of vertically integrated utilities where generating assets must be separated from the transmission, distribution and retail entities of the operations. This is a more readily accommodated de-regulation with relatively minimal impact on overall grid efficiency or even lower energy costs to the consumer. The second type of de-regulation is the

IoT Now - October 2017

introduction of competition to retail utilities; customers are free to switch their energy supplier just as they are free to switch their mobile or broadband provider. The actual impact on this is mixed; the average churn rate for electricity customer is about 13% in the UK, in what is a highly competitive retail market in Europe. UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s electricity customer churn rate at 13% compares poorly to the average churn rate for mobile services between 2527%. The power and utilities sector however anticipates that more policy changes are imminent to catch up with the new services and requirements that a full smart grid scenario will require. Three changes in policies are required at a minimum. The first is to ensure that support incentives are in place to transition towards a cleaner energy system. The European Commission for example is committed to ensure that energy efficiency proposals support the behaviour necessary to achieve the 20% energy efficiency targets, to ensure that the electricity wholesale market can support new grid services such as demand response, and to ensure sustainable business conditions for new business models because of a smart grid system. This is a disruptive factor to the power and utilities sector because those forward-looking companies are keen to proactively engage in the shaping of these policies development to create the best practices for the rest of the industry. Digitalisation: Digitalisation is a catch-all phrase of using IT and communications technologies within an IoT system to convert an analogue grid network to a IP-connected grid that provides data and insights to the wider energy ecosystem. This could be as simple as investing in next generation communications networks, upgrading analogue low bandwidth networks. It could also be about enabling connectivity of previously remote and unconnected devices/objects so that the companies can start measuring the status of their assets in the field at greater interval and allowing for others in a control operations room to remotely manage and make better informed decisions. This is a disruptive factor to traditional power and utilities companies because new investments are necessary to digitalise the grid. In an already long list of investment priorities, these IT-based spending may not make it to the top five must have projects. The benefits, however, of digitalising the

â&#x2013;ź

renewables into the grid for a stable, balanced and resilient system. Further downstream at the consumer level, renewables, especially residential renewables such as solar panels and energy storage, will increase the interactivity between consumer and grid. Transmission and distribution grids are not traditionally used to two-way electricity flows with the residential consumer.

ANALYST REPORT

Democratisation: Democratisation is about the dispersion of both proprietary and public data that have been aggregated and anonymised to create new business models. Within the traditional grid, for example, a transmission system operator may invest in a data management platform to aggregate all its operational data into a single point so that various types of users can access the relevant section of insights to make better decisions. New entities can also be formed through the act of making wholesale data publicly available. A start up renewables energy supplier in Denmark, Vindstød, entered the market in 2012 because the Danish regulator opened all energy information that provided transparency of the energy system immediately. With a greenfield approach in selecting only the latest digital technologies, Vindstød could combine digital sales and customer processes to customers and utilise the democracy of previously opaque information to succeed in the marketplace. By the end of 2016, Vattenfall acquired the start-up for an undisclosed amount. Through these five disruptive factors, the power and utilities sector face an ever-increasing urgency to meet competition by becoming smarter in the way they work and by offering a service level that matches end-user expectations. The sense of “transform now or face irrelevance” drives investment priorities where IoT technologies are being incorporated into existing operational investment projects.

Smart grid is IoT for the electricity system The various components of an IoT system, in three simplified segments, are essential to support power and utilities companies in addressing the disruptive forces in their sector. As illustrated in Figure 1, the IoT system is made up of objects and sensors at the lowest layer, communications networks and services, middleware of platforms fulfilling at least four functions in connectivity management, device management, data management, and application development layer. Equally importantly and must be front of mind is security provisions; without which would increase threat vulnerability to the grid.

Figure 1. IoT Reference Architecture

Applications

Application Development Layer

Data Management (Storage - Orchestration - Analytics) Device Management

S E C U R I T Y

Communication Service Layer

Networks / Infrastructure

In an electricity system, the various objects and machines across the electricity value chain must first be connected to the internet. These objects or machines can be engineering devices from smart meters, invertors or phasers or sensors and aggregators added to add computing power to analogue or simple engineering devices. These objects need to be connected using by a variety of traditional and next generation communication accesses. The legacy telecommunications in the power and utilities sector tended to be power line communications and 2G or GSM connectivity. New communications such as low power wide area access such as NB-IoT, Sigfox and Lora have entered the domain to provide more choices to help connect the grid to become smarter. The third component in an IoT system is the reliance of a middleware layer to bring these disparate components together. The platform layer is also a complex area; those that address connectivity management needs, those that help manage devices in the field, those that bring data together for secure storage, analysis, use and dissemination of data and insights. At the last layer lies the integration with operational technologies, the integration of data with existing enterprise systems and operational systems. Beecham Research estimated that the number of connections in distribution networks globally reached 605 million in volume in 2016. Figure 2

▼

grid is democratisation of data that will open new revenue streams in the future.

IoT Now - October 2017

Figure 2. Distribution of connectivity in distribution networks globally

Communications Access in Global Distribution Networks, 2015-2010 1200.0 1053.1 1000.0

890.6 771.4

800.0 679.7 604.9 600.0

540.2

400.0

200.0

0.0 2016 LPRF

2017 Fixed

PLC

2018 GSM

2019 LPWA

2020

Others

illustrates the distribution of connectivity access in 2016 was predominantly low power radio frequency (LPRF) as it is the existing form of connecting smart meters. Fixed networks, another legacy communication, formed the next biggest access at 3.6%. The next largest access is 2G networks at 1%. By 2020, however, the proportions are expected to change significantly. First, the proportion of LPRF will drop from 75% to only 63%. The reduction will be taken up by fixed networks and power line communications. The growth in access will come from low power wide area (LPWA) access such as 3GPP standardised family of NB-IoT/Cat-M/EC-GSM, and proprietary ones such as Sigfox and Lora. From an initial 1.2million in 2017, the number of LPWA connections will increase to 9million in 2020.

Generation companies address decarbonisation and decentralisation forces Generation companies such as RWE and EON in Europe are early adopters of integrating renewable energy sources to the grid. The investment priorities at this stage of the electricity grid is to rely on IoT, specifically adding sensors to increase instrumentation to better achieve renewables integration interconnection points within the generation plant and the rest of the grid. The deployment challenge in these initiatives relate to the management and control of operational technologies, suggesting that the role of the middleware in platforms becomes the most important. Without a platform layer, generation companiesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; key success metrics of balancing investments while integrating RES and optimising opex spending would be affected.

As objects are connected, power and utilities companies can begin to accumulate data to be analysed for insights to make better decisions about operations and in the future, consider monetising their data-centric investments. The following examples illustrate how connectivity, platforms and analytics support power and utilities to address the 5D disruptive forces.

Transmission systems operators address decentralisation, digitalisation and democratisation forces Transmission systems operators (TSOs) are increasingly relying on IoT platforms to aggregate existing data to better utilise existing aging assets. The investment priority at this stage is to invest in

IoT Now - October 2017

â&#x2013;ź

2015

ANALYST REPORT

Distribution network operators address all five Ds forces Distribution network operators (DNOs) are the most active users of IoT technologies amongst the other grid stakeholders. This adoption of IoT technology may coincide with an investment schedule that relies on IoT technologies to achieve their business outcomes. For example, DNOs are tasked with deploying smart meters globally. Even in the case of Europe where the deployment of smart meters is no longer as clearly mandated, DNOs around the world are investing in distribution automation. Together with these operational investments, various IoT components are included. This means that DNOs are considering connectivity and platform requirements as well as integrating cybersecurity elements to these projects. Retail invests for decentralisation, digitalisation and democratisation forces Retail utilities are not directly deploying IoT technologies. They however benefit from IoT technologies being adopted by the rest of the grid and even their consumers. First, they are using the results of having increased instrumentations that generate more data that is converted to intelligence for various uses. In the case of retail utilities, their customer facing functions are improved by being able to offer relevant information to their customers who expect instantaneous information. Second, retail utilities also expect to utilise increased instrumentation within residential homes, where IoT devices such as smart meter, smart thermostats and small-scale generation assets such as solar panels and residential energy storage facilities to increase the instrumentation necessary for consumers to

manage their own energy production and consumption. Retail utilities hope that smart homes services can be the salvation of new services that create customer loyalty and minimise churn out of their contracts. The current investment patterns among traditional power and utilities companies are common in the pursuit of data and insights to improve business as usual operations. While they aspire to utilise IoT technologies to support their transformative goals, they do face three main implementation challenges.

Three IoT adoption challenges The first is in the selection of an appropriate IoT technology, whether it is communications or platforms. The second is integration, with enterprise and operational applications, of data, and with the increased number of interconnections and interactivity with third parties in a smart grid scenario. The final adoption challenge is security assurance, where power and utilities companies already struggle to keep up with a rapidly evolving security threat landscape. Mistakes in these three main challenges result in financial penalty for downtime and any associated public relations fallout. Selection of communications access: The emergence of new communications discussion such as the progress towards 5G and the increasing prominence of Sigfox, Lora and other low power wide area networks such as the standardised NB-IoT in 2017 meant that power and utilities companies have many choices. The selection of these new protocols over existing communications topology such as power line communications and traditional use of low power radio frequency raises questions on which access is better suited for which operation requirements. In cellular or GSM, power and utilities companies already must deal with telecommunications operators deciding to eventually shut down their 2G/GSM networks. In the United States and most parts of Asia, mobile operators have announced that they will decommission their 2G networks. Existing business customers can either take their business somewhere else or take a strong stance

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such a way that existing assets can be extended to fulfil its remit for reliability, stability and resilience of their grid. This means increasing instrumentation and deployment data management platforms that allow TSOs to aggregate available data and to apply analytics to provide better inputs for pre-emptive operations and maintenance activities or better workflow planning for mobile workers. National Grid in the UK deploys IBM Watson to pull data together to enable engineers and non-technical business users to use the same information to address their individual work requirements.

IoT Now - October 2017

This demand that networks be in business for the duration of their customers means that there is uncertainty towards the longevity of such startups as Sigfox and Lora in offering low power wide area networks. Power and utilities companies are then further given a choice of using standardised communications access by 3GPP on NB-IoT/CatM/EC-GSM. Each of these low power access addresses a similar but also different requirement. Selection of platforms: If the number of communications access is considered one too many, then power and utilities companies face an even more complex choice in selecting a platform. Add to this complexity is the current organisational structure within power and utilities companies, that there may be two different groups of budgets, the IT and the operations team, each of which have their preferences of using their traditional vendors in IT or industrial vendors. They have a limited internal resource/knowledge of what makes the “optimal choice”. They also have limited resources to investigate vendor’s claims. To test any platforms will incur IT and human resources, both of which are scarce resources that can be better utilised in core tasks. Finally, they also have a rapid time to market to ensure applications are not only deployed quickly but also deployed first time right. The financial penalties for applications downtime can go up to millions in many cases. The first-time right requirement for platform selection is especially crucial to the power and utilities sector because very often the integration of the middleware requires man hours for piloting, testing and rollouts. It is in this very wide nature of the middleware layer that makes the selection choice very crucial. In the case of industrial control systems such as those in the energy grid, power and utilities companies tend to have many brands of industrial equipment that proprietary and have very closed concepts of application programme interfaces (APIs) and integration protocols for easy interoperability. Despite efforts from industrial vendors that they are interoperable, the level of openness does not

IoT Now - October 2017

reach down to the type of programmable logic controllers distributed throughout the facilities. Platforms and expertise from an IT perspective can overcome these integration problems more easily and can support power and utilities’ time to market better. The crucial element here is that power and utilities companies often do not realise the laborious extent until a platform is being deployed. Integration with applications, data and third parties: Many of the examples of power and utilities companies adopting IoT have reflected an operational difficulty to extend their tests or trials out to more operational applications, or to more sites – for example, increased number of residential households in the trial for virtual power plants, or to more types of third parties, such as local authorities, electric vehicle owners or aggregators. This difficulty is in parts due to the proprietary nature of industrial equipment, where API libraries that can speed up integration remain limited. Similar to the risk of selecting the wrong platform, the act of integrating a software or application to the rest of the grid must be done as smoothly as possible to avoid disruption of operations. Security provision: The third and increasingly important challenge is the incorporate cybersecurity considerations into any IoT and operational investments. The deployment challenge is made more complex when both IT and operational security needs must be accommodated and traditionally both domains work relatively independently of each other. This divergence is dangerous. First, security breaches can enter the operational domain via the enterprise IT space. The recent ransomware is only a recent but prominent example. Secondly, the business case for additional security investments is already difficult. By leaving out the benefits accruing to one of the two domains diminishes the value of such investments. Finally, as the threat landscape becomes more sophisticated, the defence must be made more holistic to avoid any weak links. It is this continuous requirement to not only prevent, detect and respond to threats, but it is also important to see the whole picture of both IT and operational domains together. Increasingly, there is convergence of IT and operational security solutions to address exactly this ▼

and demand that the networks be continued. Whatever the outcome, power and utilities companies do not want to have to deal with such possibilities again.

ANALYST REPORT

The future of energy companies relies on finding new business models Despite the appreciation of how IoT can improve power and utilities’ business outlook, the flow of investment into IoT is relatively slow. According to Beecham Research’s studies, the automotive sector is the largest sector with IoT connections. The operational reason for the power and utilities sector for not taking on a bigger piece is because the companies are constrained in making the business case. The value of IoT enabled smart grid is in the positive externalities that are often not included in a Transmission systems operator’s or a generating company’s business case. The IoT community has a long way to help power and utilities companies make that wider business case for additional investments. The case studies illustrated so far show that investments are related to business as usual scenarios. These are mostly related to cost issues; of process optimisation and minimising both capital and operation expenses. While the sector aims to monetise data, the relative regulated nature of the sector and a lack of understanding on data security and privacy adds to the constraints to turning insights into a revenue stream. Power and utilities companies are investigating how emerging technologies can help with these 2 objectives. Blockchain has captured the sector’s imagination in a way that is contrary to how the financial services have embraced it. However, the nature of blockchain technologies does address several of the disruptive forces facing this sector. For example, the distributed ledger nature of blockchain allows for integrating solar credits in renewable energy sources. It also provides the

settlement mechanisms in the trading of credits. Finally, blockchain also allows internet of energy to eventually integrate any third parties linking to the grid, building towards a true self-healing energy grid. Blockchain initiatives in the energy sector however are related to operations and cost optimisation issues. For utilities looking for ways to create a revenue stream through transformation is the importance of privacy technologies. Blockchain might be one of them but other technologies that allows utilities to build a reputation of trust could be another way forward. Considering that utilities, together with telecommunications companies, have a direct and recurring billing relationship with the consumers, this is an area to explore. As society moves towards greater digitalisation and intelligence, the B2C element of IoT is the area that needs to be further developed. IoT policies around individual privacy, for example those related to e-privacy and General Data Protection Regulation in the European Union, have deep influence on the direction of smart homes and the role of utilities in the development of smart living, of home domains, car or mobility domains, office domains and within an urban space domain. Retail utilities have the potential to lead in this initiative, of using their billing relationship with the consumer, of their aggregated knowledge of residential energy consumption, to begin to offer a connected living proposition. It can lead in the development of a new trust metric that treks how the retail utilities has been at protecting data security and privacy assurance. This will require new technologies that captures and enables audit of how an IoT device has been manufactured securely, its app and data storage are secure, and privacy notices comply with GDPR requirements. The smart homes domain is a natural place to start exploring this. ▼

requirement, relying on information sharing on threat intelligence and automation, analytics and artificial intelligence to provide the relevant insights for security specialist teams to monitor their company’s real-time security posture.

IoT Now - October 2017

ANALYST REPORT

Retail utilities can utilise their user experience investment to allow consumers to manage and monitor their privacy settings. Using privacy technologies as simple as more transparent cookies management in anticipation of the GDPR implementation, retail utilities, through their web interface for laptops and mobile screens, enable consumers to see what they have enabled for data to be shared and tracked on demand. This

technology enabled control for consumers is essential to build up trust where the auditable nature of the solution also gives the retail utilities a trail in which to demonstrate it is doing what it says it is doing. This trace gives both parties a metric to measure against any trust measurement, which would make retail utilities a rather relevant place in a connected living scenario.

Conclusion IoT technologies are being considered as complementary to power and utilities investment into smart grid. In the simplest terms, power and utilities companies need to connect their objects and machines to have the insights and intelligence necessary to fulfil the smart grid vision. In the next step, the industry is relying on IoT technologies to address the disruptive factors to remain relevant in a digital world. The selection of existing IoT technologies is time consuming with significant financial risks. It is thus important to understand your requirements clearly to find the optimal technology partner.

