connecting the internet of things

Issue 232

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INCISORVideo enabled

INCISOR.TV

PLUS - EXAMINING THE FIRST 5G PHONE- INCISOR.TV EXPERT GROUP- OPEND LAUNCH – NEW DEVELOPER API- ENOCEAN – THE HEART OF SELF-POWERED SWITCHES- ZIGBEE ALLIANCE ANNOUNCES ‘ALL HUBS INITIATIVE’

5G – HYPE OR HOPE?- INCISOR TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT LIFE’S 5G REALITIES

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the coming of 5G – a life-changer? maybe not

A couple of weeks ago, UK mobile network operator EE launched the first UK 5G network. If you listen to the PR, this is,basically, the second coming. Brace yourselves as your life is never going to be the same again. OK.

EE’s marketing messages align with those of the infrastructure equipment manufacturers. I’ve interviewed both Ericssonand Nokia, and in their books, 5G is a really, really big thing.

But is it? Both I and many other people seem to want to know the answer to this question. I know this because on thesame day that EE launched its network, here at Incisor.TV we published an interview with a UK expert – former Ofcomdirector and Incisor Expert Panel member Professor William Webb, who also authored the book ‘Exploding the 5G myth’.William believes that 5G is seriously over-hyped and will, for the foreseeable future, mainly be a mechanism to provideextra network capacity. That interview has been watched at the Incisor.TV site 1750 times as of this morning, less thantwo weeks after we published. For B2B video, that’s a lot of views in a short time. And the numbers keep growing, at150-200 views per day. As I said above, a lot of people want answers to their 5G questions.

The movie can be watched from this issue of Incisor (see p4) and you will also learn more about Professor Webb’scredentials.

If you have views on the future for 5G, I would like to hear them. Incisor has always provided a mouthpiece for any andall sides of an industry debate.

In this issue we also take a look at smart home developments with EnOcean and LG, and learn how the Zigbee Allianceis weighing in to make smart home and IoT products easier to develop, deploy, and sell across ecosystems.

I think that the reaction to our 5G movie reinforces the fact that today, 20 years since we launched, Incisor still reachesthe right people across the wireless, IoT and smart connected device industries. If we haven’t yet worked with yourcompany to create content – editorial and/or video - talk to me and we can make something happen.

Vince Holton, Editor-in-chief,

Incisor / IncisorTV

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Contributing writers:Rebecca Russell, Manek Dubash,Paul Rasmussen, Mads Oelholm.

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CONTENTS

5G – HYPE OR HOPE?- INCISOR TAKES A CLOSER LOOK AT LIFE’S 5G REALITIES

EXAMINING THE FIRST 5G PHONEINCISOR.TV EXPERT GROUP- ‘WHAT’S HAPPENING IN OUR WORLD’ UPDATE

openD LAUNCH- OPEND IS AN OPEN SOURCE DEVELOPER API DEVELOPED BY THE DECT FORUM

ENOCEAN – THE HEART OF SELF-POWERED SWITCHESZIGBEE ALLIANCE ANNOUNCES‘ALL HUBS INITIATIVE’

www.incisor.tv2

INCISOR.TV FOCUS THIS MONTH

Interviewing Husqvarna on the use of u-bloxmodules in the latest smart city, greenspace technology.

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The international association of the wireless homeand enterprise communication industry.

www.dect.org

Ellisys is a worldwide supplier of advancedprotocol test solutions.

www.ellisys.com

The self-powered wireless standard for building automation.

www.enocean-alliance.org

EnOcean Alliance &Microsoft standardizeintelligent buildingsolutions for IoTThe EnOcean Alliance manages the onlyenergy harvesting wireless standard and isdedicated to automation solutions forsustainable buildings using energyharvesting wireless technology. Its goal is tomake buildings more energy-efficient, moreflexible and lower in cost. The Alliance isnow expanding and strengthening itsposition to digitalize building spaces andthe Internet of Things (IoT) by workingalongside Microsoft, which has joined theEnOcean Alliance as a Board and PromoterMember.

Thomas Frahler, Business Lead Internet ofThings at Microsoft Germany said: "As amember of the EnOcean Alliance, weencourage innovation and standardization inintelligent building control. We areempowering businesses to adapt digitaltechnologies quickly and build their owndigital competencies to offer new servicesto their customers by sharing our expertiseas a technology leader, sharing experiencesof our own transformation journey andproviding advanced platforms and tools.With our comprehensive IoT Platform weare simplifying the entry for companies intothe Internet of Things, regardless wherethey currently are at and independent ofcloud, software or devices."

Graham Martin, Chairman and CEO of theEnOcean Alliance told Incisor, "I see this asa perfect marriage with EnOcean wirelessand maintenance free interoperable sensorsfrom multi-vendors providing the necessarydata and Microsoft offering the perfectplatform solutions to analyze and optimizeour buildings. With Microsoft's long-standing expertise in cloud-based servicesand IoT, we have gained a very strong

partner in the ecosystem. We are lookingforward to a successful cooperation to buildthe future of IoT.”

5G will reach the IoTmarket in late 2020According to a new report from the IoTanalyst firm Berg Insight, 5G will make itsfirst appearance in the IoT market in late2020. The first 5G cellular IoT modules willbecome available to developers this year,says Berg, enabling early adopters to createthe first IoT devices based on the standard.Based on the experience of previousintroductions of new standards, 5G willhowever not be an instant hit. By 2023,Berg Insight forecasts that 5G will accountfor just under 3 percent of the total installedbase of cellular IoT devices.

“5G still has some way to go before it canbecome a mainstream technology forcellular IoT”, Tobias Ryberg, PrincipalAnalyst and author of the report told Incisor.“Just like 4G when it was first introduced,the initial version of 5G is mostly aboutimproving network performance and datacapacity. This is only relevant for a smallersubset of high-bandwidth cellular IoTapplications like connected cars, securitycameras and industrial routers. The realcommercial breakthrough will not happenuntil the massive machine typecommunication (mMTC) use case has beenimplemented in the standard.”

mMTC is intended as an evolution of theLTE-M/NB-IoT enhancements to the 4Gstandard. Since NB-IoT has only just startedto appear in commercial products, Bergbelieves that there is no immediate demandfor a successor. Over time, fifth generationmobile networks will however becomenecessary to cope with the expectedexponential growth of IoT connections anddata traffic.

Haltian launches 5G-ready smart factorysolution with AWS IoTGreengrassHaltian Oy claims to be the first vendor onthe market to offer industrial enterprises acomplete and fully integrated wirelessSmart Factory solution with on-siteinfrastructure.

The product development and IoT companyhas just launched its end-to-end smartfactory solution, based on its Thingsee IoTplatform. This includes new industry-graderetrofit sensors with a Gateway device,coupled with an edge computing platformbased on the AWS IoT Greengrasstechnology, and optional Private LTE forsecure, local wireless connectivity.

Haltian explained that its smart factorysolution addresses main market challengeswith a secure and cost-efficient, end-to-endapproach. Haltian’s sensor devices useWirepas IoT Mesh networking to transmitdata to the local Thingsee Gateway device,which then relays it to the Thingsee Edgeon-site solution based on AWS GreengrassEdge Computing. The Private LTEtechnology complements the solution withflexible and secure wireless connectivity.This end-to-end infrastructure then enablesfactories to process all IoT applications andcollect sensor data on-site, without havingto transmit data through the public Internet.

“No production breaks are needed forinstallation and digitalization investment isreduced by 90% per data point, comparedto the traditional automatic valves”, PasiLeipälä, CEO and co-founder of Haltianexplained. “This Smart Factory solution hasbeen developed hand-in-hand with largeindustrial customers and leadingconnectivity partners, to deliver a true fit-for-purpose solution.”

newswww.incisor.tv 3

5G4

5G – hype or reality?As the UK welcomes its first 5G network,Incisor takes a closer look at life’s realities

lsewhere in this issue, ProfessorWilliam Webb, a member of theIncisor.TV Expert Panel, tells us that

in the world of mobile communicationsthere is only one story – 5G. In hissubmission for this month’s Expert Panelfeature, William suggest that the real storyis that 5G is not happening - at least notin the way intended and which mostexpect. This is for various reasons,William says, including the decreasinglikelihood of widespread small celldeployment, doubts about 5G generatingextra income for the MNOs and a lack ofimpetus for high capacity IoT capability.

