38 www.satellite-evolution.com | May/June 2016

....M2M & IoT

Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications pre-date theInternet of Things (IoT) by some margin, having been in usein one form or another since the early 20th century. Althoughthe terms are often used interchangeably, a difference exists.

While M2M solutions typically rely on point-to-pointcommunications using cellular or wired networks, IoTsolutions utilise IP-based networks to interface with a cloudor middleware platform. Additionally, M2M solutions typicallyprovide single-serve solutions, such as the remote monitoringof equipment, whereas IoT solutions collect massive amountsof data from numerous sensors, known colloquially as bigdata, to analyse with external data to evolve processes andimprove performance. Put simply, M2M might alert a user tothe malfunction of a water sensor; IoT could establish the

cause of the malfunction, find previous similar incidents,calculate the resulting financial impact and establish how itmight be avoided in future.

What role do satellites play in the IoT?Given the fundamental requirement for the IoT that devicesbe connected at all times, satellite plays an integral role,enabling full connectivity across a range of industries andgeographies.

Northern Sky Research (NSR) expects that, by 2023,there will be 5.8 million IoT devices connected via satellite.93 percent of devices will use L-band, 5.2 percent will useKu-band and less than one percent will use C-band and HTS.5.8 million is only a tiny fraction of the 2020 projected 25-50

M2M and the IoT: moving towardsthe IoEThe term, ‘Internet of Things’ (IoT) was reportedly first coined by Britain’s Kevin Ashton while heworked at Auto-ID Labs. Fundamentally, it refers to a collection of ‘things’ connected via anetwork to communicate with each other. These things might include elements of cars andbuildings, computer devices, medical implants, home electricals, industrial equipment, securitysystems and remote sensors. The number of connected devices is expected to growexponentially to 25-50 billion by 2020, depending on which report you believe, making the IoT ahot topic for many.

Pho

to c

ourt

esy

of n

med

ia/S

hutt

erst

ock

M2M.pmd 06/05/2016, 10:1838

39www.satellite-evolution.com | May/June 2016

M2M & IoT....

billion connected devices, as, according to NSR, the majorityof new consumer IoT devices and applications will useterrestrial networks, usually Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, due to thelower cost of capacity and hardware. Indeed, satellite’s rolein the IoT will be limited to specialised market segments.

That’s not to say there’s not plenty of room for satellite.Personal safety devices such as GlobalStar’s SPOT rangeand DeLorme’s inReach products comprise a significant partof the satellite-served IoT market. According to NSR, thisgrowing sector will see more demand placed on satellite forIoT applications in the years to come. Another growingsatellite-served IoT market highlighted by NSR is backhaulsolutions, where IoT data is aggregated into a VSAT networkfor back-up.

Satellite arguably has a greater role to play in traditionalM2M applications, since many include site, equipment orpersonnel monitoring in remote locations, where terrestrialnetworks are often lacking in availability or reliability. Theseapplications aren’t going away any time soon. GlobalStar hasasserted that LEO satellites are of the greatest use in thisfield. As the satellites move in relation to the Earth, datatypically has to make fewer hops between transmitter andreceiver, increasing reliability. There is also the benefit ofreduced latency. According to the company, hybrid solutionsthat incorporate LEO satellites with GSM and GPRS offerlow-cost solutions with the reliability of satellite in locations

like North Africa and the Nordics, where mobile networkcoverage is unreliable.

Smart citiesSmart cities integrate information and communicationtechnology (ICT) services into a single solution to enablegreater efficiencies in areas like security, lighting, power,water, transport and communications, among others. The IoTprovides an excellent network option that is now beingadopted by smart cities around the world.

Smart cities are big business right now, and in terms ofinvestments, India is at the forefront. The Indian Governmenthas announced a US$2tn investment package to connect100 cities throughout the country, at least two per state.Financial and IT services are two major initial areas of focus,but we can expect to see a lot more in the years to come.

Amsterdam, Barcelona and Stockholm are three of thetop cities with noteworthy smart city ambitions. In Amsterdam,79 projects run through an interconnected platform haveenhanced decision making in key areas like energy, trafficand public safety. Meanwhile, in Barcelona, the CityOSstrategy has seen irrigation systems and bus routes optimisedthrough central analysis of remote data. Stockholm’s GreenIT programme has afforded increased energy savings andthe development of e-services.

Lighting is a major expense for most cities around the

M2M.pmd 06/05/2016, 10:1839

40 www.satellite-evolution.com | May/June 2016

....M2M & IoT

world. According to Eric Rondolat, Philips Lighting’s CEO,there’s a great need to make city and home lighting moreenergy efficient, which can partly be met by the IoT. “We seeourselves as the lighting company for the IoT,” said Rondolat.

