M2MAPPS: Ericsson is the leading provider of networking equipment to the world’s carriers. Last year revenues were over 26 billion Euros. When and why did the company decide to enter the relatively small M2M area?

MIGUEL BLOCKSTRAND : The decision was made in 2009 as part of a strategy review that looked at the way society was heading. We came up with the vision of a networked society in which 50 billion devices will be connected to the Internet by 2020, driven by products such as smartphones and the increased use of wireless communications in M2M verticals. In order to make a fast entry into this market we acquired Telenor Connexion’s platform and that allowed us to launch with a proven device connection platform. We also took the experienced staff on board in order to help with its continued development. That left Telenor Connexion free to focus on its core business of selling M2M solutions.

M2MAPPS: M2M is already driving mobile data traffic up in leaps and bounds and of course it’s going to go much higher. Presumably you saw the need to provide in-depth M2M support for your customers — the mobile network operators.

MIGUEL BLOCKSTRAND : That’s correct. We divide support into two broad categories. The deployment and management of M2M data SIMs is very different to that of regular SIMs. Lifecycle management tools that address all aspects of SIM card deployment are needed and of course they are provided on our device connection platform, which is hosted in the cloud. Either the operator or Ericsson can manage the platform’s services. The second category, and this is important, is that ownership of the platform by the MNO allows them to make a much bigger contribution to the value chain: to realize more of M2M’s latent potential. MNOs are ideally placed to create an ecosystem comprising device vendors, application developers and infrastructure suppliers such as Ericsson. This allows them to take the leading role — to be the single point of contact that takes responsibility for the solution’s performance. This is particularly important for enterprises and large organizations like utilities. In addition MNOs can bring significant added value to the table by leveraging their core networking competences. That is something that tends to be overlooked: all too often we hear the phrase “dumb bit pipe”. It’s only dumb if it’s constrained.

M2MAPPS: Can you summarize those competences?

MIGUEL BLOCKSTRAND : Sure. Most M2M traffic is asynchronous and small delays are acceptable. However, data coming from e-health and security applications needs to be transported in real time. If information coming from a patient is delayed it might result in a false alarm: if it comes from a security system a break-in might not be detected until it is too late. SLAs (service level agreements) address this issue, but deep packet inspection (DPI) technology can be employed in order to drill down and prioritize the different traffic types. Network operators employ DPI to prioritize VoIP traffic, so this is an established core competence.

M2MAPPS: Ericsson made that 50 billion connected device by 2020 prediction in (whenever). How is it being realized? What are the issues right now?

MIGUEL BLOCKSTRAND : Not an easy question to answer because there are so many factors and the environment is very dynamic. It’s clear that the key enabling technologies for a networked society are in place: ubiquitous connectivity, smart devices, and the ability to integrate smart objects in different applications. And they’re available at the same time as concrete needs from the different stakeholders — people, businesses and society — have emerged. But there are issues: where would be without issues? The biggest is the fact that the market is fragmented and the need to move from vertical application silos and the focus on single applications, by which I mean one device – one application. We need to replicate the horizontal computing model that enables reuse of common components and leverages the benefits of IP and Web technologies. That would allow a truly open market to develop: we’d be able to deploy the different solution components, allow commodity components to be used, and enable easier interconnection with existing applications and Internet services.

M2MAPPS: What is the role of the cloud?

MIGUEL BLOCKSTRAND : It’s pivotal. Cloud-based application enablement services are required to facilitate the integration of IoT resources in applications. These include managed connectivity services, IoT device management and IoT resource management. Resource management includes discovery and directory services, data capture and integration as well as IoT data and event processing. And it’s important that applications can expose their information to others, discover what other resources exist, and control how their own information is distributed further and federated.

M2MAPPS: That sounds like a very tall order.

MIGUEL BLOCKSTRAND : It’s no walk in the park but neither is it rocket science. We have the technology. What’s needed are the ecosystems I mentioned earlier. There are no 800-pound gorillas in M2M. Collaborative efforts by device vendors, application innovators, network operators, infrastructure vendors, cloud service providers, and others are needed to create a realistic business model on which tomorrow’s networked society will be built.