Yet, undaunted by these factors, the MNOsand network equipment manufacturers arepushing ahead. Well, Huawei is probablyscratching its head a little and wonderingabout its future 5G roadmap, but that’sanother story.

In a very public display of 5G support,network operator EE launched its 5G servicein the UK on the 30th May, with Stormzyperforming at a 5G-powered gig besideTower Bridge on the River Thames. EE isoffering new 5G plans, a range of six new 5Gsmartphones and devices, and 5G available

starting in six cities: London, Birmingham,Cardiff, Manchester, Edinburgh and Belfast.EE also announced a 5GEE Wi-Fi and 5GEEhome broadband with pricing and availabilityto follow.

Should have known better …

With a degree of ambition that should beapplauded, British public broadcasting

service the BBC decided, in its infinitewisdom, to carry out a launch report fromcentral London using EE’s 5G network tostream its broadcast. Entirely predictably, theconnection failed and the BBC had to do aquick ‘Er, sorry about that, back to the studio’switch to complete its story.

For those that don’t know, EE is part of theUK’s BT Group, and Marc Allera, CEO of BT’s

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5G 5

Consumer division, said on the day of thelaunch, “This is the start of the UK’s 5Gjourney and great news for our customersthat want and need the best connections.We’ve started with 5G in some of the busiestparts of the UK, the widest range of 5Gdevices in the UK, and plans that givecustomers the best mobile connection andgreat benefits. We’re adding 5G to the UK’snumber one 4G network to increasereliability, increase speeds, and keep ourcustomers connected where they need itmost. 5G will create new experiences withaugmented reality, make our customers’ liveseasier, and help launch entirely newbusinesses that we haven’t even imagined.”

5G – sort of

At this point, 5G is built on top of EE’s 4Gnetwork – customers will connect to both 4Gand 5G at the same time to get the bestpossible experience, even in crowded areas.As well as upgrading more than 100 sites to5G every month, EE says that it is expanding4G coverage into rural areas, and addingmore capacity to 4G sites by turning 3Gsignal into 4G to enable more spectrum for abetter network experience.

EE admits that this is not full-fat 5G. Thisinitial launch is apparently Phase 1 of EE’s5G rollout: a ‘non-standalone’ deploymentfocused on using the combined power of 4Gand 5G.

Phase 2, from 2022, will introduce the full,next generation 5G core network, enhanceddevice chipset capabilities, and increasedavailability of 5G-ready spectrum. Higherbandwidth and lower latency, coupled withgrowing 5G coverage, are predicted toenable a more responsive network, enablingmobile augmented reality, real-time healthmonitoring, and mobile cloud gaming. Phase2 is, says EE, also a vital step on its journeyto the convergence of its networktechnologies, bringing together fixed, mobileand Wi-Fi.

Phase 3, from 2023, will introduce Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communications(URLLC), Network Slicing and multi-gigabit-per-second speeds. This phase of EE’s 5Groll-out will enable critical applications likereal-time traffic management of fleets ofautonomous vehicles, massive sensornetworks with millions of devices measuringair quality across the entire country, and the

Incisor.TV’s still got it! As a yardstick to the effectiveness of Incisor.TV’s promotional campaigning, the video you see on this page was filmed and published at theIncisor web site on the same day that EE launched its 5G network. It was promoted through Incisor.TV channels and our social medianetworks (including LinkedIn – see this link to the post at one group).

At the time of writing – one week after it was published - it has passed 2,166 views at the www.incisor.tv web site.

Not bad for B2B video!

INCISOR.TV

INCISOR.TV MOVIES

‘tactile internet’, where a sense of touch canbe added to remote real-time interactions.

For now, EE expects customers toexperience an increase in speeds, predictingaround 100-150Mbps even in the busiestareas, and the company went so far as topredict that some customers will break theone gigabit-per-second milestone on their5G smartphones. Can we hear scepticalcoughing at the back of the room? Theseprojections are all very impressive, but howmuch of this talk is smoke and mirrors? Isthis pure marketing intended to give theMNOs something new to sell?

We decided to put William Webb back on thespot, and Vince Holton connected with himvia Skype to film an interview in which wecould ask William to expand on his 5G viewsand to help us have a better understandingof 5G reality, and the part this newgeneration of network will play in our lives.

Click on the movie screen below to watchthe Incisor.TV video interview, entitled‘Exploding the 5G Myth.’

www.incisor.tv6

The first 5G phone in the UnitedStates is a compromise of costand design, says IHS Markit

Motorola Moto Z3/5G Mod combination enables 5G speeds – butcomes with drawbacks in the race to be first to market.

illed as the first 5G smartphone inthe U.S., the Motorola Moto Z3 withthe 5G Moto Mod claims to deliver

the ultimate in data transfer speed.However, the distinction of being the firstand fastest comes with major tradeoffs toattain gigabit-per-second performance.Overall, the Moto Z3/5G Mod combinationis the product of major compromises thatillustrate the challenges involved withmaking 5G’s millimeter wave (mmWave)technology workable and affordable at thesame time, according to a teardownanalysis conducted by IHS Markit.

Together, the Moto Z3/5G Mod combocarries a bill-of-materials (BoM) cost of$499.79 The Z3 smartphone itself is anunassuming 4G handset, but it was selectedas the first 5G offering by Motorola becauseit can be customized with “mods.” The Z3smartphone contains an estimated $224.59worth of electronic components and othermaterials. The 5G Mod, which connects tothe Z3 to add high-speed mmWave 5Gcapability, has a BoM cost of $275.20. Giventhe 5G Mod retail pricing of $349.99,Motorola essentially is selling the 5G Mod atcost. Verizon subscriber pricing of the 5GMod is advertised at $199.99 with a $10 permonth premium of existing service,suggesting that Verizon may subsidizing the5G Mod at some level when purchased witha service contract.

“Both retail and subscriber prices of theMoto Z3/5G Mod combination relative to thebill-of-material costs reflect Motorola’smarket position – a position that results inthinner margins than more premiumsmartphone brands such as Apple,Samsung, and Huawei,” said Wayne Lam,director and principal analyst for mobiledevices.

mmWave technology delivers extremely fastdata rates, with speeds theoretically as highas 5 gigabits or more per second, comparedto just 100 to 200 megabits per second forexisting 4G LTE services. On the downside,mmWave’s coverage and range areconstrained, working at distances ofapproximately one city block—using focusedRF beams rather than the normal RFpropagation associated with cellularcommunications. Not all 5G phones supportmmWave, making it a distinctive feature of

the 5G Mod and of the Verizon networkwhen initially announced in late 2018 anddemonstrated in April 2019.

Complexity and millimeters

Reflecting the costs and complexity ofmmWave, the 5G Mod is a self-containedradio, running its own version of Android,having a duplicate application processor aswell as a Qualcomm X50 5G modem. Theentire radio-frequency (RF) front-end issourced from Qualcomm, the onlycomponent vendor currently capable ofproviding smartphone mmWave solutions.Paired with the Moto Z3, the combined unitis a study in design efficiency since much ofthe 4G LTE connectivity is replicated onboth devices.

The high BoM cost of the 5G Mod is mainlyattributable to this mmWave RF subsystem.Building an RF front-end capable ofdiscerning clear signals from low-propagation millimeter waves represents asignificant technical challenge. With theirtiny wavelength, these wireless signals canbe hard to pick up and easy to block withobstacles.

One common obstacle is the user’s hand,which can block signals and interruptservice, depending on how a phone is held,reminiscent of the Apple iPhone 4“Antennagate” as widely reported in 2010.

The 5G Mod and other mmWavesmartphones including the Samsung GalaxyS10 5G for Verizon address this issue byintegrating three or four separate millimeterantenna modules that are strategicallyplaced throughout the device to createspatial diversity, improve reception andmitigate interference. This compares to justone such antenna in most smartphonedesigns.

However, there is a trade-off here too, witheach module including its own RF path,complete with a phase antenna array,power amplifiers, power-management chipand RF transceiver. These immenselycomplex modules cost $18.80 apiece,adding up to $75.20 in total for the 5Gexperience—or up to three times the cost ofthe RF subsystem in an average 4Gsmartphone.

“Being first is often by definition acompromise of both design and cost,” Lamcontinued. “The Moto Z3/5G Mod hasallowed Motorola to offer 5G capability onexisting smartphones and to be first in theU.S. market.”

Making waves

Currently, mmWave service is being offeredby just two mobile operators: Verizon andAT&T. The Moto Z3/5G Mod combo iscurrently being sold exclusively by Verizonwith and without a service contract.

