Mobile infrastructure must catch up with user needs and demands. Ubiquitous mobile computing is all around us. Some time in the next six months, the number of smartphones on earth will pass the number of PCs. As the power and capability of many mobile devices increases, the increased demand on networks. We watch more videos, and listen to music on our phones. Mobile Data Traffic To Grow 300% Globally By 2017 Led By Video, Web Use. Mobile network operators would have had an easier life if it wasn’t for smartphones and the flood of data traffic they initiated, and soon there will be also very many Internet of Things devices. Businesses and consumers want more bandwidth for less money.
More and more network bandwidth is being used by video: Netflix And YouTube Account For Over 50% Of Peak Fixed Network Data In North America. Netflix remains the biggest pig in the broadband python, representing 31.6% of all downstream Internet traffic in North America during primetime. In other parts of the world, YouTube is the biggest consumer of bandwidth. In Europe, YouTube represented of 28.7% of downstream traffic.
Gartner: Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2014 expects that Software Defined Anything is a new mega-trend in data centers. Software-defined anything (SDx) is defined by “improved standards for infrastructure programmability and data center interoperability driven by automation inherent to cloud computing, DevOps and fast infrastructure provisioning.” Dominant vendors in a given sector of an infrastructure-type may elect not to follow standards that increase competition and lower margins, but end-customer will benefit from simplicity, cost reduction opportunities, and the possibility for consolidation. More hype around Software-Defined-Everything will keep the marketeers and the marchitecture specialists well employed for the next twelve months but don’t expect anything radical.
Software defined technologies are coming quickly to telecom operator networks with Network Functions Virtualisation (NFV). Intel and rather a lot of telcos want networks to operate like data centres. Today’s networks are mostly based around proprietary boxes designed to do very specific jobs. It used to be that way in the server business too until cheap generic x86 boxes took most of the market. The idea in NFV is that low-cost x86 servers can successfully many of those those pricey proprietary boxes currently attached to base-stations and other parts of the network. This scents a shift in the mood of the telcos themselves. This change is one that they want, and rather a lot of them are working together to make it happen. So the future mobile network will have more and more x86 and ARM based generic computing boxes running on Linux.
With the introduction of Network Functions Virtualisation base stations will have new functions built into them. For example NSN has announced a mobile edge computing platform that enables mobile base stations to host data and run apps. Think of this as an internet cloud server that’s really close to the customer.
Hybrid Cloud and IT as Service Broker are talked about. Telecom companies and cloud service providers are selling together service packages that have both connectivity and cloud storage sold as single service. Gartner suggests that bringing together personal clouds and external private cloud services is essential.
The type of device one has will be less important, as the personal or public cloud takes over some of the role. The push for more personal cloud technologies will lead to a shift toward services and away from devices, but there are also cases where where there is a great incentive to exploit the intelligence and storage of the client device. Gartner suggests that now through 2018, a variety of devices, user contexts, and interaction paradigms will make “everything everywhere” strategies unachievable, although many would like to see this working.
“Internet of Things” gets more push. The Internet is expanding into enterprise assets and consumer items such as cars and televisions. The concept of “Internet of Things” will evolve a step toward The Internet of Everything. Gartner identifies four basic usage models that are emerging: Manage, Monetize, Operate, Extend. The Internet of Things (IoT) will evolve into the Web of Things, increasing the coordination between things in the real world and their counterparts on the Web. The Industrial Internet of Things will be talked about. IoT takes advantage of mobile devices’ and sensors’ ability to observe and monitor their environments
Car of the future is M2M-ready and has Ethernet. Many manufacturers taking an additional step to develop vehicle connectivity. One such example is the European Commission’s emergency eCall system, which is on target for installation in every new car by 2015.
Smart Home Systems Are on the Rise article tells that most automated technology is found in commercial buildings that feature automated lighting that changes in intensity depending on the amount of sunlight present. Some of these buildings have WiFi incorporated into their lighting systems. There will be new and affordable technology on the market, but people today are still reluctant to bring automation to their homes.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
UK to clear 700MHz spectrum for mobile broadband use by 2022
https://gigaom.com/2014/11/19/uk-to-clear-700mhz-spectrum-for-mobile-broadband-use-by-2022/
As expected, the British telecommunications regulator Ofcom has decided to free up spectrum in the 700MHz for mobile broadband use. Already used for 4G/LTE in the U.S. and Asia, this spectrum is great for long-range deployments and providing in-building coverage, and it’s a couple of years since an EU-level report recommended freeing it up across Europe.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HDS: Storage? Pah! We’re working on a SMART CITY OPERATING SYSTEM
Converged, hyperscale Internet of Things and smart cities rig
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/19/hds_working_on_hyperscale_converged_iot_and_smart_cities_rig/
Hitachi Data Systems (HDS) is working on two projects that will scale its compute and storage technologies to serve Internet of Things deployments in smart cities.
Speaking yesterday at the company’s innovation forum in Singapore, Asia-Pac CTO Adrian De Luca mentioned the company’s recently announced decision to build an EVO:RAILS box using VMware’s template for hyperconverged kit.
The two projects probably need to be understood in the context of the company’s innovation forum, an event at which the Hitachi group talked up its ambition to assist “social innovation” with its many products.
No less a person than Yukata Saito, Hitachi’s fifth-ranking executive in the organisation, opened the event with a vision for using all of the company’s assets to develop analytics-driven products and services that enable governments to meet the demands of swelling populations and the stresses they place on resources.
Enthusiasm for this concept is high in Asia. Mobile device penetration is soaring across even the region’s less prosperous nations and citizens are keen for better service delivery from their governments and businesses.
Whatever the political implications of smart cities, Hitachi wants in and HDS’ expertise in building kit and doing system integration are apparently seen as key assets for the group’s push into social innovation.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Fujitsu CTO: We’ll be 3D-printing tech execs in 15 years
Fleshy techie disses network neutrality, helmet-less motorcyclists
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/19/fujitsu_cto_predicts_3d_printed_executives/
Fujitsu’s CTO slapped down the net neutrality dogmatists yesterday, saying the flood of data due to the emergence of the internet of things meant society would force a new pricing model.
Joseph Reger told a crowd of journalists at Fujitsu Forum that entertainment devices were swallowing ever more bandwidth, while machine-to-machine communications were generating more data, and connected vehicles were on the horizon.
Reger said: “We have to redefine what net neutrality means.
“If net neutrality means that very service and every connection needs to have the same priority all the time, then I think we are running into a problem.”
“Certain services might need to have a priority,” he continued. “But that you go out and just make a profit according to your own will, that is something that needs to be discussed.”
