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The Internet of Things

What the blummin’ heck is IoT ?

Despite some experts calling the Internet of Things (IoT) the 4th Industrial Revolution, a mind blowing 87% of people have no idea what it is.

The term “the Internet of things” was coined by Kevin Ashton of Procter & Gamble, later MIT’s Auto-ID Center, in 1999.

Well, it’s a bit like the Internet that you know and love, but on a massive scale. IoT is about connecting more devices to the internet. Developers are adding the means to connect not only our smartphones and tablets to the web but also our appliances, cars, bins and even clothing.

Things, in the IoT sense, can refer to a wide variety of devices such as heart monitoring implants, biochip transponders on farm animals, cameras streaming live feeds of wild animals in coastal waters, automobiles with built-in sensors, DNA analysis devices for environmental/food/pathogen monitoring, or field operation devices that assist firefighters in search and rescue operations. Okay, so imagine a world where you could check and order the contents of your refrigerator from your smartphone, or own an appliance that automatically requested a service when it brakes down. These ideas barely scratch surface of what will be possible. In this connected era, anything that has a microchip will most likely connect to the internet.

The Internet of Things - The Connected World

IoT promises to make our global society more efficient and productive connected world than we ever thought possible.

LoRa

What is LoRa ?

LoRa

A Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) or Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) network or Long range (LoRa) or Low-Power Network (LPN) is a type of wireless telecommunication wide area network designed to allow long range communications at a low bit rate among things (connected objects), such as sensors operated on a battery. The low power, low bit rate and intended use distinguish this type of network from a wireless WAN that is designed to connect users or businesses, and carry more data, using more power. The LPWAN datarate ranges from 0.3 kb/s to 50 kb/s per channel.

A LPWAN may be used to create a private wireless sensor network, but may also be a service or infrastructure offered by a third party, allowing the owners of sensors to deploy them in the field without investing in gateway technology.

LoRaWAN is a media access control layer protocol for managing communication between LPWAN gateways and end-node devices, maintained by the LoRa Alliance. Version 1.0 of the LoRaWAN specification was released in June 2015.

LoRa is a proprietary, chirp spread spectrum (CSS) radio modulation technology for LPWAN used by LoRaWAN, Haystack Technologies, and Symphony Link.

LoRa is a patented (EP2763321 from 2013 and US7791415 from 2008) technology developed by Cycleo (Grenoble, France) and acquired by Semtech in 2012. LoRa uses license-free sub-gigahertz radio frequency bands like 169 MHz, 433 MHz, 868 MHz (Europe) and 915 MHz (North America).

On top of this physical layer, there are two main competing protocols:

LoRaWAN defines the communication protocol and system architecture for the network while the LoRa physical layer enables the long-range communication link. LoRaWAN is also responsible managing the communication frequencies, data rate, and power for all devices. Devices in the network are asynchronous and transmit when they have data available to send. Data transmitted by an end-node device is received by multiple gateways, which forward the data packets to a centralized network server. The network server filters duplicate packets, performs security checks, and manages the network. Data is then forwarded to application servers. The technology shows high reliability for the moderate load, however it has some performance issues related to sending acknowledgements.

UNB, Ultra Narrow Band, modulation technology used for LPWAN by various companies including:

Sigfox, UNB-based technology and French company Telensa
NB-IoT, another narrow band standard initiated and completed by 3gpp with their release 13 of the series of IoT standardizations
Nwave, proprietary technology developed in cooperation with MIT. Its first release without error correcting codes also forms the basis of the Weightless-N open protocol
Weightless, a set of communication standards from the Weightless SIG

Sigfox

What is Sigfox ?

Sigfox

Sigfox is a French company founded in 2009 that builds wireless networks to connect low-energy objects such as electricity meters, smartwatches, and washing machines, which need to be continuously on and emitting small amounts of data.

Sigfox is based in Labège near Toulouse, France, and has over 80 employees. The firm also has offices in Madrid, San Francisco, Sydney and Paris.

Sigfox employs a proprietary technology that enables communication using the Industrial, Scientific and Medical ISM radio band which uses 868MHz in Europe and 902MHz in the US. It utilizes a wide-reaching signal that passes freely through solid objects, called “ultra narrowband” and requires little energy, being termed “Low-power Wide-area network (LPWAN)”. The network is based on one-hop star topology and requires a mobile operator to carry the generated traffic. The signal can also be used to easily cover large areas and to reach underground objects.

