According to Intel IoT is expected to be a multi-trillion-dollar market, with 50 billion devices creating 44 zettabytes (or 44 trillion gigabytes) of data annually by 2020. But that widely cited 50 billion IoT devices in 2020 number is clearly not correct! Forecast of 50 Billion Devices by 2020 Is Outdated. In 2017 we should be talking about about some sensible numbers. The current count is somewhere between Gartner’s estimate of 6.4 billion (which doesn’t include smartphones, tablets, and computers), International Data Corporation’s estimate of 9 billion (which also excludes those devices), and IHS’s estimate of 17.6 billion (with all such devices included). Both Ericsson and Evans have lowered their expectations from 50 billion for 2020: Evans, who is now CTO of Stringify, says he expects to see 30 billion connected devices by then, while Ericsson figures on 28 billion by 2021.
Connectivity and security will be key features for Internet of Things processors in 2017. Microcontroller (MCU) makers will continue to target their products at the Internet of Things (IoT) in 2017 by giving more focus on battery life, more connectivity of various types, and greater security. The new architectures are almost sure to spawn a multitude of IoT MCUs in 2017 from manufacturers who adopt ARM’s core designs.
ARM will be big. Last year, ARM’s partners shipped 15 billion chips based on its architectures. The trend toward IoT processors will go well beyond ARM licensees. Intel rolled out the Intel Atom E3900 Series for IoT applications. And do not forget MIPS an RISC-V.
FPGA manufacturers are pushing their products to IoT market. They promise that FPGAs solve challenges at the core of IoT implementation: making IoT devices power efficient, handling incompatible interfaces, and providing a processing growth path to handle the inevitable increase in device performance requirement.
Energy harvesting field will become interesting in 2017 as it is more broadly adopted. Energy harvesting is becoming the way forward to help supplement battery power or lose the need for it altogether. Generally researchers are eyeing energy-harvesting to power ultra-low-power devices, wearable technology, and other things that don’t need a lot of power or don’t come in a battery-friendly form factor.
Low power wide area networks (LPWA) networks (also known as NarrowBand IoT) will be hot in 2017. There is hope that f LPWA nets will act as a catalyst, changing the nature of the embedded and machine-to-machine markets as NB-IoT focuses specifically on indoor coverage, low cost, long battery life, and enabling a large number of connected devices. The markets will become a kind of do-it-yourselfers paradise of modules and services, blurring the lines between vendors, users and partners. At the same time for years to come, the market for low power wide area networks (LPWA) will be as fragmented and is already in a race to the bottom (Sigfox, said to be promising costs approaching $1 per node per year). Competing technologies include Sigfox, LoRa Alliance, LTE Cat 1, LTE Cat M1 (eMTC), LTE Cat NB1 (NB-IoT) and other sub-gigahertz options almost too numerous to enumerate.
We are starting to see a battle between different IoT technologies, and in few years to come we will see which are winners and which technologies will be lost in the fight. Sigfox and Lora are currently starting well, but telecom operators with mobile networks NB-IoT will try hit the race heavily in 2017. Vendors prep Cat M1, NB1 for 2017: The Cat M1 standard delivers up to 380 Kbits/second over a 1.4 MHz channel. NB-1 handles up to 40 Kbits/s over 200 kHz channels. Vendors hope the 7-billion-unit installed base of cellular M2M modules expands. It’s too early to tell which technologies will be mainstream and which niche. It could be that cellular NB-IOT was too late, it will fail in the short term, it can win in the long term, and the industry will struggle to make any money from it. At $2 a year, 20 billion devices will contribute around 4% of current global mobile subscription revenues.
New versions of communication standards will be taken into use in 2017. For example Bluetooth 5 that adds more speed and IoT functionality. In 2017, we will see an increase in the number of devices with the new Bluetooth 5 standard.
Industrial IoT to gain traction in 2017. Industrial applications ultimately have the greater transformative potential than consumer products, offering users real returns on investment (ROI) rather than just enhanced convenience or “cool factor”. But the industrial sector is conservative and has been slow to embrace an industrial IoT (IIoT), but is seems that they are getting interested now. During the past year there has been considerable progress in removing many of the barriers to IIoT adoption. A global wide implementation of an IIoT is many years away, of course. The issues of standards and interoperability will most likely remain unresolved for several years to come, but progress is being made. The Industrial Internet Consortium released a framework to support development of standards and best practices for IIoT security.
The IIoT market is certainly poised to grow. A Genpact research study, for instance, indicates that more than 80% of large companies believe that the IIoT will be essential to their future success. In a recent market analysis by Industry ARC, for instance, the projected value of the IIoT market will reach more than $120 billion by 2021. Research firm Markets and Markets is even more optimistic, pegging IIoT growth at a CAGR of 8% to more than $150 billion by 2020. And the benefits will follow. By GE’s estimate, the IIoT will stimulate an increase in the global GDP of $10 to $15 trillion over the next 20 years.
Systems integrators are seeking a quick way to enter the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) market. So expect to see many plug and play IoT sensor systems unveiled. There were many releses in 2016, and expect to see more in 2017. Expect to see device, connectivity and cloud service to be marketed as one packet.
IoT analytics will be talked a lot in 2017. Many companies will promise to turn Big Data insights into bigger solutions. For industrial customers Big Data analytics is promised to drive operational efficiencies, cut costs, boosting production, and improving worker productivity. There are many IIoT analytic solution and platform suppliers already on the market and a growing number of companies are now addressing industrial analytics use.
In 2016 it was all bout getting the IoT devices connected to cloud. In 2017 we will see increased talk about fog computing. Fog computing is new IoT trend pushed by Cisco and many other companies. As the Internet of Things (IoT) evolves, decentralized, distributed-intelligence concepts such as “fog computing” are taking hold to address the need for lower latencies, improved security, lower power consumption, and higher reliability. The basic premise of fog computing is classic decentralization whereby some processing and storage functions are better performed locally instead of sending data all the way from the sensor, to the cloud, and back again to an actuator. This demands smarter sensors and new wireless sensor network architectures. Groups such as the Open Fog Consortium have formed to define how it should best be done. You might start to want to be able to run the same code in cloud and your IoT device.
The situation in IoT security in 2016 was already Hacking the IoT: As Bad As I Feared It’d Be and there is nothing that would indicate that the situation will not get any better in 2017. A veritable army of Internet-connected equipment has been circumvented of late, due to vulnerabilities in its hardware, software or both … “smart” TVs, set-top boxes and PVRs, along with IP cameras, routers, DSL, fiber and cable modems, printers and standalone print servers, NASs, cellular hot spots, and probably plenty of other gear. IoT world at the moment is full of vulnerable devices, and it will take years to get then replaces with more secure devices. Those vulnerable devices can be used to make huge DDoS attacks against Internet services. The 2016 October 21 cyberattacks on Dyn brought to light how easily many IoT devices can be compromised. I expect that kind of incidents will happen more in 2017 as DDoS botnets are pretty easy to build with tools available on-line. There’s no question that everyone in the chain – manufacturers, retailers and consumers – have to do a better job securing connected devices.When it comes to IoT, more security is needed.
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Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacking iBeacons For Automating Routines
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/17/hacking-ibeacons-for-automating-routines/
Every self-respecting hacker has an automation hack somewhere in his/her bag of tricks. There are a lot of modern-day technologies that facilitate the functionality like GPS, scripting apps, and even IFTTT. In an interesting hack, [Nick Lee] has combined iBeacons and a reverse engineered Starbucks API to create an automated morning routine.
By creating a mobile app that scans for iBeacons, [Nick Lee] was able to reduce the effort made every morning while heading to his office. When the app encounters a relevant beacon, a NodeJS app sitting in the cloud is triggered. This consequently leads to desired actions like ordering an Uber ride and placing an order for an iced latte.
I automated my morning routine with iBeacons, and now I live in the future
Y’all living in 2017, but this guy already in 3017
https://blog.tendigi.com/i-automated-my-morning-routine-with-ibeacons-and-now-i-live-in-the-future-97521f488afe
Imagine a world where the services you use are automagically orchestrated you, as you go about your day. Thanks to the magic of iBeacon (and some fun APIs), that world exists, and I live in it.
iBeacon is Apple’s name for small, low-power, short-range Bluetooth low energy (BLE) transmitters that broadcast unique identifiers to nearby mobile devices. It has a wide range of applications, but it’s typically used for mobile marketing applications. They introduced the protocol at WWDC 2013, and a lot of well-known retailers have adopted it.
I decided to plant my beacons in two strategic locations.
Integrating the Services
I put a quick Heroku app together to handle the appropriate behaviors when my phone enters/exits beacon regions.
Getting the Uber integration working was easy. They have a public API for requesting rides that makes it straightforward to do so from your own applications.
The Starbucks integration, however, not so much. I wrote an entire blog post about reverse engineering their mobile ordering API here.
The great thing about Apple’s iBeacon implementation is that it can wake apps up when it detects beacons they have registered. Apple included native iBeacon support in their CoreLocation framework, so neither external dependencies nor Bluetooth knowledge are required.
It turned out that the Estimote beacon wasn’t really powerful enough for my particular outdoor application. I had to get really close to that Starbucks phone booth to get it to trigger the order on my phone. The indoor one for ordering an Uber, however, worked perfectly.