“Society has to decide if certain developments are acceptable or not,” he concluded
Tomi Engdahl says:
UWB Returns as a GPS for IoT
Impulse radio enables indoor location apps
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324677&
Ultrawideband technology (a.k.a. impulse radio) is staging a comeback as a technique to add localization for a wide range of uses in the Internet of Things.
CEA-Leti has developed an advanced prototype of impulse radio, allowing accuracy within inches for indoor and outdoor localization. The transceiver, in the works for more than 10 years, provides reception coverage of more than 300 meters with 50 mA, and transmission coverage at less than 1 mA, on a 130nm CMOS technology. It can exploit 500MHz or 1.5GHz channel bandwidth between 3 GHz and 5 GHz — a power budget that enables embedding the transceiver in mobile devices.
In the field of sensor networks and standards, the evolution of ZigBee may foreshadow what will happen with UWB in the next decade. In only 10 years, the power consumption of ZigBee devices went from 80 mA to approximately 4 mA, and sensitivity increased from -80 dBm to -100 dBm. This offers hope for a comparable evolution of UWB, especially if transmit power consumption declines enough to embed the transceiver in a tag.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Het Nets, Indoor Coverage Drive LTE-A Test
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324634&
As demand for mobile data increases, LTE-A is being deployed to meet that demand, but it will need help from small, local cells.
LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) continues making inroads in the global communications market, primarily due to its numerous benefits. While LTE’s peak downlink speed can reach 300 Mbit/s, LTE-A is theoretically capable of reaching 1 Gbit/s. LTE’s highest uplink rate is 75 Mbit/s where LTE-A’s is 500 Mbit/s.
According to Frost & Sullivan research, the number of LTE subscribers should exceed 400 million, and LTE-A should reach 22 million by the end of 2014. We expect that more than 43 LTE-A networks will be commercially deployed by the end of 2014. In the second quarter of 2014, there were almost 60 LTE-A trials, commitments, and commercial deployments recorded globally. Most of the commitments came from Western Europe, followed by the Asia/Pacific region and North America.
LTE-A testing requires bigger test beds and synchronization of fading on multiple independent links for re-creation of complicated real-world situations.
A consumer’s desire to surf the web on mobile devices, make payments on smartphones, use mobile entertainment services, and the whole phenomenon of BYOD (bring-your-own-device) brings up an issue of limited speed and bandwidth. Service providers are struggling to keep up with demand. According to Cisco, global mobile data traffic grew 81% in 2013 from 2012. In addition, mobile video traffic exceeded 50% contribution in 2012 and increased to 53% in 2013. More than 526 million mobile devices and connections were added in 2013 globally, and smartphones accounted for 77% of that growth, with 406 million net additions in 2013. Furthermore, smart devices accounted for 21% of total mobile devices in 2013, totaling 88% of mobile data traffic. On average, a smart device generated 29 times more traffic than a non-smart device. LTE technology emerged to address this need.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Make money with the Internet of Things
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4437488/Make-money-with-the-Internet-of-Things?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141119&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141119&elq=324cc4a5590b439180a453592bc95ae0&elqCampaignId=20250
One of the things that’s needed for the Internet of Things to take off is for companies to be able to profit from it. So monetization is an important topic. Here are some tips.
The Economist study involved more than 750 senior-level business leaders, close to 50% of them C-level. These respondents know what they are talking about. The report shows that not only are business leaders expecting that the IoT be monetized, they also expect it to bring in new products and services to the current ones they are offering.
In fact, the study has found that around 40% have at least monthly meetings that touch on the IoT, and another 32% are talking about it every six months.
It is expected that the IoT will be worth billions in the next few years. For example, connected cars are seen to grow into a $54 billion industry by 2018, and the smart lighting market will be a $6.7 billion industry that same year. Home automation will represent a $45.6 billion industry in 2016, while smart appliances will comprise a $5.4 billion market in 2015. By 2020, the number of Internet-connected devices will range from 24 billion to 50 billion.
And this is where the problem lies with monetizing the Internet of Things. Because of the potential to hit big, a lot of companies are coming out with products and services that are admittedly not a great example of usefulness and innovation. Some are copying what others have stumbled upon. For example, wearable tech is churning out copycat after copycat of smartwatches that basically offer nothing new
In short, these products are riding on the popularity of the IoT without really having any value.
Another problem that plagues IoT, in general, is that it includes a wide range of technologies where it is difficult to identify ways to use and monetize them with current products. Also, the IoT is not meant to be an all-encompassing solution that would solve a variety of problems; instead, it works really well for focused solutions, solving one business process or problem at a time.
So how do you go about monetizing the Internet of Things?
Make sure that your product is interoperable. Without making sure that your product is compatible with what’s already out there, you might as well operate in a silo.
Make use of the data you have gathered. All sensors and devices will be able to gather data that could give you a lot of insights as to how your customers are using the IoT.
Solve a problem. From having the lights turned on inside your house when you come in, to making sure that you save on energy costs, the Internet of Things helps solve a common problem.
Give your users the best experience with your products. The last thing you want is to turn your customers off by giving them a product that is awkward to use
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT entering peak of inflated expectations
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4437387/IoT-entering-peak-of-inflated-expectations?elq=8d79b896806445e4a47affd6fbe35e87&elqCampaignId=20257
So, how does the Internet of Things fare on the Hype Cycle? The IoT first appeared on the Hype Cycle in August 2011, along with other debutantes such as consumerization, gamification, and big data. By now, however, the Internet of Things has moved beyond the Technology Trigger to the Peak of Inflated Expectations. Gartner expects that IoT will not reach plateau until 5 to 10 years from now.
This should not come as a surprise. The IoT has been generating a lot of buzz as of late and there are a lot companies that are delving into it. This means that the Internet of Things is at that stage when the efforts of various companies involved in it, along with research, are proving to have a lot of promise. We are also seeing more talk regarding what issues are going to be solved by the Internet of things and new ideas and business models to leverage the IoT are coming out.
At this stage, the Internet of Things should not have too many difficulties attracting developers and researchers into the fold.
On the other hand, the Internet of Things is getting poised to enter the trough of disillusionment, which means that there is more room for failure now. There are issues of security, privacy, and sharing of information across vertical implementations that still need to be worked out. Until they are, the IoT will not be able to fulfill all its promises.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Platform helps create cloud-connected ZigBee prototypes
http://www.edn.com/design/design-tools/development-kits/4437499/Platform-helps-create-cloud-connected-ZigBee-prototypes?elq=8d79b896806445e4a47affd6fbe35e87&elqCampaignId=20257
Digi International offers the XBee ZigBee cloud kit, an all-in-one bundle that allows anyone with an interest in M2M (Machine to Machine) and the Internet of Things to quickly build a wireless hardware prototype, connect it to the Internet, and control it from the cloud.