About Beecham Research Beecham Research is the leading market analyst and consulting firm specialising in the development of the rapidly-growing IoT market worldwide. Based in London (UK) and Boston (USA), we have been studying this market for 16 years and are recognised internationally as industry thought leaders with deep knowledge of the market dynamics and technology at every level in the value chain including IoT services, platforms and solution security. Beecham Research clients span components and hardware, network operations, system integration, application development, distribution and enterprise adopters. Industry sectors where we have particular experience include Energy, Healthcare, Manufacturing, Retail, Smart City, Smart Farming, Smart Home and Transportation. The company is also the leading analyst firm in satellite IoT, low power wide area, and is also working in the wearable technology market. Beecham Research has been actively researching the IoT platform market for nearly a decade. More recently, as part of our developing support for enterprise users, we have designed a series of tools to aid IoT platform selection. www.beechamresearch.com

IoT Now - October 2017

FEATURE

CAN IoT HELP US AVERT THE WORLD’S 2050 FOOD CRISIS? The world today has a vast problem with food waste. The UN estimates that, on our current path of food consumption and waste, by 2050 we will reach a tipping point and the world will be in a food crisis. Here, Jeremy Cowan reports from Ireland on companies that are partnering to prevent this Jason Kay, the chief commercial officer of IMS Evolve – a company specialising in creating Internet of Things (IoT) solutions for cold chain logistics – says we shouldn’t assume the effects will be confined to the developing world. In just one generation advanced, mature economies will be experiencing food shortages and supply problems.

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Dell EMC invited a handful of European analysts and journalists to its IoT Lab in Limerick, Ireland to hear about the uses to which its IoT technology is being put – in sectors as varied as transport, agriculture, banking, wind energy, and smart cities. The business of temperature-controlled food delivery, commonly called the cold chain, is facing challenges such as complex legacy infrastructure, an inability to use existing data to drive business improvements, and poor visibility of assets and their condition.

IoT Now - October 2017

The business of temperature-controlled food delivery, commonly called the cold chain, is facing challenges such as complex legacy infrastructure, an inability to use existing data to drive business improvements, and poor visibility of assets and their condition

“Today we grow enough to feed 12 billion people, but we can barely feed six billion,” says Kay. “We have to make cold chain data actionable – and that doesn’t all mean in the cloud.”

Where is the inefficiency? There’s heavy competition and price compression, so why is it so inefficient? According to Kay it is because, “the whole supply chain is built on margins of error in food retail, distribution, production and storage. The industry is screaming for automation and digitisation but can’t invest because the industry is very unstable. Companies are fearful of making a big investment in a new infrastructure play, like Amazon investing in Whole Foods.” So IMS Evolve is putting processing and memory capacity where it is needed in the food chain, with automation that enhances existing investments instead of replacing them. With data processing happening more and more at the network edge, close to the sensors, manufacturing and processing environments can be regulated to maintain consistency of ingredients. Data from each stage of the process can be united to optimise quality, cost and profitability. IMS Evolve is aiming to give its food production, distribution and retail clients a single view of the cold chain in order to cut waste, and improve the quality of produce on the shelves. What’s holding up the improvements? There is a market inertia from the fact that it is costly to own a relationship with a market in the food industry, Kay maintains. As an example he cites is Chipotle. “Make people ill and your market capitalisation halves overnight. With IoT

IoT Now - October 2017

innovation, I can open up innovation in my food chain I can put democracy in the food chain. Cold delivery systems need probes to do clever things, like predictive maintenance, modelling to create digital twins, and monitoring food quality. We take a piece of infrastructure, create its digital twin, then we examine the workflow processes in that cool chain.”

Jason Kay, IMS Evolve

For edge-based analytics, Dell EMC claims that its Edge Gateway 5000 offers robust and rugged construction as well as flexible methods of connectivity including cellular, Zigbee, and Bluetooth. Kay says, “We aren’t dependent on people picking up phones, or even noticing on screen that something is wrong.” The company reports that its customers, who include Tesco supermarkets, have seen a 49% reduction in stock loss, 30% reduction in customer complaints, and 40% reduction in reactive maintenance calls. “Historically, retailers have been unable to know what’s wrong and where so they were risk averse. But they already had deep and wide systems for monitoring how and where products were marketed. Customers have measured and particularly valued the reduction in customer complaints. Tesco went from a call centre of 90 people in the UK monitoring customer responses, to just two or three remotely in Bangalore.” Asked if there are applications for these IoT skills and technologies in other industries, such as pharmaceuticals and medical supplies, Kay will only say there are departments within IMS Evolve’s food customers which appreciate this. “We provide a platform of reliable data.”

IIOT SECURITY

Openness and security can go hand-in-hand to support IIoT As organisations grapple with the complexities of securing industrial internet of things (IIoT) applications across multiple bearers, Robert Jones, vice president of Product and Sales at Netsnapper and Dan Caton, the partner manager at Wireless Logic Group, explain how new approaches can achieve both high security and the openness needed for IIoT to flourish

Robert Jones: A lot of people are getting into IIoT and as that happens different companies are entering the market. On one hand you have companies, like Wireless Logic, that know endpoint connectivity but there are also enterprise players that know enterprise virtual private networks (VPNs) and application management. These two worlds have been operating separately and are coming together now but the enterprise people don’t necessarily understand the complexity of the connectivity world. The security approach is different, too. Usually in a secure enterprise you use a private access point name (APN) – integrators will have a private APN with an operator – and it usually takes one to three months to deploy a new APN. It’s therefore a big cost and only the SIM cards from that operator are secure. People are left to try and secure their VPNs with that. With openness, there’s a lot of benefit and value in having things publically addressable on the Internet but this can represent a security risk. We, however, can supply addressable IPv6 addresses to every device and openness can be enabled securely using configurable encryption for backend data analytics from specific devices, for example.

In terms of implementation, the Netsnapper servers can be deployed within a customer’s own datacentre

IoT Now: What methods and technologies are being adopted to achieve openness in secure IIoT environments? RJ: We’re using software defined networking (SDN) to cut across different bearer types and within our software we’re providing configurable, up to 384 bit, encryption. We’re also looking at quantum technology to enable us further in future. The other thing opening up these networks for use in IIoT is IPv6. It’s been talked about for ten years but it’s really needed now because public IPv4 Internet addresses are running out. Another benefit is that we can provide a bridge between IPv4 and IPv6. We have that futureproof piece today and can assign different addresses to endpoints.

IoT Now: So how does Netsnapper help? RJ: With a partner like Wireless Logic we can secure the whole network. In addition to the capabilities I’ve mentioned earlier, if you want maintenance staff to have a view of certain parts of the network we allow policy management and encryption to devices to enable a person-tomachine (P2M) secure policy layer. IoT Now: Dan, how is Wireless Logic utilising Netsnapper’s solutions? Dan Caton: Wireless Logic is currently exploring many markets and applications where cloudbased Netsnapper can enhance our own secure infrastructure solutions, importantly bringing in its core modules at the earliest stage of connectivity planning. As a horizontal provider, this means that we are exposed to multiple verticals, many of which might employ facets or indeed the majority of Netsnapper’s core tools. For our clients in the IoT space, we see a number of important wins by integrating the Netsnapper solution. But in all cases, Netsnapper plays into the existing strengths of the Wireless Logic connected ecosystem – delivering more security through Software Closed User Groups, enabling rapid speed to market, creating more seamless and reliable connectivity solutions and bandwidth management, and optimising expenditure through more efficient use of data management and analytics. In terms of implementation, the Netsnapper servers can be deployed within a customer’s own datacentre. However, they are more typically cloud-hosted enabling the Netsnapper capabilities to be utilised across multiple network types such as 4G and ADSL. The solution can scale to hundreds or even thousands of connections enabling us to build mesh networks, and enable office locations or remote workers to seamlessly interact with IoT devices in addition to cloud and office-based services. In a short amount of time, we’ve worked intensely with Netsnapper to create a seamless and integrated solution alongside the Wireless Logic NetPro infrastructure to deliver a quick-toimplement and scalable solution. This meeting of minds creates new and important opportunities for our connected work within enterprise networking – with a focus on ease of system ▼

IoT Now: What are the challenges of reconciling the conflicting demands of security with maintaining openness in IIoT? To what extent are compromises necessary?

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IoT Now - October 2017

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Robert Jones: There’s a lot of beneﬁt and value with openness but having things publically addressable on the Internet can represent a security risk

▼ integration and system manageability. Early reaction to this enhanced offering has been very positive. IoT Now: What do you see as the key benefits? DC: For us, Netsnapper will create enhancements across the IoT and telecoms industry. We envisage applications that have high data usage such as network failover taking advantage of data compression – managing the aggregation of data is critically important within business use cases where the potential to go above data thresholds can mean punitive overage costs. By utilising its optimisation tools, we see multiple data-hungry applications being able to restructure their business models, with more reassurance in terms of usage outcomes. Switching between networks and bearer services seamlessly is also beneficial to a growing number of applications – especially where enterprises are increasingly moving core services to the cloud – including services such as voice over internet protocol (VoIP) using hosted private branch exchanges (PBXs) – a shift that will only continue to accelerate. Whilst the reliability of bearer services continues to improve, any loss of service can have massive consequential impact. By implementing Netsnapper onto the hardware or router, more applications will start to rethink their failover strategies – leading to more confidence in their own connected solutions and the ability to push their applications further with more emphasis on guaranteed uptime and performance. Network security continues to be a priority for our customers – although many still use public static IP addresses to enable engineers or alarm receiving centres (ARCs) to access remote

IoT Now - October 2017

devices such as CCTV cameras. However, with Netsnapper we can enable the creation of multibearer closed user groups – by adding a client to each end point and providing the option to further secure the data in transit with the latest level of encryption – secure hash algorithm 2 (SHA-2).

Dan Caton: By utilising Netsnapper optimisation tools, we see multiple datahungry applications being able to restructure their business models

This closed user group functionality is also a way to securely enable SIM-to-SIM communications, something we have enabled for utility companies enabling sensors, actuators and platform to communicate to each other as a mesh of devices rather than simply device to platform. IoT Now: How are you planning on pushing the end offering to market? DC: One of Wireless Logic’s unique selling points is delivering a total connectivity solution from early-stage bearer recommendation through to facilitation. This encompasses airtime, management platform, infrastructure and increasingly, the supporting hardware. We are building Netsnapper into our connected hardware offering and integrating Netsnapper tools onto market-leading routers. We can now deliver improved security, compression, speed, mobility and cost-savings. Across a growing range of sectors such as electronic point of sale (EPoS) within retail, enterprise failover, mobile workforces and CCTV, we are changing the way customers think about their connected applications with a single integrated solution across multiple devices and bearers. With Netsnapper alongside Wireless Logic’s NetPro infrastructure, we can take an enhanced offering to market with an array of features – and all delivered on a cost-effective opex basis.

One of Wireless Logic’s unique selling points is delivering a total connectivity solution from early-stage bearer recommendation through to facilitation

www.netsnapper.com

SMART CITIES

Four essential elements for smart city success The modern trend towards urbanisation is steadfast, writes Haider Iqbal, the director for IoT in Public Services and Transport at Gemalto. Today, 54% of people worldwide live in cities, a proportion that is expected to reach 66% by 2050, according to United Nations projections. Urbanisation combined with the overall population growth will add another 2.5 billion people to cities over the next three decades. To keep pace with expansion, sustainability is must. More than 190 countries have pledged to meet agreed goals for sustainable growth and the smart city concept holds the key to success

Pervasive connectivity, the first essential element for smart cities The first building block of any smart city application is reliable, pervasive wireless connectivity. Evolving low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies are well suited to smart city applications. Although many wireless technologies (LTE CatM, NB-IoT, LoRa and the like) are contributing to the fabric of connected cities, the advent of 5G is expected to be a watershed event that propels smart city technology into the mainstream and accelerates new deployments. With cost efficient, secure, wireless service, innovative smart city technology can transform a traditional streetlight into an intelligent platform that integrates solar power and connects to a central control system. The solution can enable a variety of use cases beyond lighting, where high-power LEDs can now be dimmed on demand and even be used to alert pedestrians and vehicles about emerging traffic issues or when events occur. The lamps can also detect free parking spaces and alert drivers where to find them. They can also guide electric vehicle (EV) drivers to the nearest available charging station via a mobile app where they can make a reservation. And in some world regions, the streetlight itself can be localised to allow EV recharging directly from the lamppost. With seamless connectivity, all these disparate systems – streetlights, intelligent roads, parking meters and electric vehicle (EV) docks – can connect and deliver the promise of improved convenience and performance to citizens. To support such efforts, governments around the world have

launched Smart Cities Initiatives like the BroadbandUSA initiative that provides technical assistance to communities launching citywide connectivity. However, connectivity is only the first step to realising smart cities of the future. The second essential element is opening the doors to data.

Unlock the vault to open data Historically, governments, enterprises and individuals alike have held their data close to themselves, sharing as little as possible with others. Privacy concerns and fear of security breaches have far outweighed the perceived value of sharing information. However, a key enabler of sustainable smart cities is that that all participants in the complex ecosystem share information so that informed decisions can be made in realtime. Multiple sectors need to cooperate to achieve better, sustainable outcomes through the analysis of contextual realtime information, which is shared among sector-specific information and operational technology (OT) systems. For instance, imagine a major urban area is gearing up for a mega event like the Olympics or the World Cup finals. As the city prepares to transport, feed, house and supply power to hundreds of thousand of visitors, it’s essential that municipal intelligent transport systems are sharing data with Uber and Airbnb platforms to get people from point A to point B without seizing up the city’s infrastructure. In Dubai, one of the world’s most ambitious and comprehensive data initiatives is already underway to improve the quality of city living.

Data Dubai leads the way The Dubai Data initiative, launched in 2015, is a citywide data sharing initiative in the world. It addresses public and private sectors equally, with the government leading the way by opening and sharing its own city data. The goal is not to own the most data, but to unleash the greatest value from data, creating new opportunities and improved experiences for everyone. The iterative and collaborative process in Dubai is defining best practices and establishing a new currency of data and information used to exchange value and develop innovative ways to live, learn and do business. The process is helping Dubai graduate from an e-government to become a digital government. However, the new culture of data sharing comes with risk. As many more devices and systems are connected and exchanging information, the cyber threat surface increases manifold. The infamous Mirai Botnet attack of 2016 demonstrated how unsecured IoT devices could be easily hijacked to launch internet-crippling distributed denial of ▼

While there are many definitions, a smart city is essentially an intelligent and complex framework encompassing connected objects and machines that send data to the cloud where intelligence is managed and analysed to help municipalities and businesses make better decisions and improve citizens’ lives. Municipalities and their private sector partners are launching smart street lights, parking meters, smart grid and building management solutions and citizens use connected devices like cell phones, connected cars and smart homes to engage with the ecosystem. From energy distribution to trash collection, to traffic, parking and the air we breathe, the combination of connected devices and data paired with a city’s physical infrastructure and services can greatly simplify and enhance the lives of residents while reducing costs for city governments. The potential is staggering. So, what are the technologies driving smart cities forward?

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service (DDoS) attacks. And, as the number and types of IoT devices continue to proliferate, the risks will only increase. This presents a huge challenge for individuals, enterprises and governments who have to manage an incredibly complex emerging security ecosystem. Smart cities only work if we can trust them. Open data gathered from different sources needs to be shared but only with authorised and approved platforms and individuals. Strong authentication and trusted ID management solutions are the third essential element needed at all levels of the ecosystem to enable trust that smart cities are safe cities.