Sigfox has partnered with a number of firms in the LPWAN industry such as Texas Instruments, Silicon Labs and ON Semiconductor. The ISM radio bands support limited bidirectional communication. The existing standard for Sigfox communications supports up to 140 uplink messages a day, each of which can carry a payload of 12 Bytes (Excluding message header and transmission information) and up to 4 downlink messages per day, each of which can carry a payload of 8 Bytes.

NarrowBand IOT

What is NarrowBand IOT ?

NarrowBand IOT

NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) radio technology standard developed to enable a wide range of devices and services to be connected using cellular telecommunications bands. NB-IoT is a narrowband radio technology designed for the Internet of Things (IoT) and is one of a range of Mobile IoT (MIoT) technologies standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).

Other 3GPP IoT technologies include eMTC (enhanced Machine-Type Communication) and EC-GSM-IoT.

The NB-IoT specification was frozen at Release 13 of the 3GPP specification (LTE-Advanced Pro), in June 2016.

NB-IoT focuses specifically on indoor coverage, low cost, long battery life, and enabling a large number of connected devices. The NB-IoT technology is deployed “in-band” in spectrum allocated to Long Term Evolution (LTE) – using resource blocks within a normal LTE carrier, or in the unused resource blocks within a LTE carrier’s guard-band – or “standalone” for deployments in dedicated spectrum. It is also suitable for the re-farming of GSM spectrum.

Zigbee

What is Zigbee ?

Zigbee

Zigbee is an IEEE 802.15.4-based specification for a suite of high-level communication protocols used to create personal area networks with small, low-power digital radios, such as for home automation, medical device data collection, and other low-power low-bandwidth needs, designed for small scale projects which need wireless connection. Hence, Zigbee is a low-power, low data rate, and close proximity (i.e., personal area) wireless ad hoc network.

The technology defined by the Zigbee specification is intended to be simpler and less expensive than other wireless personal area networks (WPANs), such as Bluetooth or more general wireless networking such as Wi-Fi. Applications include wireless light switches, home energy monitors, traffic management systems, and other consumer and industrial equipment that requires short-range low-rate wireless data transfer.

Its low power consumption limits transmission distances to 10–100 meters line-of-sight, depending on power output and environmental characteristics. Zigbee devices can transmit data over long distances by passing data through a mesh network of intermediate devices to reach more distant ones. Zigbee is typically used in low data rate applications that require long battery life and secure networking (Zigbee networks are secured by 128 bit symmetric encryption keys.) Zigbee has a defined rate of 250 kbit/s, best suited for intermittent data transmissions from a sensor or input device.

Zigbee was conceived in 1998, standardized in 2003, and revised in 2006. The name refers to the waggle dance of honey bees after their return to the beehive.

LTE

What is LTE ?

Long-Term Evolution (LTE)

LTE, or Long-Term Evolution is a standard for high-speed wireless communication for mobile devices and data terminals, based on the GSM/EDGE and UMTS/HSPA technologies. It increases the capacity and speed using a different radio interface together with core network improvements.

The standard is developed by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and is specified in its Release 8 document series, with minor enhancements described in Release 9. LTE is the upgrade path for carriers with both GSM/UMTS networks and CDMA2000 networks. The different LTE frequencies and bands used in different countries mean that only multi-band phones are able to use LTE in all countries where it is supported.

LTE is commonly marketed as 4G LTE, but it does not meet the technical criteria of a 4G wireless service, as specified in the 3GPP Release 8 and 9 document series, for LTE Advanced. The requirements were originally set forth by the ITU-R organization in the IMT Advanced specification. However, due to marketing pressures and the significant advancements that WiMAX, Evolved High Speed Packet Access and LTE bring to the original 3G technologies, ITU later decided that LTE together with the aforementioned technologies can be called 4G technologies. The LTE Advanced standard formally satisfies the ITU-R requirements to be considered IMT-Advanced. To differentiate LTE Advanced and WiMAX-Advanced from current 4G technologies, ITU has defined them as “True 4G”.

Ingenu

What is Ingenu ?

Ingenu

Ingenu, formerly known as On-Ramp Wireless, is a provider of wireless networks. The company focuses on machine to machine (M2M) communication by enabling devices to become Internet of Things (IoT) devices.