The XBee ZigBee cloud kit costs $199.
http://www.digi.com/lp/xbee-zigbee-cloud-kit/?utm_source=public_relations&utm_medium=press_release&utm_term=xbeezigbeecloudkit&utm_campaign=xbeezigbeecludkit
Tomi Engdahl says:
RN4020 Bluetooth Smart Demo
http://www.eeweb.com/company-blog/microchip/rn4020-bluetooth-smart-demo/
RN4020 Bluetooth® Low Energy Module and demonstrates Microchip’s Low-energy Data Profile (MLDP)
Tomi Engdahl says:
Greening the copper with NFV, lower power optics from GreenTouch
Network boffins slash link power budgets
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/20/greening_the_copper_with_nfv_lower_power_optics_from_greentouch/
The GreenTouch group, which researches less power-hungry networking technologies, is pitching an NFV-style home gateway architecture as one way to curb broadband networks’ appetite for electrons.
The vendor-and-research partnership was set up in 2010, and now lists nearly 50 member organisations listed.
Leading its latest announcement is an architecture for home network gateways that suggests the smarts should be pulled into the network cloud to save energy; and a new approach to optical transceivers.
The idea is to deploy far dumber, simpler home gateways, a move GreenTouch reckons would slice 19 per cent from the power consumption of the residential access network.
Since most residential gateways are mostly left switched on 24×7, the group reckons that global adoption of the architecture would save the equivalent of more than 800,000 households’ energy consumption each year.
Functions like controlling voice, data and TV access would consume less power by running on virtual machines in the cloud, the group believes, especially since in off-peak times machines that aren’t doing anything, or services that aren’t in use, could be spun down.
The approach to power saving is straightforward: instead of all transceivers in a network operating at the same rated power, the CEET device adapts its power to the link, adjusting the transmitter down from maximum optical power to whatever is sufficient to maintain a transmission.
Tomi Engdahl says:
How IT will evolve to photonics
Professor Rod Tucker charts a course to the all-optical, low-energy future
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/26/interview_rod_tucker/
Replacing electronics with photonics will one day be an important way to run IT while consuming far less power than is the case today. But while that idea looks great on paper, the research is still young.
The Internet’s voracious appetite for electricity needs some near-term solutions, so asThe Register followed-up the our piece on photonics we also spoke to Professor Rod Tucker of the University of Melbourne, director of both the Institute for a Broadband-Enabled Society and the Centre for Energy-Efficient Telecommunications.
Why ‘slow light’ might just save the Internet
Photonics lights a path to a high-speed, low-energy, Internet
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/11/24/cudos_photonics_australian_institute_physics/
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Territorial Disputes
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324694&
MUNICH — Demonstrating a Live LoRa IoT wireless network deployed in Munich during the run up to Electronica, Semtech was trumpeting its IoT Revolution Ecosystem at the exhibition, announcing partners such as IBM Research, Microchip, and their distribution partners.
With a few gateways distributed throughout suburban Munich (including one at the fair), Hardy Schmidtbaur, director of wireless and sensing solutions at Semtech was here to promote the company’s partner ecosystem of end-node modules, gateways/concentrators, and network controller solutions for private networks, with 1,000 IoT demonstration end-nodes to be given away by the ecosystem participants.
Operating in the ISMT 868MHz frequency band using spread spectrum modulation, LoRa can connect reliably hundreds of thousands of sensors over a low-power wireless network area spanning 15 to 20km, claims the company, with end-nodes remaining operational for over 10 years on two AAA batteries (drawing 10mA for the receiver, under 200nA in sleep mode).
“Our nearest competitor would be Sigfox,” admits Schmidtbaur, “but their solution relies on narrow band Frequency Shift Keying, which is less robust to interferences or jamming.”
“Also, each of their gateways only routes data from tens of thousands of nodes, significantly less than what we can achieve with LoRa,” he added. “This is thanks to LoRa’s adaptive data rate, enabling lower-power operation and conversely, better network scalability than competing solutions,” emphasized Schmidtbaur.
There is plenty of room for the IoT nebula to share data. In the future, cellular networks may take about 10% of the whole IoT traffic; short-range RF solutions such as Bluetooth, WiFi, or ZigBee may support about 35% of the traffic; and long-range IoT-dedicated networks may grab 55% of the data load.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nine out of ten people have mobile phone soon
Ericsson Mobility Report, fresh of the world is currently nearly 7 billion mobile phone subscriptions. The number of the fastest growing in India and China. Ericsson forecasts that in 2020, 90 per cent of the world’s more than 6-year-olds have a mobile phone.
Source: http://etn.fi/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=2089:yhdeksalla-kymmenesta-pian-kannykka&catid=13&Itemid=101
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix explains the explosive growth of the operators rage: 78 million terabytes in a terrible amount of data
Netflix streamed January-March, 6.5 billion hours of content. The average HD quality, this means more than 19 500 000 terabytes of data in only three months, says Cord Cutters News. Month, the amount should therefore 6.5 million terabytes of data. On an annual basis the same pace would mean 78 million terabytes.
If the same 62.5 per cent growth to continue, through the service would be allocated 27 million terabytes in January-March 2015.
The increase in the number of 4K content becomes more common. HD content to an average of around 3 GB per hour, while the 4K’s the number more than doubles in 7 gigabytes per hour.
Source: http://www.tivi.fi/kaikki_uutiset/netflixin+rajahtava+kasvu+selittaa+operaattorien+raivon+78+miljoonaa+teratavua+on+hirvittava+maara+dataa/a1030417
Tomi Engdahl says:
Extreme adds switches and partners
SDN stack embiggened
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/20/extreme_adds_switches_and_partners/
Extreme Networks has launched a quartet of switches and a management appliance, in what it says is an expansion of its software defined network (SDN) strategy.
Back in June, the company launched its OpenStack SDN platform. That launch wrapped a bunch of API toolkits together with NetSight management and Purview optimisation products.
Now, Extreme has expanded the offering with a Purview Sensor appliance, the Summit X670-G2 top-of-rack switches, and an expanded partner program.
The company also says it’s added http://sanbolic.com/ Sanbolic (software defined storage), A-10 Networks (application delivery, threat protection and carrier-grade switching) and NetOptics (network management) as SDN partners.
Tomi Engdahl says:
100G and things to COM
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-standards/4437583/100G-and-things-to-COM?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141120&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141120&elq=64a17c1de494486ea4a29e1ad8717758&elqCampaignId=20284
FEC (forward error correction) changes the way we think about BER (bit error ratio/rate) in serial data links. If we can afford 7 errors in every set of 528 bits (i.e., for the Reed-Solomon coding used in 100 GbE, RS(528,514)), then we need a new way to characterize those network elements that cause errors.