Secure open data across the smart city ecosystem The smart city ecosystem is inherently complex, which can be mitigated though strong authentication and ID management solutions that enable a secure digital handshake between different parties in the ecosystem that either allows or denies access. Governments, enterprises, citizens, software providers, device manufactures, energy providers and the networks they operate on all come into play and every link in the chain must be held accountable to this same set of core security objectives, which include four core goals: 1. Availability: Ensuring timely and reliable access to and use of information is an essential component of the smart city. Without actionable, real-time, and reliable access to data, the benefits of the smart city simply cannot be realized. How data is collected, distilled and shared is highly important, and security solutions must support these aims by avoiding negative effects on availability. 2. Integrity: Smart cities depend on reliable and accurate data. To prevent fraud and other more harmful attacks, measures must be taken to ensure that data is accurate and free from manipulation. 3. Confidentiality: Smart cities generate huge volumes of data that must be collected, stored and analysed. Some of this data will include sensitive details about citizens themselves. Steps must be taken to prevent unauthorised disclosure of sensitive information. 4. Accountability: Accountability is the idea that users of a system should be responsible for the actions they perform. This means that user interactions with sensitive systems should be logged and associated with a specific user. These logs should be difficult to forge, and have strong integrity protection. To achieve security core objectives, strong authentication and ID management solutions need to be integrated into the ecosystem to ensure that data is shared only with authorised parties as well as to protect backend systems from intrusion and hacking. Thankfully, as a result of growing digital security concerns, legislation, including the IoT Cybersecurity Improvement Act in the US, is being introduced to address threats and potential market failure by establishing minimum security requirements for connected devices. In the age of IoT and smart cities, data is the new oil, and in order for smart cities to thrive, we need

IoT Now - October 2017

to establish sustainable commerce models that facilitate the success of all ecosystem players. The fourth essential element to realizing smart city success is establishing sustainable monetisation solutions from the beginning that enable new revenue streams and business models while further protecting open data.

Monetising sustainable smart cities Sustainability is a crucial objective of smart city projects. The concept of sustainability originates from biological systems working in perfect harmony â&#x20AC;&#x201C; where each member of the ecosystem uses part of it for their own good, and in return, contributes their own skills to the system. If unchecked, any member abusing its power can affect the whole ecosystem. For cities to become sustainable ecosystems, mechanisms need to be woven into its fabric to ensure that all ecosystem members can thrive including OEMs, developers, integrators, governments and others. Each memberâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s intellectual property needs to be valued and rewarded. Thanks to software capabilities, new business models are emerging that allow each contributor to extract value from their contribution in the smart city ecosystem. Subscription-based models such as product-as-a-service are enabling new ways to monetise hardware and software components that are being used to build smart infrastructures. Expensive medical equipment like MRI scanners, for example, can be sold at a costper-scan rather than an upfront capex by hospitals, thereby creating a win-win situation for hospitals and suppliers alike.

Imagine a future where your city offers a subscription to a fleet of vehicles that are shared between multiple owners

As the subscription economy gains traction, enterprises and individuals can use it to balance business models and spread out huge one-time expenses over months or even years. Connectivityenabled data exchange provides increased transparency and business intelligence for the end user and the vendor alike. With secured, open data, a new sharing economy is made possible.

Smart cities and the sharing economy Imagine a future where your city offers a subscription to a fleet of vehicles that are shared between multiple owners. For a small initial investment, drivers buy into shared ownership, or transportation-as-a-service memberships, and they customise their ride by selecting from an array of connected car features and services offered as a software package. With a smartphone app, drivers could select the vehicle of their choice, preferred entertainment features, favoured service provider and specify the level of concierge support they would like to receive. This radically improves urban sustainability and transforms and optimises transportation by allowing fewer cars on the road, optimised traffic patterns and shared rides in addition to shared vehicles. As urban areas continue to expand and grow, smart city technology is expanding alongside to enhance sustainability and better serve humanity. By utilising pervasive connectivity, open data, endto-end security and software monetisation solutions, municipalities, enterprises and residents can align evolving needs exchanging information in real time to optimise products and services for a greatly improved experience for all partners in the ecosystem.

www.gemalto.com/IoT

Shaping the IoT future. At Beecham Research we’re thrilled to unveil our refreshed logo and over the coming months we will be updating our full brand identity.

Boston Suite 456, 359 Newbury Street Boston MA 02115

BR #27 IoT NOW ad SEPT 2017.indd 2

London 2 Bath Place Rivington Street London EC2A 3DR

This update reflects the evolution of our company from it’s founding in 1991, where our work focused around telecoms, through our first rebrand in 2001 as we moved into M2M, to today and our work around IoT.

We feel our new logo paves the way for how we’re moving forward and allows us to reflect our expanded capabilities and the vibrancy of the areas we are working in.

Contact T +44 (0) 20 7749 1944 E info@beechamresearch.com W beechamresearch.com

13/09/2017 10:47

LOW POWER NETWORKS SUPPLEMENT 2017

WHICH LOW POWER RADIO TECHNOLOGY SHOULD YOU CHOOSE FOR YOUR IoT DEPLOYMENT?

Sponsored by: Stream Technologies

TALKING HEADS

Low-power radio connectivity and the crucial role of the IoT-X Connectivity Management Platform With the recent emergence of an abundance of technologies and standards centred on (LPWAN) lowpower wide-area network (LPWAN) communications, the wireless connectivity aspect of the Internet of Things (IoT) value chain has become busier than ever before. With a deluge of new entrants into the LPWAN market, it’s becoming increasingly difficult for enterprises and operators to weigh up their connectivity options and determine which technology is the best fit for their needs. To get a better level of insight into the options that are available and the considerations that need to be taken into account when choosing amongst them, the managing editor of IoT Now, George Malim, spoke to three members of the team at Stream Technologies, the company behind the award-winning IoT-X Connectivity Management Platform (CMP). Nigel Chadwick, the company’s founder and CEO, Mohsen Shakoor, who leads IoT-X strategic partnerships, and Karina Maksimiuk, who leads business development for LoRa, fielded the questions

Mohsen Shakoor: LPWAN has, to some extent, become one of the largest and most interesting ‘things’ in IoT. LPWAN emerged as a result of more and more devices being connected to IoT and the need for low-power, low-cost connectivity. The sunsetting of general packet radio service (GPRS)/2G networks has also been a factor in accelerating the growth and adoption of LPWANs. The result has been that, in a relatively short period of time, a series of LPWAN technologies have emerged both on the licensed and unlicensed spectrums. Much of the early success in LPWAN can be attributed to Sigfox, providers of the Sigfox LPWAN, which operates on the unlicensed spectrum. With significant investment and marketing, Sigfox has been deployed across a number of nations. However, it should be noted that Sigfox comes with certain limitations. Since it’s a proprietary solution, deployments are limited to Sigfox networks only. This means that enterprises cannot deploy and own private networks. From a technical standpoint, Sigfox’s bidirectional capabilities are constrained, especially when compared to LoRa. That being said, where a Sigfox network is available, it serves as the right technology for use cases that require small bursts of data. LoRa is another increasingly available LPWAN technology which is being deployed globally by some mobile network operators (MNOs) and especially enterprises. LoRaWAN is governed by the LoRa Alliance, an open ecosystem which has more than 500 members including Microsoft, Cisco and Stream Technologies and is supported

by a ratified standard. It provides similar benefits to Sigfox; however, it has better support for bidirectional communications. It should be noted that LoRa only functions with hardware that’s been provided or licensed by Semtech, the organisation which developed LoRa. Every technology has certain limitations, however, when LoRa is compared to other LPWAN options, it offers the greatest degree of flexibility. Furthermore, since LoRa is an open technology, it supports the deployment of independently owned private networks. LoRa is an excellent fit for smart cities, and use cases that require bidirectional support. Sigfox and LoRaWAN both operate on the unlicensed spectrum, and serve a similar set of use cases with some overlap. There are other technologies available on the unlicensed spectrum, but they tend to be less frequently adopted than Sigfox and LoRa. Examples include proprietary LPWANs such as Ingenu’s RPMA, and Weightless. On the licensed side, Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) LPWANs such as NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) and Category M1 (CatM) have emerged. Largely, MNOs that choose to deploy an LPWAN will deploy a 3GPP solution, however, they still have the opportunity to offer unlicensed networks such as Sigfox and LoRa as well. NB-IoT and Cat-M compromise battery life in favour of range, and to some extent, can be seen as the GPRS/2G replacement. These technologies are the right fit for applications such as metering, tracking and use cases that require frequent transmission of data, and support devices that are connected to a mains power supply. From this we can see that several LPWAN technologies exist, each addressing similar markets, with different constraints, business

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IoT Now: Mohsen, can you give as a snapshot of the current state of LPWAN technology? What are the leading protocols and how do they fit in the IoT more broadly?

IN ASSOCIATION WITH STREAM TECHNOLOGIES 46

IoT Now - October 2017

Karina Maksimiuk: When evaluating and selecting a CMP, making the wrong decision could have long lasting consequences

models and benefits. With the number of devices forecast to be connected to the IoT, many of these technologies will coexist, unlocking great potential for enterprise IoT deployments. With this comes the challenge of managing multiple technologies, carriers and systems, which will inevitably slow the adoption of the IoT. IoT Now: From what Mohsen has said, it’s clear that there’s a huge level of diversity with regards to the LPWAN market, so my question for you Nigel is, doesn’t this pose a risk that the market becomes increasingly fragmented? How does Stream foresee this diversity impacting on the IoT in general and the operators and enterprises within the industry? Nigel Chadwick: Certainly, there’s an abundance of options out there. As Mohsen touched on, the reason for the boom is driven by two factors. The first is the sunsetting of 2G connectivity. Once 2G disappears, it will leave a significant gap in the connectivity space, so it’s understandable that there’s a drive to develop new protocols that satisfy low-use, low-bandwidth IoT applications. The second factor centres on the necessity for IoT devices to maximise their battery life and hence duration in situ. With the IoT predicted to scale massively in the forthcoming years, it’s simply not practical or cost-effective to have a device estate that requires a wired power supply, constant recharging or battery replacements. When these factors are paired together, it presents sensor manufacturers with a compelling opportunity to capitalise on. From the perspective of the enterprises and operators that are assessing their options it’s inevitable that there will be some nervousness around picking the right one. In broad terms, many of the LPWAN connectivity options that are out there can serve similar use cases, so for the industry it’s a question of going with the one that they expect will have the most purchase. To some extent, it’s reminiscent of the videotape format wars of the late 1970s and early 1980s. Nobody wants to back the losing format. At Stream, we’re aware that connectivity providers are under pressure to make this decision, which is why we’ve developed

IoT Now - October 2017

Mohsen Shakoor: Many of these technologies will coexist, unlocking great potential for enterprise IoT deployments

our IoT-X CMP that’s agnostic with regards connectivity type. Originally designed to manage cellular connectivity, IoT-X has been expanded to support satellite and LPWAN connectivity. In terms of the platform’s LPWAN capability, IoT-X has supported LoRa since 2015, it’s NB-IoT ready and the design is in place to ingest data in all formats from all types of networks. The key factor here is that through our agnostic approach to connectivity, IoT-X enables cellular, LPWAN and other service providers to offer emerging wireless services to their IoT clients. With regards to market fragmentation, it’s my expectation that the market will rationalise as the IoT matures and the number of deployed devices begins to scale. Currently there are many disparate options and providers which are not always interoperable. The rationalisation of the IoT will be an interesting challenge in the LPWAN market as there is the possibility of even mature players being stressed by the 3GPP standards. IoT Now: With the multitude of connectivity options out there, it gives enterprises a lot to think about when it comes to selecting a platform that will help them to manage their connectivity. So, Karina, what are the key issues that enterprises need to consider when it comes to making this decision? Karina Maksimiuk: The first thing I’d say is that the wide range of LPWAN technologies on the market is reflected in the number of platforms that are available for enterprises to choose between. Naturally, this can be a daunting choice. There’s a critical difference between a connectivity management platform, or CMP, and other platform variants, such as application enablement platforms or analytics platforms. I’d like to focus specifically on CMPs as there’s a relatively restricted choice of these when it comes to LPWAN, and it’s an area of focus for Stream Technologies. On one hand, having the right CMP in place can add a massive amount of value to the enterprise. Not only does a CMP accelerate time-to-market, it also increases the enterprise’s ability to deliver a world-class connected product. On the other hand, there are several factors to consider when ▼

Nigel Chadwick: It’s inevitable that there will be some nervousness around picking the right connectivity option

TALKING HEADS

evaluating and selecting a CMP, and making the wrong decision could have long lasting consequences. When it comes to making the right choice, there’s a few key factors that I’d advise any enterprise to consider. The first issue centres on the question of future proofing. We know that technology has been racing forward at a breakneck pace and the pressure of having to outpace obsolescence can be arduous. So, when it comes to choosing between CMPs an enterprise needs to have some guarantee that, as new technologies emerge, their chosen platform will keep up with the pace of change. If you choose a CMP that doesn’t deliver an adequate degree of future proofing, then you could be exposed to the risk that your connected product ends up getting stuck in a technology dead-end. In this case, the old adage rings true, “prevention is better than cure”. A truly agile IoT platform will not only be built upon open standards, but it will be committed to keeping pace with IoT technologies as they continue to morph and evolve. The second issue to consider is scalability. Having the ability to onboard existing and new devices, associate rich metadata with devices and the capability to search and filter devices based on their properties are crucial elements of any IoT solution. Implementing a handful of connected devices can be tricky, but when the number scales to many millions, or the industry’s prediction of billions of IoT devices in less than five years, the situation becomes even more complex. Having a flexible, scalable and secure backend will enable you to grow with your needs and demands. Scalability doesn’t just refer to the ability to respond to an increase in the number of connected devices, it also includes increased capacity at cloud level and device-based security. With an increased number of devices, reliability and latency are key, in addition to delivering uncompromising user experience and support.

IoT Now: So, Mohsen, how do you see LPWAN protocols impacting on CMPs? What are the challenges and how can they be overcome? Mohsen Shakoor: As I mentioned previously, there’s a wide range of platforms available, but relatively few CMPs for MNOs and enterprises in the IoT space. While many, if not most, application enablement platforms (AEPs) provide flexibility to enterprises by adopting an agnostic approach to data types, very few CMPs deliver this capability. Increasingly, global organisations are seeing the importance of CMPs, which has led to notable acquisitions of Jasper, and SORACOM, not to forget also the recent investment into Cubic Telecom. The challenge of integrating legacy systems with new technologies is not a new one. We’ve seen it before in the financial services industry, for example, where the issue of migrating legacy banking methods to more flexible, modern systems continues to pose difficulties. Integrating LPWAN connectivity to existing CMPs presents a similar challenge. Most CMPs are of a similar nature, with their primary focus being centred on cellular connectivity management. Operators are a long way down the road with CMP deployment, and consequently find it difficult to replace, or extend their existing capabilities. Traditional cellular CMPs are facing challenges on many fronts. This is not just limited to integrating embedded universal integrated circuit card (eUICC), but also with LPWAN standards. Largely, CMP providers will need to select a winning LPWAN technology, which they can develop support for. My anticipation is that this would more than likely be the 3GPP standards. Thus, leaving the operators and enterprises with the inability to deploy, or utilise the world’s most widely deployed LPWANs such as LoRa and Sigfox, through their existing CMPs. On a similar front, technology-specific CMPs exist to serve their own technology and protocol only. While this does provide the operator and enterprise with the ability to deploy and manage these specific networks, such as Sigfox and LoRa, it does not combine the traditional cellular, 3GPP LPWANs, and future technologies of tomorrow.

IoT is kind of a big deal. Do it right, and it can increase your market share and generate new revenue streams. Approach it in a haphazard fashion and the wrong move can cost you not only time but also a significant amount of money.

Picture the convenience of managing any type of technology, through a single platform as an enterprise customer with diverse IoT requirements. This is what Stream is enabling through the IoT-X platform, which delivers the enablement

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The final point I’d make is that the right CMP must accelerate your time-to-market. While exact time frames are difficult to pinpoint, a general rule of thumb is to allocate at least three months of field testing for simple solutions, and up to six months for more complex setups. Doing this will help you iron out any bugs, security holes or poor hand-offs before the product launches.