Ingenu was founded in 2008 as On-Ramp Wireless; by the end of 2014, it was valued at $72 million according to data from PitchBook. On September 1, 2010, the World Economic Forum announced the company as a Technology Pioneer for 2011. On April 4, 2011, Bloomberg announced the company as a 2011 New Energy Pioneer.

The company was renamed to Ingenu in September 2015. Initially the company focused on utilities, but in 2012 expanded to the gas and oil verticals. The Ingenu brand launch in September 2015 coincided with the announcement of the Machine Network, Ingenu’s public network dedicated to machine connectivity.
Technology

Using the free 2.4 GHz ISM bands, Ingenu’s hardware has been tested at over a 30-mile range in the 2.4 GHz free ISM band while maintaining low power operation. It is optimized for robustness, range and capacity.

Weightless

What is Weightless ?

Weightless

Weightless a set of LPWAN open wireless technology standards for exchanging data between a base station and thousands of machines around it. These technologies allow developers to build Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN).

There are currently three published Weightless connectivity standards Weightless-P, Weightless-N and Weightless-W. Weightless-N is an uplink only, ultra narrow band technology operating in licence exempt sub 1GHz spectrum in what is commonly known as the Industrial, Scientific and Medical (ISM) bands. In Europe this includes a range of frequencies around 868MHz; in North America around 915MHz. Weightless W is a low power wide area network designed to operate in the TV whitespace. Weightless-P is the main focus of the Weightless SIG as it is a truly bi-directional, narrowband technology that can operate in both license and unlicensed frequencies.

Weightless is managed by the Weightless SIG, or Special Interest Group, which was revealed to the public on 7 December 2012. An inaugural event for industry was held at the Moller Centre in Cambridge, UK by Cambridge Wireless on Friday, 30 September 2011. Representatives – mainly engineers – from many companies from around the world attended. Presentations were given by Neul, Landis+Gyr, Cable & Wireless, and ARM.

The intention is that devices must be qualified by the Weightless Special Interest Group to standards defined by the SIG. Patents would only be licensed to those qualifying devices; thus the protocol, whilst open, may be regarded as proprietary.

Wi-Fi

What is Wi-Fi ?

Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi or WiFi is a technology for wireless local area networking with devices based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. Wi-Fi is a trademark of the Wi-Fi Alliance, which restricts the use of the term Wi-Fi Certified to products that successfully complete interoperability certification testing.

Devices that can use Wi-Fi technology include personal computers, video-game consoles, phones and tablets, digital cameras, smart TVs, digital audio players and modern printers. Wi-Fi compatible devices can connect to the Internet via a WLAN and a wireless access point. Such an access point (or hotspot) has a range of about 20 meters (66 feet) indoors and a greater range outdoors. Hotspot coverage can be as small as a single room with walls that block radio waves, or as large as many square kilometres achieved by using multiple overlapping access points.

Depiction of a device sending information wirelessly to another device, both connected to the local network, in order to print a document.

Wi-Fi most commonly uses the 2.4 gigahertz (12 cm) UHF and 5.8 gigahertz (5 cm) SHF ISM radio bands. Anyone within range with a wireless modem can attempt to access the network; because of this, Wi-Fi is more vulnerable to attack (called eavesdropping) than wired networks.

Bluetooth

What is Bluetooth ?

Bluetooth

Bluetooth is a wireless technology standard for exchanging data over short distances (using short-wavelength UHF radio waves in the ISM band from 2.4 to 2.485 GHz[3]) from fixed and mobile devices, and building personal area networks (PANs). Invented by telecom vendor Ericsson in 1994,[4] it was originally conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables.

Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG), which has more than 30,000 member companies in the areas of telecommunication, computing, networking, and consumer electronics. The IEEE standardized Bluetooth as IEEE 802.15.1, but no longer maintains the standard. The Bluetooth SIG oversees development of the specification, manages the qualification program, and protects the trademarks. A manufacturer must meet Bluetooth SIG standards to market it as a Bluetooth device. A network of patents apply to the technology, which are licensed to individual qualifying devices.

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The Internet of Things

What the blummin’ heck is IoT ?

LoRa

What is LoRa ?

On top of this physical layer, there are two main competing protocols:

Sigfox

What is Sigfox ?

NarrowBand IOT

What is NarrowBand IOT ?

Zigbee

What is Zigbee ?

LTE

What is LTE ?

Ingenu

What is Ingenu ?

Weightless

What is Weightless ?

Wi-Fi

What is Wi-Fi ?

Bluetooth

What is Bluetooth ?

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