In June, IEEE released the 100 GbE (gigabit Ethernet) specification, 802.11bj. 100GbE> accomplishes 100 Gbits/s by combining four 25.78125 Gbit/s lanes, the excess data rate accommodates overhead—we’ll call it 4×25 Gbits/s. Previous releases had neglected specification details for electrical signaling on cables and backplanes. That is, fiber optic transmission had been wholly spec’ed years ago but we just got specs for these blistering data rates on PCB (printed circuit board) and cables.
The backplane spec (called 100GBASE-KR4 in the spec) accommodates 4×25 Gbits/s over backplanes with total insertion loss up to 35 dB at 12.9 GHz, about half the data rate, and for cables (100GBASE-CR4), 4×25 Gbits’s over shielded balanced copper cabling with reach of at least 5 m. Notice that backplanes are specified in terms of their loss and cables in terms of distance of propagation.
The spec has some new concepts that open up design options but can be confusing; for example, channel operating margin. COM (channel operating margin) provides flexible choices instead of straight-up pass/fail criteria or masks for s-parameters. The idea is to let engineers trade off between loss, reflections, and crosstalk. That last signal impairment, crosstalk, is at the root of most of this evil.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Too many IoT standards, or too few?
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4437647/Too-many-IoT-standards–or-too-few-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141120&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_analog_20141120&elq=64a17c1de494486ea4a29e1ad8717758&elqCampaignId=20284
Interoperability and the easy exchange of data is a major concern in the buildup of the Internet of Things (IoT). To ensure those attributes, a set of commonly accepted standards will be needed. So, do we need to create those standards, or do we already have enough standards and simply need to pick and choose?
Fostering standardization within the IoT is not a simple issue. Take wireless connectivity, for example. We already have numerous wireless standards in existence that are well developed and time tested. Bluetooth, WiFi, ZigBee, cellular (CDMA, GSM, LTE, etc.) and DECT are all being used in IoT designs.
The same is true of communications protocols. There are TCP/IP, MQTT, HTTP, CoAP, and a host of others in contention for sending messages and data between IoT devices and the cloud. Even in the data analysis side of things we have SQL and Hadoop as database options.
So there are plenty of standards already. But that hasn’t stopped the industry from trying to create new ones to address IoT issues. The new wireless standard Weightless has been created, for instance. Industry groups such as the Allseen Alliance and Open Home Gateway Forum have put their bid in for standards within their industry segment.
Official standards bodies have also weighed in. The EU came up with its IoT-A reference architecture. Now the IEEE Standards Association is trying to come up with its own IoT reference architecture. Groups such as the ITU and NIST are also keeping their options open for getting into the standards discussion.
What’s your take on IoT standards? Do you think we have enough and should get on with choosing a set, or do we really need something new to be created?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Netflix takes up 9.5% of upstream traffic on the North American Internet
ACK packets make Netflix an upload monster during peak viewing hours.
http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2014/11/netflix-takes-up-9-5-of-upstream-traffic-on-the-north-american-internet/
We’ve written a lot about how Netflix takes up a gigantic share of Internet traffic. During peak viewing hours, Netflix accounts for about a third of all bits sent to Internet users in North America on “fixed” connections—that is, cable, DSL, fiber, or satellite, but not cellular.
But Netflix users also send a ton of data upstream, so much so that Sandvine’s latest Internet Phenomena Report puts Netflix at 9.48 percent of all peak upstream traffic on North American fixed Internet services, second only to BitTorrent’s 25.49 percent. Sandvine, a maker of equipment that helps consumer broadband providers manage network congestion, defines “peak” hours as those when network usage is within 95 percent of its daily maximum, typically from 7 to 11pm.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Qualcomm Rides LTE to Cat 10
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324710&
Qualcomm announced its fifth-generation LTE modem, a Category 10 chip with global carrier aggregation, and second-generation RF360 envelope tracker. The Gobi 9×45 modem is based on 20 nm technology.
“The main new features, as compared to 9×35, is downlink increased from 300 to 450 Mbit/s, and uplink is the first major upload increase to 100 Mbit/s,” Peter Carson, senior director of marketing for Gobi, told EE Times. “This is the first chip that can fully utilize all 60 MHz in aggregated bandwidth in downlink and 40 MHz in uplink.”
The 9×45 modem supports 3x carrier aggregation in downlink and 2x in uplink, as well as all major cellular standards. Qualcomm expects up to two times faster upload speeds and up to 1.5 times faster peak download speeds compared to Cat 6 devices, as well as improved application response times and connectivity.
Although Qualcomm didn’t provide specific power consumption specs for its new modem, Carson said the company has decreased power consumption by 40% compared to its 9×25 modem, using 20 MHz of carrier aggregation.
“The biggest challenge in being the biggest player in LTE is the front-end capacity; you want to do one design that you can utilize in any market with LTE. Early adopters will race to markets with maybe regional-specific designs. Very soon after, you start to see those products refreshed for global markets with more LTE bands supported. You can only do that when you have single-chip global platform.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Linux-Less Wi-Fi
WLAN for Embedded Design
http://issuu.com/eeweb/docs/11-2014_wireless_pages2/27?e=7607911/10202818
“The software required to to support Wi-Fi has been dramatically reduced by pushing the networking stack, Wi-Fi driver and connection management further into the RF module itself.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
GoDaddy seeks nearly $4.5B IPO valuation, talks diversifying
http://nypost.com/2014/11/20/godaddy-seeks-nearly-4-5b-ipo-valuation-talks-diversifying/
GoDaddy.com is pushing ahead with an initial public offering early next year that would value the world’s biggest domain registration service at roughly $4.5 billion, The Post has learned.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home Office: It’s an EMERGENCY! We need proper comms
Sets out contractor for modernised network
http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2014/11/21/coppers_seek_new_radio_contract/
The Home Office is seeking suppliers for its Emergency Services Network contract, part of moves to replace the incumbent gaffe-prone £2.9bn Airwave contract due to expire in 2016.
Contracts will be awarded in 2015 for radio, television, communication, telecommunication and related equipment, with the new ESN will going live from 2016-2020.
“A modernised communications network is vital to help the emergency services protect the public and save lives. We are on track to deliver this critical part of our national infrastructure by 2017.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Trillion-Sensor Vision, Results Shared
UCSD researchers show latest efforts
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324603&
Saving the planet one sensor at a time, the backers of the Trillion Sensor Summit here shared their visions and some research working toward a fully instrumented world.
“I believe in a world with abundance — a world without hunger, with medical care for all, with clean energy for all, no pollution,” said Janusz Bryzek, chairmen and CEO of the event. “One of the components creating this world is a sensor at the bottom of the pyramid for mobile health, the Internet of Things, and wearable applications. In order to get there, we need to completely transform the economy.”