City lighting can be expensive, and complicated to getright. Everyone will be familiar with the sight of street lightsturned on during the day, wasting energy, and, conversely,non-functioning street lights at night, increasing the likelihoodof hazards and criminal activities. To combat ineffective streetlighting, Philips Lighting launched the CityTouch connectornode, a wireless device that connects street lights from anymanufacturer to its CityTouch cloud-based software. Thelighting manager can monitor and maintain every light pointand achieve 30 percent energy savings through geo-locationcapabilities. The device was first applied on 110,000luminaires in Los Angeles, and has since been used for 530projects in 33 countries.

Huawei’s Smart City focus has been mainly in lightingand communications. For the latter, its Safe City solutionintegrates data services through a cloud platform over 4G. Itfeatures an E2E system, which allows all emergency servicesmembers, like police, fire brigade or ambulance, tocommunicate via voice or video from any location within theperimeter. Huawei’s Safe City has been rolled out in morethan 100 cities and 30 countries.

Meanwhile, Verizon offers an intelligent surveillancesolution, which includes a surveillance unit, camera, andwireless connectivity. With an analytics engine, the user cancreate a customised geographical area to monitor events froma safety and security perspective. “We’re really focused onworking with various municipalities and our business partnersto help cities capitalise on the promise from an IoTperspective,” said Tim Gorman, Assistant Manager ofTechnology at the Waltham Verizon Innovation Center. “We’refocusing a lot of our attention on offering end-to-end, bundled,pre-engineered solutions.”

Smart HomesSmart Homes are not so different from Smart Cities; a housecan become more efficient, saving money and becoming moreenvironmentally-friendly with connected technology. Incontrast with Smart Cities, there’s also a lot of consumerinterest in life-improving technologies that enhanceexperiences, like fridges that order food themselves assupplies get low. Convenience is another great driver in theadoption of Smart Home technologies: Don’t want to get outof bed to turn off the lights? There’s an app for that. Want tocome home to a warm home, but you haven’t set the heatingtimer? With the IoT, you can do that too.

Connected devices in Smart Homes might includecomputers, games consoles, TVs, kettles and coffeemachines, smoke and carbon monoxide alarms, vacuumcleaners and door sensors, among others. Not only can thesedevices be accessed remotely, but they can also worktogether; upon sensing a carbon monoxide leak, some SmartThermostats will automatically turn-off the heating inresponse.

Hive, a British Gas innovation, has been offering IoTsolutions for some time now. With Hive Active Heating, theuser can control their thermostat wirelessly from any locationvia a phone app. Hive is just one among many SmartThermostats; others include Google’s Nest, Tado’s SmartThermostat and the Honeywell EvoHome. Whiledevelopments like Smart Thermostats can make efficiency

and financial savings from the off, other relatively-new Smartdevices are still quite pricey. An iKettle will set you back $144,for example, compared to around $20 for a standard kettle.

SIGFOX, an IoT services provider with a 14-country IoTnetwork and more than seven million connected devices, hasenabled the rapid development of Smart Home and Citiesthrough a large number of recent deals. For example, OTIO,a Groupe HBF subsidiary, recently made a deal to useSIGFOX’s IoT network to connect one million new OTIOALERT devices in France, Spain and Germany. The devicescommunicate domestic incidents like carbon monoxide andsmoke emissions, power failure, intrusion and dramatictemperature changes to the home owner via SMS.

Meanwhile, Verisure Securitas Direct has agreed to useSIGFOX’s IoT network to deploy 200,000 home and businesssecurity systems throughout France. This followed VerisureSecuritas Direct’s launch of one million of the same systemswith SIGFOX’s network in Spain in 2015. According to VerisureSecuritas Direct, SIGFOX’s network possesses superior anti-jamming protection and comes with low cost and energy useadvantages. “SIGFOX’s communications-jamming protectionis very robust compared to GSM,” said Christophe Fourtet,Co-Founder and Chief Science Officer of SIGFOX. “RF powerrequired to jam SIGFOX communication with conventionaljammers is huge and far beyond the power capability ofjammers available on the market.”

Despite the advances and potential savings, security is amajor concern for homeowners and government users alike.There still exist many who do not trust their information withcompanies like Facebook, and prefer to stay ‘off-grid.’ It isdoubtful that they will ever adapt to the IoT. Others, who moreeasily embrace new technology, may also have securityconcerns; it only takes one breach for an attacker to gainaccess to your home and possessions. Interestingly for thismodern age, data privacy seems to be less of a concern. Arecent survey by Intel Security International of 9,000individuals from nine countries showed that 54 percent ofrespondents would be willing to share personal data collectedfrom their Smart Home for money, although 66 percent were

Pho

to c

ourt

esy

of B

P

M2M.pmd 06/05/2016, 10:1840

Untitled-4 17/05/2016, 09:261

42 www.satellite-evolution.com | May/June 2016

....M2M & IoT

very concerned about their data being hacked by cyber-criminals.