IoT Now - October 2017

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IoT-X is derived from a cellular connectivity management pedigree and includes rich feature sets that have evolved in accordance with demand from more than 600 enterprise client users over a 12-year period

and orchestration of connectivity across any operator or connectivity type, on a single platform. IoT Now: Nigel, what does IoT-X enable in the LPWAN sector and what are the implications for IoT scaling? Nigel Chadwick: As Mohsen and Karina mentioned earlier, there’s a whole bunch of different wireless protocols becoming available for transiting data to and from IoT devices. This includes the more traditional cellular networks, satellite and increasingly LPWAN variants; a veritable soup that includes 4G, Cat-M, NB-IoT, Sigfox, Ingenu and LoRa. Then within these we have internet protocol (IP) and non-IP types of data traffic. If you look at the existing range of CMPs, with the exception of IoT-X, they are designed and built to manage wireless connectivity of a certain type – there is no other platform out there that is agnostic towards all network types and ingests both IP and non-IP traffic. IoT-X is derived from a cellular connectivity management pedigree and includes rich feature sets that have evolved in accordance with demand from more than 600 enterprise client users over a 12-year period. These features have been expanded to include non-cellular network connectivity management. This means that users, and those deploying network types evolving now, such as LoRa, benefit from all the expertise and design functionality incorporated into the IoT-X platform by Stream. This includes the highly resilient, global backhaul network infrastructure and private access point name (APN), but also includes other features and capability unique to IoT-X, such as: • Network and device predictive analytics to provide deep analytics and risk reduction tools. These become increasingly important to IoT solutions that are scaling in terms of connected device or data transiting volumes. • Security enhancements around LoRa device deployments. As sensor and other LoRa device types scale, they need to be trusted in terms of integrity assurance from device and data

IoT Now - October 2017

perspectives. The security enhancements that Stream have developed in relation to LoRa connectivity helps to deliver this assurance. • Software defined networking (SDN) technologies that will facilitate customer defined routing. As you have probably gathered, a key aspect of Stream’s design philosophy is to simplify connectivity management as much as possible for the enterprise client and make it as easy as possible to manage data connectivity from a single user interface. This not only includes connectivity, subscription and billing management of LoRa, but extends to encompass our LoRaWAN network server within the IoT-X platform; thereby enabling enterprise, NGO, and other clients to easily manage LoRa network deployments. We are experiencing substantial interest in network management from many parts of the world – take a look at some of the case studies we have included in this issue of IoT Now. A final important feature of how IoT-X simplifies data transit management across LPWAN networks is in its third-party platform-ready state – and by this, I mean that IoT-X is pre-integrated with data applications, analytics platforms and data storage providers commonly used by IoT solution providers. This includes the likes of Microsoft Azure, IBM Watson, myDevices, ThingWorx and Amazon Web Services – not only can we easily enable pointing of data into all of these, we can multi-broadcast the data too. Ultimately Stream is future-proofing enterprise and other clients that adopt IoT-X in respect of wireless protocol types – the IoT-X platform is NB-IoT ready, and is designed to ingest data in all formats from all types of networks. Crucially, it is also future-proofing cellular, LPWAN and other service providers, in that it will allow these organisations to offer new and supplementary wireless services to their IoT clients. It is no surprise that we are experiencing high levels of interest and increasing adoption of IoT-X from these service providers – it is powerful enabling software/infrastructure and time-proven beyond pretty much anything else on the market.

www.streamtechnologies.com

LPWA

Simple solutions create complex connectivity choices for IoT service providers Too much choice can be a dangerous thing but, the vast diversity of IoT applications and business models depend on appropriate functionality being available at varying price points. George Malim examines the options

At the high end of the market place, satellite communications can be used to assure universal coverage but this is not suitable for a massmarket with continuous communications needs. LTE, and much later 5G, don’t have complete coverage and, while the security and bandwidth attributes are attractive, the cost isn’t. This leaves providers of mass market, high volume, low value IoT services looking outside satellite and high-end cellular communications to find the right connectivity to support their offerings. A relatively new wave of options in low power radio and the lower reaches of the cellular range is emerging. Principal among these are three groups of technologies: LPWAN, NB-IoT and Wi-SUN. Each has its advantages, although NB-IoT and Wi-SUN are in their infancy. The challenge therefore for users is to identify which technology most closely serves their customers’ needs and the goals of their businesses. “You cannot compare a set of usage of one company to the set of usage at another company in another industry,” says Christophe Fourtet, the founder and scientific director of Sigfox, an LPWAN technology with operations globally. “It’s a very long process to compare these technologies but we’ve been trying to

accelerate it. Since the beginning of Sigfox we’ve had the same target of shooting for the massive low-cost IoT market. Instead of being focused on technology and performance, we have aimed more for an extremely simple device that costs very, very little so you can deploy massively.” The decision also hangs on your role in the market place. Are you a user or a deployer? “There are two perspectives to consider, one relating to organisations deploying radio technologies and the other those adopting or using them,” says Ken Figueredo, an IoT strategy industry advisor to InterDigital. “The first category applies to network operators or connectivity service providers. Their legacy investments and technology roadmaps govern their decision process. In practice, connectivity service providers will see demand for hybrid solutions that combine different approaches due to the heterogeneity of end-user needs.” The number of issues to be considering is significant. “Which technology to select depends on many questions,” acknowledges Phil Beecher, the chairman of the Wi-SUN Alliance. “What is the reliability you need? What security? What latency and do you need local control? should all be considered. Another consideration is the business model. Do you want to spend capital on equipment and manage the network yourself or do you prefer an opex model? That will decide organisations between LoRa, NB-IoT or third party LoRa.” “One of the fundamental differences between WiSUN and the others is that Wi-SUN can be configured as a mesh network and it can also support faster data rates and lower latency,” Beecher explains. “LoRa and NB-IoT offer hub and spoke connectivity but we support mesh so

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LTE, 5G, Cat M1, Cat 1, satellite, low power wide area networks (LPWANs), narrowband IoT (NBIoT), Sigfox, Bluetooth, ethernet and more, the list of connectivity options for serving Internet of Things (IoT) applications and services appears to be almost endless. However, the decision about which to select is simplified by the nature of the market. Some technologies are simply too costly, too slow, too unreliable, too power hungry or just unavailable to support the needs of applications and their business models.

IoT Now - October 2017

IoT apps rely on radio but not as we know it

Neal Forse, the chief executive of WND UK, the UK’s Sigfox network operator, urges caution: “Any organisation considering these competing radio technologies, first needs to evaluate the landscape as it exists today. NB-IoT is not yet commercially available, and will likely not be until 2018 and even later in the US. For businesses looking to design and deploy their devices and solutions in the here and now, this narrows the field of competition somewhat. Even when NBIoT is ready for prime time, it will take months, if not years, in order to reach the same level of maturity as some of the competing LPWAN technologies on offer.” “Sigfox has first mover advantage in that there is already a wide range of successful deployments and the technology has a rapidly growing ecosystem of partners,” says Forse. The decision process comes down to matching the technology to the organisation’s business drivers. “In the case of firms adopting and embedding connectivity technology into their products and services, the decision is not a purely technical one,” adds Figueredo, pointing out that other factors influence the process including: • The business case Is there an acceptable return on investment (ROI)? What is the business risk from locking into a given standard and supplyside ecosystem? • Market timing Is it important to get to market quickly, possibly using a proprietary approach,

IoT Now - October 2017

with an acceptable risk if the technology needs to be exchanged or upgraded at a later point in time? • Capacity building What internal competencies will an organisation need to support connected product or service offerings without amassing significant investments and personnel or technology-partner risks? Companies thinking about their IoT deployments could be forgiven for glancing at the technologies and concluding the offerings, aside from the technological debate, are largely similar and the decision should be simply one of selecting the technology that offers the best coverage at the lowest price.

“In the case of firms adopting and embedding connectivity technology into their products and services, the decision is not a purely technical one”

“It’s definitely more complex than that,” explains Fourtet. “If you make a bet on a public network, and I believe that’s almost the only way for massive IoT, the resources that provide the service to your devices so the cost is as low as possible have to share infrastructure. It’s a mistake to think you can succeed with a private network outside of very high value scenarios.” Figueredo acknowledges functional similarity but points to the differences in the details. “The basic functionality of different low-power, wide-area IoT radio technologies is similar – they support long service-life devices and low data rate connectivity at low price points compared to traditional mobile connectivity technologies,” he says. “Individual technologies, both proprietary and standards-based, vary in the way they work whether in terms of duty cycles, data transmission characteristics, upgrade capabilities or other factors. Operational characteristics could affect how a commercial service is delivered and

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you can have local control. Local devices can communicated with a local route so you can run local actuators. In addition, the higher data rates can also support security negotiation.”

LPWA

“Over the medium to long term, we expect module price differentials to narrow such that scale and service capabilities dominate”

Ken Figueredo, InterDigital

should be one consideration in the technology selection and product and service design process.” Forse refutes the argument that the technologies offer broadly the same functionality. “The solutions are in fact vastly different,” he says. “For a start, NB-IoT is a cellular technology, operating in the licensed spectrum, whereas Sigfox and LoRaWAN are not. Both cellular and non-cellular have their own unique value propositions and each can fulfil use cases that the other cannot. NB-IoT works – or will work, when it is marketready – best for applications that require minimal latency, high throughput or highly frequent communication. Technologies like Sigfox are ideally suited to applications that need to be delivered at a very low cost, have less frequent communication requirements, and require exceptional battery performance.” There will probably be a harmonisation among the different types of LPWA providers that will ultimately make the market less bewildering to navigate but there is a long way to go in terms of brining clarity to the market place. “NB-IoT involves the costs of managed spectrum and the mobile network operators will have some control over the size and deployment of the network while, with LoRa you just don’t know how many nodes are going to be deployed and how, if they are densely packed, they will start interfering,” says Beecher. “Wi-SUN fits nicely in the middle of the segment because our lowest data rate is way above that of Sigfox and goes up to LTE Cat M. Wi-SUN still needs backhaul and some of that will be fibre.” The differences in performance and other attributes between the technologies mean they are likely to co-exist, although the proponents of each are keen to enforce the advantages of their offerings. “If it were the case of simply selecting a technology based on cost, Sigfox would win hands down each and every time,” says Forse. “Sigfox has the lowest cost radio modules, by a significant margin. If we look specifically at LoRaWAN versus Sigfox, there are some important differentiators here too. LoRa does not provide a network to its customers. The LoRa Alliance has developed the standard and the business model is focused on selling chips.” “That means if you want to use LoRa for your devices, you either have to create your own

Neal Forse, WND UK

Phil Beecher, WiSUN Alliance

network, managing the gateways and backend yourself or use a network operator that offers LoRaWAN networks,” he claims. “The former requires significantly more investment and expertise to instantiate and then manage the Lora gateways and the associated cloud backend, while the latter limits the geographical reach, as each LoRaWAN operator has a separate geographically isolated network; none of which share the same OSS (operations support system) or BSS (business support system) infrastructure.” Figueredo thinks that the sheer scale of the IoT market means there’s room for everyone and organisation will value having the choice of solutions that more closely target their needs. “In the short-to-medium term, each of the different technologies will co-exist because the IoT market is massive,” he says. “As a result, there will be user segments that value different commercial, operational, supplier ecosystem and technical characteristics.” “Over the medium to long term, we expect module price differentials to narrow such that scale and service capabilities dominate,” Figueredo adds. “It is therefore important for the designers of radio modules and the network operators or service providers to build up their service enabler capabilities to manage LPWA endpoints, to support new uses of these endpoints via functional enhancements, and to manage hybrid deployments that integrate more than one connectivity technology.” Even competitors acknowledge the different value propositions of rival technologies. “The other technologies have a place,” agrees Beecher. “If you want ultra-low transmission power, rather than low energy usage, LoRA is very successful because its very high sensitivity can achieve large range for given transmission power but there are regulatory restraints on power in unlicensed spectrum.” Today, the benefits and advantages of each technology are yet to be fully crystallised – in all markets at least some of the options are currently unavailable and in some they may never be offered because of regulatory constraints. This is creating some bewilderment among IoT pioneers, many of which are not experts or even interested in wireless technologies. Nevertheless, as the market matures, having options that closely fit requirements will be an important enabler for many IoT business cases. ▼

Christophe Fourtet, Sigfox

IoT Now - October 2017

“It’s impossible to simply compare the technical specifications of these competing technologies on paper and choose a winner, because requirements in the real-world change on a case-by-case basis”

“Choice promotes competition and innovation, both of which benefit the IoT industry and organisations seeking to build affordable connected products and services,” points Figueredo. Forse sees the messages becoming clearer but different technologies continuing to exist and provide choice. “It’s impossible to simply compare the technical specifications of these competing technologies on paper and choose a winner, because requirements in the real-world change on a case-by-case basis,” he says. “There will of course be winners and losers in the race to provide IoT infrastructure, but there is also plenty of space for coexistence. In fact, a coexistence of

technologies will be essential if IoT is going to be a true success.” A note of caution is injected by Fourtet who warns that, even if all the choices and the planned developments come to fruition, not all business cases will be able to be supported. “It’s not for me to answer but there is probably already too much choice,” he says. “More than this, players aren’t constructively thinking about what they do. Some think everything is possible – it’s not. If you have a rich content application you’re limited by capacity, maybe not the cost, but there are basic Physics facts that mean you won’t be able to do everything.”

Which technology should you choose? In the current IoT market place there are several IoT network wireless technologies to choose from. These include low power wide area networks (LPWAN), which have several proprietary iterations including Sigfox and LoRaWAN, cellular connections in the GSM mobile telephony family, now with dedicated versions such as Cat M1 for IoT and the emergent narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) specification. In addition to these further options include wireless smart ubiquitous network (Wi-SUN) technology and traditional satellite communications, Bluetooth and derivatives of Wi-Fi. We have confined our technology profiles below to the technologies that utilise radio technologies to deliver bandwidth at lower capacity than GSM cellular options.

NB-IoT Narrowband IoT is a new mobile technology specification developed by the 3GPP standards body to address the need in IoT for low power and infrequent data transmission devices. NB-IoT can operate in the GSM spectrum or utilise an unused resource block within an LTE carrier’s existing guard-band. NB-IoT compliant chipsets are now becoming available but they are new to market and still in the prototype stage. 3GPP has not announced plans for an NBIoT certification programme yet. Certification programmes with cellular companies have involved high fees in the past but no details are currently available. NB-IoT particularly in Europe is being seen as an important successor to 2G networks, which are starting to be retired.

LoRaWAN LoRaWAN is a proprietary low power radio technology developed by Semtech but licensed for global use by other vendors. The technology is supported by the LoRa Alliance,

IoT Now - October 2017

which provides certification for vendor interoperability. LoRaWAN radios are commonly used in low power devices with infrequent data transmissions. LoRaWANs are typically laid out in star topology with gateways relaying messages between end-devices anda central network server.

Sigfox Sigfox is a narrowband – or ultra-narrowband – technology. It uses a standard radio transmission method called binary phase-shift keying (BPSK), and it takes very narrow chunks of spectrum and changes the phase of the carrier radio wave to encode the data. This allows the receiver to only listen in a tiny slice of spectrum which mitigates the effect of noise. It requires an inexpensive endpoint radio and a more sophisticated base station to manage the network. The technology is therefore suited for connecting lowenergy objects such as electricity meters, smartwatches and washing machines, which need to be continuously on and emit only small amounts of data.

Wi-SUN Wireless smart ubiquitous network (Wi-SUN) is a technology based on the IEEE’s 802.15.4g standard. Backed by the Wi-SUN Alliance, Wi-SUN has a third party organisation that develops tests to certify that IEEE 802.15.4g standard-based IoT equipment is both conformant and interoperable with other certified equipment. Wi-SUN networks support star and mesh topologies, as well as hybrid star/mesh deployments, but are typically laid out in a mesh topology where each node relays data for the network to provide network connectivity. Wi-SUN networks are deployed on both powered and battery-operated devices.

CASE STUDY

Real-world networks for real-world solutions As part of an ongoing commitment to accelerate the growth and adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) technology, Stream Technologies has deployed an array of incubator LoRa networks throughout the UK. With incubator networks deployed in Glasgow, Liverpool and London, Stream is providing an entryway into LoRa technology and encouraging collaboration between industry experts, academics and enterprises. In line with the company’s objective to nurture the development of LoRa technology and foster growth throughout the industry, Stream’s incubator networks are entirely open to organisations who want to develop LoRa applications and test them in a real-world environment

1. Since it was designed specifically with IoT in mind, LoRa provides exactly the kind of communication capabilities that smart devices need. The part of the radio spectrum used by LoRa presents little electromagnetic interference, this means that signals can travel long distances and penetrate buildings, using very little power. 2. Depending on urban density, the transmission range of LoRa devices can extend to up to 15 kilometres, with device battery life in the region of ten years. This is ideal for IoT devices, which often have limited battery capacity. 3. To enable secure communications, LoRa incorporates multiple layers of encryption at the network, application and device levels. 4. The LoRa Alliance, of which Stream is a member, is working to ensure that there is interoperability between LoRa networks.

Why LoRa? Stream is supporting the development of LoRa technology because it’s the ideal fit for a wide-range of IoT use cases, ranging from smart cities and smart campuses to agriculture and industry. LoRa, developed by Semtech, is a wireless technology that supports long-range, low-power IoT communications.