Abundance will require another 45 trillion sensors, many of which haven’t been developed, Bryzek said. Wearable medical sensors pose enormous potential, speakers said.
Real stats moving up and to the right fueled some of the enthusiasm. The mobile sensor market grew more than 200% between 2007 and 2013, and the mobile health market is expected to lower treatment costs by 35%.
“The biggest challenges are the amount of data, processing this [data], and supporting infrastructure,” Bryzek said. Global health monitoring will require the cost of sensors to drop to less than 50 cents each.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Iota: Internet of things for all
A low cost Internet of things platform to build your own smart house
http://hackaday.io/project/1183-iota-internet-of-things-for-all
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bidding in Government Auction of Airwaves Reaches $34 Billion
http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/business/media/bidding-in-government-auction-of-airwaves-reaches-34-billion.html?_r=1
WASHINGTON — A government auction of airwaves for use in mobile broadband has blown through presale estimates, becoming the biggest auction in the Federal Communications Commission’s history and signaling that wireless companies expect demand for Internet access by smartphones to continue to soar.
And it’s not over yet.
Companies bid more than $34 billion as of Friday afternoon for six blocks of airwaves, totaling 65 megahertz of the electromagnetic spectrum, being sold by the F.C.C. That total is more than three times the $10.5 billion reserve price that the commission put on the sale, the first offering of previously unavailable airwaves in six years.
Prices are likely to rise further, because the auction has no definite end and could continue for days or weeks.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Week In Review: Design/IoT
http://semiengineering.com/the-week-in-review-designiot-3/
Intelligent traffic corridor opens in Europe; Open-Silicon rolls out Hybrid Memory Cube 2.0 controller IP; Synopsys adds IP prototyping kits; PathScale uncorks ARM compiler; Rambus teams with Mobiveil for memory subsystem.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Make money with the Internet of Things
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4437488/Make-money-with-the-Internet-of-Things?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20141121&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_review_20141121&elq=2da11922427d4df8961500233810e90e&elqCampaignId=20304
One of the things that’s needed for the Internet of Things to take off is for companies to be able to profit from it. So monetization is an important topic. Here are some tips.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Case study: prototyping IoT ideas
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4437685/Case-study–prototyping-IoT-ideas
The Cloudwash project was Berg’s take on a connected washing machine. To create the prototype, engineers adapted a commercial washing machine to make it an IoT device. They also created a web app and an onboard user interface for the machine.
But they evaluated various approaches and settled on inserting connectivity and control in between the washer’s main control unit and the user interface panel. With this placement, they could intercept the communications between the two units. This allowed the connectivity addition to monitor user commands and displays (for reporting to the cloud) and to mimic either unit to the other when implementing cloud-generated commands.
This addition of e-commerce also opens revenue options for the washing machine. Perhaps, as with smartphones, the washer’s retail price could be lowered in exchange for a share of the revenue from the e-commerce. It’s an intriguing possibility.
Cloudwash – Creating the Technical Prototype
http://engineering.bergcloud.com/2014/02/cloudwash/
Tomi Engdahl says:
IBM and Ericsson plot to deploy 5G. Never mind that it doesn’t exist
Antennas. Tiny antennas. EVERYWHERE
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/24/ibm_and_ericsson_in_aerial_antics/
Ericsson and IBM have announced a collaboration to jointly research phased-array antenna designs for 5G, which might prove interesting as nothing has yet been agreed on what 5G might involve.
Crucially for this work, nobody’s yet decided what frequencies 5G will operate on – although Ericsson has previously said it’s looking for 500MHz of contiguous spectrum at above 6GHz and that the technology will be an evolution of LTE.
Ericsson and IBM will research phased-array antenna techniques to develop prototype systems that will serve more mobile users, enable a multitude of new services on the same frequency, as well as offer data speeds that are orders of magnitude faster than today – competitive to existing cable and wired internet access speeds.
The phased-array design allows for more directional antennas that are electrically steerable and will have significant weight and flexibility advantages over existing mechanical antennas.
Dr. Mehmet Soyuer, manager of the Communication and Computation Subsystems Department at IBM Research says: “We have accumulated over 10 years of experience in developing radio frequency (RF) integrated circuit and packaging solutions, demonstrating highly integrated phased arrays for various applications. We look forward to collaborating with Ericsson to help shape the future of mobile communications.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
The problem with NTP
http://engineering.bergcloud.com/2014/08/problem-with-ntp/
Little Printer ships with a Bridge which connects via Ethernet and forwards messages between our cloud servers any printers within radio range. Under the hood the Bridge runs a small Linux kernel and communicates securely with out servers using SSL, and because of this dependence on SSL, it requires a synchronised clock.
Unfortunately for us, the traditional and most widespread method for clock synchronisation (NTP) has been caught up in a DDoS issue which has recently caused some ISPs to start blocking all NTP communication.
I’d recommend you read Cloudflare’s great writeup, but the upshot is that when an ISP blocks NTP traffic
Understanding and mitigating NTP-based DDoS attacks
http://blog.cloudflare.com/understanding-and-mitigating-ntp-based-ddos-attacks/
Tomi Engdahl says:
T-Mobile forced to stop hiding slow speeds from throttled customers
T-Mobile reduces speeds to 128Kbps or 64Kbps—except when you run a speed test.
http://arstechnica.com/business/2014/11/t-mobile-forced-to-stop-hiding-slow-speeds-from-throttled-customers/
When T-Mobile US customers exceed their monthly data caps, they aren’t cut off from the Internet entirely. Instead, T-Mobile throttles their connections to 128Kbps or 64Kbps, depending on which plan they have, for the rest of the month.
But T-Mobile has made it difficult for those customers to figure out just how slow their connections are, with a system that exempts speed test applications from the throttling. After complaints from consumer advocates, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigated the issue and has forced T-Mobile to be more honest about its network’s throttled speeds.
Announced today, an agreement between T-Mobile and the FCC ensures that customers will be able to accurately gauge their throttled speeds.
Customers need accurate information “to fully understand what they are getting with their broadband service,” FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
TIA publishes Category 6A patch cord test standard
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2014/11/tia-c6a-patch-cord-test.html
The Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) recently published Addendum 2 to the ANSI/TIA-568-C.2 standard; the addendum is titled Additional Considerations for Category 6A Patch Cord Testing. When announcing the new cabling standard, the TIA said, “TIA-568-C.2-2 specifies requirements for telecommunications infrastructure for Category 6A patch cord testing requirements, to allow test heads qualified to IEC 61935-2 to be used to qualify a patch cord to TIA-568-C.2 C6A compliance. TIA C6A test heads and ISO C6A test heads used for measurement of patch cords have slightly differing requirements.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Broadband Demand Hits the High Seas
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1324747&
Cruise ship operators Royal Caribbean and Carnival are exploring new ways to provide on-board Internet access, highlighting advances in remote connectivity.