Species monitoringThe monitoring of animals may not be the most profitableuse of the IoT for big business, but it’s an important area withreal-world applications. As animals travel vast distances, oftento remote locations, satellite has a key role to play in themonitoring and protection of wildlife populations via M2M andthe IoT.

Vodafone recently supplied telemetry tags to the SeaMammal Research Unit (SMRU) at the University of StAndrews in Scotland as part of a three-year, government-backed study on the movements and declining population ofOrkney seals. The tags will be attached to fur at the back ofthe seals’ heads, and will fall off when the seals moult. Datawill be transmitted to the SMRU via M2M communicationswhen the seals surface.

“Over the last 15 years, many of the harbour sealpopulations in the Northern Isles and on the north and eastcoasts of Scotland have been declining,” said SMRU’s DeputyDirector, Bernie McConnell. “Marine data collected duringthis project on Orkney will help to assess the causes,management and mitigation options in relation to the harbourseals’ decline and to prioritise future research directions.”

Meanwhile, Protect’s Project RAPID is using the IoT toprotect rhinos from poachers. IoT devices attached to theanimals’ horns monitor the rhinos’ heartrates for spikes; whenan incident is detected, the Protect team can view a live videostreamed via satellite from a camera implanted in the rhino’shorn to establish the cause. If the rhino has been wounded,a helicopter is dispatched to the location, which is ascertainedvia GPS. The Humane Society is reportedly exploring similarprojects to protect tigers and elephants.

In Micronesia, The Nature Conservancy and fishingcompany Luen Thai are using IoT technology to monitor howsmall changes in Luen Thai’s fishing vessels effect bycatch.Bycatch, the capture of unintended fish species, is wastefulboth in terms of marine life, particularly in the case ofprotected species, and efficiency. Pop-up satellite archivaltags (PSATs) from Wildlife Computers are attached to thefins of bycatch blue and silky sharks before their release; thesensors detect depth, temperature and movement speed,before detaching after 30 days to float to the surface. ThePSATs transmit the data via satellite for analysis byresearchers upon resurfacing.

M2M applications aren’t just limited to wildlife andscientific investigation either. Beyond basic animal tracking,several companies now produce a device similar to the FitBit,but for pets. WÜF, FitBark and Voyce monitor vital health signs,provide tracking information and even local temperatures.Similar devices are available for monitoring livestock suchas cows or sheep. Meanwhile, Party New York has developedDisco Dog, an LED vest that allows the owner to remotelychange the lighting patterns; the vest can even beprogrammed to display the words ‘Lost Dog’ in LEDs, shouldthe dog move too far away from its owner.

The Internet of Everything (IoE)?Demand for the IoT spans all market sectors, but uptake isexpected to be highest by businesses that use it to increaseefficiency, reduce costs and develop new products.Government users will be the second-highest adopters forsimilar reasons, although they are restricted by finances.

Despite innovative new applications, consumers will be thegroup with the least IoT potential. For some, the IoT edgestoo closely towards potential threats, including justifiedprivacy and security concerns, as well as more sci-fi-styleworries of scenes from the ‘Terminator’ or ‘I, Robot’ films,wherein ultra-networked computers develop true intelligenceto the downfall of their human creators. Others view the IoTas a pointless gimmick with few or no practical householdapplications.

Nonetheless, the IoT is set to expand exponentially inthe near- and medium-term future. With the number ofconnected devices expected to reach 25-50 billion by 2020,some say we are moving away from the IoT towards theInternet of Everything (IoE). Indeed, 2016 is expected to bethe year that the number of IoT devices surpass the combinednumber of tablets, smart phones and PCs.

According to BI Intelligence, the price of IoT sensors fellfrom US$1.30 in 2005 to US$0.70 in 2013; this is expectedto hit US$0.38 by 2020, making IoT devices moreeconomically viable for numerous new applications. Venturecapital investments in IoT start-ups grew from US$34m in2010 to US$341m in 2014, while IoT mergers andacquisitions hit US$7.7bn in January 2012 to November 2014.The biggest of those sectors were US$3.9bn in monitoring,US$2.8m in connected car services, US$0.7bn insemiconductors and US$0.3bn in control platforms.

The launch of 5G, which is expected in 2018, with fullcommercial roll-out in 2020, is also set to provide a boost tothe IoT/IoE as it will increase network speeds by a factor of10-100. Sándor Jordan, Software Researcher (5G) at NokiaBell Labs, believes that with 5G, the IoT could enable fully-automated manufacturing and logistics, and potentially beused to keep delivery drones balanced as packages areoffloaded. “The latency is so low that you can put someintelligence in the cloud,” said Jordan. It will also play a keyrole in providing adequately low latency to improve the safetyof self-driving cars, an application where every millisecondcounts.

M2M.pmd 06/05/2016, 10:1842

Untitled-1 7/21/2015, 11:06 PM1