Advantech B+B SmartWorx IoT guide for modern M2M

INTERNET OF THINGS GUIDE FOR THE MODERN M2M

INTRODUCTION

INDUSTRIAL IoT ISN'T A DESTINATION;

IT'S A JOURNEY.

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There has been a lot of media buzz about Internet of

Things technology, and it’s not always easy to sort

out what’s really going on. How do you decide which

of these new technologies have real world, industrial

applications, or whether they’re even ready for prime

time yet? Industry doesn’t need flashy consumer

gadgetry; industry needs rugged, reliable tools that

improve processes, increase efficiency and cut costs.

Another industrial concern is preserving the value

of the infrastructure and equipment that is already

in place. Unlike the consumer world, where today’s

exciting new widget is tomorrow’s donation to the

local thrift store, industry needs systems that can do

their jobs for many years.

Industrial IoT products that answer all of these

questions have already begun to appear. They’re

tough enough for industry, and they don’t need

to replace or eliminate existing investments

in equipment and infrastructure. Instead, they

work in tandem with your existing installations

while providing you with new services and new

opportunities. The companies that have begun

implementing these IoT solutions aren't discarding

anything of value. They’re simply adding IoT tech to

the mix and acquiring new capabilities as they go.

IoT technologies will ultimately prove to

be transformational in every industry, from

manufacturing to agriculture. And the process has

already begun. This guide will discuss some of the

ways that IoT tech is currently being put to work,

some of the principles that lie behind it, and some

of the things that industrial IoT can do for you today.

IoT technology presents us with exciting prospects,

but that doesn’t mean that you have to plunge in

without a plan. Every investment in infrastructure

needs a good business case to support it. Will it

build new revenue? Will it provide cost reductions?

Will it provide a competitive advantage, reduce your

risks and potential liabilities, resolve an ongoing

problem, or improve a process?

IoT tech can do all of these things, but the true value

isn't in the new hardware or the new software. The

value comes from the vastly improved ability to

capture, transmit and process data, and to derive

actionable insights very quickly. The star of the

show – always – is the data.

Are you using proprietary automation protocols

designed for “siloed” processing? Keep your existing

equipment. IoT will convert those proprietary

protocols and make your data available to standards-

based IT systems, making your existing installation

interoperable with other technologies. Your raw data

is enriched, made highly portable, and ready to be

put to work in modern enterprise analytics.

Are your legacy systems steadily collecting

large quantities of data, much of which has no

significance? They can continue to do so. IoT

technology will filter the data, aggregate it, and

report only the data that is outside preconfigured

parameters. Your analytics application can then test

local values against configured thresholds and make

appropriate responses.

Is there a form of data that would be valuable to

you, but it isn’t currently available? IoT tech provides

ways to collect new kinds of data, and it places that

data right at your fingertips.

So consider your needs. IoT tech eliminates the

usual cycle of deploy, destroy, and redeploy. It

doesn’t need to replace existing systems; it works in

harmony with them. You can adopt as much – or as

little – IoT tech as makes sense in your own situation.

If better data, quickly delivered to more advanced

software can improve one of your processes, it’s

time to start looking at industrial IoT. If there is

information that you need, but can’t currently

acquire, it’s time. If you don’t have tight control

over resources like power, water, or perishables, it’s

time. If anyone is walking around your plant with a

clipboard to check readouts, or if you’re not receiving

automatic notifications as soon as a problem begins

to develop, it’s time. You don’t need to discard your

existing systems – but it’s likely that you can reap

large rewards by improving them.

HOW DO YOU DECIDE WHEN IT'S TIME TO START

DEPLOYING IoT TECH?

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CONNECTIVITY STARTS AT THE DEVICE.

Industrial IoT doesn’t absolve us of the need to

pay attention to the basics of device connectivity.

Copper wire network infrastructure, for example,

will always be vulnerable to unwanted electrical

transients. Industrial IoT applications will gladly

gather data from devices that communicate via

copper connections, but if an electrical surge

burns out the data port on a remote device, your

sophisticated IoT application at the network core

will be helpless to intervene. Networking tools like

industrial grade isolators and surge protectors may

not be particularly glamorous, but they will remain

as vital to network health as they have ever been.

Like copper infrastructure, wireless connections will

always be subject to the laws of physics. Antennas

will always work better with elevation. Dual-band

Wi-Fi devices will continue to have the advantage

in crowded airspaces. A wireless connection can’t

contribute its data to the IoT application if the signal

isn’t getting through.

Media conversion will remain a key ingredient in

industrial IoT as well. Industrial Iot will combine

fiber, copper and wireless infrastructure, depending

upon what is already in place or what makes the

most sense in a new installation. It will connect and

convert protocols ranging from Modbus and serial

to Ethernet and I/0. All of these connections must

be reliable and resilient. So the crucial network

connectivity pieces like Ethernet switches and fiber

media converters must be reliable and resilient

as well. IoT tech will provide us with exciting new

capabilities and services, but only if it is built upon

solid foundations.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL IoT, AND WHY IS IT BETTER THAN TRADITIONAL SCADA?

Data Silos vs. Interoperability .............................................................................................................................7

New Kinds of Data ...............................................................................................................................................7

Data Availability and Data Exploitation ..............................................................................................................8

Network Intelligence ............................................................................................................................................8

IoT IN ACTION

Section Introduction ............................................................................................................................................9

Creating A Smarter Power Grid With IoT Technology ...................................................................................... 11

How IoT and Agnostic Connectivity Help You Battle Giants ............................................................................13

The Three Key IoT Ingredients For Real Time Analytics And Business Optimization .....................................14

The Inextricable Link Between IoT Connectivity And Big Data .......................................................................16

Achieving Breakthrough Performance .............................................................................................................17

An IoT Solution For The Maritime Olympics. ................................................................................................... 19

TABLE OF CONTENTS CONTINUED >

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

THOUGHT LEADERS

Section Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................20

Swarm Intelligence - Greater Than The Sum Of Its Parts .................................................................................21

Parstream Announces 2015 Predictions For Internet Of Things ......................................................................26

APPLICATIONS

Section Introduction ..........................................................................................................................................27

Smart Internet of Things Technology For Energy Audits ..................................................................................28

Smart Internet of Things Technology For Machine Condition Monitoring ......................................................30

Smart Internet of Things Technology For Flood And Water Level Monitoring ................................................32

Smart Internet of Things Technology For Data Centers ...................................................................................34

Smart Internet of Things Technology For Adaptive Traffic Management ........................................................36

Smart Internet of Things Technology for Mobile Internet ................................................................................38

Low Power Wireless Networks For Smart Irrigation Systems .........................................................................40

Low Power Networks For Smart Parking Systems ..........................................................................................42

Smart Internet of Things Technology for Aggregate Producer ........................................................................44

Smart Internet of Things Technology for Water/Wastewater Monitoring ........................................................46

CONCLUSION

Conclusion .........................................................................................................................................................48

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DATA SILOS VS. INTEROPERABILITY

Many of the “things” that will make up the industrial

Internet of Things already exist. Industry isn’t going

to uproot decades’ worth of data communications

infrastructure simply because newer technologies have

appeared. Instead, IoT tech will communicate with

what is already in place. It will translate old proprietary

protocols where necessary. It will provide appropriate

media conversions for existing infrastructure. No matter

where your data is sourced, or in what format, IoT tech

will make it available to your newest applications.