If you think an ocean cruise is about getting away from it all and unplugging from your everyday, digitally driven life, it’s time to update your thinking.
Think instead about playing Xbox in the cruise ship’s game room with your friends back on land. Or watching a Netflix movie while sitting poolside. Or checking Facebook to keep up with your friends, or even better, posting photos of yourself on the ship’s water slide. Guests would like all of those digital capabilities, spurring cruise ships to search for new ways to provide affordable high-speed Internet access.
“With the Millennial generation, if you can’t provide that kind of connectivity, you could be out of the consideration set,” says Bill Martin, CIO of Royal Caribbean Cruises Ltd.
But delivering that offshore connectivity has proved to be a daunting technical challenge. The standard cruise ship satellite-based service has been slow and pricey, billed per minute. Royal Caribbean is making a big bet on an emerging satellite technology that orbits more closely to Earth than conventional satellites, while the industry’s largest cruise company, Carnival Corporation & plc, recently announced a “hybrid” approach using multiple access technologies and algorithms to switch among in-port WiFi, long-range WiFi, and satellites.
Royal Caribbean is rolling out Internet services via next-generation satellites operated by a company called O3b, whose founding mission is to provide Internet access to the “other 3 billion” people in the world who lack connectivity.
About three-and-a half-years ago, Royal Caribbean studied its onboard environment, and, Martin says, “Everything kept pointing back to, ‘You need broadband access. You need high-speed access.’ ”
Early tests on Royal Caribbean’s Allure of the Seas ship delivered speeds of over 500 Mbit/s, and, even more important, 120- to 130-millisecond response times, meaning that even apps such as Apple Facetime and Netflix work as well as, or better than, guests experience them at home. “That’s really the game-changer, the latency,” says Martin, because too much latency causes apps to freeze or look sluggish.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Experts Call for Secure Sensors
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324733&
Sensor nodes are the most vulnerable point of attack in an Internet of Things ecosystem, so securing the trillions of sensors industry experts expect is of the utmost concern.
“Once you get the sensor data out to the gateway, everything behind that is as good as any enterprise security. Now that we’re moving to such a large number of sensors, the problem is expanding quite a bit,” Sandhiprakash Bhinde, director of innovation and future IoT solutions at Intel, said at the TSensors Summit. “There are 50 billion devices and most of them are unprotected. Every time something gets hacked it’s a loss of economic value.”
Bhinde pointed to a 2012 malware attack on Saudi Arabia national oil firm Aramco that halted 30,000 network workstations, as well as a physical attack on a Pacific Gas & Electric substation in California — those networks presumably were more fallible than expected.
“I think, bottom line, this is just the tip of the iceberg,” Bhinde told attendees, adding that home devices aren’t safe either. “Most houses have a lot of different types of devices and I think the problem really amplifies when… you don’t know who’s looking at them or what data is coming out of those devices.”
Software-based sensor attack rates are rising as sensor data is often unprotected by APIs, creating a number of challenges for both end-user devices and larger network systems. In-system memory buffers and sensors with always-on capabilities allow for easy access to sensor data, Bhinde said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Can Japan Get Her Groove Back With IoT?
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1324745&
Japan, which once looked like a world leader as it pushed its Home Energy Management System (HEMS) and the smart home standard, is now trying to get her groove back via the Internet of Things.
If last week’s conference programs and exhibits at Embedded Technology 2014 show here were any indication, Japan’s M2M, HEMS, and Echonet Lite programs have been rebranded as a part of the IoT effort.
In the late 1990s, NTT Docomo talked about how the communication traffic of the future would be driven by machines calling up other machines (M2M) to help humans without human involvement.
Backed by the Japanese government, Japanese companies established Echonet (later, Echonet Lite), communication protocols for linking appliances made by different manufacturers — a decade before the emergence of Apple’s HomeKit and Google’s Thread.
Positioning Echonet as the linchpin of the smart home initiative, Japan earnestly pursued the idea of energy management. That was, of course, well before Google bought Nest.
One company pitched a bridge device between HomeKit and Echonet. Another unveiled a simplified wireless platform “with 920MHz wireless module and Echonet wireless module adopter,” intended to link home appliances and sensors. Exhibits pitching Wi-SUN — low-power, wireless utility products based on IEEE 802.15.4g — were everywhere.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Huawei’s and ZTE’s SDN embrace: soft power in vendor-land
Could SDN alignments be a subtle ‘trust us, we’re open’ move?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/25/huaweis_and_ztes_sdn_embrace_soft_power_in_vendorland/
China’s network hardware sector has taken another step into the world of openness with ZTE joining the Open Platform for NFV (OPNFV) project.
As ZTE and (even more enthusiastically) Huawei cosy up to the world of open networking, Vulture South is moved to wonder whether there isn’t an exercise of “soft power” emerging.
ZTE is already a member of the OpenDaylight project and Open Networking Foundation, both of which also have Huawei as a member, and Huawei is in the world of OpenStack as well.
And one aim of the movement – whether or not it succeeds – is to unseat Cisco from its domination of the networking market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Stop the IoT revolution! We need to figure out packet sizes first
Researchers test 802.15.4 and find we know nuh-think! about large scale sensor network ops
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/25/optimising_wireless_for_iot_is_hard_say_boffins/
While the world gets excited about Internet-of-stuff saving people from the exhaustion that follows putting down a smartphone or using a remote control to adjust the thermostat, there’s a bunch of research still needed to get more serious applications like sensor networks bedded down.
It’s not just that the world is choosing between different standards at the physical and MAC layers, but also that the performance and behaviour of sensor networks is under-explored and ill-understood.
Their overarching conclusion (there are too many individual inferences in the paper to be reproduced here) is that in optimising the behaviour of a network, the interactions up and down the stack have to be taken as a whole – which is probably no surprise:
“Larger queue size and higher number of allowed retransmissions can reduce PLR and increase goodput. However, they will result in an increased delay. If the link is in the transitional zone, increasing transmission power such that the SNR moves to the low-loss zone improves all QoS metrics and even the energy consumption. If the link can only stay in the transitional zone, the QoS metrics and energy efficiency are more sensitive to the stack parameter configuration. In particular, a moderate packet payload size may better balance the trade-offs between the performance metrics.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Scientists urge governments to turn old TV frequencies into free “super WiFi”
November 24, 2014 Lucy Ingham
http://www.factor-tech.com/connected-world/9769-scientists-urge-governments-to-turn-old-tv-frequencies-into-free-super-wifi/
Governments should sack plans to auction off old television frequencies to the highest bidder and instead use the bandwidth for free super-frequency WiFi if they want to boost the economy, scientists have said.
