2015 brought with it much conversation around the Internet of Things, writes Brian Foster the senior vice president of information services at Neustar. The mainstream conversation around mass connectivity developed from being a personal fad to a genuinely credible approach to effective business management – but for many the idea of IoT for the enterprise is old hat. (more…)

July 18, 2016

Posted by: George Malim

The market for the Internet of Things (IoT) in healthcare is predicted to hit $117 billion by 2020. While there are numerous benefits of embracing the adoption of IoT in healthcare, such as improved efficiencies, cost savings and enhanced patient experience, it can also bring issues of security to the forefront, writes David Kleidermacher, the chief security officer at BlackBerry. (more…)

July 13, 2016

Posted by: George Malim

It’s easy to see why Gartner predicts 2016 will be the year we see 6.4 billion connected things in use: the ability to operate devices remotely opens the door to a whole range of opportunities for businesses to bring an innovative service to their customers. The smartphone most of us have at hand almost every waking moment ensuring we never have to enter an unlit home or shiver in an unheated car are just the tip of the iceberg, writes Bryan Kirschner, a director at Apigee Institute. (more…)

July 12, 2016

Posted by: George Malim

The networks that support the Internet of Things (IoT) rely on connections between a huge number of different devices, platforms and tools in order to function. The basic building blocks within these applications are the application programming interfaces (APIs) that are used to make the IoT work, writes Rami Essaid, the chief executive at Distil Networks. (more…)

July 11, 2016

Posted by: George Malim

To many people, the Internet of Things (IoT) still sounds rather futuristic. However, it is already here and improving lives on a global scale. In 2015, Business Insider reported 10 billion devices were connected to the internet, with the prediction of this figure to increase by 28% to 34 billion devices by 2020, writes Jess Thompson-Hughes, the vice president of PayGo and partner solutions at Eseye. (more…)

July 1, 2016

Posted by: George Malim

The Internet of Things (IoT) is booming. Research released by Gartner suggests that the number of connected things will grow by 30% to 6.4 billion in the next 12 months – at a rate of 5.5 million per day. If there was any doubt that IoT is merely a product of overblown hype and speculation, this is certainly changing. 2016 is the year that IoT means business, writes Mike Laven, the chief executive of Currency Cloud. (more…)

June 23, 2016

Posted by: George Malim

At the heart of the Internet of Things are connectivity and the ability for the device to interact with other devices.  Yet, so many companies out there are developing so-called IoT devices with closed or proprietary components or make them dependent on captive cloud services to provide any real value to the consumer, writes Cesare Garlati, the chief secuirty strategist at the prpl Foundation.  (more…)

June 21, 2016

Posted by: George Malim

As the Internet of Things widens its wings and becomes increasingly sophisticated it is helping businesses and professionals in all manner of industries to redefine and reshape their communications and customer service models, writes Dr. Natasha Tamaskar, the vice president and head of cloud and mobile strategy and ecosystem at Genband. (more…)

June 20, 2016

Posted by: George Malim

Today, businesses around the world in industries as diverse as agriculture, healthcare, robotics, transportation, utilities and more are demonstrating that the Internet of Things (IoT) is more than just hype by putting connectivity at the heart of their business strategies, writes Sanjay Khatri, the head of global product marketing for IoT cloud at Cisco Jasper. (more…)

June 16, 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