However, over time, more operators andsmartphone makers are expected to join themmWave party. To serve this rising demand,component suppliers currently are pouringenormous amounts of resources intoreducing the cost of implementation.

“Making mmWave technology more viable isone the major challenges faced today by thesmartphone market,” Lam said. “Luckily, thechip vendors, smartphone makers, andoperators have proven time and time againthat they can reduce complexity and drivedown costs. In the era of 5G, IHS Markitexpects the industry to step up to thechallenge once again.”

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Putting a finger on the pulseof the industry

Welcome to our regular ‘Expert Group’ feature.The term ‘thought-leaders’ is routinely used todescribe any company exec that has beenthrust into the limelight by his PR company.Incisor brings together the people for whomthe phrase was really invented.

To re-cap, we include in Incisor’spages a regular feature wherebyexecutives from around theconnectivity, smart device andInternet of Things (IoT) industriescomment each month on issuesfacing their fast-growing ecosystem.We have invited people that haveimpressed us not only with theirknowledge of the part of theindustry that they directly addresson a day to day basis, but who alsocome from a broad range ofdifferent types of organisation andwho have a high level of experienceand knowledge of the big picture.What’s more, they are all eloquentand unafraid to voice opinions.These individuals make up theIncisor.TV IoT Expert Group.

Each month, the members of thegroup consider a topical issue, andshare their thoughts with Incisor’sreaders. We introduce each of thepanel members, providing some bioinformation for background. Then

we have the panel member’sresponses to each month’s topic.

We haven’t run an Expert Groupfeature for a while, and so, for thisissue, we invited our contributors todo a ‘What’s happening in ourworld’ piece so that we can do abroad sector update for our readers– launches / new versions / industrycommentary / news / trends / focusareas and so on. As each of ourcontributors comes from a differentpart of the industry, this will be veryuseful.

It’s easy to become very centricaround one part of the wireless / IoTindustry, especially if that is whatour individual jobs need us to do.We hope that with the shared viewsand experiences of the Incisor.TVExpert Group contributors we canhelp provide a wider awareness ofdevelopments across the industry.

I invite you to read on ….

Incisor.tv Expert Group8

INCISOR.TVEXPERT GROUP

Incisor.tv Expert Group 9

Ruth Wilson, DECT Forum, Deputy Chairperson of the Board

DECT & ULE - 21st Centurytechnology to the core

ell, it may come as a surprise tosome, but DECT is alive, kickingand in the best of health, and

with an ever-growing relevance fortodays’ wireless technology needs.

Way back in its infancy, nearly 30 yearsago, DECT was a great wirelesstechnology primarily used for cordlesstelephony, but it’s testimony to the expertswho developed the core specifications,that the underlying hooks to enable futureenhancements were quietly put in place.Today we see DECT growing in use fortelephony as the telecoms markettransitions from analog to digital voice.DECT, and it’s HD voice variation CAT-iq,are integral to the broadband servicegateway, enabling direct connection to IPvoice, giving DECT yet again a central rolein the home and office. Major serviceproviders such as BT, Deutsch Telecom,Orange and Swisscom along with manyothers, have recognized the technologyvalue and integrated it into their futurevoice services.

ULE, the low power variant of DECT hastaken this a step further, and really bringsvalue to the broadband service provider.The ability to be integrated into batterypowered devices has seen DECT/ULEdeployed in a wide variety of devices suchas smoke alarms, window sensors, waterdetectors, thermostats, light bulbs to namebut a few, with traditional DECTmanufacturers such as AVM, Panasonicand Vtech seeing the early potential, andnew entrants such as Crow and Jazzenjoying the benefits of the technology forthe first time. The ability to re-use theDECT chipset in the gateway for the ULEfunction via a software upgrade, haswidened the possibility for Smart Homes,without having to deploy an additionalradio. Deutsch Telecom has integrated thisinto their Quivicon platform and Orangerecently announced the selection of ULEas its primary IoT technology for its newconnected home service, “MaisonConnectée”.

But, what’s really interesting is the growinguse of DECT for non-telephony

applications. A parallel data channel hasalways been available in the standard,thanks again to those early experts. Inmore recent years, the standard has beenenhanced to ensure the security of thedata meets modern expectations.Enterprise companies such as Ascom,Cisco, NEC, Spectralink to mention but afew, are leaning on the reliable andsecure voice and data links, and we seeDECT deployed in mission criticalsystems such as hospitals and prisons,covering not only the voice, but otherfunctions such as alarm, vital statisticsand localization.

An emerging market segment is the useof DECT as a solution for ProfessionalAudio. Well-known brands such as Jabra,Plantronics, Shure and Sennheiser haveadopted the technology for use in arange of products from headsets toprofessional microphones, conferencesystems. Key benefits for this marketsegment are ease of registration (or pre-configuration) and excellent quality ofservice possible compared with theirpreviously used crowded bands.

The message is clear, DECT today, in aworld of many different short-rangewireless offerings, continues to survive asa mature and enhanced technology, hasevolved to new applications and marketverticals, and has a lot more to come.Our specification is once again beingenhanced, looking at further developmenttowards DECT as a 5G technology, andwe expect further emerging new marketverticals such as Industry 4.0.

Last but far from least, we see excitingnew developments around the use ofvoice for control of devices. Latest on themarket is the range of home phones withAlexa built-in from SGW. Voice is thenatural interface, and there is a plethoraof different voice engines for the endconsumer to play with. DECT as thewireless technology of choice for voicereally comes of age and we look forwardwith interest to see the next excitinggeneration of devices which deployDECT.

W EXPERT GROUP PANEL BIO

Ruth Wilson, DECT Forum, Deputy Chairpersonof the Board

Since early 2006, Ruthhas held the positionof the Deputy-Chair of

the DECT Forum Board and was centralto driving the creation of the ULEAlliance. In addition, she was a BoardMember of the Home Gateway Initiativefrom 2011-2016, an organizationfocused on common requirements foroperator specified gateways.

Particular focus has been withdevelopment of the DECT/CAT-iqmarket and integration into the IPnetwork, the roll-out of HD voice andthe use of ULE technology in theConnected Home as the next marketgrowth area for the underlying DECTtechnology.

Ruth has over 35 years’ experience inthe electronics industry, having abackground in embedded softwareengineering and product realization in avariety of market sectors prior tofocusing on the wireless semiconductormarket. Ruth currently holds theposition of VP EU Strategic BusinessDevelopment, DSP Group

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INCISOR.TVEXPERT GROUP

Incisor.tv Expert Group10

Graham Martin, Chairman and CEO, EnOcean Alliance

Providing “big data” for smartbuilding IoT solutions

he IoT for buildings, or thedigitalization of buildings havebeen buzz-words for many years

with most people not reallyunderstanding nor grasping theconcepts nor the huge potential behindall of this. Here at EnOcean we havealso been very active in this field,possibly even before the buzz-wordswere created, but what we have seenrecently in our world is an exponentialgrowth in interest, activities andrealization of projects relying on this‘big data’.

Data, which comes primarily from sensors,is the key to many IoT applications. Buthow can this data be made available in ourexisting buildings and industries?Embedding and pulling cable, ormaintaining batteries are both prohibitivedue to costs, disruption and environmentalconsiderations, so energy harvestingbased wireless sensors have become thechoice of the building and data servicecommunity.

Companies such as Microsoft and IBMhave recently joined our technologyAlliance as promoter members, with furthergiants joining us such as NTTCommunications, Tencent or Softbank also

offering IoT solutions for smart buildingsbased on EnOcean energy harvestingtechnology. Also the ‘traditional’ buildingautomation providers have added dataanalysis and cloud services to theirstandard offerings. It is not just theenergy harvesting aspect driving thissuccess, but also the large multi-vendorinteroperable product eco-system andease of install and operation that arehelping to fuel this growth.

One key application area is officeoccupancy monitoring and optimization.Most offices in Europe and North Americaare typically only around 60% occupiedduring normal working hours, meaningwasted costs in space and in runningcosts, especially energy costs. In largecorporations or governments this canamount to billions in wasted costs. Tocollect the data necessary to monitor andsubsequently optimize operations,hundreds or thousands of sensors aresimply stuck around the office, even downto desk or seat level, feeding the data intoIP networks and various cloud services.This can be done during normal officehours with no noise or mess usingEnOcean energy harvesting sensors.Another application area is energymanagement, providing data abouttemperature and air quality, which, coupledwith occupancy monitoring, can be used tosave typically 30% energy in a commercialenvironment. In addition, studies haveshown that if an employee is in his or herperfect environment (temperature, airquality, lighting and noise levels etc.), thenshe or he becomes 15% more effectiveand 15% less absent, which can amountto thousands of dollars savings peremployee per year. Additional applicationareas up and coming include Toiletmonitoring systems (TIoT), ambientassisted living (AAL) and insuranceoptimization.