To overcome this, I bought this beacon from Sanwo which advertises a 240 meter range in an open, outdoor area. This solved my problem
I mainly did this to create a real-world demo of our Starbucks API Node.js module, but it actually has turned out to be quite useful.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Code Sample: Doorbell in Python*
https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/code-sample-doorbell-in-python?utm_campaign=IHI-IoT-Broad-Q1_17&utm_medium=Syndication&utm_source=Taboola&utm_content=&utm_term=&&utm_term=bloomberg&utm_content=Code+Sample%3A+Doorbell+in+Python*
This smart doorbell application is part of a series of how-to Internet of Things (IoT) code sample exercises using the Intel® IoT Developer Kit, Intel® Edison board, Intel® IoT Gateway, cloud platforms, APIs, and other technologies.
Doorbell in Python*
https://github.com/intel-iot-devkit/how-to-code-samples/blob/master/doorbell/python/README.md
Store the doorbell data using Azure Redis Cache* from Microsoft Azure*, Redis Store* from IBM Bluemix*, or Elasticache* using Redis* from Amazon Web Services (AWS)*, different cloud services for connecting IoT solutions including data analysis, machine learning, and a variety of productivity tools to simplify the process of connecting your sensors to the cloud and getting your IoT project up and running quickly.
Connect to a server using IoT Hub from Microsoft Azure*, IoT from IBM Bluemix*, IoT from Amazon Web Services (AWS)*, AT&T M2X*, Predix* from GE, or SAP Cloud Platform* IoT, different cloud-based IoT platforms for machine to machine communication.
How it works
This smart doorbell makes a noise with the buzzer when the connected touch sensor is pressed. In addition, it displays a message on the LCD.
Optionally, data can be stored using your own Microsoft Azure*, IBM Bluemix*, AT&T M2X*, AWS*, Predix*, or SAP* account.
This sample can be used with either the Grove* Starter Kit Plus from Seeed Studio, or else the DFRobot* Edison Starter Kit.
Tomi Engdahl says:
AWS IoT Environment for Home Assistant
https://www.hackster.io/mitchese/aws-iot-environment-for-home-assistant-899a1b?ref=explore&ref_id=recent___&offset=0
Home Assistant is an automation platform which can track and control all kinds of devices and automate actions, which fits well with AWS IoT.
This provides integration between Home Assistant, AWS IoT, and low power devices running on the ESP8266.
The ESP8266 doesn’t contain enough computing power to perform encryption required by AWS IoT, a broker running on the local network provides connectivity to the cloud. This way, end-to-end encryption is as close to supported as possible, between the ESP8266 / local raspberry pi (Mosquitto), we are only using WPA Network encryption (and the MQTT messages themselves are not encrypted). Between the Raspberry Pi and AWS, messages are properly encrypted.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Red Phone
https://www.hackster.io/ulrich-pech/iot-red-phone-083cfe?ref=explore&ref_id=recent___&offset=4
For this project I hacked an old rotary phone, so it will tell me if a HTTP server in my AWS account is down. To do this a Lambda function will check via Cloudwatch Events an EC2 instance by checking a HTML page. The Lambda function is tracked by a Cloudwatch Alert. If the check fails, an alert is triggered and a SNS message is sent to a topic. A second Lambda function is connected to this SNS topic and will forward this message to a MQTT topic. The Pi Zero in the red phone is subscribed to this topic. If a MQTT message is reaching the red phone, it will ring, the Pi than calls the AWS Polly API to transform the text message into an Audio File an plays it on the handset.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Introducing Bluetooth Mesh Networking
https://blog.bluetooth.com/introducing-bluetooth-mesh-networking
Bluetooth® technology, the global standard for simple, secure wireless connectivity, now supports mesh networking. The new mesh capability enables many-to-many (m:m) device communications and is optimized for creating large-scale device networks. It is ideally suited for building automation, sensor networks, and other IoT solutions where tens, hundreds, or thousands of devices need to reliably and securely communicate with one another.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Bluetooth SIG releases the specification for Bluetooth Mesh, which allows Bluetooth 4 and 5 devices to communicate in a mesh network — Yay, another smart home standard — There’s a long-running fight between wireless standards to be the one and only to connect all the smart devices in your home.
Bluetooth is getting a big upgrade to make it better for smart homes
Yay, another smart home standard
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/7/18/15988362/bluetooth-mesh-networking-standard-released-smart-home
There’s a long-running fight between wireless standards to be the one and only to connect all the smart devices in your home. And with an upgrade today, Bluetooth is making a good case for itself.
Bluetooth SIG, the group that oversees the Bluetooth standard, is today releasing the specification for Bluetooth Mesh. If you’re familiar with mesh networking, Bluetooth Mesh is pretty much exactly what it sounds like: it allows low-power Bluetooth devices to create and act like a mesh network.
Bluetooth SIG is accounting for a bunch of different types of devices using Mesh. It won’t require all devices on a network to rebroadcast signals, for instance, so that they can save even more power. In some cases, really low-power devices may only wake up every few hours and ping a “friend” device (say, a temperature sensor reaching out to a thermostat) to receive any pending messages, like an update to the temperature range it’s supposed to track. The Mesh standard also requires all communications to be encrypted.
Unfortunately, your existing Bluetooth devices aren’t going to suddenly get these abilities overnight — or, potentially, at all. Bluetooth Mesh can be added to any device that already supports Bluetooth 4.0 or 5.0, which is good because it means new hardware isn’t required, so a lot of devices can get support. But whether current devices receive it depends on if their manufacturers release an update.
Bluetooth SIG says that it usually expects to see new Bluetooth standards starting to enter the market about six months after they’re released. In this case, it expects Bluetooth Mesh to show up even sooner, since new hardware isn’t required. So there’s a good chance your next Bluetooth device will support mesh, but there’s no guarantee your current ones will.
That said, Bluetooth SIG is preparing for some devices to not get an upgrade. It’s allowing some mesh devices to act as “proxies,” which allow other Bluetooth products to connect to and control devices on the network. That way a phone might be able to connect to a mesh proxy and tell some lights to turn on.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant is rolling out to all Galaxy S8 and S8 Plus users in the US today — The voice component of Samsung’s Bixby assistant has been a long time in coming. The company was quick to boast about its AI helper at the Galaxy S8 launch, but revealed that the signature voice feature …
Samsung’s Bixby voice assistant is ready to help in the US
Your Galaxy S8 just got its long-promised companion
https://www.engadget.com/2017/07/19/samsung-bixby-voice-available-in-us/?sr_source=Twitter
Samsung is officially rolling out Bixby’s voice assistance to S8 and S8 Plus owners in the US. Every American with one of the flagship phones will get to talk to Bixby once an update arrives “tonight.” There have been a few tweaks to this official release, too.
There’s no mention of when Bixby will be available in other English-speaking countries (though English does work in South Korea), let alone other languages. Reportedly, just adding this second language was enough of a challenge.
Still, this makes Bixby’s voice assistant much more accessible. It could also be crucial to Samsung’s plans beyond phones. If you believe the rumors, Samsung is working on a Bixby-enabled speaker and otherwise spreading its voice companion to all kinds of devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
This Raspberry Pi seismograph can be used as an early warning system for earthquakes
https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/7/13/15963996/raspberry-pi-seismograph-early-warning-earthquakes
An update to last year’s Raspberry Shake, the new Raspberry Shake 4D — now raising funds on Kickstarter — adds more sensors for extra sensitivity.
It’s sensitive enough to measure the tremors caused by nearby footsteps
Mike Hotchkiss, one of the creators of the Shake, told The Verge over email that the new Shake is fully compatible with EEW (early earthquake warning) systems. He says that traditional seismographs cost thousands of dollars, while the Shake 4D — which offers similar responsiveness — retails for just $500, with an early-bird price on Kickstarter for $300.
Just set it down, plug it in and done!”
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1158786437/raspberry-shake-4d-detect-earthquakes-and-invisibl
Tomi Engdahl says:
Elon Musk Nightmare Looms: Army Seeks “Internet-Of-Battlefield Things” With “Self-Aware” Bot Swarm
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-19/musk-nightmare-looms-us-army-seeks-internet-battlefield-things-distributed-self-awar
After warning that “AI is a fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization,” the appearance of fully-automated ‘robot-killers’ brought Elon Musk’s apocalyptic vision even close.
As he noted, “until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react because it seems so ethereal,” and while that is unlikely in the streets of America (for now), Defense One’s Patrick Turner writes that after nearly two decades of war against technologically unsophisticated foes, the Army Research Lab is reorienting to counter China and Russia – with distributed bot-swarms and an internet-of-battlefield things…
Tomi Engdahl says:
Real-Time Workspace Occupancy Sensing Based on AWS IoT
https://www.hackster.io/data-innovation-lab-axa-germany/real-time-workspace-occupancy-sensing-based-on-aws-iot-bd082e?ref=explore&ref_id=trending___&offset=9
Sensor-based presence detection for individual workstations: capturing occupancy trends and space utilization in real-time.
This project was developed as part of the AWS IoT Virtual Hackathon (July 13th – 18th 2017). We – a team from AXA Germany’s Data Innovation Lab – wanted to experiment with AWS IoT & sensor data to see how fast one can set up a working solution with only basic knowledge about AWS!
Approach
Develop a prototypical presence detection for a sample of individual workstations, utilizing real time sensor data coming from Raspberry PIs (+ Sense HATs) and Amazon Web Services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
On Particle, IoT, and solving hard problems
https://hackernoon.com/on-particle-iot-and-solving-hard-problems-cf3a210a36b1
Particle is an IoT platform. That’s a very jargon-y way to describe us, and it resonates well in the tech-forward Bay Area. But a better way to describe what we do, in plain English: we help companies who manufacture physical products bring those products online. We add connectivity to their products (Wi-Fi or cellular), we provide security and device management, we let them push out software updates, and generally we help them overcome the many hurdles and technical challenges associated with the exciting new industry that we’ve started calling “the Internet of Things”.