LoRa use cases Stream’s incubator networks are being harnessed by enterprises, start-ups and academic organisations as they develop and test LoRa-based applications. Stream’s testbeds are open to public and private sector organisations and enable the development of a wide-range of applications to support smart cities,

smart campuses and smart airports. Some of the use cases that Stream’s networks are being used to develop solutions for include: • Smart metering The smart metering industry stands to benefit enormously from LoRaWAN technology. Since smart metering applications transmit low amounts of data, they are an ideal candidate for low-bit rate, low-power LoRa devices. While cellular connectivity usually incurs a monthly charge for line rental and data, LoRaWAN devices are much more cost-effective to use. Thousands of smart meters can communicate with a single LoRa gateway up to 15 kilometres away, depending on urban density, with the geographical distribution of smart meters being supported by LoRa’s long-range functionality. Stream expects LoRaWAN to be used to deliver robust applications that add great value to smart meter operators, bringing reliability, accuracy and efficiency to smart metering solutions. • Smart parking The operational costs associated with parking infrastructure can be significantly reduced with a simple LoRaWAN smart parking deployment. LoRa sensors can be used to report on parking space occupancy, with the data being delivered in real time to the operator via Stream’s LoRaWAN network server. With real-time parking occupancy data, operators can direct drivers to empty parking spaces. ▼

Key facts

For many organisations and individuals, developing IoT projects in real-life conditions can prove challenging. For example, developing and testing smart city applications can be prohibitively expensive because of the lack of openaccess testing environments available. Developers in this field require consent from multiple parties, dedicated hardware, specialised software and network technology, as well as estates in which to create an effective test environment. This results in a heavy strain on finance and time. Stream’s incubator networks are designed to stimulate the development of IoT sensors and applications and to address the challenges of developing smart city solutions in real-life conditions.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH STREAM TECHNOLOGIES 54

IoT Now - October 2017

Newport in the UK has deployed a city-wide LoRaWAN

LoRaWAN smart parking applications can also be used to increase staff productivity. For example, rather than ticket officers patrolling specific routes, their routes can be optimised to prioritise the most populated parking areas. Local authorities can use the revenue gained from reduced operational costs and increased profits to fund other schemes, such as waste management solutions.

• Activating and terminating devices. • Setting up and managing LoRa applications. • Routing data on to third-party applications, using transmission control protocol (TCP), hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) or MQ telemetry transport (MQTT).

LoRaWAN network server • Smart waste collection Smart waste management solutions, supported by LoRa, offer an opportunity to make cost savings and improve environmental and social conditions. LoRa sensors can be mounted in waste containers to measure the bin’s fill-level. Thousands of sensors can communicate with a single LoRa gateway and, through Stream’s LoRaWAN network server, the fill-level data is routed to the appropriate platform for analytics and archiving. Forwarding the data on to a thirdparty endpoint for analytics purposes allows valuable business logic to be applied to the data, enabling a true return on investment. With fill-level data of the waste containers, operators can significantly optimise productivity. Waste collection trucks can be directed to prioritise bins that are full, rather than emptying all bins with equal frequency. This can significantly reduce the number of waste collection trucks that are deployed and reduce labour costs, leading to substantial reductions in operating costs.

Stream’s incubator networks are supported by the company’s robust LoRaWAN network server, which decodes the data received from devices by LoRa gateways and enables it to be routed via IoT-X or forwarded to a third-party application such as Microsoft Azure, PTC ThingWorx, IBM Watson IoT or scriptr.io. Stream’s LoRaWAN server has been integrated to function with LoRa compliant gateways from leading hardware providers such as Kerlink, Link Labs, MultiTech or any device using the Semtech packet forwarder. Stream is constantly integrating more ecosystem partners to ensure sound interoperability between product offerings.

Secure connectivity Stream’s networks provide secure, end-to-end encryption of traffic on the network. This is achieved by implementing LoRaWAN AES-128 (Advanced Encryption Standard) encryption for the communication. When data is forwarded to third-party applications, Stream provides transport layer security (TLS), thus ensuring data is encrypted end-to-end.

Commercial deployments Key features of Stream’s incubator networks Stream’s incubator networks are entirely open and free to use. Working with partners in Glasgow, Liverpool and London, Stream has deployed all the infrastructure necessary to provide comprehensive network coverage to these cities. Using the latest hardware and most recent LoRaWAN specification, Stream’s networks enable developers to test their applications in a real-world environment, including the ability to access location information without the need for GPS.

Connectivity management Incubator network subscribers gain trial access to Stream’s award-winning IoT-X connectivity management platform. IoTX provides network subscribers with an unrivalled level of connectivity management and puts them in control of all aspects of IoT connectivity, regardless of network technology type. IoT-X allows subscribers to perform actions such as:

While Stream’s incubator networks are supporting the development of future LoRa applications, the company has also deployed numerous networks that are being used for commercial purposes. For example, earlier this year Stream worked with Pinacl, a UK-based systems integrator, to deploy a city-wide LoRaWAN network in Newport, Wales. This project marked a significant undertaking for Pinacl, which was investing in the network to support a customer of strategic significance. As a result of working with Stream, Pinacl has been able to deploy a cutting-edge LoRaWAN network in the city. The ability of Stream’s IoT-X platform to handle multiple communication methods from LoRaWAN gateways, including cellular and fibre, was paramount to Pinacl’s smart city strategy. This provided Pinacl with the maximum choice and flexibility on gateway locations and appropriate backhaul connectivity and lead to significant cost avoidance with regards to connectivity costs. Pinacl’s partnership with Stream will continue to deliver value into the future, as Pinacl on-board more smart cities.

For further information contact info@stream-technologies.com or call +44 (0)844 800 8520. www.stream-technologies.com

IoT Now - October 2017

INTERVIEW

Self-configuring, self-healing mesh networks meet meters’ signal propagation demands As smart meter roll-outs continue across the globe, David Parker, a senior analyst at Beecham Research talks to Geoff Sarney, the senior vice president for global sales and marketing at CyanConnode to understand the challenges and different requirements large-scale smart meter rollouts place on technology providers

variants of IoT solutions based on a narrowband RF network operating in the sub GHz spectrum

David Parker: Can you give us some background on the company? Geoff Sarney: CyanConnode is a synthesis of two companies. Cyan, a specialist semiconductor business, which came out of Cambridge Consultants in 2002. The company went public on the UK’s Alternative Investment Market (AIM) in 2005. Cyan evolved to develop mesh radio networks with a focus on smart metering solutions. DP: And Cyan acquired Connode in July 2016? GS: Yes. Connode began as part of Tritech AB in Sweden. Separating from Tritech in 2010, Connode had 20% of the smart metering market share in Finland by 2011 offering a standardsbased IPv6 software platform. Our combined business provides an optimised, open standard smart communications platform for the emerging IoT landscape. We are essentially a systems integrator (SI) with expertise in managing data communication across narrowband networks as well as on the ground experience in both hardware and software integration. DP: So, your company is focused on smart metering and smart lighting applications? GS: Yes, this is where we focus and we consider the most active market sectors for the IoT, however our offering and expertise is also suitable for alternative vertical markets. We are specialists in helping establish complete value chains and partners in regions such as Bangladesh, Iran, India, Europe, China and Brazil. DP: CyanConnode’s solutions are based on narrowband RF mesh technology. What are the features of each solution?

GS: We offer three variants of IoT solutions based on a narrowband RF network operating in the sub GHz spectrum. Optimal is an end-to-end system, which is optimised for exceptional performance. 6LoWPAN is an open standards IoT networking solution using 6LoWPAN (IPv6 over low power wireless), enabling rapid innovation. Omnimesh, which we launched this year, is the world’s first hybrid narrowband RF mesh network. This allows the integration of CyanConnode’s solutions and third-party communication networks. IoT is such a vast industry that we have realised the true value add is fulfilling customer requirements using the most appropriate solutions in a holistic manner – not just one-size-fits-all. DP: What do you see as the advantages of mesh technology? GS: For metering applications, you need good inbuilding signal propagation. Meters can be in basements or deep within a building, inside cupboards and difficult to reach locations. All our mesh network solutions are self-configuring and self-healing and we provide hardware, software and network management tools. We partner with meter manufacturers and software SI’s so the technology is embedded in the meter or software architectures. DP: How is data from the end-point meters or other devices collected and presented to the customer? GS: Data is collected at the Network Access Device/DCU and delivered over the WAN to a hosting platform depending on existing arrangements the customer may have. Our headend software (HES) enables integration with a customer’s existing enterprise IT system such as

▼

We offer three

IN ASSOCIATION WITH CYANCONNODE

IoT Now - October 2017

a meter data management system (MDMS), which provides utilities with a range of services. These include scheduled reports such as energy readings, load surveys, transaction logs; along with asynchronous event monitoring such as voltage limit exceeded, supply tamper, gas leak detected and power cut event.

Applications

Metering

Lighting

Banking

Health

Weather

DP: Can Omnimesh integrate with other network technologies such as LoRa? GS: Yes, we repurposed LoRa silicon for our mesh solution and we have a close affinity with LoRa, which is point-to-point. However, we don’t need that direct one to one relationship with the network access device, be it a micro cell or a cell tower.

Shared open standard based mesh communications

DP: How do you take your solutions to market? GS: There are different ways we can go to market. At the heart of our portfolio is the Omni IoT Platform, which has a single IoT application programme interface (API) that communicates with the meter data acquisition system (MDAS). The platform can manage our own networks as well as other communication networks. Omni IoT hosts our own or third-party applications as well as carrying out network management, security and protocol conversion functions. Through our network access device we can talk to LoRa towers, cellular networks and power line networks. The platform is our command and control network manager. Our experience is that customers have legacy networks and local restrictions on radio spectrum so the key to a successful implementation is to be able to accommodate and adapt to these. DP: How is the Omni IoT platform accessed? GS: Primarily in the cloud, such as with Amazon Web Services, but it can be in a data centre. We tend to start in the cloud for the first 10,000 to 20,000 endpoints on a new deployment. This allows bugs to be ironed out on the MDAS interface and any other IT system interfaces such as Oracle or SAP. There is also the issue of scope creep where features are forgotten but need to be added in the first year of deployment. As the project grows and enters full implementation, Omni IoT can be moved to a data centre hosting.

Smart meter

Environmental sensors

Smart street light

Smart traffic

deployment. This takes place in a controlled campus environment. SAT-2 implements full features in an end-user environment and would form part of the contract as a pre-production environment. A formal sign off process follows with training for the customer before commercial deployment (SAT-C). DP: What would you say is the most important factor in a successful implementation? GS: Patience! For example, CyanConnode has been in India for eight years now. This is a difficult environment that incurs power outages and leakage, through inefficient infrastructure. Our first step was to establish a new value chain to create a partner eco-system capable of delivering integrated smart metering solutions; hardware through to solutions management.

DP: Can you describe a typical or recent deployment?

When we started there were 14 smart grid projects in India, funded by India’s Ministry of Power. Working with local partners, we won two out of the 10 projects awarded.

GS: In Bangladesh, for example, the utility required us to host the platform on their facilities but we had unrestricted access during site acceptance test (SAT) programmes. We have a formal process of deployment of this testing from SAT-0 (Lab testing in territory and certification of radios). For example, in Thailand, the radios have to operate at 433Mhz with 10mw of power so although we’ve worked with that frequency before, we test with the local regulatory body that the radios do conform to the local duty cycle and channel plan in that band. SAT-1 is where we test specific use cases such as transaction logging and other features required for the

CyanConnode is providing an integrated communication solution for these two projects. One of these projects, for Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (CESCOM), Mysore, is about to undergo final testing and is the leading project in these pilots. This is not a proof of concept or trial and in July this year, Energy Minister D K Shivakumar confirmed that CESCOM will expand the smart grid project to the entire city after inspecting the first phase. Our success has been built on partnership, working over a three year period. As I said, the key word here is patience - alongside strong technology - to achieve mass success.

IoT Now - October 2017

Vehicle charging

www.cyanconnode.com

CASE STUDY

Smart grid provider turns to CyanConnode Omni IoT technology to provide flexible, cost effective communications platform HM Power, a system integrator based in Sweden, provides smart metering and smart grid solutions to virtually all Swedish utilities. The company has an established customer base of approximately 650,000 smart meters and now has approximately 30% of the Ring Main Unit and advanced fault indication equipment market in Sweden. Following a Parliamentary Bill mandating hourly energy metering, the company needed to upgrade its communications capability in its smart meters to enable and manage the increased functionality required In 2012, a Bill was passed in the Swedish Parliament enforcing hourly metering – which would not be possible to achieve without the functionality of an Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) smart metering solution.

switched to looking for next generation smart metering to support plans for smart grid technologies and IoT capabilities, leading to the requirement to upgrade its AMR infrastructure to AMI, to enable these facilities.

Sweden was one of the first countries in the world to install smart meters and since 2009 customers have received monthly bills based on their actual consumption rather than an estimated annual bill. This early adoption strategy gave the country’s utilities the lead in delivering accurate customer billing and more information about actual consumption. Since the rollout, smart meters have enabled both financial benefits as well as improvements in service quality and customer satisfaction. However, in recent years Sweden’s infrastructure focus has

Omni IoT technology

▼

HM Power selected CyanConnode’s Omni IoT technology because it is a robust, scalable and future-proof platform that offers flexibility as the Swedish market continues to evolve. CyanConnode’s communication platform enables machine-to-machine (M2M) communication from single applications, such as smart metering, to multi-application IoT networks. HM Power saw a major advantage in CyanConnode’s use of narrowband technology, as applications using narrowband consume considerably less power

IN ASSOCIATION WITH CYANCONNODE 58

IoT Now - October 2017

and are less spectrum-intensive than those using higher frequencies. In addition, narrowband RF networks enable significant growth in the number of connected devices which will allow HM Power’s customers to grow their networks economically and sustainably. Based on IPv6, using licence-free, regulated narrowband technology CyanConnode provides HM Power with a flexible, cost effective communication platform that supports rapid innovation and integration with third party technology. The platform enabled by CyanConnode’s IPv6 LowPAN OmniMesh network is plug and play, self-configuring and self-healing and is designed to deliver a versatile solution with a low cost of ownership. Each device uses the most efficient route to its gateway every time, maximising the use of bandwidth whilst minimising power consumption and continually optimising and adapting the network. In addition, CyanConnode’s partner ecosystem provides expertise for seamless integration of the end-to-end communication technology with HM Power’s preferred smart meter vendor and the utility’s Meter Data Management system, at every stage of the contractual implementation and milestones. As the market evolves, HM Power is now well positioned to provide next generation smart meters and smart grid equipment in a comprehensive, end-to-end system. CyanConnode’s technology will support HM Power as its IoT network develops, enabling interoperability between any third-party device or technology, and alternative HM Power customer networks. HM Power will be able to add services and capabilities individually or collectively as customer demands evolve, whilst

IoT Now - October 2017

being supported at all stages by CyanConnode’s flexible platform and experienced partner ecosystem.

The results CyanConnode’s solution provides highly secure, bidirectional communication between HM Power’s utility customer and its consumers, enabling always-on smart metering functionality and is delivering a meter reading success rate of 99.92% over 24 hours. The platform enhances HM Power’s service delivery, improves business efficiency and saves energy through improved revenue collection, reporting analytics and enables other functionality such as grid optimisation, demand response and asset management. CyanConnode’s narrowband mesh technology is easy to implement and will allow HM Power to build its networks as they deploy the solution, supporting its customer’s cash flow, up-time and end-to-end security.

The Swedish market is now implementing nextgeneration technologies to support both IoT sensor applications that enable smart grid solutions, and AMI solutions

HM Power’s consumers also benefit, as the optimised AMI network allows them to measure and control their energy consumption, benefit from time of use tariffs, improving cost management and budgeting. “The Swedish market is now implementing nextgeneration technologies to support both IoT sensor applications that enable smart grid solutions, and AMI solutions,” says Anders Hjort, the chief executive of HM Power. “Since 2000, HM Power has been a leading supplier of smart metering (AMI) solutions in Sweden. With a large customer base, HM Power is now well positioned to provide next generation smart meters and smart grid equipment. CyanConnode’s IPv6 based solution delivers flexible, cost-effective communications for single and multi-application networks.”

www.cyanconnode.com

INTERVIEW

Dude, where’s my car? With live commercial consumer connected car offerings, called Telia Sense, in Sweden and Denmark, enabled by partner Springworks, Telia is making substantial commitments to IoT applications and services. Jens-Peter Meesenburg, the head of global IoT verticals at Telia, tells George Malim why it has targeted connected cars and how he sees the company developing further IoT opportunities in both business-to-business and business-to-consumer IoT

IoT Now: Why have you selected the connected cars sector as an early area for Telia to target in IoT? Jens-Peter Meesenburg: It’s very real for us, it’s more than just a product, it’s a proofpoint for executing on innovation, not just talking about it. It’s a big part of our strategy to become more than just a communications company. Connected car is a posterchild.