In smart home solutions with multipleinteroperable smart systems, we are alsoseeing a move towards collecting data forhome owners to improve energy costs,security and comfort. Here we also seesignificant activity and growth, and we are

finally achieving the consumer and marketneeds of plug and play, easy to use,interoperable, maintenance-free smarthome solutions with options of selectingservices to monitor, control and increasecomfort and security.

www.enocean-alliance.org

T

EXPERT GROUP PANEL BIO

Martin Graham,Chairman and CEO,EnOcean Alliance

Graham is a veteran inthe semiconductorindustry with 25 years’experience in analogue

and RF solutions at various Engineering,Sales and Marketing positions in USA,GB, Germany, Austria and Norway.

Before joining EnOcean he was aworldwide pioneer in low power wirelesssensor networks at leading start-upChipcon (purchased 2006 by TexasInstruments) where he conducted theworldwide business developmentactivities, served as President ofFigure8Wireless and was Vice Presidentof the ZigBee Alliance. Graham studiedin USA and GB and is a PhysicsGraduate from the University ofEdinburgh, Scotland.

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INCISOR.TVEXPERT GROUP

Incisor.tv Expert Group 11

William Webb, CEO, Weightless SIG and independent consultant

What is happening in mobile comms?

quick glance at the news tells usthat in the world of mobilecommunications there is only

one story - 5G. It dominated MobileWorld Congress and operators havebeen racing to be the first to deploynetworks. It has also dominated thenews about security with concernsabout Huawei’s ability to controlnetworks through their 5G equipment.

But the real story is that 5G is nothappening - at least not in the wayintended and which most expect.

Rewind back to late 2016. Thewidespread view was that 5G was goingto be a transformational technology. Withtens of thousands of small cells, mostusing mmWave spectrum, it was going todeliver a thousand-fold increase incapacity. It would, magically, do so atlower cost than existing networks andusing less power. It would result inperfect connectivity, where every userhad the perception of infinite bandwidth,never being constrained by data rates,capacity or latency. There would bemillions of “things” connected in everysquare kilometre in urban areas changingthe world further. Life would never be thesame again.

Since then, aspirations have been scaledback. Few now talk of widespread smallcell deployment. The mmWavefrequencies have been relegated to fixedwireless access (FWA) - which in itself is

not going well. MNOs have widelycommented on the “challenge” of makingthe business case. Operators do notexpect costs to fall since 5G equipmentwill be incremental and not a replacementof existing equipment. They do notexpect power usage to fall either. There isno sign of high-capacity IoT capability -MNOs expect to use the 4G NB-IoTsolution if they have any IoT aspirations(and few do). But they do expect lowerlatency and higher data rates, and hopethat these can unlock new businessareas.

MNO plans for 5G currently focus ondelivering more capacity in dense urbanareas. Here, some cells are alreadycongested, and the additional spectrumdelivered along with 5G facilitates morecapacity on existing cells - the lowestcost way to achieve capacityenhancement. It is near-certain that some10-20% of cell sites will be upgraded inthis way to deliver increased capacityover the coming years. Less clear iswhether the expected gains in capacitywill be delivered. Only time will tellwhether the “massive MIMO” beam-forming antennas will work as well indense busy city environments as they doin test situations. Even so, 5G meansmore spectrum, and more spectrummeans more capacity.

It is far less clear what happens after theinitial capacity-related deployments.Much will depend on whether the MNOscan see a viable business case where thecosts of more extensive deployment areoffset by increased revenues. Few expectsubscribers to pay more (indeed, MNOsmay have to initially subsidise handsetsto ensure their widespread availability ifthe 5G capacity provided is to beeffectively utilised). So a key question iswhether other revenue streamsmaterialise. Note that this is a quitedifferent question from whether newapplications emerge - plenty of newapplications emerged for 4G, but theMNO revenue went down, not up. MNOsare painfully aware of this and assumeover-the-top (OTT) services will notimprove their revenue, but will requiremore capacity from their networks.

So networks are getting more capacity,which is hardly a new story. What ishappening in mobile comms at themoment is the loud telling of a story that ismore fiction than fact.

www.webbsearch.co.uk

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EXPERT GROUP PANEL BIO

William Webb, CEO, Webb Search/Weightless SIG

William is CEO of theWeightless SIG, a bodystandardizing a newM2M technology and

Head of Consulting at Webb Search.Weightless collaborates with ETSI onstandards developments for ultra-narrowband technology as well asdevelops its own narrowband standard –Weightless-P. Key members include ARM,Accenture, Cisco, Telensa and M2Comm.

William was one of the founding directorsof Neul, a company developing machine-to-machine technologies and networks,which was formed at the start of 2011and subsequently sold to Huawei. Prior tothis William was a Director at Ofcomwhere he managed a team providingtechnical advice and performing research.He has worked for a range ofcommunications consultancies and spentthree years providing strategicmanagement across Motorola’s entirecommunications portfolio, based inChicago. He was IET President 2014-2015.

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INCISOR.TVEXPERT GROUP

Incisor.tv Expert Group12

Sam Lucero, senior principal analyst, IoT, IHS Markit

Tradeshow highlights: IoTplatform vendors partner, simplify

he Hannover Messe—focused onindustrial technology—is one of thelargest technology tradeshows in the

world, nearly double the size of eitherMobile World Congress (MWC) inBarcelona, or the Consumer ElectronicsShow (CES) in Las Vegas. As usual, IHSMarkit sent over 30 analysts to the show tomeet with industry stakeholders

Over the past several years, industrial IoTplatforms have been an increasingly importanttopic at Hannover Messe. Not only do all themajor industrial automation vendors (e.g.Siemens, ABB) show what they are doing inthe platforms space, but the Messe alsodraws in leading ICT vendors, such as AWS,Cisco, HPE, Microsoft, and many others.

Below are some of the key industrial IoTplatform-specific trends and issues thatsurfaced during our time at the Messe:

Moving from “kitchens” to “menus”:Several vendors told us that prospects andcustomers were increasingly interested insimplified, configurable applicationdevelopment options. One vendor used theanalogy of customers previously wanting to“come into the kitchen (of a restaurant) andstart cooking with the ingredients” whereascustomers now wanted to stay out of thekitchen and simply receive a menu of optionsthat could be mixed and matched.

This desire for ever more simplicity aligns withthe increased pace of “solution accelerator”introductions by platform vendors – white labelapplications that can be configured by thecustomer. It is also why, for example, Siemensacquired Mendix in October 2018 to integrate“low code” app development capabilities intoSiemens overall offerings (including itsMindSphere IoT platform.)

More comfort with clouds: Industrialcustomers have traditionally been veryreluctant to open their plant environments tocloud-based technology. Their primary fear iscybersecurity-related: attacks on mission-critical infrastructure, disruption to industrialprocesses, theft of trade secrets, injury tostaff, and harm to brand reputation.

While the industrial sector remains relativelyreticent about using cloud services, contacts

at Hannover Messe indicated they are seeingmore willingness among their customers andprospects to at least consider cloudinfrastructure models. It was suggested thatthe migration of CRM and ERP to the cloudhas served as a learning experience forindustrial companies and is possibly makingthem more open to putting some plant data inthe cloud as well.

At the same time, cloud service providers areworking to meet industrial customers wherethey are now, through edge computinginitiatives. Most notably, Microsoft’sintroduction of Azure Stack—providing the fullAzure cloud service using on-premiseshardware—was seen by some at the show asvery useful for increasing the comfort ofindustrial companies with moving along thespectrum from on-premise to cloud-basedcomputing infrastructure.

Ecosystems are critical: While no surprise atall, ecosystem development and partneringwere on full display at Hannover Messe. Bothleading industrial automation vendors (such asSiemens) and leading ICT vendors (includingAWS, Cisco, and Microsoft) had huge partnerpavilions highlighting their ecosystemcapabilities. Many of the one on oneconversations revolved around how thecompany being interviewed was working withpartners to enable IoT solutions.

This trend at the show aligns perfectly withhow vendors in the IoT space in general, andthe IoT platform space in particular, areapproaching the market.