Internet of Things, exactly, and why does a company like Particle need to exist?
The Internet of Things has been around, in some form, for decades. In the early days, we used to call it telemetry (literally, “remote measuring”), and later we started calling it telematics when we started adding remote control. Then, in the ’90s, we started calling it machine-to-machine, or M2M. The term Internet of Things, or IoT, was coined in 1999, and really hit its stride in the early 2010s. Veterans of the industry will tell you that these terms all mean slightly different things, but for all intents and purposes, we just keep rebranding the space as the market expanded.
Other things have changed, besides the name, over thirty years. Wired connections are becoming wireless. Local networks and servers are being supplanted by the cloud. But perhaps most importantly, the building blocks of IoT — computing and connectivity — have gotten a lot cheaper.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils Cortana-powered thermostat called GLAS, in partnership with Johnson Controls, that will run on Windows 10 IoT Core OS — Built by Johnson Controls — Microsoft is partnering with Johnson Controls to build a thermostat. The software giant unveiled the new GLAS thermostat in a YouTube video today.
Microsoft unveils a beautiful Cortana-powered thermostat
Built by Johnson Controls
https://www.theverge.com/2017/7/19/16000474/microsoft-cortana-thermostat-johnson-controls-glas
Microsoft is partnering with Johnson Controls to build a thermostat. The software giant unveiled the new GLAS thermostat in a YouTube video today. It’s built by Johnson Controls, makers of the first electric room thermostat. It appears that GLAS will include a translucent touchscreen display that will allow owners to alter room temperatures, check energy usage and air quality, and see calendar information.
GLAS will run on Microsoft’s Windows 10 IoT Core operating system, and will have Cortana voice services built into the thermostat. It’s one of the first thermostats to include Cortana integration, after Microsoft revealed its plans to bring its digital assistant to fridges, toasters, and thermostats. Microsoft notes that GLAS has sensors that detect when you’re in the room or not, and the thermostat will constantly monitor indoor and outdoor air quality. All of these sensors are designed to save energy by changing settings on the fly, much like a Nest thermostat or the Ecobee4.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Source: Intel has eliminated its wearables division, which made the Basis smartwatch, and the company’s New Technologies Group now focuses on AR — – Intel laid off about 80 percent of the team that made the Basis smartwatch in November, and has now eliminated the division entirely, a person familiar tells CNBC.
Intel has axed the group working on fitness trackers and health wearables
http://www.cnbc.com/2017/07/19/intel-eliminates-its-wearables-division-.html
Intel laid off about 80 percent of the team that made the Basis smartwatch in November, and has now eliminated the division entirely, a person familiar tells CNBC.
Intel has been slowly de-emphasizing its wearables business since making a big push around the area in 2014.
Intel has axed the division that worked on health wearables, including fitness trackers, according to a person familiar with the matter.
The company has been slowly de-emphasizing its own line of wearables for the past several years, and has not mentioned wearables on its earnings calls since 2014.
In November, TechCrunch reported that the company was planning to take a step back from the business after its acquisition of the Basis fitness watch didn’t pan out as expected. Intel denied at the time that it was stepping back.
Tomi Engdahl says:
SHELLBIND IoT malware targets NAS devices exploiting SambaCry flaw
http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/61142/malware/shellbind-iot-malware.html
The seven-year-old remote code execution vulnerability SambaCry was exploited by the SHELLBIND IoT malware to target NAS devices.
A new strain of malware dubbed SHELLBIND exploits the recently patched CVE-2017-7494 Samba vulnerability in attacks against Internet of Things devices.
SHELLBIND has infected most network-attached storage (NAS) appliances, it exploits the Samba vulnerability (also known as SambaCry and EternalRed) to upload a shared library to a writable share, and then cause the server to load that library.
This trick allows a remote attacker to execute arbitrary code on the targeted system.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hacker NoonSign up
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Go to the profile of Zach Supalla
Zach Supalla
Founder/CEO of Particle (Internet of Things platform). I make things to make things.
Jul 19
On Particle, IoT, and solving hard problems
Particle is an IoT platform. That’s a very jargon-y way to describe us, and it resonates well in the tech-forward Bay Area. But a better way to describe what we do, in plain English: we help companies who manufacture physical products bring those products online. We add connectivity to their products (Wi-Fi or cellular), we provide security and device management, we let them push out software updates, and generally we help them overcome the many hurdles and technical challenges associated with the exciting new industry that we’ve started calling “the Internet of Things”.
But let’s rewind a bit. What is the Internet of Things, exactly, and why does a company like Particle need to exist?
The Internet of Things has been around, in some form, for decades. In the early days, we used to call it telemetry (literally, “remote measuring”), and later we started calling it telematics when we started adding remote control. Then, in the ’90s, we started calling it machine-to-machine, or M2M. The term Internet of Things, or IoT, was coined in 1999, and really hit its stride in the early 2010s. Veterans of the industry will tell you that these terms all mean slightly different things, but for all intents and purposes, we just keep rebranding the space as the market expanded.
Other things have changed, besides the name, over thirty years. Wired connections are becoming wireless. Local networks and servers are being supplanted by the cloud. But perhaps most importantly, the building blocks of IoT — computing and connectivity — have gotten a lot cheaper. Adding a computer and a radio to a device costs a small fraction of what it cost even just a few years ago.
It also helps that we’re now all carrying around smartphones in our pockets — little portable interfaces for all our connected “things”. Since connectivity is cheap, and we’re all carrying around screens, it feels like it’s time for IoT to explode.
If this is why we’re doing this whole IoT thing, then GET ME OUT OF HERE
But while a handful of things have come online — like Nest thermostats, Tesla electric cars, and GE wind turbines — it doesn’t feel like everything is connected. Instead, it feels like you have a few market leaders creating top-notch IoT products, surrounded by a bunch of worthless garbage. And at the same time, for every “thing” that is getting connected, there are thousands of “things” that aren’t.
It often feels like IoT is overhyped. Why? What’s keeping this revolution from happening the way that it’s supposed to?
Here’s the dirty little secret of IoT: it’s really, really hard to build a well-functioning IoT product.
It’s hard to nail down exactly why it’s hard to build a good IoT product. That’s because there are about a thousand things you have to get right, and any one mistake could sink you. You might trip up over antenna design, or security implementation, or reliable networking. Your servers might experience downtime. Your setup process might work on iOS 10, but get borked in iOS 11, or the Android version might work on all phones except the Samsung Galaxy S8. You want over-the-air firmware updates to futureproof your device, but any reliability issues could lead to bricked devices, and any security issues could turn your fleet of devices into a botnet.
What happens is that companies underestimate the complexity of building an IoT product. They invest limited resources and set tight deadlines, and then their IoT team fails to deliver. Gartner reported in 2016 that 75% of IoT projects will take twice as long as planned
This estimate has also been backed up by a recent survey from Cisco: of 1,845 business or IT decisionmakers surveyed, 74% saw their IoT projects fail to see the light of day.
Source: https://hackernoon.com/on-particle-iot-and-solving-hard-problems-cf3a210a36b1
Tomi Engdahl says:
Home Monitoring System Based on LattePanda, ZigBee and Azure
https://www.hackster.io/JiongShi/home-monitoring-system-based-on-lattepanda-zigbee-and-azure-ce4e03?ref=explore&ref_id=recent___&offset=0
LattePanda is a powerful development board that can run a full version of Windows 10. It is equipped with an Intel Quad Core processor and has excellent connectivity, with three USB ports, integrated WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0. In this project, our home monitoring system is composed of LattePanda (with Windows 10 Home x64 OS), CC2530 ZigBee devices and Microsoft Azure services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Innovating A Backyard Solar Battery System
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/19/innovating-a-backyard-solar-battery-system/
Ever on the lookout for creative applications for tech, [Andres Leon] built a solar powered battery system to keep his Christmas lights shining. It worked, but — pushing for innovation — it is now capable of so much more.
The shorthand of this system is two, 100 amp-hour, deep-cycle AGM batteries charged by four, 100 W solar panels mounted on an adjustable angle wood fram
So, he introduced a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian Jessie Lite that publishes all the collected data to Home Assistant to be accessed and enable control of the system from the convenience of his smartphone. A pair of Arduino Deuemilanoves reporting to the Pi control a solid state relay powering a 12 V, 800 W DC-to-AC inverter and monitor a linear current sensor
http://www.andresleonphoto.com/blog/2017/6/02/my-home-solar-system-project
Tomi Engdahl says:
Old Intercom Gets Googled with Raspberry Pi and AIY Hat
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/20/old-intercom-gets-googled-with-raspberry-pi-and-aiy-hat/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Creating a smart home system WITH FISHINO
https://www.open-electronics.org/creating-a-smart-home-system-with-fishino/
We are going to create a system managed by a smartphone for controlling home appliances and electric devices through Wi-Fi.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Megatrends Drive 200mm Fab Renaissance
Strategies to Maximize “More than Moore” Foundry Growth and Profitability
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1332010&
The past year has seen a resurgent interest in 200mm fabrication. In this paper, I will discuss why this is and answer the question, “Can 200mm fabs have a profitable future?”
I will also share some of my ideas to maximize profitable growth for mature “More than Moore” foundries. These ideas were shaped by my experience at Globalfoundries and managing several fabless companies.
Why the renewed interest in 200mm?
From my experience at Globalfoundries, I realized that leading edge process technology was becoming less and less affordable. This shaped my “Law of Process Scaling Economics.”