The way we went to market came about because we saw IoT in general as communication and communications is a commodity. If we want to make money in IoT, we need to take commercial bets and retrofitting connectivity to a car is an opportunity. We announced this before launch and the reason for that was to get into contact with the whole ecosystem.

J-PM: The launch has been a success in both countries and we’ve really moved the needle in terms of how people see the company. We don’t disclose the volumes of users but I can say we’ve started cautiously and it’s going as planned. We chose to target connected cars because we did an evaluation of the Nordics as a whole. We have a higher number of connected devices per person than in the rest of the world and we have a population that has no problem with signing up for new services. We assessed the opportunities and saw there are eight million cars driving around with on-board diagnostic (OBD) ports. IoT Now: How reliant on the OBD port are you? Isn’t the fact there’s typically only one OBD port in a vehicle a limiting factor?

This is important because you have to give the customers the service they are looking for. If you call Telia and we have a nice voice but we can’t really help to fix your car it’s not an attractive service so the partners are vital. In Sweden we’ve partnered with insurance company Folksam, the national vehicle inspection authority, parking provider EasyPark and roadside assistance firm Viking.

J-PM: There is only one OBD port so there will be a battle for the OBD port. However, that gives us a valuable opportunity to orchestrate that access for lots of other industries. For example an insurance company spent more than five years trying to find a solution and build a business case [for connected car apps] but being able to share a platform with someone else who can deliver it makes the business case quite clear.

I’m also delighted that we’ve launched services in my home country, Denmark. There we’ve also partnered with EasyPark and Viking as well as the Alka Insurance company.

If you want to do something in a vertical you either do it or you don’t but, once you’ve announced it, you have to do it. We think we’ve followed through on our announcement. ▼

The launch has been a success in both countries and we’ve really moved the needle in terms of how people see the company

IoT Now: How have the launches gone?

IoT Now - October 2017

IoT Now: What do you see as the challenges of enabling services such as usage-based insurance (UBI)?

For that reason, we run in two-week sprints for development of new features and services. This is unusual for a telco.

J-PM: If you’re going to be basing UBI on data from a device, there are three types of data that you need. One is actionable data such as your battery is low which could lead to an assistance company replacing the battery. Another is automated data. This goes directly into insurance company algorithms so the quality has to be high and the privacy strong. Finally, there’s consumable data for the end user. We want information and absolutely everyone wants to know about the car.

Customers are asking for consumable data such as statistics about their cars so we’ve given them this instead of developing eco-driving apps. Our development function is therefore highly marketdriven. In addition, you’ll see more partners coming in. Some of those are obvious such as insurers, parking and maintenance companies but there others in adjacent areas coming through that might seem unusual initially.

IoT Now: What do you see as the next steps for Telia? J-PM: We’re providing B2C and SOHO-type, single vehicle offerings now but we’ll support fleet managers next year and will bring out B2B solutions. I see keen interest in the leasing area where it’s not the user’s car but the owner wants to know how the car is and what it’s doing. We’ll also be going much more into the diagnostics. This is a product that never ends and the whole reason for our customers to sign up to a monthly fee is that they expect it to be better over time.

We’re providing B2C and SOHOtype, single vehicle offerings now but we’ll support fleet managers next year and will bring out B2B solutions

There’s a lot going on in this space involving telcos in the US and Europe. It has gone from just delivering connections to supporting lots of different use cases to the end customer. The more you explore the more you find in terms of the different functions that can be enabled. An example is the question of being able to answer: where’s my car? This might seem simple and only for people who lose their car but this morning in Copenhagen, my wife had parked our car two streets away from home and left for work without telling me where it was. There’s value to unlock here and what seems a silly question can be a good opportunity.

Photo: Viking Assistance IoT Now - October 2017

EVENTS New Mobility World Frankfurt, Germany 14- 24 Sept 2017

Monetizing IoE InFocus Amsterdam 17-18 Oct 2017

IoT WORLD FORUM 2017 London, UK 15-16 Nov 2017

https://newmobility.world/en/

http://ioeinfocus.tmforum.org

http://iotinternetofthingsconference.com

Sigfox World IoT Expo Czech Republic 25-26 Sept 2017

IoT Security Summit New York, USA 23-24 Oct 2017

Smart Home Summit Palo Alto, USA 15-16 Nov 2017

http://world-iot-expo.com

https://tmt.knect365.com/iot-security/

https://tmt.knect365.com/smart-home/

Telit IoT Innovation Summit Barcelona, Spain 2 Oct 2017 http://iotinnovation.telit.com

Connected Claims Europe London, UK 24-25 Oct 2017 http://events.insurancenexus.com/ connectedclaimseurope/

Security of Things World USA 2017 San Diego, USA 16-17 Nov 2017 http://securityofthingsworldusa.com/en/

Smart Cities Week Washington DC 3-4 Oct 2017

Internet of Banking & payments London, UK 21-23 Nov 2017

http://smartcitiesweek.com

https://internetofbusiness.com/events/ internet-of-banking-and-payments/

European Utility Week Amsterdam, The Netherlands 3-5 Oct 2017 http://www.european-utility-week.com

IoT Solutions World Congress Barcelona, Spain 3-5 Oct 2017

Internet of Health - Boston Boston, USA 31 Oct - 1 Nov 2017

https://internetofbusiness.com/events/ internet-of-manufacturing-sw-usa

https://internetofbusiness.com/events/ internet-of-health-usa

http://www.iotsworldcongress.com

International Conference on Future Mobility Dubai, UAE 7-8 Nov 2017 http://www.mobilityfuture.com/676/new-node.aspx

Machina Summit AI London 4-5 Oct 2017

Internet of Manufacturing Southwest Dallas, USA 28-29 Nov 2017

Internet of Aviation London, UK 7-8 Nov 2017

http://www.machina-london.com/

https://internetofbusiness.com/events/ internet-of-aviation-emea/

Auto Tech R&D Summit San Jose, USA 9-10 Oct 2017

Industrial IoT Summit Munich, Germany 7-8 Nov 2017

https://automotive.knect365.com/autotech-rd/plan-your-visit

http://www.mobilityfuture.com/676/new-node.aspx

M2M Summit Dusseldorf, Germany 11 Oct 2017

Iotbuild USA 14-15 Nov 2017

http://www.m2m-alliance.com/en/m2msummit/

https://internetofbusiness.com/events/ iotbuild-usa

World Summit AI Amsterdam, The Netherlands 11-12 Oct 2017

Automotive Tech.AD Detroit Detroit, USA 16-17 Nov 2017

http://worldsummit.ai

http://autonomous-drivingdetroit.com/en/

IoT Data Analytics Palo Alto, USA 28-29 Nov 2017 https://tmt.knect365.com/iot-dataanalytics/

IoT Tech Expo North America Santa Clara, USA 29-30 Nov 2017 http://www.iottechexpo.com/northamerica/

Asia IoT Business Platform Ho Chi Minh City 29-30 Nov 2017 http://iotbusiness-platform.com

Trustech 2017 Cannes, France 28-30 Nov 2017 https://www.trustech-event.com

Smart Cities Summit Chicago, USA 16-17 October 2017 https://automotive.knect365.com/autotech-rd/plan-your-visit

IoTConnectivity London, UK 5-6 Dec 2017 https://goo.gl/rKK4Pc

Smart City Expo World Congress Barcelona, Spain 14-16 Nov 2017

IoT & Device Security Munich, Germany 5-6 Dec 2017

http://www.smartcityexpo.com/en/

https://goo.gl/NX4F3L

IoT Now - October 2017

There are over 400 IoT platforms on the market all undergoing constant development & specialisation...

iotplatformselection.com

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IoT Now: ISSN 2397-2793

OCTOBER 2017 • VOLUME 7 • ISSUE 4

INNOVATION SUPPLEMENT

MULTITECH INTERVIEW Why one size doesn't fit all when it comes to IoT security and connectivity

PLUS: IoT Solutions World Congress 2017 Preview: Exclusive speaker interview plus testbed previews • What to prioritise at European Utility Week as the industry heads for the Amsterdam shows • Inside Tennessee smart metering deployment • What's the IoT-as-a-service reality? • Latest news online at: www.iot-now.com

Empowering your choice of IoT platform The only completely independent analyst-driven tool designed to help enterprises evaluate and navigate the IoT platform landscape.

Find the best match platform for your enterprise at:

www.iotglobalnetwork.com/iotpilot

CONTENTS

IoT Now INNOVATION SUPPLEMENT

S12

CASE STUDY

INTERVIEW

S10

S16

EUROPEAN UTILITY WEEK PREVIEW

IoT SOLUTIONS WORLD CONGRESS PREVIEW

IN THIS ISSUE S4

NEWS Myriad launches Thingstream, RFID market to reach US$11.2bn, GSMA value IoT revenue opportunity at US$1.8tn

INTERVIEW Richard Stamvik, who manages ecosystem and partnerships at Multitech, discusses why one size can’t fill all applications and security and connectivity choices are needed to enable business case flexibility

S10 EVENT PREVIEW IoT Now previews this year’s European Utility Week in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 3-5 October

S12

CASE STUDY How Beston Country Electric turned to a BGAN M2M system from Inmarsat and Network Innovations

S14

FEATURE Why IoT as-a-service will provide businesses with the tools to implement IoT

S16

EVENT PREVIEW As industry executives head to the IoT Solutions World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, we feature a keynote speaker interview and present information on some of the testbeds at the show

Cover sponsor: MultiTech designs, develops and manufactures communications equipment for the Industrial Internet of Things – connecting physical assets to business processes to deliver enhanced value. Our commitment to quality and service excellence means you can count on MultiTech products and people to address your needs. For more information visit: www.multitech.com

PUBLISHED BY:

WeKnow Media Ltd. Suite 138, 70 Churchill Square, Kings Hill, West Malling, Kent ME19 4YU, UK Tel: +44 (0) 1732 807411

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

INNOVATION NEWS

NEWS IN BRIEF

Myriad launches Thingstream a global IoT connectivity platform built on USSD messaging

Gartner says digital transformation and IoT will drive investment in ITOM until 2020 The growth of digital business and the Internet of Things (IoT) is expected to drive large investment in IT operations management (ITOM) through 2020, according to Gartner. A primary driver for organisations moving to ITOM open-source software (OSS) is lower cost of ownership. Gartner believes many enterprises will turn to managed ITOM or ITOM as a service (ITOMaaS) enabled by open-source technologies and provided by a third party. With OSS, vendors can provide more costeffective and readily available ITOM functions in a scaled manner through the cloud. Through to 2020, public cloud and managed services are expected to be leveraged more often for ITOM tools, which will drive growth of the subscription business model for both cloud and on-premises ITOM. However, onpremises deployments will still be the most common delivery method. This imposes multiple challenges to incumbent ITOM vendors. First, those vendors that do not offer a cloud delivery model will face continuous cannibalisation from ITOM vendors that can deliver ITOM through both cloud and on-premises.

Atoll Solutions and u blox provide easy access to LPWA technologies in India u blox, a provider in wireless and positioning modules and chips, and Atoll Solutions, an IoT gateway platform, sensor node and wireless module provider, announce the availability of an IoT starter kit based on LTE Cat M1 and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) modules from u blox. With an extensive smart city programme already announced, India’s infrastructure is moving towards low-power wide-area (LPWA) technologies to enable smart street lighting and smart metering. The starter kit provides the perfect development platform for nodes and gateways based on LTE Cat M1 and NB-IoT. Supporting both the NB-IoT (LTE Cat NB1) SARA-N2 and LTE Cat M1/NB1 SARA R4 module series from u blox, the starter kit will enable the rapid development of IoT solutions, ready for deployment in a smart grid. Future development will include complete reference designs incorporating other u blox solutions, including Bluetooth Low Energy and GNSS modules.

Neil Hamilton, Thingstream

Myriad Group has launched Thingstream, a global M2M connectivity proposition that delivers true ubiquity, security and better connectivity for IoT applications via the world’s first global IoT connectivity platform.

not just a suitable roaming carrier partner who can match the enterprises footprint, but also means a device needs to support TCP/IP in order to communicate. Our connectivity approach is to literally remove the internet aspect whilst still allowing small, secure payloads to be delivered to the cloud environment. Our approach leverages USSD messaging which not only removes complexities around carrier roaming but, importantly reduces the processing and power consumption required by the transmitting device itself.“

The global M2M platform offers a ubiquitous solution for a broad range of IoT applications; ideally suited to devices which move, are in remote locations or need to be super secure before connected to the cloud. Thingstream’s solution uses Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), universally available via Thingstream’s global roaming M2M SIM. The company believes that the IoT options for industrial applications are too complex, expensive and fail to offer the required level of connectivity. Neil Hamilton, the vice president of business development at Myriad explained: “To date, a typical solution for asset tracking typically involves cellular data, this by default requires

“The global ubiquity of USSD technology makes it the ideal small data transport for remote control IoT applications,” added Hamilton. “We want to enable simple, secure connections for industrial IoT applications with Thingstream, addressing both technical and commercial challenges associated with connecting remote, moving and roaming devices to networks.” USSD offers a low power global area network, accessible anywhere with a GSM connection. The GSMA states that just 20% of the globe’s population are unable to access basic GSM mobile services, with this number continuing to shrink. USSD therefore offers the single widest access service for connected devices.

RFID market to reach US$11.2bn in 2017, says IDTechEx report Based on its new report ‘RFID Forecasts, Players and Opportunities 2017-2027’, IDTechEx Research finds that in 2017, the total RFID market will be worth US$11.2 billion(€9.50 billion), up from $10.52 billion (€8.92 billion) in 2016 and $9.95 billion(€8.44 billion) in 2015. This includes tags, readers and software/services for RFID labels, cards, fobs and other form factors, for passive and active RFID.

In other areas, RFID in the form of tickets used for transit will demand 825 million tags in 2017 and the tagging of animals is substantial as it continues to be a legal requirement in many more territories, with 480 million tags being used for this sector in 2017.

In retail, RFID continues to be rolledout for apparel tagging predominantly – that application alone will demand 8.7 Billion RFID labels in 2017 – which still has plenty of room for growth since this is less than 20% penetration of the total addressable market for apparel in 2017.

In total, IDTechEx expects that 18.2 billion tags will be sold in 2017 versus 15.2 billion in 2016. Most of that growth is from passive UHF (RAIN) RFID labels. However, in 2017 UHF RFID tag sales by value will be 25% of the value of HF tag sales, mainly because HF tags where used for security have a higher price point versus the cheaper, usually disposable labels used for tagging things.

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

INNOVATION NEWS

GSMA highlights US$1.8tn IoT revenue opportunity for mobile network operators The GSMA has announced that mobile network operators are set to benefit from an estimated US$1.8 trillion (€1.50 trillion) Internet of Things (IoT) revenue opportunity by 2026 boosted by the early deployment of commercial Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) in licensed spectrum, according to new figures in the IoT Forecast Database Research published by analyst house Machina Research. The new findings highlight the huge growth opportunities for mobile operators delivered through new Mobile IoT applications and services. To date, 12 mobile operators have launched 15 commercial Mobile IoT services, including AT&T, Telstra and Verizon (LTE-M), as well as China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, Deutsche Telekom, KT, LG Uplus, M1, Turkcell and Vodafone (NB-IoT). The research also indicates that the Americas region will account for an estimated US$534 billion (€445.58 billion), or approximately a third of the total revenue. “There is a real sense of momentum behind mobile IoT networks in licensed spectrum, with multiple commercial launches around the world, as well as the availability of hundreds of different applications and solutions, but there is still much to be done,” said Alex Sinclair, chief technology officer, GSMA. “Many operators are already reaping the benefits of deploying Mobile IoT and we encourage others to act now to capitalise on this clear market

opportunity and further accelerate the development of the Internet of Things.” The new findings highlight that consumer demand for connected home US$441 billion (€367.98 billion), consumer electronics US$376 billion (€313.74 billion) and connected car technologies US$273 billion (€227.79 billion) represent the biggest revenue opportunities for IoT. However, other areas such as connected energy look set to reach US$128 billion (€106.80 billion) by 2026 as a result of local governments and consumers seeking smarter ways to manage utilities. Similarly, revenues from connected cities are forecast to reach US$78 billion (€65.08 billion) by 2026. Mobile operators are enhancing their licensed cellular networks with NB-IoT and LTE-M technologies which utilise globally agreed 3GPP standards to scale the IoT. Mobile IoT networks are expected to have 862 million active connections by 2022 or 56% of all LPWA connections. These new Mobile IoT networks are designed to support mass-market IoT applications across a wide variety of use cases, such as industrial asset tracking, safety monitoring, water and gas metering, smart grids, city parking, vending machines and city lighting, requiring solutions that are low cost, use low data rates, require long battery lives and can operate in remote locations.