NEW KINDS OF DATA

Consider an industrial motor. It has no data

communications port and no voice of its own. But

you can equip it with industry standard sensors that

measure parameters like temperature, vibration and

current usage. You can then connect those sensors to IoT

wireless network nodes. The wireless IoT nodes report

the sensor data to your network, where your analytics

application can compare the parameters to past readings

and expected norms, make predictions about potential

problems, and call for preventative maintenance before

small problems become big ones. The motor itself hasn't

changed. But it has now become a network node on the

Internet of Things.

New kinds of sensors will continue to appear. They’ll keep

getting smaller and smarter. More and more devices will

become network nodes. But industrial IoT is agnostic

about the nature of the data source; it simply doesn’t

matter. If the data exists, industrial IoT can put it to work.

WHAT IS INDUSTRIAL IoT, AND WHY IS IT BETTER THAN TRADITIONAL SCADA?

Traditional SCADA systems have tended to be stand-alone systems that send steady streams of raw data to a single endpoint, which may be a PLC, an HMI or a software application. They are good at collecting and transmitting data, but the data still requires human analysis before it can be turned into useful decisions. And because traditional SCADA systems don’t distinguish between data that has value and data that does not – like a temperature parameter that is remaining within desired limits – they generate a lot of unnecessary traffic. Industrial IoT is far more sophisticated.

Let’s look at a few of the differences.

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DATA AVAILABILITY AND DATA EXPLOITATION

Traditional SCADA typically sends data to a single

location. Industrial IoT uses techniques like MQTT publish/

subscribe protocols – call it “Twitter for machines”, if you

like – to make data available to as many applications and

as many locations as needed.

Industrial IoT doesn’t just transmit data. It captures,

processes and stores data in unprecedented quantities,

then mines it for actionable insights.

Better still, industrial IoT can bring together different

kinds of data from disparate sources and derive

insights that no single data set could have supported.

An irrigation system that monitors soil conditions and

knows exactly when to release water is already a big step

up from ordinary SCADA. But an IoT irrigation system

that doesn’t make a decision until it has also checked the

weather report is even better.

NETWORK INTELLIGENCE

Traditional SCADA broadcasts steady streams of data.

But it’s expected that industrial IoT will add billions of

new devices to our networks. If all of these new devices

followed the old model, and they continuously published

every bit of data that they collected, our networks would

be swamped with oceans of unnecessary traffic.

So industrial IoT places far more intelligence out at the

network edge. Autonomous IoT edge devices follow

simple rules and make decisions about what needs to

be transmitted, and when. If a sensor parameter isn’t

exceeding specified limits, for example, and the IoT

analytics application only needs to be alerted when the

parameter exceeds those limits, the IoT edge device will

not transmit.

These, and other techniques, will allow us to add huge

numbers of new devices to our networks. We’ll be able to

expand the network edge to include things and locations

that were formerly out of reach – and we’ll be able to do it

without overburdening our network infrastructure.

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Every company will transition to industrial IoT technologies at its own pace. For some, the benefits are already so clear that they’ve begun the journey. Others will hang back a bit, waiting to see what their options may be. But discussions about industrial IoT technology are no longer the province of pie-in-the-sky futurists. Industrial IoT is real, and it will soon become ubiquitous. Let’s look at a few of the IoT solutions that are already being deployed.

The following article describes how IoT tech lets power utilities seamlessly balance loads across their grids, thus avoiding brownouts and damage to valuable equipment. At times of high demand, backup generators belonging to connected customers will automatically come on line, easing the load on the grid. The customers receive subsidies for allowing their generators to operate this way, and they get to sell any excess power back to the power company. Everybody wins.

CREATING A SMARTER POWER GRID WITH IoT TECHNOLOGY

Competing with the major telcos can be difficult for the Tier 2 and Tier service providers. But the interoperability of IoT tech gives these smaller entities the ability to offer enterprise clients a way to manage connectivity outside of the traditional technology silos. This article describes some of the opportunities that IoT technology enables.

HOW IoT AND AGNOSTIC CONNECTIVITY HELP YOU BATTLE GIANTS

As more and more machines become connected, there is more and more data to sift through. This article describes how that data can be made available anywhere and managed productively by using IoT connectivity and IoT data analytics. IoT tech lets enterprises extract more value from critical capital assets, uncover innovative consumer insights, and improve business practices.

THE THREE KEY IoT INGREDIENTS FOR REAL TIME ANALYTICS AND BUSINESS OPTIMIZATION

IoT tech lets companies gather new kinds of data: information that simply wasn’t available just a decade ago. That means there will be far more data to manage, but it also means that we’ll be able to derive entirely new insights into business processes, and to make far better decisions. The results will be transformational, as decisions will be based upon empirical, rather than anecdotal, evidence.

THE INEXTRICABLE LINK BETWEEN IOT CONNECTIVITY AND BIG DATA

IoT IN ACTION

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When the Maritime Olympics were scheduled to be held in England’s Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbor, the Dorset city council realized that they'd have to upgrade their traffic control systems to handle the huge influx of athletes and spectators. See how Mobius and Vodaphone used IoT tech to improve Real Time Passenger Information Services all across the Midlands district.

AN IoT SOLUTION FOR THE MARITIME OLYMPICS

Plant floor IT managers at Honda automotive facilities in North America used IoT tech to integrate disparate PLCs and multiple proprietary protocols into a single, interoperable network. See how they went about it.

ACHIEVING BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

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”Texas is blessed to have a free-standing and independent power grid, as well as rich natural resources. Unfortunately, even these are not enough to keep up with the increased demand for electric generation. Thankfully, with the help of ILS Technology, we can monitor usage and proactively balance the load to avoid service interruption and damage to mission-critical equipment.“ John Elder, President and CEO

Energy grids can be seriously challenged when demand peaks. If the load isn’t balanced it can lead to brownouts, blackouts and damage to customer

equipment. To eliminate these problems, Acclaim Energy Advisors develops solutions that help utilities manage their grids more efficiently. Recently, working in tandem with ILS Technology, Acclaim developed an IoT solution that manages private emergency generators as if they were part of the larger grid.

The system gives utilities a number of new options. Participating customers with private generators can be automatically moved off the grid if that will useful. (They are rewarded for this, of course.) The customers’ generators can also be switched on and added to the

CREATING A SMARTER POWER GRID WITH IoT TECHNOLOGY

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grid, and the utility can then purchase the electricity. This ability to remotely manage private generators benefits everyone. The customers get a much better return on their investments in private power generating equipment, and the utility’s power distribution system becomes more flexible, more resilient and more reliable.