Simply put, as transistor scaling advances, development costs climb dramatically, decreasing the number of customers who can afford the technology. These costs are well understood and documented such as fab construction, semi equipment, triple & quadruple patterning, etc. Less understood and recognized are the costs of intellectual property such as cores, memory, interconnect and the associated validation costs.
As a result, IBS estimates the product revenue required to justify a leading-edge design will skyrocket from greater than $300 million for 28nm to billions of dollars at 10nm.
While development costs have been climbing, another megatrend has emerged to make leading edge economics even more challenging. For most of the semiconductor industry’s history there has been a single market driver.
In the 1950s, it was military and aerospace;
The 60s, mainframe computing;
The 70s, minicomputers;
The 80s, personal computers;
The 90s, networking;
During the past 15 years, mobile has been the main driver.
However, for the first time, semiconductor growth is now not driven by just one main end market. Today’s market is driven by the Internet of Things, which is not a single market but a myriad of diverse end markets and applications.
IoT is really the “siliconization of everything.” Most of these devices will have a modest volume in comparison to the market drivers of the past. Very few IoT products will have 1 billion unit or even a 100 million unit potential. Rather, this is an age of 10,000 different devices which might sell 100,000 units. As a result, there are few devices that have the volume to justify the most advanced technology. IBS estimates that there will only be a handful of IoT products that will sell more than 10 million units in the year 2020.
Clearly, there is a disconnect between the IoT market driver and leading-edge costs.
But happily, many IoT devices are predominately analog or mixed-signal and do not require nor benefit from the most advanced technology. They are the “More than Moore” functions such as sensors, power, human interface or RF. These functions do not scale downward and do not like the lower thresholds or currents in the most advanced nodes. For this reason, 130nm had the largest number of design starts in 2015; 2x the next nearest node, 180nm While other nodes are climbing, such as 65nm, 40nm and 28nm, for the next several years, 130nm will remain the most popular technology.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Baidu’s Voice Exec Speaks Out
DuerOS targets Wi-Fi chips, embedded systems
http://www.eetimes.com/document.asp?doc_id=1332017&
Kun Jing wants to enable any embedded system in China to listen to and speak Mandarin. He aims to make Baidu’s DuerOS a kind of Android for natural-language cloud services.
“Our goal is to have every chip maker pre-install our software,” said Jing, general manager of Baidu’s DuerOS group, in an interview with EE Times. “We want every device to have voice capability.” He noted that the free DuerOS code can add value to an otherwise commodity Wi-Fi chip.
So far, ARM, Conexant, Intel, Nvidia, Qualcomm, Realtek, RDA Microelectronics, and one undisclosed chip vendor plan to support DuerOS. They are among about 100 partners that include systems, software, and content companies.
Realtek, RDA, and the unnamed chip partner will offer so-called lightweight chip sets. So far, the RDA 5981, a 40-nm Wi-Fi/Bluetooth chip with an ARM Cortex M4 processor, is the only chip shipping with the DuerOS SDK pre-installed.
Smartphones, such as an HTC handset shipping now, will run DuerOS on versions of Qualcomm’s Snapdragon. Intel is working with Lenovo on a smart speaker that will ship later this summer
As many as 30 DuerOS products are in the works, including smartphones, TVs, refrigerators, air conditioners, and speakers from OEMs such as Haier, HTC, Vivo, and Harman. A TV with voice-search capabilities shipped in March, and a smart speaker shipped in May.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Needs To Get More Flexible
http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?section_id=36&doc_id=1332021&
Flexible hybrid electronics can deliver much of what is promised for the future world of the Internet of Things.
Startups and major corporations alike are collaborating to bring to market flexible, conformable and stretchable form factors that truly enable smart everything. Efforts are under way to build an ecosystem of partners, suppliers and a workforce necessary to grow and sustain the infrastructure in the U.S. for such flexible hybrid electronics (FHE).
FHE is the combination of two concepts. Flexible electronics, in volume production today, are based on a flexible circuit boards using subtractive manufacturing methods with active and passive components attached. Printed electronics involve printing conductors as well as active components on flexible substrates and is used today for RFID tags and smart cards.
FHE combines flexible substrates with the low cost of printed electronics and silicon-based ICs.
Most IoT concepts have yet to be realized in volume production due in part to the lack of inexpensive, mass-distributed sensor systems. FHE is well positioned to fill the gap for many industrial, medical, automotive and consumer applications.
The requirements for FHE include:
Printing conductors on flexible substrates
Printing sensors or passive elements
Placing and mechanically and electrically integrating bare die
Placing and mechanically and electrically integrating passives
Tomi Engdahl says:
LoRa and Sigfox are two of today’s most popular techniques for connecting IoT cells to the network. But what if the company does not know which technology should be chosen? No worries. Murata plans with STMicroelectronics to add a Sigfox connection to its LoRa module.
According to Muratas, the solution provides a module that provides the “best of both worlds”. When the same workflow supports both technologies, the customer can decide which technology best supports its application for service requirements and costs.
The Muratan module enables a hardware manufacturer to develop a solution that works on both networks, which can be used globally for the same firmware software.
The Murata ABX-type module is based on the STM32 controller and Semtech’s SX1276 radio network. Its nominal transmit power is +14 dBm, but can be increased to +20 dBm for better coverage.
Source: http://www.etn.fi/index.php/13-news/6577-kaksi-suosittua-iot-tekniikkaa-samaan-moduuliin
Tomi Engdahl says:
Nabito Is an Open Meter for EV Charging
https://blog.hackster.io/nabito-is-an-open-power-meter-for-ev-charging-d221093d26e8
As electric vehicles become more popular, one problem is where to charge them.
In order to provide a charging and billing method for these spaces, Systems Distributed has come up with Nabito — the Open Socket.
The device is powered by an OrangePi single-board computer, and users are pointed to a web interface where they can interact with it via a QR code. Additionally, an Arduino Uno with a current sensor is used to measure power supplied, and a relay switches the outlet on or off.
Though there are commercial charging options available, this project was implemented for around $60, potentially making this type of metered charging more accessible.
Nabito – the Open Socket: Smart Meter for EV Charging
http://www.instructables.com/id/Nabito-the-Open-Socket-Cheap-Smart-Meter-for-EV-Ch/
Tomi Engdahl says:
Testing the Internet of Things
http://spectrum.ieee.org/view-from-the-valley/at-work/test-and-measurement/testing-the-internet-of-things
That tsunami of new IoT gadgets? They all have to be tested before they roll out into the world, not only to meet government regulations but to verify adherence to a host of voluntary standards, like WiFi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, Thread and others. That is a lot of testing. And that’s why TUV Rheinland recently opened a huge Silicon Valley test facility in Fremont, Calif.
“Typically at the testing point,” says Shelopal, “a product team typically involves eight to ten people, but could be as big as 100, including safety engineers, software engineers, and hardware engineers. And when a product isn’t passing, we need to get them all in, and they will change this piece of hardware or this bit of software.”
Many of the tweaks, he said, can be made on site, with companies only having to go “back to the drawing board if they have a huge flaw in their design.”
The boom in IoT products coming out of Silicon Valley means that the center has been busy since it opened in March
Tomi Engdahl says:
Sound Detector with Visual Alerts
https://www.hackster.io/Skyphoxx/sound-detector-with-visual-alerts-3997ab
Create a WiFi-enabled sound detector that sends your phone notifications using Prowl and Python!
So with a PI0w and super cheap voice detection board, I wrote a python script that sends a push notification to my phone via Prowl if my kid wakes up crying (or a pin drops).
Raspberry Pi based
Tomi Engdahl says:
Talking To A Lamp
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/22/talking-to-a-lamp/
Barking commands at furniture seems a bit odd but with voice controlled home automation platforms becoming the norm, you may be spending more time talking to your light fixtures than your kids. In one such project, [Becky Stern] used an Alexa Dot and an ESP8266 respond to voice commands.
The design uses the Alexa Dot to interpret voice commands such as ‘Alexa turn the light ON’. The ESP8266 with a relay feather wing is used to switch the actual lamp ON and OFF. The glue between the two is the fauxmoESP library that allows the ESP8266 to receive commands from the Alexa API.
Smart Lamp With ESP8266 & Amazon Echo
http://www.instructables.com/id/Smart-Lamp-With-ESP8266-Amazon-Echo/
This Instructable guides you along with me in upgrading a vintage lamp with voice-control using an ESP8266 microntroller and Amazon Echo/Alexa. The Arduino code emulates a Belkin WeMo device using the fauxmoESP library, which makes setup a breeze.
https://bitbucket.org/xoseperez/fauxmoesp
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Hydroponic Garden Control
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/21/hackaday-prize-entry-hydroponic-garden-control/
[Todd Christell] grows tomatoes in hydroponic buckets in his backyard, and recently he suffered a crop loss when a mechanical timer failed to dispense the nutrient flow as directed. He decided the solution was to add a sensor array to his home network.
[Todd]’s home automation setup runs on a Raspberry Pi loaded with Jessie OS and Node-Red, with Mosquitto as his MQTT message broker. With a sensor network in place, [Todd] would get updates on his phone alerting him if there was a problem with the pumps or if the nutrient bath was getting too low.
Hydroponic Garden Control with IUT
Monitor and control hydroponic garden using IUT.
https://hackaday.io/project/25383-hydroponic-garden-control-with-iut
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Theia IoT light-switch
http://hackaday.com/2016/09/24/hackaday-prize-entry-theia-iot-light-switch/
There are it seems no wireless-enabled light switches available in the standard form factor of a UK light switch. At least, that was the experience of [loldavid6], when he decided he needed one. Also, none of the switches he could find were open-source, or easy to integrate with. So he set out to design his own, and the Theia IoT light switch is the result.