Israel’s Cybonet launches comprehensive cyber security solution for SMEs

David Feldman, Cybonet

Cybonet, an international information security solutions provider headquartered in Israel, has announced the release of its newest cyber security solution, Cybowall, a threat detection and response platform engineered for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs).

Combining both affordability and functionality, Cybowall provides organisations with a single security tool that delivers those capabilities necessary to identify and respond not only to active threats, but also to potential vulnerabilities within the network. “As smaller businesses struggle to keep up with the emerging threats inundating networks around the world, it is becoming increasingly clear how ill prepared many organisations continue to be,” said David Feldman, the chief

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

executive of Cybonet. “In many ways, smaller businesses today are an even more appealing target to cyber criminals than large enterprise networks. There are more of them and there is often less awareness of the threat, little to no technical staff with a security background, and certainly less budget to invest in security technologies.” Smaller organisations are often at pains to justify security oriented IT spending, as technology managers struggle to quantify the ROI and clearly communicate the threat landscape to business owners. A recent study conducted by the Ponemon Institute of small and medium-sized enterprises found that with the increase in malware attacks, only 13% of the respondents said they felt prepared to prevent a malware attack, and a staggering 51% of the respondents claimed to have already experienced a ransomware attack – though many of these organisations had not reported it for fear of damaging their reputation.

Taoglas launches small form factor ultra-wideband antennas Taoglas, a provider of IoT and M2M antenna products, launched an industry-first range of small-form-factor ultrawideband (UWB) antennas specifically designed to enable centimetre-level positioning and angle-ofarrival applications, including asset tracking, follow-me drones, healthcare monitoring, smart home services, and other applications that demand high-performance indoor localisation capabilities. The antennas offer high efficiencies across a wide spectrum of frequency bands from 3 GHz to 10 GHz. Indoor wireless positioning has long been hampered by technologies that were not designed for this purpose, such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and assisted GPS. UWB is a low-power digital wireless technology that offers significant increases in location precision and range while transmitting large amounts of digital data short distances over a wide spectrum of frequency bands. UWB’s low-power requirements offer increased battery life of sensors and tags, leading to reduction in overall operational costs. Taoglas’ range of UWB antennas, designed in Taoglas’ Munich, Germany, engineering centre, features both state-of-theart flexible and rigid PCB embedded UWB antennas as well as UWB embedded SMT chip antennas. The flexible FXUWB range of antennas were developed utilising a simple “peel and stick” assembly process, attaching securely to nonmetal surfaces via 3M adhesive, with a highly flexible micro-coaxial cable mounting.

TALKING HEADS

One size doesn’t fit all – for business case flexibility you need security and connectivity choices As the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to mature, organisations are looking to select enabling technologies, services and solutions to turn their business ideas into reality. Among the many fundamental capabilities required, connectivity and security are among the most visible as Richard Stamvik, managing ecosystem and partnerships at MultiTech, discusses in this interview with IoT Now

Richard Stamvik: There are several challenges for organisations: How large is the area they intend to operate in – is it a building or a country? What quality of service do they need and how much are they prepared to pay for that? What’s the acceptable energy consumption of the IoT solution as this relates to the cost of power from, for example, batteries? And what’s the amount of data to be transmitted and what are the related speed and latency requirements? Different technologies have different pros and cons. For example, short range Bluetooth technology offers low energy consumption and high data rates. Similarly, you can roll-out low energy, long range low power wide area (LPWA) technologies such as LoRa or narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) but these won’t offer the high data rate of 3G or 4G.

A key learning here is that one size does not fit all. IoT Now: Choosing between licensed and unlicensed spectrum is a core challenge. How can organisations judge the relative merits? RS: The right to use licensed spectrum costs money, payable to the body managing the regional radio spectrum allocation. Here we find the 3GPP cellular ecosystem with operators offering worldwide network coverage and equipment providers with footprint across the globe. Licensed spectrum offers good quality of service, high reliability and low latency, and is suitable for critical or real-time control usecases. Anyone can use unlicensed spectrum and this offers a quick route to market and cost advantages for infrastructure, devices and services which are all becoming widespread, with both private and public deployments across the world. Here we find LoRa and a several other technologies. ▼

IoT Now: There are many decisions to be made to ensure optimal IoT deployments. What factors should organisations take into account when making connectivity decisions?

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

There’s a massive diversity in use cases which means many different approaches are required

IoT Now: Among the wide range of unlicensed options, why are organisations choosing LoRa solutions? RS: There has been a big uptake of LoRa solutions because other unlicensed technology alternatives are either immature, have small ecosystem and deployment footprint or unsuitable business proposition, and licensed technology alternatives such as cellular NB-IoT or LTE category M1 haven’t been widely available. Cellular options such as 3G and 4G were not really designed for low bandwidth and low energy consumption applications whereas LoRa would fit the requirements as well as offer an industry standard and a growing ecosystem of product and service providers. There’s a massive diversity in use cases which means many different approaches are required. Consider the business case options; once you have bought your cellular devices you pay a

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

recurring fee to an operator, whereas after your investment in unlicensed technology you have a choice including a recurring fee or a no-fee model. In the unlicensed camp LoRa's maturing ecosystem also offers cost competition resulting in a very nice business proposition for many usecases. IoT Now: MultiTech is launching further LTE Cat M and NB-IoT products. Please can you tell me about them and why you are supporting both options? RS: We have a comprehensive cellular product portfolio including IoT modems, routers and gateways, and we support a wide range of cellular wireless connectivity options including HSPA, LTE and NB-IoT. In the US market, LTE Cat M1 has had traction with operators and device vendors for while, while in Europe and Asia NB-IoT is more widely considered, and we thus have to address both. Over time we’re going to see a mix of both technologies spread around the world. ▼

Licensed and unlicensed spectrum both have their pros and cons and usecase requirements must govern which to select.

TALKING HEADS

There are many other aspects to consider but first you need to decide what’s important to you

RS: We are bringing NB-IoT and LTE Cat M1 connectivity to both current and future cellular products. For customers this offers an opportunity to quickly hook up their IoT devices to the latest version of the cellular IoT network, and for operators this offers a way to quickly deploy devices on their new networks. IoT Now: Moving on from connectivity, security is another fundamental challenge to the success of IoT. What security aspects should be priorities for organisations? RS: Again it comes down to the use case. You need to understand what’s required to protect your assets. It’s like the front door lock to your house. You choose one based on functionality, performance and price protecting against the average burglar. You don’t want to spend more on it than the value of the assets you’re looking to protect. Beyond the basic economics, consider what you actually need. For example, do you need secure communication from the sensor to the cloud? Do you need end-to-end encryption? Do you want device authentication? Is there a need for the system to be future-proof and, if so, do you need a means to update all the nodes on the network?

There are many other aspects to consider but first you need to decide what’s important to you. IoT Now: Is the focus on hardware security at the expense of other aspects such as secure VPNs? RS: Hardware security includes ringfencing a storage or a code execution area. Various technology enablers can be used for this, such as secure element, software virtualisation or a Trusted Execution Environment. You also need a secure link between devices and cloud. Cellular and LoRa connectivity offers encryption, and this in turn requires secure management of encryption keys. You also need management of access rights to devices, and of device and user policies. Device integrity includes secure boot, watchdog functionality and tamper resistance and prevent unauthorised changes in software and hardware. The technologies and enablers above enable services such as end-to-end encryption of data in motion and at rest, policy management, authentication of users and devices, provisioning of devices, device update ensuring the latest software is used, device and user management and private networking and VPN. ▼

IoT Now: What is MultiTech doing to help companies develop solutions utilising either of these technologies?

IN ASSOCIATION WITH MULTITECH IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

▼

Richard Stamvik: Use the technology most fit for purpose for your usecase

IoT Now: What developments and advances are you seeing in authentication and non-repudiation? RS: We offer a range of related features in our products, and weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re also partnering with companies with experience from various parts of the security landscape, for instance private networking and end-toend services including authentication. An interesting area is how cost for device identification can be saved by smart use of device entropy, or by embedding a secret using a suitable mechanism. It comes down to security that is good enough for the money you pay. IoT Now: Is encryption the answer â&#x20AC;&#x201C; can it assure sufficient security? RS: Encryption allows you to ship data from A to B or store it, all while ensuring nobody has interfered with your data and compromised its integrity. Encryption is just one of the many aspects of security to consider as outlined above. To sum up; you need to provide privacy by securing the devices, securing the end-toend architecture, and providing management and control of the above.

www.multitech.com

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

EVENT PREVIEW

Europe’s smart utility community converges on Amsterdam European Utility Week, to be held in Amsterdam, The Netherlands on 3-5 October, 2017, is the premier business, innovation and information platform connecting the smart utility community, allowing attendees to meet experts from utilities, network operators, vendors, consultants, start-ups and system integrators covering the entire smart energy value chain

Adnan Amin, the director general of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) will be The Summit chairperson and will open the official keynote conference session for European Utility Week (EUW) 2017. In the opening keynote, Amin will address the challenges utilities are currently dealing with and how European strategy and goals for 2030 and 2050 will enable the transition towards a low carbon energy supply. The opening keynote during the Summit, on day-one of the event, will examine those key

strategic themes causing shifts in the utility business model. The opening keynote session will also feature those key enablers from the industry who have been appointed to help orchestrate this change and guide the industry forward including: • Manon Janssen, chair of Topsector Energie and CEO of Ecorys – presenting Energy Innovation In The Netherlands • Ernesto Ciorra, the head of Innovation & Sustainability at Enel Group – presenting 2017: It Isn't Time For Utilities • Brien Sheahan, the CEO of the Illinois Commerce Commission – presenting Energy In The USA, Market Design With Innovative Regulation ▼

European Utility Week is a dynamic and energising three-day business, innovation and information platform in the form of a conferenceled exhibition. More than 400 expert speakers will give you the insight you need to drive the industry forward.

IN ASSOCIATION WITH EUROPEAN UTILITY WEEK

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IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

• Cedrik Neike, a member of the Managing Board of Siemens • Philippe Monloubou, the CEO of Enedis and chairman of Think Smartgrids • Benjamin Sovacool, a professor of Energy Policy at the University of Sussex, UK who is also a professor of Business and Social Sciences at Aarhus University, Denmark • Christian Buchel, deputy CEO, ENEDIS and chairman of EDSO The opening keynote will set the stage for what will come during the strategic Summit across the three-day programme starting on 3-5 October, at the Rai Centre in Amsterdam. The high level opening debate will be a true reflection of the choice of the consumer; how to empower people by understanding their energy choices and the shift of ownership in the value chain. “The global electricity system stands at a critical juncture in the midst of transition. Whether consumers become empowered to expedite this transition, or resist it, remains an open-ended question. I am excited to take part in the opening keynote of EUW17 to help explore industry perspectives on both transitions and the topic of consumers and prosumers,” says Sovacool. Buchel says: “By becoming digital operators, European DSOs are taking on the energy transition challenge by actively shaping the smart grids of the future and empowering the consumer.” Other impressive initiatives happening during the three-day event include the Bridge Initiative (Horizon 2020) projects. Funded by the European Commission the event will house 22 Energy projects helping to contribute to a successful, digitally-supported energy transition. It does this by fostering the exchange of

information, experience, knowledge and best practices to produce coordinated, balanced and coherent recommendations to policy makers for removing barriers to innovation deployment. European Utility Week, part of the Global Utility Week series, spans a global network of 150,000 smart energy professionals. European Utility Week will welcome over 12,000 international smart energy stakeholders and 600 exhibitors. This event brings together energy professionals to learn, network, collaborate and share expertise and information on a global level, which is why programmes for international delegations that wish to learn more about the European utility industry and beyond are set up. Utility delegations from the US, Turkey, Philippines will be sending their c-level utility representatives to the event with more delegations from Malaysia, Brazil, Peru and India to be confirmed shortly. “The programme is developed to serve every level of the utility value chain in the form of a strategic and policy forming environment during the exclusive Summit and the more practical case studies presented during the Hub Sessions, free to attend for all visitors,” says Patrick Young, the event director for European Utility Week.

The event is a dynamic and energising threeday business, innovation and information platform in the form of a conference-led exhibition

For more information visit: www.european-utilityweek.com

This year will see European Utility Week co-locating with industry events including: EMART Energy, the leading energy trading event, Energy Revolution Europe, exploring the most recent developments in renewables integration and energy storage, Intelligent Buildings Europe, emphasising the importance of buildings in our everyday life and the key role they have in our smart cities future, and the highly revered innovation programme Initiate! working with start-ups, young talents and industry professionals. EMART Energy is the top networking platform for European energy traders and in 2017 will co-locate with European Utility Week, allowing its attendees to get in touch with a broader scope of solutions and experiences in the energy sector. This year’s EMART Energy conference programme is themed ‘Energy Trading in an Era of Decentralisation’ and will focus on topics such as: making use of decentralisation, external technology drivers, digitalisation: what opportunities arise, renewables entering the market and electrification and will feature analyses on energy price drivers and the latest innovations in trading. Intelligent Buildings Europe focuses on the importance of buildings in our everyday life, and facilitates the business and networking opportunity between utilities, energy service companies (ESCOs), energy service providers, financiers, governments, cities and municipalities, all with the common goal of meeting climate change and policy commitments by improving energy efficiency. Energy Revolution Europe focuses on the most recent developments in renewables integration and energy storage in order to fully integrate systems and benefit from a smarter grid. Initiate! focuses on working with the utility industry in their effort to embrace the need for adopting new technologies, acquiring new talents and forming new partnerships to create positive change. It is the perfect platform to provide start-ups and young talent the opportunity to share their ideas and innovations with the more established professionals in the industry in an effort to collectively empower the industry.

For more information about the co-located events visit: http://www.european-utility-week.com/co-located-events

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

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CASE STUDY

Benton County Electric solves metering infrastructure connectivity in remote areas using BGAN M2M system When a US electricity provider needed to roll-out automated metering infrastructure it selected a broadband global area network (BGAN) satellite service from Inmarsat and Network Innovations

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Benton County is in Northwest Tennessee, bordering the western branch of the Tennessee River and often referred to as the gateway to Middle Tennessee. Aside from the city of Camden, the only other largely populated areas are the agrarian communities of Big Sandy and Holladay. The county’s electricity requirements are met by Benton County Electric System (BCES), whose 38 employees work to deliver power to more than 10,000 customers. BCES’s philosophy is to offer fair and equitable rates for all. To accomplish this, BCES began an initiative five years ago to install automated metering infrastructure that would collect meter data every 15 minutes. Having nearreal time access to this data would allow BCES to better respond to customer needs, expedite engineering analysis, and provide holistic data of the electric system for a cost-based rate design. The company would be able to remotely connect and disconnect services, monitor power outages across the county, and offer new services such as prepay. Moreover, reducing its reliance on manual meter checks with automated meters promised to save countless travel hours for BCES’s staff.

The company faced several challenges in rolling out its automated metering infrastructure due to the patchy and unreliable cellular coverage typical of rural and remote locations. Scott Owens (BCES) explains: “We initially adopted a hybrid connectivity model for our meters, connecting our collectors on our fibre-optic network in certain areas, and private cellular networks in others. However, there were gaps in the network where neither of the two services were available or feasible, meaning that some isolated meters still had to be read manually, draining time and resources. We needed a connectivity solution that would enable us to fully utilise the integrated automated metering infrastructure.”