Further signs of consolidation: There arehundreds of IoT platform vendors and many ofthese vendors are active in the ApplicationEnablement Platform (AEP) segment of themarket. However, new platform introductionshave declined, and “exits” have increasedsince 2015.

These are indicative of market consolidation.At Hannover Messe, we learned that HPE hasdecided to limit future development of itsUniversal IoT Platform to focus on existingcustomers. To be clear, HPE will still provide aservice to connect disparate field devices tocloud-based applications, but it will no longertarget the full range of device managementand data management functions typical of

AEPs that were addressed by the UniversalIoT Platform.

We learned that another AEP vendor has alsochosen to pull back from a full stack AEPoffering to focus on device connectivity. (Wecannot yet publicly name this vendor inconnection to this change of strategy.) Weexpect that such strategic focusing willbecome more common over time.

The bottom line: Hannover Messeunderscored strong secular trends underwayin the IoT platforms market: furthersimplification, the rising importance of cloudcomputing (with a dose of edge), and the keyrole ecosystem development has for IoTplatform vendors.

www.ihsmarkit.com

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EXPERT GROUP PANEL BIO

Sam Lucero, SeniorPrincipal Analyst, M2M and IoT

Sam Lucero is a seasoned industry analystwith over 15 years ofexperience analyzing

telecommunications and networkingtechnology markets. For over a decade, hehas researched the markets for machine-to-machine (M2M) and Internet of Things (IoT)applications. Sam has established leadingM2M market research programs and managedinternational teams of industry analysts. Hehas authored numerous reports, forecastdatabases, and topical articles coveringvarious aspects of the M2M/IoT marketopportunity and has been widely quoted innews and trade journals, from the New YorkTimes and the Economist to CNET andWireless Week.

Furthermore, Sam has moderated, presented,and judged at a number of industry events,including CTIA and Connected World. In 2014Sam was named one of six “Augural Analysts”for M2M by Connected World Magazine.

INCISOR.TVEXPERT GROUP

Nordic Semiconductorand Quuppa expandBluetooth locationservices ecosystem Nordic Semiconductor is strengthening itsdesign partnership with Quuppa, an Espoo,Finland-based developer of real time locationservice (RTLS) solutions. The increasedcollaboration builds on Quuppa’s developmentof its Intelligent Locating System to operate onNordic’s nRF52 Series Systems-on-Chip(SoCs), including the latest Bluetooth 5.1Direction Finding solutions.

The latest version of Quuppa’s firmware, whichruns on Nordic’s nRF52832 Bluetooth LowEnergy (Bluetooth LE)/Bluetooth 5 SoC, usesthe Bluetooth LE protocol to transmit the‘Angle-of-Arrival’ (AoA) radio packets which inturn determines the position in space of aBluetooth LE transceiver. The introduction ofBluetooth 5.1 Direction Finding enhances thetechnique by providing simplified access to theBluetooth LE protocol’s IQ signal data (a keycomponent of the AoA technique) for theQuuppa positioning engine.

Quuppa says that its previous experienceworking with Nordic’s nRF52 Seriesarchitecture will enable it to leverage Nordic’sBluetooth 5.1 Direction Finding support toextend the ecosystem of RTLS solutionproviders and applications based on thetechnology. Further expansion will beencouraged by Bluetooth 5.1 DirectionFinding’s interoperability between productsfrom different vendors and the next generationof smartphones. Key application sectorsinclude asset tracking and indoor positioningsystems (IPS).

Fabio Belloni, Chief Customer Officer atQuuppa told Incisor, "For Quuppa it is excitingthat Nordic Semiconductor SoCs are nowenhanced with Bluetooth Direction Findingcapabilities. The nRF52811 SoC fits perfectlyinto the Quuppa Ecosystem by coupling very

low power consumption with a highlyadvanced radio, providing great value.”

Wind River joins O-RANAlliance to supportgrowth of open sourceinnovation for 5Gnetworks Wind River, which develops IoT infrastructuresoftware, has joined the O-RAN Alliance in aneffort to further advance 5G networktechnologies. Championing the principles ofopenness and intelligence, the O-RAN Allianceis working to evolve radio access networks(RAN).

Wind River has been providing open source–based operating system and infrastructureplatforms for RAN networks, such as UMTS andLTE, for more than a decade. As 5G continuesto roll out, Wind River aims to ensure alignmentwith its open source platform infrastructureproducts and O-RAN. Part of the early 5Glandscape, Wind River technology claims to bepowering the majority of 5G RAN deployments.

Glenn Seiler, vice president of open sourcestrategy at Wind River told Incisor, “As the needfor more advanced and agile services grows tomeet the needs of 5G, it is important to workacross the industry to support increasingly openarchitectures and standardized interfaces forgreater interoperability. We look forward tocontributing our expertise around proveninfrastructure virtualization technologies andcontinue our work to help the industry developthe intelligent foundation needed for the nextgeneration of telecommunications.”

Founded by telecommunications operators, theO-RAN Alliance says that it is committed tofurther innovating radio access networks (RAN)built on virtualized network elements, white boxhardware, and standardized interfaces with thecore principles of openness and intelligence in

mind. With greater standardization and asinterfaces become more open, this canaccelerate RAN innovation and lower networkcosts.

Wi-Fi Alliancecelebrates 20 years of Wi-FiWi-Fi and Bluetooth have co-existed in theshort-range wireless space since the end of the90’s. While the Bluetooth SIG celebrated 20years of pushing short-range connectivity during2018, it’s now the turn of the Wi-Fi Alliance andWi-Fi.

Today, Wi-Fi enjoys an installed base of morethan 13 billion devices and more than fourbillion Wi-Fi devices will apparently ship in 2019alone. This year marks 20years of Wi-Fi andtogether with its nearly 800 member companies,Wi-Fi Alliance is celebrating Wi-Fi, describing itas one of the greatest technology successstories of the high-tech era.

The Wi-Fi Alliance was established in 1999 as aglobal organization to provide multi-vendorinteroperability for wireless networking productsand to bring a better and more consistentconnectivity experience. The term “Wi-Fi” andits familiar yin-yang logo were coined by the Wi-Fi Alliance shortly after to establish a consumer-friendly way to distinguish this new experiencewith wireless networking products. Wi-FiCERTIFIED was established to indicateproducts that passed interoperabilityrequirements from the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO, Wi-FiAlliance told Incisor, “Since its founding twentyyears ago, the Wi-Fi Alliance has been wherethe Wi-Fi ecosystem comes together todetermine where Wi-Fi goes next. Ourcollaboration has resulted in the Wi-FiCERTIFIED portfolio expanding to address newuse cases and satisfy demands across a broadrange of industries, ultimately making Wi-Fi anessential tool in everyday life.”

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Semtech announcesopen LoRaWANAcademy registration Semtech Corporation, a supplier of analogand mixed signal semiconductors andadvanced algorithms, has announced theopen registration of the LoRaWAN Academyfor everyone, from large enterprises toindividual developers. The LoRaWANAcademy provides free educational modulesfor students, engineers, developers, andenterprises to develop Internet of Things (IoT) applications using LoRa-basedtechnologies.

Steven Hegenderfer, Senior Director of theDeveloper Ecosystem in Semtech’s WirelessSensing and Products Group told Incisor,“Developers are the most important part ofany modern technology platform, and theLoRaWAN Academy is there to help them getup to speed on one of the fastest growingIoT-enabling technologies out there today. Weare working with the LoRaWAN-basedecosystem to develop and drive material thatis beneficial to the community. Providingcompletely free modules focused on buildingLoRa-based applications gives students,engineers, developers, and enterprises thejump-start they need to build robust,innovative IoT applications.”

The LoRaWAN Academy was first launched inlate 2017 and targeted to universities. Sinceits initial inception, several universities fromaround the world have apparentlyimplemented LoRaWAN Academy curriculumto prepare students for the IoT job market bytraining their students on developing LoRa-based solutions and the open LoRaWANprotocol. The program will now be availableto anyone who is interested in building LoRa-based applications.

The LoRaWAN Academy includes 10 modulesof self-paced online classes that includesvideo lectures, supplemental readingmaterials and hands-on assignments.

STMicroelectronicsmakes IoT sensingaccessible with IoTPlug and Play STMicroelectronics is launchingSensorTile.box to help everyone from youngpeople to expert designers discover thepower of IoT and to understand how they caneasily collect and send sensor information tothe cloud.