Acclaim used ILS Technology’s deviceWISE M2M application platform. The deviceWISE platform extracts data from customer devices and equipment and provides the utility with real-time information about power consumption at multiple sites across the entire power grid. This data gives a utility the ability to make highly informed decisions about where and when to add or subtract emergency generators.

Acclaim also started monitoring and analyzing the performance of the individual generators, measuring fuel levels and tracking maintenance records. This was highly valuable intelligence that had not been previously available, and the generator manufacturers gladly pay to be allowed to share the data.

Note that the power grid and the private generating equipment were already in place. The Acclaim Energy Advisors IoT solution didn’t interfere with the existing equipment and systems. It simply improved them.

CREATING A SMARTER POWER GRIDWITH IoT TECHNOLOGY, CONTINUED

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HOW IoT AND AGNOSTIC CONNECTIVITY HELP YOU BATTLE GIANTSBy: Nigel Chadwick, CEO Stream Technologies

Competing with the major telcos has traditionally been difficult for Tier 2 and Tier service providers. But the interoperability of IoT tech gives smaller entities the ability to compete on a level playing field. This opportunity won’t last forever, of course. The big telcos will be forced to move away from their traditional technology silos and adopt IoT tech themselves. But for now, the smaller operators who take advantage of IoT tech are in a position to generate enormous revenue.

Under the old model, connectivity was a major hurdle. Deploying and managing large numbers of devices in geographically disparate locations on a single platform was virtually impossible. But IoT tech is agnostic – it translates older protocols for transport across the Internet and makes virtually any kind of data available anywhere, no matter what the source may be. Smallerservice providers are suddenly in a position to offer

their customers universal connectivity, wherever it may be needed.

The International Data Corporation (IDC) estimates that the IoT market is set to grow to an incredible $7.1 trillion by 2020. Some of the sectors that will be ramping up connected device activation and provisioning over the next several years include Smart Metering, Smart Cities, Digital Signage, Industrial IoT and Telematics. All of these devices will need Internet connectivity, and there is no reason that a smaller operator shouldn’t be the one to provide it.

The next five years will be critical to the smaller carriers, as the IoT market will not grow at this rapid pace forever. The time to stake your claim in the connected device market is now.

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THE THREE KEY IoT INGREDIENTS FOR REAL TIME ANALYTICS AND BUSINESS OPTIMIZATIONBy: Fred Yentz, President and CEO ILS Technology, a Telit company

IoT technology not only makes it possible to collect entirely new kinds of data, it provides connectivity for multiple generations of legacy data networking interfaces, like serial and I/O ports. The end result is a vast data stream that must be managed effectively before enterprises can use it to derive actionable insights and improve business practices.

So IoT hardware connectivity is only the first part of the journey. In order to get the full value out of all of these connections, and all of these live signals, you’ll need an (M2M) application enablement platform (AEP). An AEP serves to facilitate the collection and processing of data from any device, anywhere, and to provide seamless data connectivity and integration -- either directly to the enterprise or to the cloud. This is where my own company’s deviceWISE M2M application platform plays its role. The deviceWISE platform is an off-the-shelf cloud platform that connects enterprise IT systems to the devices and machines out in the field.

After reliable connectivity has been established, and the multiple data streams and data protocols have been translated for transportation across modern TCP/IP systems, you’ll need an analytics application that can make sense of it all. Nowadays you’ll be able to select an IoT application that is natively interoperable with other systems. Interoperability is one of the basic principles of IoT, and it is rapidly turning proprietary solutions into a thing of the past.

One excellent example of an IoT analytics application isSAP HANA, an in-memory, column-oriented, relational

database management system developed and marketed by SAP SE. SAP HANA's architecture is designed to handle both high transaction rates and complex query processing on the same platform. It provides the data analytics that uncover the valuable, actionable business insights, and it will work in seamless harmony with other IoT applications, like our deviceWISE platform. Together, IoT hardware and IoT software open the door to revolutionary opportunities in M2M.

Consider a food processing company, for example. Food production and distribution involves many different steps and stages, and many different kinds of equipment. Yet many food products are perishable, and the consequences of any mishap between production

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and consumption can be quite serious. It is vital to monitor and manage everything from production processes to the fleets of refrigerated vehicles. Yet most food processors operate a large number of disparate assets that are made by different suppliers, use different technical protocols, and are connected via different channels. These assets may be located virtually anywhere, and some – like trucks – are mobile.

IoT hardware will collect and transmit data from all of these assets in real time. An IoT application enablement platform will deliver it to an IoT analytics application.

Any failure, in any part of the food production and distribution system, will be instantly discovered and reported, long before a small problem becomes a catastrophe. At the same time, the enterprise can use their data and data analytics application to improve processes like production scheduling and logistics.

Together, those three key IoT ingredients add up to a recipe for a safe, efficient, profitable food distribution system.

THE THREE KEY IoT INGREDIENTS FOR REAL TIME ANALYTICS AND BUSINESS OPTIMIZATION, CONTINUED

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THE INEXTRICABLE LINK BETWEEN IoT CONNECTIVITY AND BIG DATA By: Niall Strachan, Senior Software Architect

Smart thermostats help homeowners reduce energy costs. Wearable technology helps users track data related to health and fitness. When IoT tech enters the picture, even consumer-oriented gadgetry provides us with new insights and efficiencies.

But consumer IoT is only one part of the story. When IoT tech is applied to industry it lets companies gather and analyze vast quantities of data, much of which would have been completely unavailable just a decade ago, and turn that data into sound business practices. Enterprises can begin basing their decisions on empirical, rather than anecdotal, evidence.

But industrial IoT requires the integration of both new and existing connected devices, much of which may be deployed in inconvenient locations. These assets will use a wide variety of protocols and technologies, some dating back to the earliest days of data networking. For that reason, technology agnostic connectivity enablement platforms will be integral in helping enterprises realize big data’s full potential.

Many companies have already begun the migration to industrial IoT. One excellent example would be the utilities that have begun using smart meters to collect and analyze information about customer usage patterns. This data helps a utility balance the load across the grid, greatly reducing the risk of brownouts, blackouts or damage to connected customer equipment. But if the enterprise can’t connect everything, all across the grid, it is only receiving part of the full data picture. That makes it harder to make accurate predictions and correct decisions.

This is where applications like Stream’s IoT-X platform have their impact on the M2M space. As a technology agnostic connectivity enablement platform, IoT-X can be adopted by any wireless carrier or enterprise seeking a cost effective tool for managing M2M/IoT connections. Your IoT analytics application may be able to use big data to produce astounding value – but the data has to get there first.

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ACHIEVING BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE

Honda manufactures vehicles in numerous plants in North America. As in virtually any industry, new tools and new processes will become available over time, and these changes will need to be integrated with existing systems. Making these kinds of changes in industrial automation systems has traditionally been complicated and time consuming. So Honda brought ILS in to consult about an IoT solution that would make it easier to control and upgrade their manufacturing processes.