Theia IoT light-switch
An easy, cheap and open source way to add IoT to a light switch.
https://hackaday.io/project/12661-theia-iot-light-switch
Tomi Engdahl says:
Millions of IoT devices hit by ‘Devil’s Ivy’ bug in open source code library
Devil’s Ivy is likely to remain unpatched for a long time: “code reuse is vulnerability reuse”.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/millions-of-iot-devices-hit-by-devils-ivy-bug-in-open-source-code-library/
A flaw in a widely-used code library known as gSOAP has exposed millions of IoT devices, such as security cameras, to a remote attack.
Researchers at IoT security firm Senrio discovered the Devil’s Ivy flaw, a stack buffer overflow bug, while probing the remote configuration services of the M3004 dome camera from Axis Communications. The bug occurs when sending a large XML file to a vulnerable system’s web server.
The flaw itself lies in gSOAP, an open source web services code library maintained by Genivia, which is imported by the Axis camera’s remote configuration service. Senrio researchers were able to use the flaw to continually reboot the camera or change network settings and block the owner from viewing the video feed.
They were also able to reset the camera to factory default, which will prompt the attacker to change the credentials, giving them exclusive access to the camera feed.
Axis Communications confirmed that 249 of its 251 surveillance camera models were affected by the flaw, tagged as CVE-2017-9765. It released a firmware update on July 10 to address the issue.
Axis Communications’ cameras are widely used by enterprise firms across the globe, including in healthcare, transport, government, retail, banking, and critical infrastructure.
But as the security firm notes, this bug “goes far beyond” Axis communications kit thanks to gSOAP’s widespread use and will likely remain exposed on devices for a long time. Genivia counts Adobe, IBM, Microsoft, and Xerox as customers and claims gSOAP has been downloaded more than a million times.
The bug also appears to affect several Linux distributions too, which since Senrio’s report, are now responding to Genivia’s patch from June 21.
Hack Brief: ‘Devil’s Ivy’ Vulnerability Could Afflict Millions of IoT Devices
https://www.wired.com/story/devils-ivy-iot-vulnerability/
The security woes of the internet of things stem from more than just connecting a bunch of cheap gadgets to a cruel and hacker-infested internet. Often dozens of different vendors run the same third-party code across an array of products. That means a single bug can impact a startling number of disparate devices. Or, as one security company’s researchers recently found, a vulnerability in a single internet-connected security camera can expose a flaw that leaves thousands of different models of device at risk.
On Tuesday, the internet-of-things-focused security firm Senrio revealed a hackable flaw it’s calling “Devil’s Ivy,” a vulnerability in a piece of code called gSOAP widely used in physical security products, potentially allowing faraway attackers to fully disable or take over thousands of models of internet-connected devices from security cameras to sensors to access-card readers. In all, the small company behind gSOAP, known as Genivia, says that at least 34 companies use the code in their IoT products.
While internet of things devices might be the most vulnerable to the Devil’s Ivy flaw, Tanji points out that companies including IBM and Microsoft are exposed as well
Not every security researcher shares quite that code-red sense of urgency. H.D. Moore, a well-known internet-of-things researcher for consulting firm Atredis Partners who reviewed Senrio’s findings, points out that the attack would have to be configured separately for each vulnerable device or application, and requires sending two full gigabytes of data to a target, what he describes as a “silly” amount of bandwidth. But he nonetheless sees it as a significant and widespread bug—and an illustration of the danger of reusing code from a small company across tens of millions of gadgets. “This vulnerability highlights how supply chain code is shared across the Internet of Things,” he writes. “With IoT, code reuse is vulnerability reuse.”
Senrio’s research began last month, when its researchers found a vulnerability known as a buffer overflow in the firmware of a single security camera from Swedish security camera maker Axis Communications. They say the bug would allow a hacker who can send a two-gig payload of malicious data to run any code they chose on that camera, potentially disabling it, installing malware on it or even intercepting or spoofing its video stream. And the attack, they soon discovered, worked for not just that one camera model, but any of the 249 Axis offers.
Axis quickly released a patch for the vulnerability.
gSOAP code is used—among other things—to implement a protocol called ONVIF, or Open Network Video Interface Forum, a networking language for security cameras and other physical security devices used by the ONVIF consortium, whose nearly 500 members include companies like Bosch, Canon, Cisco, D-Link, Fortinet, Hitachi, Honeywell, Huawei, Mitsubishi, Netgear, Panasonic, Sharp, Siemens, Sony, and Toshiba.
Just which of those hundreds of member companies use gSOAP—and might have left their products vulnerable as a result—isn’t clear. In a phone call with WIRED, Genivia founder and gSOAP creator Robert van Engelen said 34 ONVIF companies used gSOAP as paying customers, but declined to say which ones.
Van Engelen also noted that his software is open-source, so other companies may use it without his knowledge.
Bosch spokesperson said its products are not affected by the vulnerability. A Cisco spokesperson said the company is “aware of the matter and is monitoring” but declined to say—or perhaps didn’t yet know—whether its products are vulnerable.
Using the internet-scanning tool Shodan, Senrio found 14,700 of Axis’s cameras alone that were vulnerable to their attack—at least, before Axis patched it. And given that’s one of the dozens of ONVIF companies alone that use the gSOAP code, Senrio’s researchers estimate the total number of affected devices in the millions.
“I can’t tell for sure if they applied the patch,” he says of the 34 ONVIF equipment vendors. “That’s their responsibility.”
Whether devices are truly protected will depend on both the companies that use gSOAP making that patch available, and then on whether customers install it. Like most internet of things gadgets, the devices affected by Senrio’s bug don’t necessarily have automatic updates, or careful administrators maintaining them.
For the inevitable fraction of devices that aren’t patched, Devil’s Ivy may still not lend itself to a mass IoT meltdown. The majority of vulnerable devices that use the ONVIF protocol hide behind firewalls and other kinds of network segmentation, making them harder to find and exploit
And the need to send two full gigabytes of malicious data to target devices means a Devil’s Ivy attack tool can’t exactly be sprayed across the internet
Its importance may rest, Moore says, in its example of how broadly a single bug can permeate these kinds of devices. “IoT affects our lives far more intimately than desktops,” he says. “The prevalence of this vulnerability reminds us that without security for all the little computerized devices that we rely on, we’re standing on a house of cards.” That house’s stability depends not just on the company you bought your device from, but every unnamed vendor that wrote the obscure corners of its codebase.
Tomi Engdahl says:
FBI to parents: Beware, your kid’s smart toy could be a security risk
The FBI outlines the risks of giving your children a smart toy.
http://www.zdnet.com/article/fbi-to-parents-beware-your-kids-smart-toy-could-be-a-security-risk/
The FBI has warned parents that internet-connected toys could pose privacy and “contact concerns” for children.
The FBI on Monday released a public service announcement (PSA) warning that smart toy sensors such as microphones, cameras, and GPS raise a concern for the “privacy and physical safety” of children.
“These features could put the privacy and safety of children at risk due to the large amount of personal information that may be unwittingly disclosed,” it warns.
Consumer Notice: Internet-Connected Toys Could Present Privacy and Contact Concerns for Children
https://www.ic3.gov/media/2017/170717.aspx
The FBI encourages consumers to consider cyber security prior to introducing smart, interactive, internet-connected toys into their homes or trusted environments. Smart toys and entertainment devices for children are increasingly incorporating technologies that learn and tailor their behaviors based on user interactions. These toys typically contain sensors, microphones, cameras, data storage components, and other multimedia capabilities – including speech recognition and GPS options. These features could put the privacy and safety of children at risk due to the large amount of personal information that may be unwittingly disclosed.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Hackaday Prize Entry: Open Source Patient Monitor
http://hackaday.com/2017/07/22/hackaday-prize-entry-open-source-patient-monitor/
Vital sign monitors are usually found in developed countries; they just cost too much for less affluent communities to afford. The HealthyPi project aims to change that by developing an inexpensive but accurate monitor using a Raspberry Pi, a custom hat studded with sensors, and a touch screen. The resulting monitor could be used by medical professionals as well as students and private researchers.
[Ashwin K Whitchurch] and his team created HealthyPi, a Raspberry Pi hat that includes an AFE4490 chip serving as the pulse oximeter front end, an analog to digital converter that interprets the ECG and respiration data, and a MAX30205 body temperature sensor. The hat has its own microcontroller, a ATSAMD21 Cortex M0+ that can also be loaded with the Arduino Zero bootloader.
Connected Health: Open source IoT patient monitor
https://hackaday.io/project/25380-connected-health-open-source-iot-patient-monitor
This project describes the use of Raspberry Pi as an IoT connected vital signs monitor. The HealthyPi HAT for Raspberry Pi used.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Report: Wireless IC Shipments to Spike by 54% by 2020
https://ipv6.net/news/report-wireless-ic-shipments-to-spike-by-54-by-2020-2/
Surging Wi-Fi traffic, new uses cases, and emerging IoT applications will result in a nearly 54% increase in wireless IC shipments by 2020, forecasts ABI Research. The short-range wireless connectivity market technologies – including ZigBee, Thread, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Z-Wave, Wi-Fi, and NFC – will continue to evolve to meet new market demands, as evident with various new and upcoming enhancements. These include Bluetooth 5 and Bluetooth Mesh, the ZigBee Alliance’s reveal of dotdot language for the IoT, Wi-Fi HaLow (802.11ah), WiGig (802.11ad), new Z-Wave security enhancements, and the growth of ICs that combine several of these connectivity solutions.