Old television frequencies are becoming available for other uses around the world, thanks to a switch from analogue to digital transmission.
However, while governments are for the most part auctioning these off to whoever is prepared to pay the most – usually mobile phone networks – they should instead be using the frequencies to create free-to-use, wide-range WiFi, scientists from the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) in Germany have said.
This new “super WiFi” would have a far wider range than existing WiFi networks, which are mostly transmitted over wireless local area networks (WLAN) at frequencies of 2GHz or above.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SimpleLink Bluetooth CC2541 – Smart and Proprietary Wireless MCU
http://www.silica.com/product/simplelink-bluetooth-cc2541-smart-and-proprietar.html
SILICA TI CC2541 iconThe CC2541 is a power optimized true system on chip (SoC) solution for both Bluetooth low energy and proprietary 2.4 GHz applications. It enables robust network nodes to be built with low total bill-of-material costs.
The CC2541 combines the excellent performance of a leading RF transceiver with an industry-standard enhanced 8051 MCU, in system programmable flash memory, 8 KB RAM, and many other powerful supporting features and peripherals.
The CC2541 is pin-compatible with the CC2533 RF4CE optimized IEEE 802.15.4 SoC. It comes in two different versions
Tomi Engdahl says:
Are you prepared for the digital revolution in facility management?
There is a digital revolution in facility management; it is gaining steam as you read this.
http://www.csemag.com/single-article/are-you-prepared-for-the-digital-revolution-in-facility-management/22cf9f21aec7610581878681c1b3a0be.html
What does “digital revolution” mean to facilities managers, especially those responsible for critical facilities? And what does it mean to the manufacturers, dealers, contractors, and consulting engineers who serve them?
It means change—big change. It’s nothing less than a sea change in the way facilities are being managed.
In fact, the digital revolution in facility management is empowering managers. Those embracing the revolution know about operational issues sooner, make decisions faster, and take action more insightfully. Helping empowered managers alleviate their pain points requires manufacturers, engine-generator dealers, and contractors to be empowered as well, or be left behind.
What’s enabling this revolution is the Internet of Things (IoT).
Taken together, the array of sensors in buildings creates an interconnected facility management system that senses, transfers, and acts on specific information that each sensor is designed to monitor. The system could be designed for a single building, a multi-building campus, or geographically dispersed facilities. It could comprise hundreds or thousands of sensors.
This type of smart system adapts to, and anticipates, facilities managers’ needs, and even proactively manages their environments within the parameters they establish. How many and what types of sensors do your equipment and components integrate?
With advances in connectivity, buildings have a variety of equipment and devices with differing capabilities for sharing operational information. Some may have simple status annunciation. Others may be able to monitor and provide a steady data stream, and still others may be able to react with related equipment. Some may feed data to building management systems either with twisted pair, Ethernet, or wirelessly. And some may even have Internet connectivity.
The rising value of data
Interpretation is what makes facility management data valuable.
Tomi Engdahl says:
HPC communications:
Switching from Ethernet to Infiniband for Gluster access (or why we had to …)
http://arrfab.net/blog/?p=485
Gluster is really easy to install, and sometimes it can even “smells” too easy to be true. One thing to keep in mind when dealing with Gluster is that it’s a “file-level” storage solution, so don’t try to compare it with “block-level” solutions (so typically a NAS vs SAN comparison, even if “SAN” itself is wrong for such discussion, as SAN is what’s *between* your nodes and the storage itself, just a reminder.)
Within CentOS.org infra, we have a multiple nodes Gluster setup, that we use for multiple things at the same time.
While Gluster has native/builtin rdma/Infiniband capabilities (see “tranport” option in the “gluster create volume” command), we had in our case to migrate existing Gluster volumes from plain TCP/Ethernet to Infiniband, while trying to get the downtime as small as possible. That is/was my first experience with Infiniband, but it’s not as hard as it seems, especially when you discover IPoIB (IP over Infiniband). So from a Syadmin POV, it’s just “yet another network interface”, but a 10Gbps one now
The Gluster volume migration then goes like this
The interesting part here is the “CONNECTED_MODE=yes” : for people who already uses iscsi, you know that Jumbo frames are really important if you have a dedicated VLAN (and that the Ethernet switch support Jumbo frames too). As stated in the IPoIB kernel doc , you can have two operation mode : datagram (default 2044 bytes MTU) or Connected (up to 65520 bytes MTU). It’s up to you to decide which one to use, but if you understood the Jumbo frames thing for iscsi, you get the point already.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Global online population hits 3 billion: ITU
http://www.zdnet.com/global-online-population-hits-3-billion-itu-7000036136/
Summary: There are now more than 3 billion people online globally, with two-thirds of all people with internet access now living in the developing world, according to new research by the United Nations agency charged with improving the world’s access to IT infrastructure.
The world’s online population has edged over more than 3 billion people, according to the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union (ITU), with internet usage globally growing at 6.6 percent in 2014.
The latest data outlined in the report shows that internet usage continues to grow steadily, at 6.6 percent globally in 2014, with developed countries seeing 8.7 percent growth in internet usage and developing nations receiving 3.3 percent growth.
However, the research shows that the number of internet users in developing countries has doubled in the five years from 2009 to 2014, with two-thirds of all people online now living in the developing world.
Although the number of people connected to the internet globally has surpassed the 3 billion milestone, the ITU found that there are still more than 4.3 billion people not yet online, 90 percent of which live in developing countries.
In the world’s 42 least-connected countries, which are home to 2.5 billion people, access to information and communications technology and infrastructure remains largely out of reach, particularly for the large rural populations found there, the organisation said.
Tomi Engdahl says:
100G and things to COM
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-standards/4437583/100G-and-things-to-COM?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141125&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141125&elq=9c9723bb3c1a4b4b914a29b02ec35788&elqCampaignId=20348
inShare
Save Follow PRINT PDF EMAIL
FEC (forward error correction) changes the way we think about BER (bit error ratio/rate) in serial data links. If we can afford 7 errors in every set of 528 bits (i.e., for the Reed-Solomon coding used in 100 GbE, RS(528,514)), then we need a new way to characterize those network elements that cause errors.
In June, IEEE released the 100 GbE (gigabit Ethernet) specification, 802.11bj. 100GbE> accomplishes 100 Gbits/s by combining four 25.78125 Gbit/s lanes, the excess data rate accommodates overhead—we’ll call it 4×25 Gbits/s. Previous releases had neglected specification details for electrical signaling on cables and backplanes. That is, fiber optic transmission had been wholly spec’ed years ago but we just got specs for these blistering data rates on PCB (printed circuit board) and cables.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Floody hell! Brits cram Internet of Things into tight White Spaces
Surprising what you can do with a river and 13Mbps over old telly frequencies
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/11/26/tv_white_space_nominet_network/
Geeks in Oxford, England, have squeezed 13Mbps down and 3Mbps up a single channel of White Space – unused TV frequencies in their area – and used the tech to connect up river flood sensors.