When the project began, Honda’s North American automotive facilities were using disparate PLCs from Omron, Rockwell, Mitsubishi and other vendors. Multiple proprietary applications were at work, like the widely used IBM’s DB2 database software, Microsoft’s SQL and Hollis Technologies’ Activplant

for data analytics. Honda had also developed its own manufacturing execution system (MES). The solution worked well, but it was difficult to maintain. Everything that was vertically integrated inside the MES tracking application stack – like the device drivers connecting out to the factory floor, the program logic, configuration, and application interfaces – was custom developed. Additional customization was required every time a new

device was introduced. Additionally, when more advanced tools were added to the system it meant that there would be larger data sets to store and a corresponding increase in the complexity of the analytics systems.

Honda needed a way to increase interoperability between tools and

applications, reduce PLC configuration complexity, improve the ease and speed of upgrades, improve data quality and improve communications between individual factories. The company did not want to have to increase IT staff size to achieve these goals.

Honda started by trying to migrate to a single vendor OPC-based solution. The goal was to reduce the time required to write drivers when new equipment was connected. Unfortunately, even the OPC-based solution still required too much custom coding. It also fell short of delivering the desired improvements in resource utilization. The logic and application integration still had to be written by Honda, the response time was slow, there was data buildup in transit, and the team still had to deal with configuration issues.

So Honda deployed our deviceWISE industrial automation platform. DeviceWISE in an IoT platform that connects and integrates production machines and processes with existing enterprise resource planning

HONDA REDUCES COMPLEXITY AND IMPROVES PROCESSES WITH AN IoT INDUSTRIAL AUTOMATION PLATFORM ILS TECHNOLOGY

Honda Improves Resource Utilization, Reduces Complexity

and Improves Data Quality with ILS Technology’s deviceWISE Industrial

Automation Platform

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(ERP) systems, manufacturing resource planning (MRP) systems and SCADA applications. DeviceWISE runs on multiple platforms (Windows, Linux, AIX, etc.). It uses simple configuration logic and is fully-featured for advanced industrial automation. DeviceWISE let Honda integrate their custom and OPC packages in one common, simple interface.

Honda was now able to simplify the plant device configuration, make the complex business logic buried in the application available to plant devices, remove

complex ladder logic, and use a cheaper platform to write logic. Honda could also store and search the larger data sets without impacting the PLC scan rates. Adding IoT tech to the manufacturing system didn’t force Honda to re-engineer their plants from the ground up. Instead, IoT improved the existing manufacturing processes without interfering with them.

ACHIEVING BREAKTHROUGH PERFORMANCE CONTINUED

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Before England’s Weymouth Bay and Portland Harbor could host the Olympic and Paralympic Sailing competitions, the Dorset City Council knew they’d

have to update the local transportation infrastructure. Nearly 1000 athletes would be arriving from all over the world. Events

would be ticketless, so there was no way to predict how many spectators would attend. The Weymouth town center would be pedestrianized, so visitors would use a park-and-ride system, and most of the visitors would be completely unfamiliar with the region and its public transportation system.

The council needed a traffic control system that would transmit real-time travel information to drivers and passengers through a range of devices, from roadside signs to mobile phones. Examples included:

• Variable message signs to warn drivers of potential issues

• Real-time updates at bus stops to indicate routes and travel times

• Real-time updates – via hands-free mobile devices and digital passenger signs – for drivers, spectators and competitors on coaches travelling from London to Weymouth

• Automatic number plate recognition cameras to identify priority vehicles – such as those carrying athletes – and send location details to the Weymouth-based traffic management team

• Traffic light control, used to alter the frequency of changes and allow specific vehicles to pass

The council had a choice between two connection types: the mobile networks or public mobile radio. At Mobius we’ve been providing integrated mobile data connectivity for a long time. We worked in tandem with Vodaphone to propose a cellular solution. Vodafone’s dedicated machine-to-machine team ran a site survey to assess the region’s existing network and calculate the need for additional masts. Mobius designed an urban traffic management platform that layered an IoT solution on top of the Vodafone network. The traffic management platform would assign an IP address to each device in the traffic management system, such as the bus stop signs, the variable message signs and the cameras. These addresses will allow administrators to send crucial updates to specific devices quickly and easily.

With Vodafone’s support, we demonstrated that IoT tech and the mobile network would be reliable, as well as more cost-effective than radio.

AN IoT SOLUTION FOR THE MARITIME OLYMPICSMOBIUS NETWORKS

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An ant colony uses swarms of very simple creatures to accomplish very sophisticated tasks. Ants build homes, raise their young, forage, store food and protect their queen – yet no single ant is even dimly aware of the colony’s goals. When the same principles are applied to IoT tech, it becomes possible to create incredibly complex and capable network systems. Individual devices don’t need to be expensive, and they don’t need to be capable of performing every task. Instead, each device provides its capabilities to the collective, and as this article’s title suggests, the result is far greater than the sum of its parts.

SWARM INTELLIGENCE - GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

From new job titles to the elimination of many proprietary systems, industrial IoT tech will ultimately change the face of M2M communications. Here are a few of the changes that are just over the horizon.

PARSTREAM ANNOUNCES 2015 PREDICTIONS FOR INTERNET OF THINGS

THOUGHT LEADERS

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SWARM INTELLIGENCETM

GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS

INTRODUCTIONThe power of swarms is readily understood from nature, which is full of examples of relatively simple creatures acting in concert, with each performing its own limited role, achieving remarkable things.

• Termites build massive structures, some reaching tens of feet high, in which the internal temperature is

precisely regulated to within a degree, despite wide external variations often exceeding 40oC.

• Ant colonies have highly efficient foraging strategies in which the motion of each individual is nearly random, but the overall motion of the collective produces search algorithms that some researchers claim are more efficient than those used in Google Maps. In doing this, individual ants collaborate on a massive scale, for example linking together to use their bodies to build a bridge between adjacent plants allowing co-workers to cross the chasm.

• Bees coordinate the activities of different classes of drone, each with its own limited duties, into an ecosystem capable of producing over 60 lbs of honey from a single hive each year.

In each of these cases, none of the individual members of the collective have knowledge of the overall aims of the colony. Instead they individually perform relatively small and simple roles, and it is only when considered in combination that the overall behavior of the colony becomes clear. Indeed, in many cases, the colony can almost be considered as an organism in its own right, exhibiting characteristics not present in the tasks of any individual within it.

A simple way to visualize this is to consider the overall image given by a large flock of birds or shoal of fish, which can often seem to be a completely separate entity in its own right, bearing little or no resemblance to the characteristics or movements of any individual within it. It has taken nature millions of years to evolve these methodologies, but they now appear all around us, so there must be some advantage to operating this way.