“The proliferation of multi-protocol ICs and devices will allow for much simpler product creations and quicker times to market regardless of the deployed technology,” says Andrew Zignani, Industry Analyst at ABI Research. “A prime example is Qorvo’s recent GP695 SoC product announcement that integrates multiple communication protocols, including IEEE 802.15.4, ZigBee, and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). The technology collaboration reduces complexity for IoT device designers by enabling them to take advantage of a single SKU development platform.”
Specifically, Bluetooth 5 speed enhancements will benefit wearables and other handheld devices that will sport quicker performance times, quicker data transfers and syncing, and faster firmware updates, all while keeping power consumption down. The higher speeds will also lead to improvements in future wireless audio applications. Mesh, which Bluetooth SIG remains set to standardize in 2017, will become increasingly vital to the support, creation, and enhancement of use cases that include smart lighting control, building automation, and condition monitoring. Mesh will help enable Bluetooth to compete in areas in which other technologies previously held the competitive advantage.
Wi-Fi’s continued evolution will come in the form of several new protocols. 802.11ax will focus on overall network efficiency improvements rather than simply boosting peak speeds. 60GHz WiGig (802.11ad) will improve Wi-Fi’s suitability for 4K streaming, docking, and VR applications. The sub-1GHz HaLow standard (802.11ah) will open up new opportunities in low-power and in an extended range of IoT applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Bluetooth Mesh networks: Is a standards body right for IoT innovation?
The Bluetooth Mesh specification is impressive, but a specification with an open-source project could accelerate IoT adoption faster
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3209667/internet-of-things/bluetooth-mesh-networks-is-a-standards-body-right-for-iot-innovation.html#jump
Tomi Engdahl says:
oT could benefit from mesh-networking capabilities in Bluetooth
The Bluetooth SIG has published its specification for mesh networking using Bluetooth Low Energy
http://www.networkworld.com/article/3208752/internet-of-things/iot-could-benefit-from-mesh-networking-capabilities-in-bluetooth.html#tk.drr_mlt
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Thermostat Bug Allows Hackers to Turn Up the Heat
https://blog.newskysecurity.com/iot-thermostat-bug-allows-hackers-to-turn-up-the-heat-948e554e5e8b
The field of traditional computer security deals with a myriad of issues like data theft or sabotage. However, when it comes to IoT security, the consequences of a successful attack can be even more diverse. In this post, we discuss an IoT Smart Thermostat bug and how a hacker leveraged it to raise the control temperature by 12 C (~22 F) degrees.
Commodity IoT malware vs Targeted IoT attack
The most common purpose of IoT malware has been to form a botnet of zombie devices (such as routers or cameras) to launch denial of service attacks. Authors program such malware to look for default passwords and exploits for smart devices (which are abundant) so that their botnet army is huge. Smart thermostats on the other hand will not be as big a pool of devices
If such devices can be controlled, however, one can perform actions like changing and controlling temperature which have the potential to cause physical discomfort (or even harm in extreme cases) to the target environment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
IoT Startups Rake In Cash
Funding is free-flowing for the field, but hurdles persist.
https://semiengineering.com/iot-startups-rake-cash/
Corporate and venture investors are still eagerly backing Internet of Things startups, with more than $850 million committed during the first six months of 2017.
This year’s total may not reach the heights of 2014, when investors put more than $5 billion into IoT startups, or 2016, which saw IoT firms receiving about $4.75 billion, the Venture Scanner website estimates. Still, a once white-hot market remains red hot, at least.
The Industrial IoT (IIoT) market has enjoyed increasing support from investors, rising from $685 million in 121 deals during 2012 to more than $2.2 billion in 321 deals during 2016, according to CB Insights.
Some IoT startups are embracing the related fields of Artificial Intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning as they strive to offer a more comprehensive portfolio of hardware, software, and services for a variety of applications, such as autonomous driving, home automation, and robotics.
The IoT has a genuine “unicorn,” a privately held company valued at more than $1 billion, in C3 IoT of Redwood City, Calif. The enterprise software company was founded in 2009 as C3 Energy, providing sensors and smart meters for electrical utilities.
The “platform-as-a-service” company reported revenue in its 2017 fiscal year ended March 31 increased 65% from the prior year, without disclosing actual revenue numbers. Bookings were up about 600% from fiscal 2016, C3 IoT said, while the company had cash-positive operations for the year. It now has 100 million sensors and other devices under management, C3 IoT added.
“The Internet of Things has the possibility for potential of being the platform that could finally make flexible electronics into a viable market,” said Dean Freeman, a research vice president at Gartner, at last month’s 2017FLEX conference and exhibition in Monterey, Calif. “Sensors are seen emerging as a huge marketplace. Very quickly, Gartner’s IoT definition: It’s a network of dedicated physical objects. It contains something that senses, processes, and communicates. Other Gartner analysts who talk about the Internet of Things say: ‘Why is your forecast so low, when everybody says 50 billion things out there by the year 2020?’ Well, Gartner doesn’t include PCs or cellphones, and we don’t include barcodes. We’re forecasting 20 billion live endpoints by the year 2020. We’re looking at 24 billion things. We’re going to see a 33% CAGR in the year 2020 in overall devices growth perspective. Business is going to lead the market…and the consumer is going to follow. Consumer’s going to have a lot more revenue, a lot more things. Where business is going to win out is in the services part of the marketplace.”
“You can see the fragmentation of the Internet of Things,” Freeman said. “One of our analysts has said it’s not just the Internet of Things, it’s the Internet of Many Different Things. This creates challenges in how you build the silicon for the electronics for this marketplace. The Internet of Things is also going to be one of the large growth engines for the semiconductor market at the moment. By 2020, it will be about 8% of the total semiconductor market. We’re expecting roughly a 24% CAGR, which goes up to about $35 billion by the year 2020. And from a unit perspective, we see about $28 billion. Each one of these silicon devices is going to be roughly about a dollar. So we need to find inexpensive ways to manufacture these devices. We’ll get microcontrollers that will be roughly 25 cents apiece in high volumes. Printed electronics allows us to get to that volume if we create enough gates and memory to create the technology. But it does have great applications in the sensors, and in some cases, the NFC and the RFID.”
Security’s dark (and growing) shadow
Initial exuberance over IoT’s growth potential appears to be coming under scrutiny these days. In a report earlier this year, IDTechEx said, “We do not repeat the mantra about tens of billions of nodes being deployed in only a few years. The many analysts sticking to such euphoria ignore the fact that, contrary to their expectation, very little IoT was deployed in 2016. They are ‘bubble pushing’ with their forecasts, predicting ever steeper takeoff, now a physical impossibility.”
The report went on to say that a large market will emerge, but not primarily for nodes, which will be rapidly commoditized.
Conclusion
Still, the assumption is that there is enough opportunity in the IoT these days—with much more in the future—to warrant investments in such things as security, a better communications infrastructure, and even energy harvesting.
In effect, the bigger play is not so much in the chips or even some discrete devices as in the systems. “We look at expenditure on IoT enabling technology which currently runs to billions of dollars yearly, mainly coming from governments and aspiring suppliers,” said IDTechEx.
Tomi Engdahl says:
When Digital, Physical Worlds Merge
What the IoT will look like in the next five years, and what problems need to be solved to get there.
https://semiengineering.com/digital-physical-worlds-merge/
SE: Several years ago the IoT was just a vision. It’s now evolving into something that is real. What’s changed from your standpoint?
Segars: There’s a lot of experimentation going on. People are starting to experiment with different devices and different ways of sensing the world around them, and starting to get creative about how the data can be used to provide benefits, whether they are consumers or the industry. We’re still in the very early stage of this technology, there’s a long way to go, and a lot more benefit that can be pulled from IoT.
Lanza: The things that IoT refers to have been here for a long time. We just did not have a way to classify them in a nice community that IoT, as a term, does. The importance and impact of IoT on society is just the beginning. It’s absolutely nothing compared to what it’s going to be in 5 years, and that’s completely different from what it’s going to be in 20 years.
Lanza: When we started years ago, the Internet was the Internet of computers. We were dreaming that we could connect millions of computers, via cables, at that time. Then, suddenly, the whole thing became the Internet of people. We connected billions of people. Now we are talking about the Internet of things. We now can connect trillions of things. But the entire community of trillion of things doesn’t have rules or behaviors that it would accept or not accept.
SE: The 800-pound gorilla in the room is security. But instead of one gorilla, with the IoT there are a bunch of them all networked together. How do we solve this?
Lanza: The only way we’ll be able to solve it is to isolate the challenges by segments. There will be challenges in the medical segment, in the automotive segment, and challenges in all these different segments. Experts would be able to understand how attacks might happen and what are the sensitive things to protect. Every single segment is going to have a different way to deal with this.
Segars: I don’t think you can guarantee security in the short term. It’s more of a case of managing security in the short term. One of the challenges is that every time you connect something to the Internet, you risk creating another hole, another entry point for somebody with nefarious intentions that can gain access to the network and access data. The data that we are talking about here is very very personal, so it’s going to be something that will be taken very seriously. It’s something we need to come to grips with as we roll out all these connected devices.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The Week In Review: IoT
ARM buys Simulity; Intel cuts IoT jobs; IoT integration market.
https://semiengineering.com/week-review-iot-6/
ARM has acquired Simulity Labs, an Internet of Things security firm in the United Kingdom, for about $15.2 million, a small part of which is held back for a year subject to certain conditions. Foresight Group, a private equity firm, acquired Simulity eight months ago for around $5.2 million, making a handsome profit on the transaction.