The solution BCES set about finding the right partners who could provide a reliable alternative to their existing connectivity methods. BCES chose Network Innovations, a key partner of Inmarsat and a leading provider of BGAN M2M satellite communication services. ▼

The company faced several challenges in rolling out its automated metering infrastructure due to the patchy and unreliable cellular coverage typical of rural and remote locations

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

Powered by Inmarsat's global 3G L-band satellite network and optimised for lower bandwidth and throughput than the standard BGAN offering, with a minimum billing increment of 1 kilobyte, BGAN M2M provides a reliable, IPbased real-time connectivity service that seamlessly integrates into any network. It supplies a reliable, alwaysavailable service and connects monitoring and control applications in remote, unmanned locations, giving full visibility and management of dispersed assets across an entire operational area. “We listened to and fully understood Benton County Electric’s unique challenges and goals,” explains Eric Verheylewegen, the executive vice president for global land sales at Network Innovations. “Our extensive experience working with BGAN M2M and designing solutions for the utility industry, ensured the project was a success.” The results With a fully-reliable network in place, BCES has been able to complete the rollout of its automated metering infrastructure. This has enabled the successful implementation of a fair and equitable rate design for every customer. The network has also ensured the success of prepay services, which reads/disconnects/connects meters daily, giving BCES’s customers more choices and information than ever before. “The Inmarsat BGAN M2M service has given us the connectivity, security and cost effectiveness that we needed to complete this project,” says Scott Owens, the director of Communications and Technical Services at Benton County Electric System. “Inmarsat stood out for its reliability and ease of set up. The installation was so straightforward that if you can point a compass, you can install the small size BGAN terminal.” “Connectivity is the key to everything we do. We don’t need a super-fast service; we need a stable and reliable service,” he adds. “The customer service we received when implementing the BGAN terminals from Network Innovations was outstanding and appreciated in a small company such as ours. The service provided the foundation we need for our automated metering project, which has saved us time and money, and enabled us to improve the experience of our customers.” Inmarsat’s BGAN M2M solution continues to serve reliably and efficiently, providing BCES with the peace of mind that meter data is always being collected. BCES plans to add to their number of BGAN terminals in Benton County, which promises to bring further benefits to the company and the county’s residents, as it continues to develop its integrated intelligent grid.

Key benefits of BGAN M2M • • • • • •

Performance: standard IP at a rate of up to 448kbps with a low latency from 800 milliseconds. Reliability: operates over the Inmarsat L-band global satellite and ground network, with 99.9% availability. Easy to integrate: simple for field teams to set up, integrate and maintain without technical expertise or training. Cost effective: low-cost terminal, low data rate plans with no reconnection fees. Enhanced support: free firmware upgrade over-the-air. Easy to manage solution: remote terminal management, debugging and configuration options.

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

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FEATURE

IoT as a service will provide businesses with the tools necessary to implement IoT Nick Sacke, the head of IoT and Products at Comms365, believes IoT is on the cusp of mass deployment, as organisations use Lower Powered Wide Area Networking (LPWAN) and new IoT-as-aService (IoTaaS) deployment models to achieve fast, minimal risk, low cost innovation The Internet of Things (IoT) is arguably set to be the biggest driver of productivity and growth in the next decade, with Accenture estimating IoT could add $14.2 trillion (€11.87 trillion) to the global economy by 2030. But despite the hype and excitement, right now we seem to be a very long way from realising that vision, especially in the UK. From network costs that are simply too expensive to sensors created by innovative, but small, startups, IoT at scale has simply not been achieved. The question many organisations are beginning to ask is: can IoT really deliver out of the lab, in the real world?

IoT constraints While the concept of IoT offers appeal to businesses of every size, there are several issues that have deterred many organisations, especially SMEs, from entering the market. The escalating costs of mobile networks, both 3G and 4G, have made IoT projects at scale unaffordable and while the market has responded with the introduction of low cost, low power wide area networking (LPWANs), as yet there is no one solution standard. Indeed, in the UK, there is no single network that provides nationwide coverage. In addition to the networking issues, the sheer complexity of creating a reliable and sustainable IoT infrastructure has affected the development of viable business models. Not only must companies find a way to manage sensors, networks, data storage, data analytics and an essential link to operational systems that leverage IoT data to drive improvements, but they are very concerned about the long-term viability of the model and underpinning technologies. For any business tempted to invest, there are some very real concerns. Where is the future proofing? Where is the consistent, proven and reliable network infrastructure? How can the complexity of IoT projects be managed effectively without investing in huge additional technical resources? The good news is that IoT is hitting a new level of maturity in both technology and delivery model that will both reduce risk and cost and provide that essential future proofing.

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IoT maturity While the cost model of mobile technologies has made IoT at scale untenable to date, there has been a rapid evolution of LPWAN technology recently that is paving the way for applications that use tens of thousands, even millions of devices. While there are licensed cellular variants such as Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), currently being used in pilot projects in Eastern Europe and southern Spain, it is the unlicensed LPWANs that are being rolled out fastest, with national LPWANs already in place in the Netherlands, France, Spain, South America, South Asia and several more. One of the most notable global LPWAN technology developments is LoRaWAN, created by Semtech, marketed and sustained by more than 500 world-class organisations in the LoRa Alliance standard, which is being rolled out across multiple countries. And while today there is no single, cross UK network, the ability to blend networks in different regional areas, including the adoption of international roaming via LPWANs – now provides organisations with a seamless, low cost, scalable IoT network model. This growing maturity of network technology is being mirrored by the advancement in design and manufacturing of devices – with new sensors and devices available with batteries that can last up to five years, minimising on-going cost and maintenance requirements. Essentially, it is now possible to deliver IoT projects through blended network solutions at a far lower cost – opening the door for projects that scale to millions of devices.

Proof of concept This maturity is being confirmed by the growing number of high profile IoT projects that are beginning to build confidence in both the IoT concept and specific technologies, including sensors that are being manufactured and deployed at scale. For example, the smart city project in Milton Keynes is using parking sensors in the road that can tell when a vehicle is parked. In addition to enabling new parking enforcement systems, the project is collecting sensor data to analyse trends in parking activity to support ongoing road management planning. ▼

One of the most notable global LPWAN technology developments is LoRaWAN, created by Semtech, marketed and sustained by more than 500 worldclass organisations in the LoRa Alliance standard

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

Nick Sacke, Comms365

Similarly, the Cambridge smart city project is already starting to measure air quality within this highly congested environment. With pollution a recognised threat to public health, local councils are being asked to act â&#x20AC;&#x201C; and smart city projects across the country are looking to use air quality sensors to both provide insight into trends but also deliver real time alerts to support public health advice. While impressive, these projects are still far less sophisticated in scope and deployment density than many of the developments globally. In Eastern Europe and the Far East, IoT at scale is becoming a reality with large scale deployments of lighting, metering, air quality, parking, and waste management sensors leveraging the new LPWAN network infrastructures.

End-to-end IoT In tandem with technology advancing is a maturing market model, with a growing number of providers stepping up to manage the network fragmentation and delivering IoT solutions as a service, a future proof model. This end-to-end IoT model encompasses every aspect of the solution

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

from sourcing and deploying sensors, to creating the blended network, managing data storage and undertaking analytics. In addition, with integration skills and the use of application programme interfaces (APIs), IoT platforms and their vital data can be made accessible to operational systems. Furthermore, these projects are no longer ad hoc â&#x20AC;&#x201C; market maturity is enabling the shift towards operationalising proven IoT applications. The IoTas-a-Service model will make key applications, such as building management systems, smart parking, pest control and waste bin management available for instant use without heavy customisation, removing all barriers to entry, especially within the SME market.

The smart city project in Milton Keynes is using parking sensors in the road that can tell when a vehicle is parked

We are now on the cusp of something momentous in IoT. The technology components, including the low-cost networks, are now in place; the end-to-end service model with its new aaS potential is reducing the risk and cost to entry, whilst future proofing investment. IoT is no longer just a tantalising concept â&#x20AC;&#x201C; with the operationalisation of key applications, especially within facilities management, it is about to explode into day-to-day business operations.

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EVENT PREVIEW

IoT Solutions World Congress showcases testbeds for industrial IoT The IoT Solutions World Congress, to be held in Barcelona, Spain on 3-5 October 2017, is set to welcome more than 220 exhibitors, in excess of 250 conference speakers and over 10,000 visitors. Here, IoT Now presents an interview with keynote speaker, Richard Soley, the executive director of Industrial Internet Consortium, and profiles some of the testbed activity at the event

Richard Soley: It's not really about cheaper sensors, but a convergence of forces over the last few years, which also includes cheaper actuators, but more importantly low-cost computing and storage and much better big data analysis. We're seeing overwhelming interest in applying IoT technology to industries such as healthcare, financial services, mining, manufacturing and production, agriculture, transportation – you name it. They're moving at different speeds, but even in our testbed systems here at the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) we're already seeing return on investment. IoT Now: What role do events such as the Internet of Things Solutions World Congress have in the IIoT landscape? RS: Gatherings like the Internet of Things Solutions World Congress (IoTSWC) bring together the best

and the brightest to share experiences. Papers and videos are one thing, but there's nothing like faceto-face conversations to understand both good ideas and missteps in IIoT implementation. And IoTSWC is the only event to prominently feature testbeds, real running systems, at the centre of it all. IoT Now: In your opinion, will edge analytics cause greater disruption than big data analytics for businesses? RS: Data analytics are data analytics – whether at the edge or in the cloud. The disruption comes from the pattern of finally applying real-time predictive analytics to all the data we've been ignoring – or not even collecting – to date. IoT Now: There has been much talking about predictive analytics as one of the main goals of IIoT but some say that the next step should take us towards prescriptive analytics. What do we need to get there? RS: Predictive analytics is exactly what leads to prescriptive analytics. If you watch carefully, you collect the data that allows you to avoid downtime or streamline processes ahead of time by seeing what has happened in the past. We just have to take seriously the collection and real-time analysis of data and keep an eye on patterns. ▼

IoT Now: A few years ago, the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) was a concept unknown to most but in the last couple of years it has become key in the future of many businesses. Cheaper sensors are already being produced and deployed and innovations in hardware, analytics and machine learning will combine to create big opportunities for companies big and small. Where are we now in the roadmap of this next industrial revolution?

IN ASSOCIATION WITH IOT SOLUTIONS WORLD CONGRESS S16

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

IoT Now: Are there any testbeds of these technologies already in progress? RS: Yes indeed. In fact, as the IIC testbeds collect more working data, they naturally turn from predictive to prescriptive analytics, both in the vertical-market-specific testbeds such as Microgrid, Track & Trace and others, and the horizontally-focused ones such as asset efficiency, condition monitoring and more. IoT Now: What are the latest testbeds the IIC has been working on?

that have supporting technologies such as computing, security, storage, sensing and actuating, or that have research capabilities, such as universities and so forth. IIC provides the ecosystem and the process to put together testbeds that enable learning quickly how to use this technology in the real world. IoT Now: One of the key issues regarding IIoT is security. Will such technologies as blockchain and quantum computing play a key role for the different applications of IIoT? RS: We're starting to see other technologies come to the rescue in various areas of industrial internet application. Distributed trust mechanisms, such as blockchain and IOTA, will support the kind of trusted network necessary to build multi-company, multi-country, secure solutions; and high-speed computing, especially parallel computing, is always welcome in overcoming difficult, real-time problems.

IoT Now: What is currently the role of the IIC within the IIoT ecosystem?

IoT Now: As a Doctor in Computer Science what are your expectations for quantum computing?

RS: Any company can build its own ecosystem of partners; but at the IIC we have a critical mass of companies that use Industrial IoT, including energy and manufacturing organisations. We also have many companies that depend on Industrial IoT,

RS: Quantum computing represents a sea change in computational architecture â&#x20AC;&#x201C; much like dataflow computing when I was studying it for my doctorate 30 years ago. I don't think we're close to solving the energy needs of quantum computing,

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

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RS: The IIC is always adding new testbed projects, we have about 27 now in fact. The exciting part is we're starting to see cross-vertical results from our healthcare, energy, agriculture and other testbeds. A fascinating trend has been the grown of our horizontally-focused testbeds, as condition monitoring, for example, is the same in many application domains.

Quantum computing represents a sea change in computational architecture â&#x20AC;&#x201C; much like dataflow computing when I was studying it for my doctorate 30 years ago

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EVENT PREVIEW

but when that finally happens we'll see major changes across the computing landscape, especially in secure communications. IoT Now: What impact will the adoption of 5G have in the industrial scenario? RS: An amazingly large number of people believe that 5G is Industrial IoT. It's not, it's just an enabling technology – an important one, but one of many. In many IIoT implementations, wireless solutions don't even appear. In many industrial scenarios, you have systems that don't move and must operate in an environment with high RF interference, so wireless solutions just don't figure into it. That said, there are important applications of IIoT, I suspect especially in transportation, that are going to depend on the high throughput and low latency of 5G moving forward.

Richard Soley

An amazingly large number of people believe that 5G is Industrial IoT. It's not, it's just an enabling technology

www.iotsworldcongress.com

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IoT Solutions World Congress selects 11 testbeds to be showcased at its 2017 event A submersible transformer inspection robot designed for oil and gas platforms, a fully connected and sensorized work environment that dramatically improves worker safety, a predictive analytics platform that can wipe out downtime in factories and a solution that allows the remote management of boats capable of informing in real time about ship status, water leaks or un expected presence in the ship. These are four of the 11 projects announced to take part in the 2017 Internet of Things (IoT) Solutions World Congress Testbed Area. For more information please visit: www.iotworldcongress/testbeds/2017selected-testbeds/ . Held at Fira de Barcelona from 3 to 5 October, the event will showcase 10 testbeds providing practical examples of how the industrial internet will change the way we produce and manage resources and businesses, transforming the global economy. Testbeds are experimental platforms designed to implement innovative solutions and test them in real-life operating conditions. These tests explore new technologies or combinations of existing ones with the aim of creating ground-breaking products or techniques with the potential to generate new international standards. The practical applications on show at the IoT Solutions World Congress will be coordinated and supervised by the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC). ABB’s Submersible Transformer Inspection Robot encompasses virtual reality (VR) driven remotely operated inspection robots able to operate in highly hazardous transformer environments. Today, inspection of the internal transformer environment for damage or routine maintenance in oil and gas platforms is only made possible by draining the oil from the transformer tank. This comes with significant health risks to the maintenance technician due to the exposure to highly toxic environments, as well as punitive downtime and inspection costs, and environmental hazards when draining to oil. This new solution reduces significantly these risks. Worker safety is also at the core of IBM’s Connected Workforce Safety and Operations project. The solution features an edge layer including a variety of sensors integrated into wearables – such as helmets, watches, eyewear, and vests–, instrumented heavy equipment, gateways and access

points; a platform layer that consists of device management and data analytics capabilities; and an enterprise tier that provides business applications and dashboards for an operations command centre and emergency response teams. The testbed improves worker safety, workforce productivity, and helps reduce corporate risk by integrating smart wearables with smart infrastructure, while utilising cognitive learning abilities. Unexpected downtime is one of the key issues that factories worldwide face and a joint project by PTC, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, National Instruments, OSIsoft and Flowserve makes use of predictive analytics to reduce it. Exemplified through a Flowserve Pump Demo, this testbed will showcase how sensors providing data such as temperature, pressure, flow and vibration is processed at the edge allowing real-time detection of any anomaly changes in the performance of the pump. The demo also shows how Augmented Reality can then help troubleshooting and repairing directly on-site. The last of the first batch of testbeds to be showcased at IoTSWC 2017 is the Connected over Seas project by Vodafone, Hiruteknova, TST and Rodman. It offers customers a complete sensor-based solution for their boats. Thanks to an application and the sensors installed in their boat, customers will be able to know the state of their boat at any time and from anywhere and will get information about battery status, water leaks and danger of sinking, temperature or even unexpected presence on board and will provide full control of the ship.

A globally significant event The third edition of the IoTSWC will be the biggest ever. Exhibiting firms include ABB, Accenture, Analog Devices, Dassault Systèmes, Deloitte, Deutsche Telekom, EMC, Everis, General Electric, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, IBM, Intel, Interdigital, Kaspersky, Microsoft, National Instruments, PTC, SAP, Schneider, Sigfox, Telefónica, Vodafone and others. IoTSWC will be part of the Barcelona Industry Week, one of the world’s biggest trade fair platforms for industry both from a commercial and knowledge perspective, will take place from October 1-6 and will comprise several events: Expoquimia, Eurosurfas, Equiplast, IoTSWC, In(3D)ustry From Needs to Solutions, the World Congress of Chemical Engineering, the World Chemical Summit, and the Smart Chemistry, Smart Future event.

IoT Now Innovation Supplement - October 2017

20% Discount on Conference Passes

How do you Monetize the Internet of Everything? The Internet of Everything has almost limitless potential in enriching our lives with a world of yet to be invented applications. But whilst the opportunity exists there’s plenty of hype still surrounding IoE and a lack of understanding of how to generate revenue from it. At Internet of Everything InFocus 2017 you’ll experience two intensive and rewarding days of thought-leadership presentations plus interactive and highly collaborative workshops on the crucial topics making up Monetization, Management and Trust. Industry-neutral and business-focused, this event is deeply routed in pragmatic, real-world advice on the steps you can take to ensure success in your IoE initiatives.

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