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GREATER THAN THE SUM OF ITS PARTS CONTINUED

THE RELEVANCE TO THE INTERNET OF THINGSThe principles underpinning the operation of these collectives in nature also pervade our thinking around the Internet of Things. A fundamental concept within IoT thinking is that the sum of the knowledge embedded within thousands of relatively simple devices and sensors, if efficiently and effectively communicated between nodes and applications, allows the development of ecosystem services producing benefits above and beyond those provided by individual sensors, devices and the closed systems built around them.

The notions of middleware, data brokering and service oriented architectures are well established in IoT thinking when considering enterprise applications and the interface to the underlying device fabrics feeding them. This thinking however neatly avoids the ‘real world’ problems which occur at the edge, where interfaces and protocols are often fixed and proprietary, legacy systems are extremely diverse in terms of data semantics, operational methodology and timing constraints, and future functionality is unknown and often unconsidered.

Even todays best edge devices really only address the needs of data aggregation and filtering within the device itself – essentially acting as concentration points for the edge intelligence – anything below the gateway in the architecture is considered as not IoT enabled, everything above the gateway is fed sanitised data according to the business logic within the gateway. This results in the deployment of devices which are

effectively designed for the individual application, and which then exhibit many of the limitations the IoT was intended to overcome – for example restricted capabilities for expansion, both in terms of processing capabilities and peripheral interfaces. WHAT IS SWARM INTELLIGENCE?SWARM IntelligenceTM is the notion that an edge device does not need to be a single physical device, with implicit limitations on interfaces, resources and expansion, but instead can be a number of discrete physical devices, each contributing its interfaces and processing capabilities to the collective, and with the overall intelligence dispersed within the collective, which can then be considered in architectural and functional terms to act as a single entity.

This approach has several distinct advantages, which can be summarised as follows:

Service model, ontology engine and continuous query language

Wireless cable replacement

Addition of future interfaces & resources

Redundancy

Managed device infrastructure

Each of these characteristics translates directly to a reduction in the total cost of ownership of an edge SWARM compared to other current solutions.

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FIVE WAYS SWARM INTELLIGENCE REDUCES COST OF OWNERSHIP

Service model, ontology engine and continuous query language Conventional edge devices are typically either relatively limited in their programmability providing for example simple scripting support, or require detailed user programming including a high level of familiarity with the device and its underlying hardware and software structure. SWARM devices support both scripting and detailed programming, but dramatically reduce the time and risks involved in business logic development by providing fully rewireable services, coupled to an ontology engine which allows these services to broadcast their capabilities within the SWARM. User programming becomes, to a much greater degree, an exercise in the binding of trusted services and user modules, whilst also allowing for the extension of the available services and modules for inclusion both in the local SWARM, and deployment in other SWARMs

The generation of local business intelligence is further simplified by the provision of an internal continuous query engine, allowing users to filter and enrich underlying data passing through the SWARM by invoking calls using a comprehensive high level query language which includes the concepts of both time and number bound operations.

This combination of features dramatically reduces the time and risk involved in the development and deployment of the business logic, analytics or other user programming required at the edge, in turn shortening the overall time to revenue for systems based on SWARM.

Wireless cable replacementOne of the very obvious areas in which deployment of a SWARM can directly reduce costs is when considering

the integration of remote sensors. In a traditional architecture, where the edge is a single physical device in a single location, significant costs can occur in installing the required cable runs to allow connection of sensors and devices to the edge, especially in environments where this necessarily involves trenching or the deployment of armoured or specialist cables. With a SWARM based system, a physical device is located as close as possible to the sensors and devices to which it connects, requiring only power and network connectivity to join the collective and make its local data available to the SWARM. This characteristic alone can reduce the costs of installing a SWARM based system by tens of thousands of dollars when compared to a conventional architecture.

Addition of future interfaces and resourcesIn traditional edge devices, it is necessary to define the characteristics of the device prior to installation. Choices need to be made about the number and type of physical interfaces to be provided, the bandwidth of the processor, the amount of RAM and persistent storage required etc. Often, this results in more expensive devices than are necessary for the immediate requirement being deployed ‘just in case’ the additional functionality is needed in the future. Once these parameters have been fixed and the device deployed, any change requiring addition to the specified resources will mean at best a modification of the installed device, and more normally its complete replacement with a higher order device. This process incurs costs not only in the physical replacement of the device and the associated reinstallation, but also in the risks involved in porting over user applications to the new platform, and the resulting cost of retest and commissioning of the new device.

A SWARM edge does not suffer from this problem. If a new interface is required above those initially

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provisioned, then a second physical device is simply added to the SWARM. Its resources immediately become available to the collective without affecting any of the existing interfaces, or the applications built upon them. As time progresses, and new classes of device emerge requiring new interface standards, these are built into new devices, which add incrementally to the capabilities of the SWARM.

Similarly, if some business logic or analytics code to be deployed at the edge needs more processing, memory or storage resources than are available within the current SWARM, then additional processing nodes can simply be added, making use of the interfaces and data within the pre-existing SWARM.

This characteristic of the SWARM means that the deployed devices can be sized for the known requirements at the point of deployment, secure in the knowledge that future, unknown requirements can be addressed without risk to the investment made to that point in time. In fact a SWARM device is itself massively scalable, allowing extremely diverse and complicated interfaces to be combined.

RedundancyThe capability to flexibly add interfaces and resources to the SWARM, each exposed via service interfaces, and defined and broadcast within the ontology engine means it is simple to set up strategies to attach business logic to multiple interfaces to provide redundancy of outputs, or x-out-of-y voting on input data. This extends to the use of the communications channels used for the uplinks to the enterprise, building on and adding to the routing capabilities built into each SWARM device. Redundancy need only be added to those interfaces requiring it, dramatically reducing the cost and complexity of implementing this capability when compared to systems requiring duplication of the entire edge.

Managed device infrastructureEach device within the SWARM supports local configuration and management, but more importantly also supports remote management from a central location, dramatically reducing the number of site trips required to maintain an installed system.

The management system provides information concerning the status of connected devices, and allows for the download of user programs to both individual and groups of devices. User programs are deployed in protected containers within the edge devices, with no user program able to negatively impact services, interfaces or programs running outside of its container. This means that, should a user download a program containing bugs, whilst the program itself may crash, the edge device remains operational allowing the user to remotely recover the situation.

In addition to this on-demand capability, SWARM devices also include the ability to support ‘zero touch’ provisioning, automatically contacting a central server to obtain their initial configuration and user modules on initial power up. An unconfigured SWARM device need only be physically wired into place and then switched on to bring it into service. This reduces costs in two ways. Firstly, it reduces the amount of operational spares needed by an organization to support a system. Instead of needing to keep spares for each type of physical device and code configuration used in the field, an organization can simply keep a number of standard SWARM devices on the shelf and substitute them for the device on site without any pre-configuration process. Secondly, it allows deskilling of the installation process. Units can be installed by electrical technicians, without the need for local configuration, application download etc.