The IoT Plug and Play module connects withBluetooth Low Energy to a smartphone,allowing users to watch the sensors functionas a pedometer, asset tracker, environmentalmonitor, or as other instruments. For moreexperienced designers, SensorTile.boxprovides developer and expert modes thathelp build more sophisticated applicationsusing a graphical wizard or by writing customembedded code. SensorTile.box will beshowcased as a new demonstration platformfor Azure IoT Central, which simplifiesconnecting smart devices to the cloud.

Andrea Onetti, General Manager of ST’sMEMS Sensor Division told Incisor,“SensorTile.box is uniquely flexible. It can beconfigured for users of any skill level tosupport learning, prototyping, or even as amodule within a commercial end-product.Now IoT Plug and Play certified andcompatible with IoT Central, it connects out-of-the-box with Azure IoT to further extendopportunities for learning and new-productdevelopment.”

Tony Shakib, Principal Group PM Manager,Microsoft IoT Business Acceleration atMicrosoft Corp. added, “SensorTile.box will beshowcased as a demonstration platform forAzure IoT Central, which aims to help everyoneunderstand the benefits of IoT and the cloudand show them how easy it is to connect.”

SensorTile.box contains ST MEMS devicesfor motion, context, and environmental

sensing housed in a 57mm x 38mm x 20mmIP54 plastic container.

Allterco Roboticslaunches NB-LTEsensors for homeautomationBulgarian IoT company Allterco Robotics islaunching 4 Narrow Band LTE (NB-LTE) homeautomation devices. These are a fire & smokesensor, a flood sensor, a temperature andhumidity sensor and a smart plug. Theirrelease is scheduled for autumn 2019, whencustomers will be able to purchase them frommobile operators’ stores.

NB-LTE, which connects IoT devices, is thelatest mobile network, Allterco suggestingthat it is now supported by over 300 mobileoperators worldwide. Benefits of NB-LTEinclude battery life of more than 5 yearswithout charging and the ability to send datatraffic over the mobile network at a low cost.NB-LTE also allows users to monitor andmanage their home directly via their mobilephone.

Dimitar Dimitrov, CEO of Allterco Roboticstold Incisor, “Allterco Robotcs is the onlyBulgarian company to develop a newgeneration NB-IoT home automation devices.Our products make life easier for people andhelp them to provide better care forthemselves and their families. The NB-LTEsensors we put on the market combinepracticality and reliability and provide userswith quick and easy control over everythingthat is important to them.“

Dimitrov suggested that, as an example, thebiggest advantage of the NB-IoT fire sensor isthat it is not connected in any way to thelocal infrastructure and can transmitinformation to the user and the firedepartment even if the fire has affected theinstallation and the electricity is interrupted.

newswww.incisor.tv14

is an open sourcedeveloper APIdeveloped by the

DECT Forum for use on DECT siliconfrom either Dialog Semiconductor orDSP Group. It initially targets entrylevel developers building skills inwireless application design. openD isalso the name given to the communityof developers using the openD API. TheFraunhofer Institute for IntegratedCircuits (Fraunhofer IIS), one of theworld’s leading application orientedresearch institutions formicroelectronic and IT systemsolutions and services, hosted theDECT Forum‘s event.

The setting, on the outskirts of Nürnbergcity, was ideal, providing a creativebackdrop to a day dedicated to innovationaround DECT and ULE. The launch tookplace a day in advance of the EmbeddedWorld event, where the DECT Forum alsohosted a partner booth. The launch wasdivided into 2 parts: The morning sessionas a mini conference and in the afternoonthere was a dedicated openD tutorial.

Of the people registered for theconference, the majority were DECTForum and ULE members, but many newfaces also took part in both theconference and the hands-on session.

Fraunhofer opened the conference with anoverview of the Positioning and NetworksDivision by Juergen Hupp. Thepresentation showed the wide applicationscope that Fraunhofer has developedexpertise on. Much of the research anddevelopment in the area of positioning,networking and IoT was presented andwas very pertinent and informative.

Guido Neun, aproduct manager fromAVM, was a keynotespeaker. Guido’scompany buildsconsumer electronicsproducts in Germany,includingcommunications,

networking devices such as DSL, ISDN,Wireless and VoIP systems. Guido spokeabout the power of DECT/ULE in the AVMsmart home strategy. As AVM is one ofthe leading players in the German homegateway market, this was very relevantand gave the audience a taste for whereDECT is situated in the smart home and

how that picture has changed over theyears. From telephones to devices likesmart plugs, thermostats and otherhousehold sensors, the audience couldsee where DECT & ULE are affectingpeople’s lives.

After Guido’s presentation, AsmundThielens from Livassured introduced a newalarm for epilepsy sufferers. This device isactivated by the patient in the case of aseizure, and uses DECT to transport thatinformation to next of kin or directly to adoctor.

The next set of high value solutions waspresented by Kai Tossing from Sennheiser.Kai, a regular speaker at DECT events,presented on the latest innovations ofSennheiser in the area of wirelessmicrophones and conferencing equipment.Rounding off the morning sessions wasMarkus Schnell from Fraunhofer, this timepresenting on audio codecs, a subjectmore familiar to most of the audience.Fraunhofer have always played a stronginnovator role in this area with theirdevelopment of MP3, AAC and EVS toname but a few.

openD tutorial

For the afternoon session, the auditoriumfor the conference was quickly turned intoa working area with 10 work stations, eachcontaining a set of DECT/ULE shields fromeither DSP Group or DialogSemiconductor. Each of the work stationswas also equipped with a Raspberry PI forthe node and an ST Nucleo for the clientside. On each work station, a Magentaactuator from Deutsche Telekom (alarm)was also provided, and the DECT Forumacknowledged the contributions of themembers companies who had providedthis equipment.

Andreas Schuler and Ingo Speer createdand ran the workshop. Andreas Schulerhas a long history in the DECT community,with experience built in the ChaosComputer Club, Hirschman and mostrecently for the DECT Forum, where heperformed software acceptance testing foropenD. Ingo Speer currently works forSysgo and supports Andreas on openDacceptance testing.

After a short introductory presentation,participants were tasked with bringing up

Guido Neun, AVM

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5, 4, 3, 2, 1...Lift Off!openD was launched recently at the Fraunhofer Institute,

in Nürnberg, Germany.

openD

the openD package, with the openDsoftware available on GitHub. This wasindeed a learning session for allparticipants, the lecturers and of course,the DECT Forum, as all involved learnedmore about the product, the hard- andsoftware, the feature sets and identifiedwhere there is room for improvement.

The challenge for the participants was tocreate an application that used all theelements of the system (R-PI, Nucleo andthe Magenta Alarm actuator). This was alsoa challenge to the software and thedocumentation of openD. The DECT Forumtold Incisor that this was an opportunity toidentify areas that need to be improved interms of usability as this is the key promiseof openD - a system that is easy to useand get familiar with.

As it moves forward with openD, the DECTForum plans to engage with universitystudents - for example, those studyingcomputer science or electrical engineering- who are getting their first taste ofworking with prototyping platforms likeRaspberry PI and Nucleo. The goal is tomake them familiar with openD and showthem the advantages it has over otherwireless interfaces. In time, the DECTForum will create more complex packagesthat will serve more intricate applicationsfor those engineers with higher levels ofrequirement.

openD is on its way

The DECT Forum told Incisor that theconference worked well, and felt thathosting an industry event with a strong andsupportive partner such as Fraunhofer wasa big plus. The institute also contributed tothe conference and helped with logisticsfor the openD tutorial. The DECT Forumalso observed that interest in the tutorialconfirmed how relevant its technology isand showed that technical workshops arealways valuable for members and potentialmembers.

DECT Awards

The 2019 DECT Awards took place on theevening of the launch event and the DECTForum reported that these demonstratedthe diverse nature and often the high valueof products being brought to market basedon DECT and ULE technology.

Now watch the Incisor.TV movies

Incisor.TV attended this DECT Forum event and we invite you to watch the openDlaunch event movie that we made on the day on behalf of the DECT Forum, plus aninterview with Sennheiser’s Kai Tossing. Simply click on the movie screens below.

www.incisor.tv16

INCISOR.TV MOVIES

INCISOR.TV MOVIES

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IBM, Qualcomm, STMicroelectronics and Texas Instruments are among theworld’s leading semiconductor companies best placed to succeed in theIndustrial Internet arena in the next two to five years, according toGlobalData, a data and analytics company.

