It has been predicted that an incredible six billion people will have a smartphone by 2020. In our pocket, we possess a supercomputer, millions of times more powerful than all of NASA’s combined computing capability during the Apollo space missions, writes Simon Skellon, the vice president of sales at Mitel. (more…)
July 25, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
IoT devices are often built to strive for efficiency. If you remove the huge, power hungry screen of a mobile phone the energy consumption will naturally be lower, write Abilio Marques, a senior software engineer, and Bettina Rubek Slater, the chief operating and chief marketing officer of Pycom, in the second part of their blog. (more…)
July 21, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
The Internet of Things (IoT) revolution is gearing up to dramatically alter various industrial sectors of the economy including manufacturing, healthcare, energy and transportation amongst others, which together account for nearly two-thirds of the global GDP, writes Sukamal Banerjee, the executive vice president of engineering and R&D services at HCL Technologies. (more…)
June 22, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
Among the billions of devices predicted to make up the Internet of Things (IoT), many demand range and mobility that suggest a low-data-rate GSM connection is the ideal M2M data channel, writes Joerg Koepp, market segment manager at Rohde & Schwarz.
2G offers adequate performance and great coverage and reliability, but some operators are keen to turn these off to concentrate resources on their higher-value 3G and 4G subscribers. A press release issued last spring by Ovum analyst Nicole McCormick added an extra dose of uncertainty by suggesting that some might axe their 3G networks first, without suggesting any reprieve for 2G.
Fortunately, GSM standards makers have considered the needs of IoT applications and made provision for machine-type communications (MTC) within the latest LTE Releases, 12 and 13, which are now being finalised. These standards have not been easy to establish, and neither are they extensive, because the types of applications likely to communicate over cellular networks are extremely diverse and have a wide variety of requirements.
Power and cost concerns
To provide broad support, the specifications now emerging are focused on a small number of optimisations. The latest Release 12 document, for example, establishes a Power-Saving Mode (PSM) and a new class of simple, low-cost LTE devices known as Category 0. PSM is especially important for battery-operated devices. Device category 0 addresses the requirement for low cost by having only 50% of the complexity of a category 1 modem.
In PSM the front-end circuitry is turned off, but the device remains registered in the network and so is always ready to send messages. This saves power in applications that must send data periodically, but is not suitable if a fast response or time-critical reaction is required. End-to-end tests are essential for matching the application behaviour to the network behaviour, such as to determine the optimal timer values for idle mode and power-saving mode.
The Category 0 specification supports data rates up to 1Mbps, which allows low-cost LTE modems by minimising processing-power and memory requirements. Manufacturers can also eliminate full duplex mode and multiple antennas, hence saving the requirement for the duplex filters that are otherwise needed to prevent interference between the transmitter and receiver. Some Category 0 devices are already being developed and will probably be introduced in 2016.
More and better
Release 13 is where the march towards LTE for M2M really hits its stride and assumes the title LTE-M. Significant changes including lower uplink/downlink data rates, lower bandwidth and reduced transmit power will all contribute to lowering cost. Further reductions in power consumption are also planned. LTE-M will thus offer a solution for applications with response-time requirements that prevent the use of PSM as provisioned in Release 12.
LTE-M will introduce other techniques to increase range, such as multiple repetitions of data or less stringent time and error requirements. These will be useful for devices that are dispersed over a large geographical area – sensors in agricultural applications, as just one example – or smart meters installed under extreme receive conditions such as in a basement.
Low-Power WAN (LP-WAN) technologies have been presented as alternatives to GSM, as industries seek a future-proof network free of the threats of closure that surround 2G and 3G. Sigfox and LoRa are among the most widely known, while others include Weightless-N and RPMA.
At this point it is worth noting that the GSM Association (GSMA) has launched its own LP-WAN initiative. Infrastructure, modem and chipset manufacturers are currently working on this with mobile service providers. Field trials are under way, and the committee has already put forward a narrowband IoT standard, NB-IoT. NB-IoT aims to ensure extremely low power consumption and costs, while maximising reception in buildings and supporting large numbers of devices with very little data traffic.
Clearly the GSMA has identified tremendous value in the opportunities the IoT can offer for its members, and is working hard to ensure the data from as many of the IoT’s billions of nodes as possible will be carried over GSM networks. We can expect the results of the current initiatives to have a powerful influence on the new 5G standards as these emerge.
June 14, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
The pace of change in the automotive industry is accelerating across a number of areas, from fuel economy and C02 emissions to the age of autonomous driving and the advent of the sharing economy where ride or car sharing is changing how vehicles are made, writes Ian Simmons, the vice president of research and development at Magna International. (more…)
June 10, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
Had Mark Twain been reporting on the rise of the Internet of Things, he might have commented wryly that ‘the reports of its growth have been greatly exaggerated’, writes Carsten BrinkSchulte, the chief executive of Core Network Dynamics. (more…)
June 7, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
From cars to kitchen appliances, warehouse management and agriculture to smarter cities, the pervasive opportunities presented by connected devices and the Internet of Things (IoT) to every imaginable industry are infinite. Even though we are still early in the adoption stages of IoT, there is widespread belief that we are teetering on the edge of an explosion that will make previous technology revolutions – such as the rise of social media – seem like small fry. If you think of the web browser as the first dimension of the internet and mobile the second, then IoT is the third, writes Matt Clarke, the chief technology officer at digital marketing, technology and commerce consultancy Amaze. (more…)
May 23, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
The massive proliferation of threats and the shifting nature of risk were highlighted at the recent WeDo Technologies Worldwide User Group Summit 2016 in Lisbon, Portugal. Among the presentations and discussions at the event, Dr Patrick Dixon, a futurist and founder of Global Change Ltd., examined how threats will alter and why traditional approaches won’t work. George Malim reports from Lisbon. (more…)
May 18, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
The Internet of Things (IoT) has continued to snowball over the past couple of years, and it’s the buzzword that continues to dominate the tech world. It was alarming just how big a focus it was at Mobile World Congress this year, writes Robin Kent, the director of European operations at Adax. (more…)
April 21, 2016
Posted by: George Malim
Cambridge, UK, Taipei City, Taiwan – December 15, 2015 – The Weightless SIG today announced availability of feature-rich Weightless-P technology tailored to deliver on the promises of premium ubiquitous wide area IoT connectivity: fully acknowledged 2-way wireless link, adaptive data rates up to 100kbps, scalable cellular-inspired network technology to deliver higher capacity than existing LPWAN technologies and on unique features.
April 19, 2016
Posted by: IoT global network