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CONCLUSIONThe Internet of Things differs from traditional M2M architectures in that it places interoperability and the sharing of data and resources at the heart of things. In doing so, it offers benefits, widely covered elsewhere, resulting from the provision of new services, avoidance of duplication and discovery of new dependencies.

Architecturally, the IoT sees the edge gateway as a vital component, providing the interface to and conversion of legacy device data, together with a repository for user business logic, and asset based data filtering and enrichment. It is curious therefore that the designs for gateway devices are still based upon the concepts of the past, individual devices providing a fixed set of

interfaces and capabilities, which are neither scalable nor future proof.

SWARM IntelligenceTM provides an alternative to this by providing the concept of an edge device which is itself made up of a number of physically separate devices, each acting in concert to provide the overall functionality required. In doing so, it offers massive scalability, the ability to easily integrate future, as yet undefined, interfaces and devices, including the ability to easily accommodate redundant configurations where required. It can drastically reduce the costs of application development and deployment, installation, commissioning and maintenance at the edge.

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PARSTREAM ANNOUNCES 2015 PREDICTIONS FOR INTERNET OF THINGS

PARSTREAM’S FOUR IoT PREDICTIONSFOR 2015 ARE:

The Rise of the Chief-IoT-Officer: In the not too distant past, there was an emerging technology trend called “eBusiness”. Many CEO’s wanted to accelerate the adoption of eBusiness across various corporate functions, so they appointed a change leader often known as the “VP of eBusiness,” who partnered with functional leaders to help propagate and integrate eBusiness processes and technologies within legacy operations. IoT represents a similar transformational opportunity. As CEO’s start examining the implications of IoT for their business strategy, there will be a push to drive change and move forward faster. A new leader, called the Chief IoT Officer, will emerge as an internal champion to help corporate functions identify the possibilities and accelerate adoption of IoT on a wider scale.

Analytics (especially Edge Analytics) will be a priority for IoT Initiatives: 2014 was about sensors and devices. The initial objectives of many IoT projects was about placing sensors on critical assets such as aircraft engines, cell phone towers, cargo containers, and more to start collecting data from real-time events to drive early operational improvements. 2015 will be about

maximizing value. The attention will quickly shift from “enabling IoT” to truly “generating the full benefits from IoT”. Fast analytics is key in gaining actionable insights from data, and hence, a prerequisite for realizing the full potential of IoT. To drive more business value from IoT, companies will analyze more real-time data and implement new, innovative ways of delivering analytics to the “edge” or source of data.

Platform to Platform Integration Will Drive Relevance: Forrester recently proclaimed “IoT software platforms will become the rage in 2015”. Indeed, many IoT software companies are thinking “platform” rather than just “modules” to help deliver something closer to a “whole offer” for customers. However, an IoT platform’s real value will be driven by its integration with other IoT platforms. The reality is that there is no single, end-to-end IoT platform, which can deliver device management, data aggregation, analytics, visualization, etc. for the breadth of potential IoT use-cases. Hence, the power and value proposition of an IoT platform will be driven by its connection and integration with other complementary IoT platforms.

Industrial/Enterprise IoT Will Take Center Stage in the Media Spotlight: Driven by well-publicized acquisitions (e.g. Google/Nest) and high-profile new products (e.g. Fitbit, Apple Watch, etc.), consumer IoT has received a disproportionate amount of media attention compared to industrial IoT. While consumer IoT will eventually be a huge market, the hype greatly outweighs the near-term reality with respect to adoption. However, the tide is turning and industrial IoT will take the spotlight in 2015 as the media starts to more frequently cover the massive opportunity and traction of enterprise IoT in driving efficiency and creating new business models (e.g. Harvard Business Review’s cover story on IoT in their November 2014 issue).

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There is no single industry that is most appropriate for industrial IoT technologies and applications. IoT tech can transform and improve virtually any process, from manufacturing to parking lot management. Anywhere that data can be collected, the data can be used to make better business decisions. Here are just a few of the myriad of ways in which IoT tech can be put to work to improve processes and enterprise decision making.

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR ENERGY AUDITS

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR MACHINE CONDITION MONITORING

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR FLOOD AND WATER LEVEL MONITORING

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR DATA CENTERS

APPLICATIONS

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR ADAPTIVE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR MOBILE INTERNET

LOW POWER WIRELESS NETWORKS FOR SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR AGGREGATE PRODUCERS

LOW POWER NETWORKS FOR SMART PARKING SYSTEMS

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR WATER/WASTEWATER MONITORING

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SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR ENERGY AUDITS

Electricity is one of the easiest resources to waste. It is typically metered at such a high level that it’s difficult to be sure where it is being consumed, and by what. If you measured power consumption at a discrete level, monitoring each device or process, you wouldn’t be estimating the energy cost of each item produced anymore, or the energy cost of a particular process. You’d know the exact number.

But how do you collect data from so many different locations and provide it to a software application that can make sense of it all? Smart Internet of Things technology makes it simple.

Start with the sensors that measure the current flow. It’s no longer necessary to hardwire each one to a network. Instead, you could use battery-powered sensors on a wireless IEEE 802.15.4e mesh network. IEEE 802.15.4e mesh networks provide redundant routing to the

network gateway, as every node in the IEEE 802.15.4e mesh network has the same routing capabilities. Each node is able to receive data from any other network node that is within range, and to transmit data to any other network node that is within range. If one path to the network gateway fails, the network nodes will reroute through another. No single node represents the only path to the gateway. This makes mesh networks highly scalable, as devices can transmit data over long distances by passing data through intermediate devices to reach more distant ones, and new nodes may be added at any time.

The network gateway doesn’t necessarily need to be hardwired to your network, either. The most useful gateways can connect via wired connections or the cellular data networks, meaning that you can position them anywhere that you can get a cell phone signal.

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Once the data is provided to your controlling computer, or to your cloud application on the Internet, you can combine the collected data with third party inputs to gather valuable insights. If a particular piece of equipment is consuming more power than others of its kind, you’ll know that it’s time for preventative maintenance or a new machine. If a particular process seems to be using an inordinately large amount of power, you’ll have the opportunity to consider alternative methods.

Measuring your power consumption at a discrete level won’t automatically oblige you to discard an inefficient piece of equipment or an inefficient process on the spot. But it will certainly show you where the trouble spots lie. Adding a bit of Internet of Things tech to your existing installation can give you better information, and better information leads to better business decisions.

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR ENERGY AUDITS, CONTINUED

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SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR MACHINE CONDITION MONITORING

Monitoring the condensate conductivity on a boiler can indicate the presence of a cooling water leak long before hydrogen embrittlement of the boiler’s furnace tubes causes it to fail. A current sensor on a power lead can reveal that a machine is beginning to draw more power, indicating that it is beginning to have problems. Measuring the temperature of a pump can allow an operator to shut it down before it is damaged by overheating. Monitoring and measuring very simple parameters in and around a valuable piece of equipment can prolong its useful life while simultaneously slashing maintenance costs and downtime.