GlobalData believes that the Industrial Internet is one of the top tenthemes that will impact the semiconductor sector, alongside data centres,artificial intelligence (AI), high-performance computing, ambient commerce,autonomous vehicles, gaming, 5G, M&A and geopolitics.

Cyrus Mewawalla, GlobalData Head of Thematic Research told Incisor,“Microcontrollers and sensors – including accelerometers, heat and humiditycomponents, pressure components, cameras and microphones – will bewhere much of the value lies in 2019. This calls for industrial grade chips thatwork to higher reliability standards than chips for consumer applications.”

newsIBM amongst semiconductor technologyleaders in Industrial Internet

Mewawalla continued, “In 1999, General Electric (GE) was the largestcompany in the world by market value. Since 2015, despite being anindustrial leader, GE has been falling behind in the Industrial Internettheme.”

For the Industrial Internet to work efficiently, streamed data from amultitude of sources must be collected and often analysed in real-time,with the results fed back to the industrial applications that generatedthe data.

Mewawalla added, “In the Industrial Internet, the take-up of sensors isbeing driven by drastic reductions in their cost, which, in turn, helps todrive price competition as more manufacturers enter the market. In2004, the average cost of sensors was $1.30. By 2020, it is expectedto have come down to 38 cents.”

EnOcean – the heart of self-powered switches

nOcean recently introduced newsolar-powered, maintenance-freesensor modules for a wide range of

building data that fits into classic switchframes based on the PTM modular switchsystem.

EnOcean believes thatwireless sensors basedon the EnOceanharvesting technologyare the eyes and earsof the IoT, as theycollect the requiredraw data for intelligent control, without anyneed of a battery. With the standardizedPTM switch module, EnOcean says that ithas established an industry standard andthe core piece of battery-free switches.

The PTM 21x switch module from EnOceanlies at the heart of self-powered switches.These modules integrate the ECO 200energy converter and a wireless circuitboard. In doing so, they use only thepushbutton’s kinetic energy to transmitwireless signals via the three internationalEnOcean (ISO/IEC 14543-3-1X), Zigbee andBluetooth standards, depending on theapplication.

An established industry standard

When EnOcean launched the first PTM ontothe market around 15 years ago, it wasinitially available only for the EnOceanwireless protocol. Over the past three years,however, EnOcean has strategicallyexpanded its portfolio and now alsosupports Bluetooth® Low Energy (BLE) andZigbee.

By choosing a PTM 21x,switch manufacturers donot have to commit to aspecific wireless standardwhen designing their self-powered switches. Switchmanufacturers cantherefore focus on theircore areas of expertiseand do not need to acquireany in-depth technicalknowledge of the energyharvesting technology.This, says EnOcean, leadsto more cost-effectiveproduction and faster timeto market.

The switch manufacturerVimar, for example, usesthe entire spectrum andoffers its products for all three wirelessstandards. Many leading manufacturershave since added self-powered switches totheir product lines: Eltako, Jäger Direkt andPEHA as well as many other switchmanufacturers consistently rely on theEnOcean wireless protocol and offer a widerange of switches. The EnOcean wirelessstandard for the sub 1GHz range is anexcellent choice for use in buildings, thanksto its range of up to 30 meters.

Zigbee standard: The Philips Hue Tap hasbeen using the self-powered energyharvesting technology since 2014 to controlPhilips Hue lamps via Zigbee. Partners inSignify’s Friends of Hue program now alsoemploy the EnOcean technology in theirsmart Friends of Hue switch applications.They include manufacturers of lighting

controllers, such as Busch-Jaeger (ABB),Illumra, Niko and Vimar, among others.

Bluetooth standard: In addition toEnOcean’s Easyfit switches for Bluetooth,manufacturers such as Finder also offerthese kinds of products. The two- or four-channel wireless Beyon switch is a self-powered remote control equipped withBluetooth Low Energy for the Yesly homeautomation system.

EnOcean believes that maintenance-freeand flexible switch solutions that require nobatteries or cables make a significantcontribution to smart and energy-efficientlighting systems. With its energy harvestingtechnology, EnOcean offers the righttechnical support for smart lights infunctional buildings and the smart home.

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LG showcases self-sufficientsmart home in Spain

ligning with a growing number ofcountries, the Spanish population isvery aware of the problems facing

the planet, with more than 50 percentexpressing concern about green issues.However, Spain feels that it needs to domore as a country to counter threats tothe environment. In its Smart Greenstrategy, LG Spain proposes to changethings for the better by taking actionrather than waiting for local governmentor other entities to lead the way, andsuggests that technology and innovationcan be great allies to our precious planet.To demonstrate this point, LG Spainconstructed a passive, connected housein Madrid, attracting a variety of differentpersonalities and enlisting them in theSmart Green cause.

LG Hanok ThinQ & Passivhaus is based onthe architectural style of traditional Koreanhomes. LG told Incisor that Hanok - SouthKorea’s rich cultural heritage - has alwaysbeen important to its business philosophy,informing its long-standing commitment toinnovation, growth and protecting theenvironment. LG believes that Hanokcombined with ThinQ is the coming togetherof the traditional and the new. Passivhaus(or Passive House) is a voluntary standardfor energy efficiency in a structure thatmaintains ideal interior conditions whileusing 70-90 percent less energy comparedto a conventional building.

The LG products inside the house are allpowered with energy collected by solarpanels integrated into the house. Amongother things, the solar panels supply enoughenergy to charge an electric vehicle andoperate LG’s Therma V Air to Water HeatPump System, which provides heating andhot water supply that is claimed to be four

times more efficient than a conventionalboiler. Any surplus energy collected isstored in connected batteries for later use.

LG Spain’s aim is apparently to effectivelydemonstrate a viable way for home ownersto make efficient use of clean energywithout having to sacrifice everydayconveniences. In the future, predicts LG,this non-polluting method of powering thehome could provide additional income, with

the surplus energy captured by the solarpanels sold to local electricity providers.

Smart connected devices

In addition to eco-friendly appliances, thereis another factor that can help achieve amore efficient home: connectivity. Utilizing

LG’s ThinQ smartphone app, LG Hanokshows how enhanced connectivity canoptimize energy usage throughout thehouse. LG’s technology tracks the energyconsumption of each organically-connecteddevice – TV, monitors, washing machine,smart speaker and refrigerator – in real-timeand automatically supplies the ideal amountof electricity, conserving power and theplanet’s resources. With ThinQ, users alsohave the convenience of voice control via

the Google Assistant, enabling them tocontrol the lights, oven, blinds and morewith voice commands.

Located at LG Spain’s headquarters, The LGHanok ThinQ & Passivhaus has alreadyreceived important visitors including ChunHong-jo, South Korea’s ambassador to Spain.

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The Zigbee Alliance announces‘All Hubs Initiative’

he Zigbee Alliance has announced anongoing initiative aimed at making smarthome and IoT products easier to develop,

deploy, and sell across ecosystems. The “AllHubs Initiative” is driven by a Zigbee Allianceworkgroup comprised of IoT companiesincluding Amazon, Comcast, Exegin, Kwikset,Landis+Gyr, LEEDARSON, Legrand, MMBNetworks, NXP, OSRAM, Schneider Electric,Silicon Labs, Somfy, and others with the goal ofimproving interoperability between IoT devicesand major consumer and commercial platforms.The product of this effort is a set of features atthe application and network layers of Zigbee thatwill be incorporated into the upcoming 3.1version of Zigbee technology. While ZigbeeAlliance members are able to participate in thisworkgroup and contribute to and access theseevolving specifications, the Alliance told Incisorthat it is publicly announcing this initiative as anumber of smart home systems will add thesefeatures to their platform certificationrequirements ahead of the ratification of the full3.1 feature set to more immediately takeadvantage of these enhancements.

“Consumers and businesses want connecteddevices that offer value and convenience,work great, and work together seamlessly,”said Chris DeCenzo, chair of the All HubsInitiative workgroup, board director of theZigbee Alliance, and principal engineer atAmazon. “Through the All Hubs Initiative,leading IoT companies in the Zigbee Allianceare working together to define interoperabilitystandards to help device makers innovate andexpand selection while continuing to deliverconsistent, reliable experiences forcustomers.”

