Tag Archive for ZigBee

| December 10, 2013
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6LoWPAN ?

6LoWPAN ?BYOD, BYON, IoT, IPv6, SaaS, SDN, MDM, M2M, TCP/IP, IEEE, EIEIO, IMHO, tech is drowning in drowning in acronyms. And now Stacey Higginbotham at GigaOM explains 6LoWPAN.  6LoWPAN stands for IPv6 over Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks. 6LoWPAN is the lightweight version of traditional internet protocol (IP) designed for the internet of things.

Misco reports that Internet-connected devices will number 9.6 billion by the end of 2013 and the figure will jump to 28 billion by 2020. Currently, the 9.6 billion Internet-connected devices connect to another device, a phone, or a corporate gateway. In order for a true internet of things to emerge, these devices should have the ability to connect directly to a web service.

Device to cloud

IPv6Instead of device-to-device, it’s device to cloud. The article surmises that since most of today’s devices use IP to connect to the web, engineers would like to use IP to connect devices to the web as well. The only problem is that IP is a heavy, energy-intensive beast. This is one that reason, the Internet’s standard’s setting organization, the IETF, proposed 6LoWPAN in 2004.

The numeral 6 in the standard, is short for IPv6. Ms.Higginbotham explains that if you’re envisioning tens of billions of connected sensors then IPv6 is the way to go. However, supporting the 128-bit numbering system required by IPv6 also takes computing and memory overhead that tiny sensors don’t have. It also requires longer packet headers and such that can clog low bit-rate networks. Since the 6 is IPv6 and the Lo references the low-power aspect of the protocol.

Internet of ThingaThe WPAN or Wireless Personal Area Network is a nod to the wireless mesh network that the protocol supports. Because this isn’t directly analogous to the traditional network stacks, it’s hard to limit the technology to a particular layer in the network.

Sensors in a connected network can run the gamut from a video camera that’s plugged into a wall to a battery-powered water sensor hiding under the washing machine. GigaOM says the standard is flexible enough that some nodes might be able to do more than just send information. Others can be designed to sleep until an event wakes them for a data transmission. In short, it’s complicated, which makes defining a network stack or standards for the internet of things tough.

6LoWPAN will use multiple radio protocols

WirelessThe WPAN in 6LoWPAN will use multiple radio protocols. It can work over several radio networks that use the IEEE 802.15.4 standard, the most popular being ZigBee. The IETF is also working with the Bluetooth Special Interest Group to build 6LoWPAN support for the Bluetooth protocol.

GigaOM notes that the Bluetooth SIG already has taken steps to cut power consumption to meet the demands of the internet of things, so it clearly is also aware of the need for the IPv6 addressing scheme if every bra, door lock, or porta-potty is going to hop on the InterTubes without a phone or computer.

ZigBeeCharles McLellan at ZDNet explains that IBM (IBM) has teamed up with wireless sensor network specialist Libelium to deliver a wireless sensor platform starter kit comprising IBM’s Mote Runner SDK and Libelium’s Waspmote sensor platform, Waspmote Mote Runner development platform allows researchers to explore the benefits of 6LoWPAN.

Tech titans betting on 6LoWPAN

Ms. Higginbotham says that IBM getting behind the standard with this announcement is just one more big-name betting on 6LoWPAN as the communications protocol for the internet of things. She says a few months ago ARM purchased Sensinode, a company that has literally written the book (MP4) about 6LoWPAN. Cisco (CSCO) has an investment in 6LoWPAN with its 2010 purchase of Arch Rock, for its smart grid initiative.

Platforms such as Electric Imp, Ayla Networks, and ThingSquare, all of which offer modules and services to connect devices directly to the internet, are also gaining ground with test programs and early adopters, helping make the case for 6LoWPAN. So as devices start going directly to the cloud and bypassing phones and computers, having a protocol that supports modern addressing at relatively low power and low overhead will become more important. And that’s what this terribly awkward acronym provides.

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6LoWPAN is what will drive the rapid growth of the IoT. The Business Insider says that IoT grows from 1.9 billion devices today, to 9 billion by 2018. To put that in perspective, BI claims that by 2018 IoT will be roughly equal to the number of smartphones, smart TVs, tablets, wearable computers, and PCs combined.

You can insert your own joke about the feds collecting data from a porta-potty.

What do you think? Is 6LoWPAN the best way to connect IoT devices to the cloud?

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| January 24, 2013
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Another Net for IoT

Another Net for IoTKevin Fitchard at GigaOM writes about the French start-up Sigfox that wants to take on the mobile service providers. Sigfox plans to build a new network just for the Internet of Things (IoT). Thomas Nicholls, Sigfox business development chief, and internet of things of evangelist said that cellular networks are built to connect humans, not objects. Sigfox is proposing to build an alternate wireless network dedicated solely to linking together the internet of things.