Unfortunately, many machines need to do their jobs in locations that make wired data communications and AC power installations impractical. What’s needed is a low-power wireless solution that can extend the network

edge to include those locations while providing “five nines” uptime.

Based on the wireless IEEE 802.15.4e standard, a SmartMesh IP mesh network is an excellent choice, even in harsh, dynamically changing RF environments. SmartMesh IP mesh networks provide redundant routing to the network gateway, as every sensor node in a mesh network serves as a router. Each node can receive data from any other network node that is within range, and transmit data to any other network node that is within range. If one path to the network gateway fails, the network nodes will reroute through another. Devices can transmit data over long distances by passing data through intermediate devices to reach more distant ones, and the network gateway doesn’t need to be within range of very device on the network. This makes SmartMesh IP networks highly scalable.

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Full-featured network gateways can connect via wired connections or the cellular data networks, meaning that you can put them anywhere that you can get a cell phone signal.

Simple Internet of Things technologies like low power wireless mesh networking and cellular network gateways can pay immediate dividends by cutting your maintenance costs and increasing overall productivity.

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR MACHINE CONDITION MONITORING, CONTINUED

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SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR FLOOD AND WATER LEVEL MONITORING

Flooding and excessive rainfall can wreak havoc with indispensable assets and infrastructure. Water treatment plants, for example, are typically near a body of water, and thousands are located on flood plains. By tracking data like rainfall, ground saturation, and upstream water levels, industries and utilities can get early warnings about flooding and take action to protect their customers and equipment.

Many such systems are already in place, and they can be made even more effective with the addition of some smart Internet of Things technologies.

Low-power IEEE 802.15.4e wireless mesh networks, for example, make it possible to create highly scalable networks that can position sensors virtually anywhere. On a IEEE 802.15.4e wireless mesh network, each sensor node has routing capabilities, and data can find its way

to the network gateway via any combination of wireless nodes. That means that the network gateway doesn’t need to be within range of all of the network nodes. If a node is out of range it will just hand off its data to another node, and the process will be repeated until the data reaches the gateway.

The most useful network gateways can connect via either Ethernet or the cellular data networks. That makes it possible to place sensors and Internet gateways in locations that have no access to AC power or wired Ethernet.

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SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR DATA CENTERS

Energy Star reports that turning up the temperature in a data center by just one degree can cut energy costs by 4 to 5 percent. The National Information Technology Center installed in-row cooling and cut energy costs by 21 percent. The Army Corps of Engineers Research and Development updated its chillers, raised the temperature of the water used to cool its hardware, and cut energy costs by 36 percent.

But none of these tactics make sense if implementing them could lead to overheated equipment and equipment failures. They’ll only succeed if they can work in tandem with a low power sensor system that can track ambient temperatures throughout the data center and help the controlling software manage the cooling equipment efficiently.

But installing sensors presents some challenges. Putting in a wired sensor network will have high labor costs.

Installing wireless sensors wouldn’t have the same labor costs, but data centers are a notoriously difficult RF environment for most wireless technologies. The large numbers of reflective surfaces cause too much multipath fading.

There is, however, a smart Internet of Things solution: a battery-powered, wireless, IEEE 802.15.4e mesh sensor network. Ultra low power IEEE 802.15.4e wireless sensors don’t noticeably increase energy costs or contribute to a rise in ambient temperature. And, being wireless, they’re easy to deploy.

Wireless IEEE 802.15.4e mesh networks deal with multipath fading by giving every node on the network routing and channel hopping capabilities. Any node on a mesh network can receive data from any other node that is within range, and transmit data to any other network node that is within range. Nodes can

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find multiple routes to the gateway. If one path to the network gateway fails, the network nodes will simply reroute through another. If one RF channel isn’t working, the nodes will use another. Devices can be transmitted over long distances by passing data through intermediate devices to reach more distant ones, and every node can communicate with the network gateway, either directly or through other network nodes. This technique gives the network five nines uptime and makes it highly scalable.

Once the data is provided to your controlling computer, or to your cloud application on the Internet, your software can turn individual chillers and other cooling equipment on or off as needed. The energy savings add up quickly, and you don’t have to put your servers at risk.

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR DATA CENTERS, CONTINUED

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SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR ADAPTIVE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT

The traffic experts at INRIX report that British drivers spend 30 hours per year in traffic jams. For German drivers it’s 35 hours. In the USA, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency says that 30 percent of the city’s traffic congestion is caused by drivers looking for a place to park. And the Texas Transportation Institute estimates the annual cost of traffic congestion in the United States alone adds up to $87.2 billion in wasted fuel and lost productivity. Much of this congestion could be addressed with smart Internet of Things technologies that already exist.

Start with San Francisco’s parking problem. What if you placed a sensor in each parking space? The sensors wouldn’t need much power, as they’d only need to transmit when there was a change in a parking space’s status. Small lithium battery would do the job for many years before needing to be replaced. The sensors wouldn’t require enormous bandwidth, either, so there

would be no need for wired connections. You’d want “five nines” uptime, of course, and a network that was resilient enough to be reliable in unpredictable RF environments. This would be a perfect application for a low power, wireless IEEE 802.15.4e mesh network.

On a wireless mesh sensor network, each sensor node has routing capabilities, and data can find its way to the network gateway via any combination of network nodes. That means that the network gateway wouldn’t need to be within wireless range of all of the parking space sensors. A node that was out of range would simply transmit its data to another node, and the process would be repeated until the data reached the network gateway. The gateway would report the data to a controlling computer, or to a cloud application on the Internet, and drivers could access that data in real time. Rather than seeking for empty parking spaces, drivers would know exactly where to go.

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Mesh topology is one of the ways that wireless IEEE 802.15.4e networks can address radio interference. Individual nodes can be temporarily blocked without affecting the overall health of the network. But a wireless IEEE 802.15.4e network can also use channel hopping to seek out the best available connections and to avoid the channels that work poorly in the local RF environment.

The most useful network gateways can connect via either Ethernet or the cellular data networks. That makes

it possible to place sensors and Internet gateways anywhere there’s cell phone service, even if wired Ethernet connections are not available.

In an adaptive traffic application, the same gateway that connected a sensor mesh network to the Internet could also provide Internet connections for wired devices like traffic cameras, digital signage and traffic signals. The traffic management system would be able to alter traffic signal patterns, provide drivers with information and alerts, and manage traffic in real time.

SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR ADAPTIVE TRAFFIC MANAGEMENT, CONTINUED

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SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR MOBILE INTERNET

First responders and emergency personnel are more effective when they have Internet access. Fleet managers want to be able to monitor and deploy their trucks and delivery vans more efficiently. Passengers on public transportation are beginning to expect Internet access for their tablets, laptops and smartphones. So how do you provide secure, reliable, Internet connectivity for large numbers of devices that are in a constant state of motion?