Meeting the evolving needs of majorecosystems

IoT and smart home ecosystems can vary intheir supported features, business models,

value propositions, customer experienceexpectations, security requirements, and otherfactors. This is the nature of the openness andinnovation of the IoT, and the Zigbee Alliancedescribes its standard as designed to supportthis flexibility across offerings from Amazon,Samsung SmartThings, Philips Hue, IKEA andothers. However, this flexibility can sometimescreate challenges for device vendors trying tobuild and market products that meet therequirements of different ecosystems and earntheir coveted “Works With” badges – andchallenges for businesses and customersusing those products across a number ofhubs.

Tobin Richardson, President and CEO, ZigbeeAlliance commented, “As innovation acrossthe IoT continues to accelerate, devicevendors need to ensure their products canadapt to the diverse and evolving requirementsof multiple ecosystems, and reliably workacross major IoT hubs. The All Hubs Initiativeis not just an important effort in strengtheninginteroperability, but a phenomenal example ofhow global industry leaders and innovatorscome together within the Zigbee Alliance toshare best practices and solve industry-widechallenges.”

The All Hubs Initiative is apparently not aspecific version of Zigbee technology, butrather a list of features that will contribute tothe core Zigbee roadmap. More specifically,these features are a set of updates to theZigbee specification at both the applicationand network layers that are intended to allowZigbee to meet market needs, while improvinginteroperability. Key to maintaining thisflexibility, says the Alliance, theseimprovements establish a robust method bywhich hubs can communicate their supportedand required features to new devices that jointheir networks, and how those devices shouldconfigure themselves appropriately. They alsofurther standardize the process ofcommissioning and operating Zigbee devicesbased on the experience of Alliance membercompanies. These updates will be part ofZigbee 3.1 — the next iteration of the Zigbeestandard, which is currently scheduled forrelease later in 2019.

The updated features and Zigbee 3.1 itself willapparently be backwards compatible withZigbee 3.0 certified devices and hubs. Someecosystems however are participating in “earlyimplementations” of the All Hubs Initiative’sfeatures and may request device vendorssupport these features as part of their “WorksWith” programs, ahead of the formal launch ofZigbee 3.1.

How the all hubs initiative started

The project was envisioned in the fall of 2017at the first Hive Executive IoT Summitorganized by the Zigbee Alliance. These eventstake place annually around the globe to bringtogether market-moving individuals andorganizations from across the IoT industry.Attendees represent companies from withinand outside the Zigbee Alliance and includetechnology executives, visionaries, and leadersfrom other standards bodies.

As a result of discussions on theinteroperability challenges facing majorplatforms, device vendors and consumers, theecosystem participants have committed toworking together to solve these issues.Together, they formed the All Hubs Initiative,which now operates as a technical workgroupunder the Zigbee Alliance umbrella, which toldIncisor that securing buy-in from leadersthroughout the IoT landscape gives the AllHubs Initiative strong backing and diversesupport as an ‘all hands in’ effort for thegrowth of the entire industry.

The All Hubs Initiative feature set is available tocurrent Zigbee Alliance members.

T

RFID inpharmaceuticals grows A recent study from Future Market Insights(FMI) finds that the radio-frequencyidentification (RFID) in pharmaceuticalsmarket was valued at over US$ 950M in2018, and is estimated to register a Y-o-Ygrowth at approximately 10% in 2019.Prospects remain positive for the RFID inpharmaceuticals industry, predicts FMI, asefficiency-led actions of players continue toenhance the reliability and accuracy of theirbusiness operations.

The study finds that drug tracing systemsremains the most lucrative application of RFIDin the pharmaceutical industry, accounting forapproximately 60% sales. Efforts of the FDA,in collaboration with pharmaceuticalsuppliers, to maintain a secure drug supply inthe wake of rising counterfeit drugsprevalence, has encouraged thepharmaceutical industry to use RFID incombination with the electronic product code(EPC) for real-time tracking, tracing, andauthentication of drugs.

According to the study, such preventativemeasures against infiltration of counterfeitdrugs are likely to have a positive economicinfluence on legitimate companies, who arenow focusing on the deployment of anti-counterfeiting solutions. The focus of theorganized players in the pharmaceuticalsector to safeguard authenticity of theirproducts, while creating moats forcounterfeiters, will continue to favour growthof the RFID in pharmaceutical market.

Chipless RFID sales remain over 2x ofchipped RFID

According to FMI’s recent study, chiplessRFID continues to gain robust attractivenessin the pharmaceutical industry, as it eliminatesthe hardware-related challenges associatedwith chipped counterparts. Additionally, saysFMI, RFIDs without ICs allude at significant

cost reduction of the component, in turncomplementing their development anddemand on a wide scale.

Shipments of cellularIoT modules reached221 million units in2018 Research company Berg Insight estimatesthat global cellular IoT module shipmentsincreased by 16 percent in 2018 to a newrecord level of 221 million. Annual revenuesgrew faster at 24 percent, reversing theprevious trend of decreasing average moduleprices. The 3GPP standards for LTE – Cat Mand NB-IoT – will, Berg predicts, contributesubstantially to growth in the next comingfive years. Berg observes that these newstandards are designed to be less complexto limit power consumption and are pricedmore favourably to address the mass marketand make it viable to connect entirely newapplications. In the first half of 2019, severalvendors announced 5G NR modules that willbecome available to developers in thesecond half of the year. Early adopters willinclude companies active in the PC,networking and OEM automotive segments.

The results of Berg Insight’s latest cellular IoTmodule vendor market share assessmentshow that the four largest module vendorshave 61 percent of the market in terms ofrevenues. “Annual module revenues for thefour largest market players Sierra Wireless,Sunsea AIoT, Gemalto and Telit increased by13 percent to US$ 1.85 billion, with the totalmarket value reaching approximately US$ 3.0billion”, said Fredrik Stalbrand, SeniorAnalyst at Sweden-based IoT analyst firmBerg Insight. Sierra Wireless leads IoTmodule revenues, followed by Sunsea AIoTand Gemalto. Sunsea AIoT leads inshipments and Quectel is number two interms of volumes and in fifth place in termsof revenues.

u-blox redefines IoTsecurity with 5G-readycellular module andchipset Positioning and wireless communicationtechnologies developer u-blox has announcedthe SARA-R5 series of LTE-M and NB-IoTmodules for low power wide area (LPWA) IoTapplications, stating that this is its mostadvanced, secure and highly integratedcellular product. The module, built on the u-blox UBX-R5 cellular chipset and the u-bloxM8 GNSS receiver chip, offers end-to-endsecurity and long product availability, makingit ideal for IoT applications with long-termdevice deployments.

Andreas Thiel, Head of Product Centers at u-blox told Incisor, “SARA-R5 sets a newbenchmark for IoT connectivity. By integratinga hardware-based Root of Trust in a discretesecure element within the UBX-R5 chipset,we are paving the way for robust securecommunication from the chip all the way tothe cloud. The secure element is compliantwith EAL5+ High common criteriacertification, which makes SARA-R5 ideallysuited to protect sensitive assets andcommunications.”

The module also features a lightweight andlow power pre-shared key (PSK) managementsystem that is tailored to the needs of IoTapplications, along with a comprehensive setof security features.

With mobile network operators announcingtheir plans to roll out 5G networks, 5Greadiness is becoming a key factor inselecting cellular communication modules.LTE-M and NB-IoT are forward-compatiblewith 5G networks and, by implementing keyLTE-M and NB-IoT features from 3GPPRelease 14, u-blox forecasts that SARA-R5will offer customers a smooth transitiontowards 5G via software upgrades to alreadydeployed devices.

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These are just recent examples of Incisor.TV’s work. We have completed over 200 videoproductions, some exclusively for Incisor.TV, some for clients own channels.

FILM/EDIT/PUBLISH/DISTRIBUTEA key USP for Incisor.TV and for the clients that we work with is that we not only create high-quality video content for our clients, but we have aready made distribution channel. For more than 20 years, Incisor has built a global audience of IoT, Wireless and smart connected deviceprofessionals. This is why the Incisor.TV channel delivers thousands of views for movies that we publish.

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I’ve worked with Vince for many years across different organizations; he has always struck me as a highlyknowledgeable resource that I can easily quickly brief and put in front of high-level executive asking the right kinds ofquestions to get the messaging I’d like to see - and then some. The people he interviews feel very comfortable with himdue to his trust-worthy and respectful persona. The fact that he has built up a large network within the wireless spacehas been a great contributing factor for me to come back to him for new projects. And not to forget, he’s fast, ‘gets’concepts quickly and always delivers high quality video with a pleasant attitude.

Christina Björkander, Senior Communications Manager, u-blox AG

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