Sigfox logoThe Toulouse France-based start-up argues that the majority of objects linked to the network will connect rarely. A GPS tracker in a vehicle or shipping container may send out its coordinates just once a day. A smart meter may link back to its utility company’s servers once a week. Many of the sensors being embedded in devices from vending machines to security cameras only transmit when something goes wrong, meaning an M2M module may wait months if not years between connections to the Internet of Things. Connected home appliances like LG Electronic’s (LGLD) new Smart Thinq refrigerator, GPS tracking devices, smart meters and medical alert sensors are all the types of devices that Sigfox hopes to target.

Mr. Nicholls added that Sigfox thinks there’s a huge opportunity in the growing business-to-consumer connected device space. The assortment of gadgets and wearable devices making their way into the connected home and onto our bodies are typically connected by local area networking technologies like Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Wi-Fi. But he thinks there’s a big case to be made for replacing those technologies with Sigfox according to the article.

Wireless networkThe author claims that as Sigfox achieves economies of scale, its radio will not only shrink, their costs will fall to just a few dollars per module. Due to the huge efficiencies in running its network, Sigfox can support a device connection for little more than a dollar a year, Mr. Nicholls said. At those prices, gadget manufacturers can include IoT connectivity costs into the device costs without requiring customers to sign up for a subscription.

Not only would using Sigfox give these devices a range far beyond local networks, but they would also be “on” right out of the box, the Sigfox IoT evangelist said. It also wouldn’t require any signing up or logging on, as the machine-to-machine communication would just work out of the box.

Noisy networkTo host these devices over power-hungry and expensive cellular radios makes little sense, the business development chief said. The better course is to attach these devices to a network optimized for their use cases — one that can support billions of devices each sending relatively little data at distinct intervals, the start-up believes. “Our network is structured in a radically different way,” Nicholls claims in the GigaOM article. “There is really no notion of a network. You only connect when you have a payload to deliver.”

Sigfox has developed a wireless architecture using ultra narrow-band modulation techniques that can theoretically support millions of devices with only a handful of network transmitters. Using the unlicensed frequencies commonly used for baby monitors and cordless phones (868 MHz in Europe and 915 MHz in the US), Sigfox says it can offer the same coverage with a single tower that a cellular network could provide with 50 to 100 cell sites. Sigfox is building a network covering all of France with 1,000 transmission sites, and Mr. Nicholls estimates that the company could do the same in the US with 10,000 transmitters.

size of two thumbnailsThe author describes the embedded radio modules as about the size of two thumbnails, and they transmit at power levels 50 times lower than their cellular M2M counterparts. Such low consumption levels mean that objects that normally have no external power supply could stay connected for as long as 20 years before their module batteries would need recharging, Mr. Nicholls said.

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Apparently, Sigfox’s ultra narrow-band technology can only support bandwidths of 100 bps (YEAP THAT’S BPS, NOT KBPS) — which makes it far slower than even the poorest 2G data connection so it will be popular with wireless service providers who will try to connect everything to the Internet of Things.

Sigfox does not seem to be the answer for devices that send large quantities of data or keep up constant connections to the network like telemedicine aren’t the “things” that Sigfox intends to connect to the Internet.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| April 19, 2012
Comments Off on The Connected Home

The Connected Home

Help – My Thermostat is Calling China!

The Connected HomePhil Neray of Q1 Labs, an IBM (IBM) company posted that in the recent Chinese hack of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s network. One attack vector was a thermostat. The thermostat at a Chamber townhouse on Capitol Hill was communicating with an Internet address in China. At the same time, a printer spontaneously started printing pages with Chinese characters (rb- I wrote about securing printers here).

The blog says that the hackers were in the network for more than a year before being detected is not unusual. He cites the 2011 Data Breach Investigations Report, more than 60% of breaches remain undiscovered for months or longer (versus days or weeks).

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This is one of the risks of the Internet of Things. Security is in the era of IoT will have to use machines to monitor the machines.

CIA Chief: We’ll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher

CIA Chief: We'll Spy on You Through Your Dishwasher Spencer Ackerman at Wired points out that more personal and household devices are connecting to the internet. They are no part of the Internet of Things. \U.S.CIA Director General David Petraeus cannot wait to use your appliances to spy on you through them.

General Petraeus recently spoke about the “Internet of Things” at a summit for In-Q-Tel, the CIA’s venture capital firm. “‘Transformational’ is an overused word, but I do believe it properly applies to these technologies particularly to their effect on clandestine tradecraft” the blog recounts.