ARM CEO Simon Segars posted a blog this week entitled The Path to a Trillion Connected Devices. Nearly a year after the company started talking to SoftBank Group about a potential acquisition, Segars now has a seat on the SoftBank board of directors. He looks forward to the future of artificial intelligence and the IoT in the post.
Intel’s Internet of Things Group is in line for a headcount reduction, with 97 people being laid off at corporate headquarters in Santa Clara, Calif., and up to 40 jobs being made redundant in Ireland. The moves come after the chipmaker said it would discontinue its Edison, Galileo, and Joule development boards for IoT projects.
The China Telecom Open IoT Platform is now available, providing a way for enterprises to quickly deploy and manage IoT devices. The platform is powered by Ericsson’s worldwide Device Connection Platform. China Telecom and Ericsson reached an agreement last year about collaborating on IoT products, technology, and services.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Inertial Sensors Propel the Internet of Moving Things
http://www.electronicdesign.com/webcasts/inertial-sensors-propel-internet-moving-things?partnerref=ED2&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=11896&utm_medium=email&elq2=963390f8aed84bff883e47d922907eb5
The availability of highly reliable, intelligent, and connected sensors is creating new industrial efficiencies. In many cases, there is added value from making such sensor nodes increasingly autonomous and mobile, and thus precision motion tracking of the sensor node becomes critical to the applications success. This next generation of Industrial sensors are smaller, more cost effective, and support centimeter level positioning accuracy; enabling the Internet of Moving Things (IoMT).
Tomi Engdahl says:
UWB for IoT?
Ultrawideband technology could be an undiscovered option for some IoT applications.
http://www.mwrf.com/systems/uwb-iot?NL=MWRF-001&Issue=MWRF-001_20170713_MWRF-001_83&sfvc4enews=42&cl=article_1_b&utm_rid=CPG05000002750211&utm_campaign=11926&utm_medium=email&elq2=c2407acab70c492ebbb8a8c5a36bb834
One of the big issues facing designers of Internet of Things (IoT) products is deciding upon one of the dozen or so wireless technologies vying for adoption. Here is one more to consider: ultrawideband (UWB). While UWB has not been widely adopted, it is nevertheless still around. This unique wireless technology has some major benefits that you may be ignoring while seeking an optimum wireless method. It occurred to me that it could be an undiscovered option for some IoT applications.
There are two primary forms of UWB: impulse and multiband. To be considered as UWB, the technology has to meet the definition that says the signal must have a bandwidth of at least 20% of the center frequency, or 1.5 GHz minimum. Or the signal must occupy at least 500 MHz of bandwidth. The impulse method typically uses very short (< 1ns) Gaussian-shaped impulses with pulse position of pulse phase modulation. The center frequency is roughly defined as the reciprocal of the pulse width.
The multiband form uses 128 subcarrier OFDM in a 528-MHz band. These forms of wireless are authorized to operate in a license-free spectrum from 3.1 to 10.6 GHz in the U.S. with a power level not to exceed −41 dBm/MHz.
UWB Activity
One of the newer UWB products is a wireless microphone system using the impulse method. It is made by a company called Alteros. Its GTX Series uses 2 ns pulses with a 6.5-GHz center frequency, and can accommodate up to 24 channels with a TDMA scheme. The audio frequency response is 20 Hz to 20 kHz with a latency of less than 3 ms. This is an interesting use case, as it shows what can be done.
One of the oldest impulse-based UWB vendors is TimeDomain. Its PulsON modules are used mainly for radar, ranging, and general data communications.
The only vendor of multiband UWB is Alereon. Its OFDM chip has been built into cameras, video monitors, TV sets with HDMI, docking stations, and military communications.
One interesting UWB variation is Pulse~LINK’s CWave technology. It uses a continuous sine wave carrier modulated with BPSK. One version uses a 4 GHz carrier with 750 ps phase shifts to give a data rate of 1.35 Gb/s.
IoT Option or Not?
I’m just asking: Is UWB really an alternative for IoT applications? It has high speeds, low power consumption, good security, and a range generally suitable for multiple applications. It could become the method of choice as more and more IoT devices flood the market.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Berkeley Lab tests smart LED lighting in New York living laboratory
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2017/07/berkeley-lab-tests-smart-led-lighting-in-new-york-living-laboratory.html?cmpid=enl_leds_ledsmagazine_2017-07-12
The combination of autonomous SSL and shading in a New York high rise office space has yielded 80% energy savings in some cases while also pleasing workers.
Berkeley Lab worked with the Building Energy Exchange (BEEx) on the LED lighting project that also included comprehensive light and occupancy sensors along with connected window shade controls. Berkeley Lab believes the work will speed market adoption of smart lighting and the BEEx will use the work to further its educational mission, serving lighting designers and specifiers that are working on commercial spaces.
Still, roadblocks to more smart lighting installations remain. “Context matters when it comes to figuring out where the market barriers are with respect to contractors, facility managers, and office workers — isolated tests in a laboratory environment are often not enough,” said Eleanor Lee. “Reducing stakeholders’ uncertainty about performance and occupant response in a real-world setting can be critical to accelerating market adoption.” Lee is the Berkeley Lab scientist that led the New York project intended to document the benefits of smart lighting in a working office space — thus the characterization as a living lab.
Indeed, the project team monitored energy usage and other characteristics of the office space for a full year before the retrofit to SSL and controls took place. BEEx acted as the local manager of the project.
As the nearby photo illustrates, the retrofit replaced fluorescent T5 lighting with dimmable LED fixtures delivering direct and indirect lighting. The floor-to-ceiling windows received automated shades. And connected sensors spread throughout the mostly-open space can detect localized light levels and occupancy.
The test further considered thermal elements of the space given that the ubiquitous windows and daylight can heat a space.
The smart lighting project sought to balance the benefits of natural light with visual and thermal comfort and provide workers with enjoyable views when possible. Shades had to be lowered at times to mitigate glare but could be opened at other times, both reducing the need for artificial lighting and fully revealing views for the office.
The study focused on the 40-ft perimeter zone of the office floor. Compared to the measured baseline, the electricity required for lighting dropped 79% over the course of six months in which BEEx has monitored the installation. Peak electrical demand dropped 74%.
The study did not measure energy dedicated to powering the HVAC (heating, ventilation, and air conditioning) system in the space. But the researchers did estimate the impact on HVAC energy and also projected the measured data to suggest an entire building retrofit would have delivered savings of $730,000 per year. Based on installation cost of $3–$10 per square foot, an entire building project would pay back in 3–12 years.
Tomi Engdahl says:
LEDvance expands Apple voice-controlled smart bulb and LED strip into Europe
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2017/07/ledvance-expands-apple-voice-controlled-smart-bulb-and-led-strip-into-europe.html?cmpid=enl_leds_ledsmagazine_2017-07-12
LEDvance, the former Osram bulb company now owned by a Chinese consortium, is expanding availability of its voice-controlled Apple-compatible smart bulb and LED strip, reaching into Europe this September following an initial run for the bulb under the Sylvania flag in the US.
Users can operate the Smart+ A60 format lamp (called A19 in the US) and the 600-cm flexible strip either by speaking commands via Apple’s Siri voice system, or via an app, all as part of Apple’s home automation framework, called Apple HomeKit.
Rudimentary prompts — such as turning lights on/off and changing colors — do not require any extra gateways, bridges, or other hardware, as commands reach the smart lamp via a Bluetooth wireless connection, a LEDvance spokesperson said.
Other applications, such as checking from the office whether the home lights are on, or programming lights and other HomeKit devices to respond to each other in “what if” scenarios, do require a bridge or gateway. Typically, those would be an Apple TV box or an Apple iPad connected to the Apple Cloud rather than to Bluetooth, the spokesperson noted. The cloud arrangement could, for instance, turn lights on when window shutters close.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Several NI writers examine four different aspects of Industrial IoT and their potential impact.
The Internet of What Things?
https://forums.ni.com/t5/NI-Blog/The-Internet-of-What-Things/ba-p/3655841
There’s no denying it and no way around it: our world is getting smarter and more connected every day. It’s the Internet of Things (IoT), and everyone’s talking about it.
But what are these “things” we’re all talking about?
In the more well-known consumer space, it’s an Amazon Echo, a Nest thermostat, a connected washing machine, or the much-anticipated autonomous vehicle to name just a few.
But in the less talked about—arguably more impactful—industrial space, we group the “things” into four buckets. Read on about each in a full blog post from some of NI’s Industrial IoT (IIoT) experts.
Test Assets
It turns out the IIoT is helping test engineers expand test coverage, lower costs, and shorten test times by allowing them to better maintain and optimize their test assets. IIoT test assets include test cells, test benches, and automated test equipment.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Software Tools Key for IIoT Application Expansion
https://www.designnews.com/electronics-test/software-tools-key-iiot-application-expansion/203378157257104?cid=nl.x.dn14.edt.aud.dn.20170712.tst004t
ODVA announces technical groups aimed at providing Integrated Learning Environment software tools, and next generation digitized descriptions for device data.
A primary challenge in developing industrial control systems, and an issue that is only amplified as we more fully embrace the Industrial Internet of Things, often centers on an ability to rapidly develop and deploy software applications. Software is the special sauce in networked automation, and the availability of easy to use, effective software tools has become a necessity in delivering software that is becoming ever more complex.