Today’s IoT cellular routers can connect virtually any piece of equipment that may be mounted in a vehicle, whether the required interface is Ethernet, serial, I/O or USB. The routers can simultaneously create Wi-Fi

hotspots for equipment that isn’t permanently mounted. Some IoT cellular routers even incorporate dual SIM card ports, allowing the routers to connect to whichever cellular technology provides the best connectivity in the area, be it CDMA, GPRS, EDGE, 3G, UMTS, HSPA +, or LTE. If the current connection becomes problematic, the router automatically finds an alternative, and this is transparent to the connected devices. Internet connectivity is made available anywhere there’s cellular infrastructure, wherever the vehicle may roam.

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INTERNET

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LOW POWER WIRELESS NETWORKS FOR SMART IRRIGATION SYSTEMS

It’s estimated that as much as 50 percent of irrigation water is wasted due to evaporation or runoff. This happens because most irrigation systems still rely upon simple timers. But thanks to a few Internet of Things technologies there is now a better way.

“Smart” irrigation systems can now monitor soil conditions in real time with low power, wireless sensor networks. The wireless sensor networks report the data to a central network gateway, and the network gateway sends the data to your computer. If you are using Internet cloud applications your gateway can send the data there as well. The most useful gateways have the ability to connect via both wired and cellular data connections, so that you can position them just about anywhere.

Your software, whether it’s on your local computer or part of a cloud service in the Internet, can then combine your data with third party inputs like weather reports from national weather services. That lets your system make intelligent decisions about where and when to release water, and in what quantities. If no rain was predicted the system could decide to release water immediately. But if rain was in the forecast the system could wait, measure the results, and recalculate.

There’s no need to discard your existing pipes and pumps, of course. Adding a bit of Internet of Things tech to the mix doesn’t make your existing equipment obsolete; it just makes it smarter.

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LOW POWER NETWORKS FOR SMART PARKING SYSTEMS

Parking systems can run up a lot of unnecessary expenses. Illumination should only be provided in areas where humans are actually present. Power hungry ventilation fans should shut down when vehicle emissions are well within safe levels. Running power and data lines to every sensor in the system is rarely going to be the optimal network topology. What if you could resolve these problems with some smart Internet of Things technologies?

Consider sensors like gas detectors, which really only need to report to the network when specified parameters are exceeded. Their bandwidth and power needs are quite small. If they’re smart enough to know when to report and when to sleep, there’s no reason they can’t be battery-powered and wireless. That opens the door to some intriguing possibilities.

What if your low power sensors were part of a IEEE 802.15.4e wireless mesh network? Every wireless node on a IEEE 802.15.4e mesh network has routing

capabilities, so data can travel to the network gateway via any combination of nodes. If one path is blocked, the network will simply find another. This means that network gateway doesn’t need to be within range of every node on the network, making the network incredibly scalable.

The most useful network gateways can connect to your computer, or to your cloud applications on the Internet, via both wired and cellular data connections. That means you can put your gateways just about anywhere. Parking system network gateways are often placed at locations like entrances and exits. There they can connect to the wireless mesh network as well as nearby wired devices like security cameras, card readers and digital signage. The gateway then connects the entire system to your controlling software, whether your software is on your computer or up in the cloud. Thanks to VPN tunneling, even cellular data connections are as secure as proprietary infrastructure.

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SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR AGGREGATE PRODUCER

Aggregate producers depend upon conveyor systems to move large quantities of rock. The conveyors are driven by large, expensive motors. If even one of those motors breaks down, production comes to a halt and rock piles up in undesirable locations. Replacing a motor can cost more than $20,000, and a company can lose business if aggregate is not produced according to a tight schedule. Road construction can’t wait.

Motors don’t normally have data ports, so a motor can’t report the data that would help a producer prioritize and optimize maintenance resources, thus preventing major breakdowns. Yet there are simple sensor parameters that predict motor health, like vibration, temperature and current. Changes in any of those data sets will indicate that a motor needs attention before things get out of hand.

IoT technology can give a motor its own voice, even though the motor has no data port. Equipping the

motor with industry standard vibration, temperature and current sensors, and providing those sensors with network connectivity lays the groundwork for a real time, condition based monitoring (CBM) system that allows maintenance staff to take action before failures occur.

Connectivity for the sensors can be created by connecting them to wireless IoT nodes that employ wireless mesh networking to publish the sensor data to a network gateway. The network gateway then provides Internet connectivity via either the cellular data networks or wired Ethernet infrastructure, with automatic failover. All of the wireless IoT nodes have routing capabilities, so they can pass data to any node that is within range of the network gateway. This not only makes the mesh network highly scalable, it provides for “five nines” uptime.

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Ethernet

CellularNetwork

SMARTSENSINGFOR ANAGGREGATEPRODUCER

Spectre Cellular/Ethernet Gateway

Wzzard Inteligent Edge Nodes/Wireless Smartmesh IP Sensor Network

Data andAutomatic Alerts

• 4-20 mA current monitor sensor detects power spikes

• 4-20 mA vibration monitor detects bearing wear

• Thermocouple temp monitor detects heat-related wear

VibrationTemperature

Current


Current


Current

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SMART INTERNET OF THINGS TECHNOLOGY FOR WATER/WASTEWATER MONITORING

Water/wastewater treatment plants needed to monitor data from remote sensors like level sensors and flow meters. The distances involved tend to be quite large, as a typical treatment plant includes numerous ponds and tanks. But wired SCADA systems become problematic as they age, making data errors and data loss increasingly frequent events. Replacing these wired systems would be very expensive, but budgets are shrinking just as compliance regulations are becoming more strict. What can a plant operator do to maintain reliable data connectivity at a manageable price?

IoT technology has the answer, and there is no need to replace existing sensors or to retrofit any existing equipment. Simply attaching IoT wireless mesh

network nodes to the existing sensors makes their data portable. The wireless nodes form a mesh network that communicates with a network gateway. The network gateway can use wired or cellular connections to connect with the Internet. The sensor data becomes available to all of the plant operator’s applications, wherever they may be. It’s actually that simple.

And because all of the wireless nodes have routing capabilities, they can pass data to any node that is within range of the network gateway. This not only makes the mesh network highly scalable, it provides for “five nines” uptime.

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Ethernet

CellularNetwork

SMARTSENSINGFORWATERTREATMENT

Spectre Cellular/Ethernet Gateway

Wzzard Inteligent Edge Nodes/Wireless Smartmesh IP Sensor Network

Pressure

Temperature

Susp. Solids

Flow

Oxygen

Current

Data andAutomatic Alerts

VibrationLevel

Level

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CONCLUSIONIndustrial IoT is the close integration of the industrial and digital worlds. By combining industrial

infrastructure with advanced computing, analytics, low-cost sensing and new Internet connectivity options,

industrial IoT is already reducing costs while increasing efficiencies, worker productivity and profits.

And this is only the beginning.

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Documents

Advantech B+B SmartWorx IoT guide for modern M2M