Mr. Ackerman predicts that people will be sending tagged, geolocated data that a spy agency can intercept in real-time. This will happen when they open their Sears (SHLD) Craftsman garage door with an app on an Apple (AAPL) iPhone. “Items of interest will be located, identified, monitored, and remotely controlled through technologies such as radio-frequency identification, sensor networks, tiny embedded servers, and energy harvesters — all connected to the next-generation internet using abundant, low-cost, and high-power computing.” Petraeus said, “the latter now going to cloud computing, in many areas greater and greater supercomputing, and, ultimately, heading to quantum computing.”

Wired says the CIA has a lot of legal restrictions against spying on American citizens. But collecting ambient geolocation data from devices is a grayer area. This espcially ture especially after the 2008 carve-outs to the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. Hardware manufacturers, it turns out, store a trove of geolocation data; and some legislators have grown alarmed at how easy it is for the government to track you through your Apple iPhone or Sony (SNE) PlayStation.

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The implications of the “Internet of Things” are profound when linked to the transformational nature of the connected home network. The CIA sees great opportunities in wired home devices. Any home gadget with RFID, sensor networks, embedded servers, or energy harvesters is ripe for interception by spy agencies.

Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant Sensor Gives Your Plant a Voice

Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant Sensor Gives Your Plant a Voiceat CeBIT 2012 in Hannover Koubachi, the Swiss start-up company behind the popular iPhone plant care assistant presented its newest innovation. It is called the Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant Sensor according to ITnewsLink. Building on the success of its popular interactive plant care assistant, the sensor integrates into the Koubachi system to literally gives your plant a voice.

The Wi-Fi Plant Sensor measures soil moisture, light intensity, and temperature. Using Wi-Fi, the data is sent to the Koubachi cloud. There it is analyzed by the Koubachi Plant Care Engine. The plant owner gets detailed care instructions on watering, fertilizing, misting, temperature and light through push notifications or email. “The Koubachi Wi-Fi Plant Sensor is the first device ever that enables real-time monitoring of the plant’s vitality,” says Philipp Bolliger, CEO of Koubachi. “It’s a truly unique product in the field of “Internet of Things” and bringing state-of-the-art technology to plant care.”

Smart Gadgets are Like Sleeper Cells in Your Kitchen

Smart Gadgets are Like Sleeper Cells in Your KitchenManufacturers are “future-proofing” their appliances with “Internet of Things” capabilities that are latent for now. Christopher Mims at MIT’s Technology Review asserts that major appliances bought in the last three years probably contain a Zigbee capable wireless radio. The radio can send out information about a device’s status and energy use and receive commands that alter its behavior.

Many appliance makers don’t announce these capabilities. Mr. Mims interviewed Mike Beyerle, an engineer at GE (GE) about GE‘s Nucleus home energy management system. “We want to build up a base before we make a big deal out of it,” says Mr. Beyerle.

The author says that manufacturers aren’t telling consumers what their devices are capable of. They are reluctant to do so in part because the abilities are useless without an energy management hub like GE’s Nucleus or a utility company‘s smart meter. In both cases, smart appliances must be “bound” to a hub to communicate with the outside world.

Once a device is hooked up to an energy management system and becomes part of the IoT, it gets interesting. Mr. Mims says that users who signed up for a “demand response” program with their utility to get a lower bill, enable the utility to control their appliances. For example, a refrigerator’s icemaker’s defrost cycle or the elements in a clothes dryer can be manipulated to drive down power use during times of peak demand.

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Most people do not realize that installing a new smart meter can activate a technological sleeper cell in their HDTV, kitchen, or laundry room. All of these “smart” devices will be part of the “Internet of Things.” They will have an IP address (probably an IPv6 address) and will be broadcast via a Zigbee wireless network. This is why the CIA says it can spy on people through their dishwasher.

Connected Kitchen

Connected KitchenEngadget says the Samsung RF3289 fridge is designed to let users access Pandora or tweet while grabbing a snack. Samsung touts it as the first to feature integrated WiFi. The Wi-Fi also offers the ability to view Google calendars, check the weather, download recipes from Epicurious, or leave digital notes

Engadet also reports LG’s Thinq line of connected appliances includes vacuum, oven, refrigerator, and washer/dryer. They support Wi-Fi and ZigBee to communicate with each other, the smart meter, smartphones, and tablets.  That’s a pretty strong foundation to build the Internet of Things especially if the home is already equipped with ZigBee devices. CNET says the line can be troubleshot remotely; tech support can log in to the device see what’s wrong and fix it. Kenmore has a similar product line.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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