To help address these issues, ODVA has announced two technology initiatives focused on making industrial automation software easier to develop. An Integrated Learning Environment aims to jump-start EtherNet/IP engineering know-how and ultimately shorten new product development cycles for device vendors. A second major new technical activity is to develop standards and tools for its next generation of digitized descriptions for device data. Project xDS will focus on the development of specifications for workflow-driven device description files for device integration and digitized business models.
A parallel effort undertaken by ODVA is to standardize workflow-driven device descriptions and simplify the production and consumption of device data for device integration in Industrial Internet of Things applications.
Tomi Engdahl says:
As lighting companies move to IoT services, everything in the business model must change
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2017/06/as-lighting-companies-move-to-iot-services-everything-in-the-business-model-must-change.html?cmpid=enl_leds_smartlightingiot_2017-07-10
HAMBURG – As lighting vendors try to shift from the century-honed practice of selling light bulbs to selling services based on Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity, they are looking at nothing less than overhauling just about everything in their corporate structure and value chain by implementing radical new business models.
“Developing a service business model is basically redesigning your business,” said Stijn Bröcker, head of connected lighting for Osram. “If you change your business model, you’re basically reinventing your company.”
Internet of Things schemes equip luminaires with sensors and communications chips. They connect to data networks, and end users deploy them for everything from improved lighting controls to gathering information about what’s happening on their premises.
Bröcker noted that IoT lighting is a perfect match for a service model. Not only does a service contract typically spare end users the upfront cost of buying new lights and controls, but it also relieves them of trying to figure out complex technology choices in a world where the technology is changing rapidly and is full of confusing choices.
But for an industry like lighting — steeped in a product mindset — implementing a service approach is daunting.
“What a lot of people don’t understand is developing a new business is very complex,” Bröcker said. “If you’re changing after 100 years in the lighting industry to a new business model, you basically need to change everything.”
One of the biggest changes: Whereas lighting vendors are accustomed to selling to facilities managers, they must now aim higher in an organization, all the way up to the chief financial officer and chief executive officer. One practical reason is while service contracts can run for 5 or 10 years, facilities managers are often forbidden to sign a contract that lasts more than a year or so, Bröcker noted. From a broader perspective, IoT lighting’s benefits can potentially appeal to the strategic vision that preoccupies CEOs more than facilities managers and other potential entry points at a company.
Tomi Engdahl says:
The funding of urban smart lighting could hinge on 5G
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2017/06/the-funding-of-urban-smart-lighting-could-hinge-on-5g.html?cmpid=enl_leds_smartlightingiot_2017-07-10
The boss of Holland’s Luminext believes that the next-generation cellular technology will give a much needed boost to the outdoor IoT business case, and will attract investors.
HAMBURG – While the lack of a business case is currently discouraging investors from backing streetlight-centric smart cities, the pending arrival of 5G mobile networks could help change all that, according to the boss of a Dutch software and systems firm.
“5G is very important,” said Henk Walraven, managing director of Luminext, speaking at the Smart Lighting Conference 2017 here this week. “The reason for 5G to be there is to actually to finance the whole thing.”
Many enthusiasts believe that urban outdoor lighting infrastructures are ready-made to form the backbone of smart cities. The idea is to outfit luminaires, or the poles that house them, with sensors and communication chips that gather data on crowds, traffic, parking, air quality, noise, weather conditions, and much more. This data, when connected to the Internet, can then help authorities operate cities more effectively, can help people make informed choices about how to use the city, can feed retailers and other businesses with useful information, and so on.
But claiming that a lot of this today requires expensive wired networks (even though many early examples also use some form of wireless), Walraven noted, “There’s no business case.” But in the near future, the huge leap in bandwidth and capacity augured by 5G will help support data transfer rates that will expand the capabilities of what wirelessly connected smart lighting can do.
“If you want to do fiberoptics to the lampposts every five lampposts, there’s nobody that wants to pay for it,” said Walraven. “But if I can then go to small cells and 5G equipment, then the investors in that will actually have a little bit more patience in waiting for their investment to pay back.”
5G represents the next major advance over today’s 4G in mobile networking speeds and capacity. It is expected to be generally ready by around 2020. Some pundits believe the leap will be necessary to support the billions of devices such as lights that will connect to the Internet of Things (IoT) — estimates vary wildly but several prognosticators expect around 20–30 billion devices to be part of the IoT by 2020, up from several billion today. As LEDs Magazine wrote earlier this week, lighting companies such as Finland’s Helvar are experimenting with it.
For Luminext, 5G would help support smart city systems and applications, such as an “aggression detection” system that Luminext has deployed in a small pocket of Eindhoven. In that project, 22 “sound cameras” are mounted on light posts, anonymously detecting sound and converting it into a graphic that can alert police of yelling and screaming.
Tomi Engdahl says:
Philips Lighting will supply network technology for Los Angeles LED street lights
http://www.ledsmagazine.com/articles/2015/04/philips-lighting-will-supply-network-technology-for-los-angeles-led-street-lights.html?cmpid=enl_leds_smartlightingiot_2017-07-10
The installation will use the Philips CityTouch management platform to control the Los Angeles street light inventory with a wireless node installed on luminaires regardless of the original manufacturer of the luminaire.
Philips Lighting has announced that the City of Los Angeles will use the Philips CityTouch platform to manage the world’s largest street light inventory, both for adaptive control of the predominantly LED lighting and for automation of maintenance operations. Evidently, the Philips approach includes the development of a wireless node that can be installed at each fixture, regardless of the manufacturer of the luminaires, with the node leveraging existing mobile wireless networks.
The announcement was curious in that Philips is at least the third company to announce an engagement with Los Angeles on networked street lights. At LightFair International in 2013, GE Lighting said it would supply Los Angeles with network nodes within the GE LightGrid platform. GE had planned to rely on a 6LoWPAN wireless network to link the street lights. And earlier, Los Angeles had been working with the Acuity Roam wireless network.
Certainly the use of the existing mobile wireless infrastructure would simplify installation of a wireless network. The mobile radios would cost more than the radios for a low-power mesh network. But the mobile approach eliminates the need for the city to install additional routers and gateways to the mesh network, and the backhaul to an IP-based network.
The mobile nodes will attach to the street lights via the standard NEMA connector that is place on virtually every outdoor area light for photocell control. Almost all street lights can respond to on/off controls via that connector and newer models can also respond to dimming controls.
Philips said the CityTouch platform is installed in 31 countries around the globe, but that the Los Angeles project will be the first instance in which the CityTouch connector node
Tomi Engdahl says:
Optical LAN helps modernize historic mixed-use buildings in Fort Worth
http://www.cablinginstall.com/articles/2017/06/tellabs-vt-group-optical-lan-sinclair-buildings.html?cmpid=enl_cim_cimdatacenternewsletter_2017-07-10
Tellabs and VT Group, a systems integrator, recently provided optical LAN infrastructure, Power over Ethernet technology, and a network-management system to three historic buildings in Fort Worth, Texas. The buildings—the Sinclair Building, the STS Tower, and the Hotel Texas Annex—are owned by Sinclair Holdings.
“Connectivity innovation is present with Tellabs Optical LAN that provides four times the Gigabit Ethernet port density in 90-percent less building space and 300 times better reach than traditional copper-based LANs. Powering innovation is achieved by leveraging low-power intelligent devices and powering them with packetized digital power and Power over Ethernet. This method of powering is more reliable, safer and less expensive to implement. Network management innovation is achieved with Tellabs Panorama PON Manager, which provides centralized intelligence and centralized management from one console and one screen, while promoting plug-and-play for easy IT network operations.”
In the Sinclair Building, the LAN architecture is a fiber-based point-to-point design that connects a multitude of Internet of Things endpoints. “This is a far better means of designing a LAN’s distribution and aggregation compared to legacy copper-based LAN’s point-to-point footprint,” Tellabs explained. “At the Sinclair Building, VT Group installed the Tellabs Optical LAN ONT that provides gigabit connectivity to the Universal Power over Ethernet switches, and wireless access points. All the building’s voice, video, data, lighting, control and automation are then connected to ports either on the OLAN ONT, UPOE switch or wireless access point.”
“We connect and automate the control of the lighting, window shades, visual, audio, HVAC and access control so that each of our tenants and guests personalizes their own in-room experience,” Aslam said. “We are also expecting to save as much as 35 percent in energy savings and operations costs with our LED lighting system.”
Tomi Engdahl says:
Dell OEM Edge Gateway 5000 Series
http://eu.mouser.com/new/dell/dell-edge-gateway-5000/?utm_source=NASATechBriefseSource&utm_medium=display&utm_campaign=dell-dell-edge-gateway-5000&utm_content=-text-image
Dell OEM Edge Gateway 5000 Series is designed to aggregate, secure, and relay data from diverse sensors and equipment. The Intel® Atom™ processor provides the capacity to perform local analytics and send only meaningful information to the next tier, whether another gateway, the datacenter, or the cloud. This minimizes consumption of expensive network bandwidth and reduces overall solution latency.
The Dell OEM Edge Gateway 5000 Series is designed to attach to a wall or DIN rail in commercial and industrial environments and are engineered with an industrial-grade form factor and fanless, solid-state design.
The Gateway 5000 Series can run 24×7 with long life at extended temperatures as well as withstanding high levels of humidity and dust typical in industrial environments. The gateways feature Dell’s broad IT security portfolio with a TPM chip for hardware root of trust, secure boot and BIOS-level lockdown of unused I/O ports. Dell IoT gateways, including the 5000 Series, are designed for the flexible manageability that IT requires.
Processor – Intel Atom™ E3825 Processor and Intel Atom™ E3827 Processor are based on the Silvermont microarchitecture,