The radio network – set up by bods at UK domain registry Nominet – is one a series of trials across Blighty using the gaps in telly spectrum to relay data: in this case, Nominet teamed up with LoveHz to test water-level sensors set up along the River Thames.
There is a big advantage to using this approach over cellular networks or ADSL: coverage and simplicity. Data sent over TV White Space (TVWS) doesn’t require line-of-sight and the signal can travel for more than 8km.
LoveHz was able to develop simple, low-cost sensors in place of more complex and expensive ones used by the Environment Agency. The gear can be used to raise an early warning of rising flood waters.
The team also shared some of the lessons they’d learned so far. “Line-of-sight between stations is not essential,” they noted, “but the best channel to operate on has to be carefully selected amongst the ones which actually present the lowest noise on both radio locations… In practice unexpected transmissions or high noise floor can make signal reception impossible.”
Nominet is one of eight companies in the UK that is developing a White Space Database (WSDB) aimed at mapping the best frequencies available in every location in the UK (a similar map already exists for the United States).
Love Hz
Occupy Spectrum
http://love-hz.com/
A new public resource – like Wifi, but over wide areas – Ofcom will soon open TV whitespace spectrum to all of us. Seize the opportunity and start using it this autumn. No spectrum auctions necessary!
The size of a matchbox, battery powered, more than 8km range. What would you do?
Tomi Engdahl says:
Turkey Sous Vide
http://hackaday.com/2014/11/26/turkey-sous-vide/
[Trey] over at TI came up with a great sous vide controller using a few LaunchPad Booster packs, and surprisingly, he can even cook a turkey
[Trey] is using a USB LaunchPad and a thermocouple BoosterPack to monitor the temperature of a water bath. A custom SSR board is wired right into the heater, and a CC3100 provides a network connection to monitor the bird.
How to save Thanksgiving dinner with LaunchPad!
http://e2e.ti.com/group/launchyourdesign/b/blog/archive/2014/11/24/how-to-save-thanksgiving-dinner-with-launchpad.aspx
In this project, I’ve combined a MSP430F5529 USB LaunchPad, SimpleLink Wi-Fi CC3100 BoosterPack, ADS1118 Thermocouple BoosterPack and a custom solid state relay board to make a Wi-Fi Connected Sous Vide controller. In case you aren’t familiar “Sous Vide” means “under vacuum” in French. In this cooking technique, the food being cooked is placed in a vacuum sealed bag and left in a temperature controlled water bath for an extended period of time. This allows the food to cook evenly at a much lower temperature than you would traditionally use in an oven.
You may be wondering why I added the CC3100 BoosterPack to the Sous Vide Controller. I did this so I could check the status and control the machine remotely. I setup the board using a combination of Temboo and Twilio. Temboo is a cloud API aggregator that makes it easy to interact with cloud services, while Twilio is a cloud service provider that allows you to send and receive text messages and calls. For this project, I’ve configured Temboo online to talk to Twilio such that I can send and receive text messages from the LaunchPad. This is surprisingly easy to do as Temboo spits out code you can copy and paste into an Energia sketch.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Getting Familiar with Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/102266
Bluetooth 4.0, with the hallmark feature of Bluetooth low energy wireless technology, is ready to roll. The Bluetooth SIG formally adopted the radio and host layers of the specification, and opened qualification for new products in July of last year.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Intel Firmware Support Package for the Internet of Things
http://rtcmagazine.com/articles/view/103818
There are a number of unique firmware requirements for embedded systems and IoT that do not require the familiar BIOS but rather domain- and application-specific needs. Specific firmware support addresses these unique needs in the embedded and IoT space.
Tomi Engdahl says:
About 40% of World Population Online, 90% of Offliners In Developing Countries
http://mobile.slashdot.org/story/14/11/25/2035220/about-40-of-world-population-online-90-of-offliners-in-developing-countries
Measuring Information Society Report. This year’s report is over 200 pages long, illustrated with abundant graphs and tables (PDF)
http://www.itu.int/en/ITU-D/Statistics/Documents/publications/mis2014/MIS2014_without_Annex_4.pdf
Tomi Engdahl says:
12 top crowdfunded IoT devices and what became of them
http://www.edn.com/electronics-blogs/eye-on-iot-/4437714/12-top-crowdfunded-IoT-devices-and-what-became-of-them-?_mc=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141126&cid=NL_EDN_EDT_EDN_today_20141126&elq=b8bff4f832de495696b31d84dff806d7&elqCampaignId=20371
The availability of low-cost microcontroller development boards, open-source tools and software, and drop-in wireless modules has opened IoT design to a wide range of potential developers. Combined with crowdfunding, these trends have created an unprecedented opportunity for entrepreneurs to create and market innovative IoT device designs. Here are a dozen of the most highly funded such devices and what became of them.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Processors for industrial automation include built-in networking
http://www.edn.com/electronics-products/other/4437734/Processors-for-industrial-automation-include-built-in-networking?elq=cf4fd5d522ec46888673a37f0f26aa80&elqCampaignId=20373
Renesas’ RZ/T1 Real-Time Processor comprises a real-time CPU with up to 600 MHz operation and the R-IN engine, offering both real-time control and deterministic network connectivity for industrial equipment
The RZ/T1 Group is a factory automation solution with built-in industrial network functionality for use in many industrial applications such as AC servo drives, motion controllers, inverter control and general industrial equipment that require high speed, responsiveness, and excellent real-time performance. Demand for improvements in performance and network connectivity are addressed by combining high-performance, real-time control and multi-protocol industrial Ethernet communication functions on a single chip.
The RZ/T1 group of devices is built around the ARM Cortex-R4F core operating at up to 600 MHz and is configured with two regions of tightly coupled memory, which is linked directly to the CPU core, removing the need for cache memory. TCMs support critical routines, such as interrupt handling routines or real-time tasks, ensuring the highest level of responsiveness with no cache latency. The RZ/T1 also integrates the R-IN Engine industrial Ethernet communication accelerator.
The RZ/T1 Group includes devices equipped with the Renesas R-IN engine, which incorporates an Ethernet accelerator and a real-time OS accelerator (HW-RTOS). The R-IN engine includes a dedicated CPU core running at 150 MHz and implements the functions of a real-time OS in hardware, and handles the communication and peripherals for system-level efficiency. The R-IN engine is designed to support multiple industrial Ethernet communication standards, including EtherCAT, Ethernet/IP, and PROFINET. The recently launched R-IN Consortium is expected to provide a variety of solutions from Renesas and partner vendors that will reduce the time needed to develop industrial equipment.