Edge computing is trending

Two key players have emerged in Edge Computing, taking computing from Global to Local levels. In the telecommuncation domain(telco) the communication Services Providers(CSPs) such as AT&T, China Mobile, Deutsche Telecom have a strong interest espcially as they move into 5G. In the cloud domain Amazon, Facebook, and Google are pushing hard into this field so as to widen their World Wide  presence.IoT and 5G have been the principle drivers and of course, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon have large cloud assets that they will put to good use.

I came across a nice diagram that places all of these in a good prespective. Here is a copy of the diagram from their PDF document.

Read more here:
http://hodentek.blogspot.com/2018/02/amazon-aws-greengrass-and-iot.html

https://networks.nokia.com/solutions/multi-access-edge-computing

https://www.streetinsider.com/Press+Releases/Saguna+to+Demonstrate+Mobile+Edge+Computing+Connected+Car+Proof+of+Concept+With+Vodafone+and+Amazon+Web+Services+at+MWC+2018/13834893.html

Amazon AWS Greengrass and IoT

It is a software solution to run local compute, messaging, data caching, syncing, and have Machine Learning inference capabilities.

Using AWS Greengrass connected devices (as in IOT for example) can run AWS Lamda functions, keep device data in sync and communicate with other devices securely in the Internet's unconnected scenario. This way using local compute you can interact with local resources, intermittent connections and updates with air updates.

AWS Greengrass involves both local resources as well as AWS. The development uses the same programming languages.

AWS Greengrass can:

• filter data so that only necessary data is transacted to the cloud
• Authenticates and encrypts device data at all points of connection(using AWS IoT Core)

Here is a  video how AWS Greengrass works.

Source:https://aws.amazon.com/greengrass/ 

Benefits:

• Respond to Local events in Near Real-time
• Operate off line
• Reduce the Cost of running I0T Applications
• Simplified Device Programming with AWS Lamda

Nokia's Multi-access Edge Computing (MEC) together with AWS Greengrass addresses the Enterprise use-case such as off shore Oil Exploration

https://networks.nokia.com/solutions/multi-access-edge-computing

LoRaWan protocol for IOT

LoRaWan is a long range RF protocol that helps connect 'things' (IoT) to the Internet over a long range. It's main advantages are:

• It is Open Source and not tied to a vendor

• It is battery efficient-very low power consumption

• It is long range.

Battery life is something like 5 years(Wow!). It is Open Standard and uses the unlicensed spectrum as part of the Industrial, Scientific and Medical(ISM) RF band (868 MHz). In US the 925 MHz is used. The Open Standard is governed by the LoRa alliance, an Industry group with 500 or more members (Microchip, Cisco, Softbank, etc).

There is a round the world following for this technology including Comcast, Orange, SK Telecom, etc.

Download LoRa specs from here:

https://www.lora-alliance.org/Contact/RequestSpecificationForm.aspx

Microsoft goes after automakers

Of course it is Microsoft Azure Cloud Services that offers the platform for global automakers.

Here is the list who have signed up with Microsoft:
Renault-Nissan
Toyota
Ford
Most recently Tata Motors of India has inked the collaboration. According to Microsoft's guy in Mumbai they envisage 90% of new cars will be connected in the 2 to 3 years.

Microsoft offers:
IoT
AI
ML (Machine learning)
Global Cloud Management

What's in the offing regarding Tata Motors?

First auto with enhancements vis-a-vis Microsoft will be showcased at the 87th Geneva International Motor show.

Read more details here:
http://www.bsmotoring.com/news/tata-motors-logs-into-microsoft-to-improve-in-car-connected-experience/15303

Sensity to be acquired by Verizon

Verizon to beef up its IoT inventory by adding Sensity. The deal is expected close in the fourth quarter (http://www.fool.com/investing/2016/09/12/verizon-to-acquire-sensity-systems-in-ongoing-iot.aspx).

Sensity with its NetSense, the next generation Light Sensory Network platform transforms street lights by incorporating distributed intelligence, capable of High_Speed, High-Bandwidth communication. Pretty neat as the core hardware is ready and standing to be exploited.

VerizonIoT_00

Sensity also safe guards privacy as it addresses privacy issues.

Watch this video:



Sensity has solutions for:
Airports
Cities
Offices
Retail Malls

The Applications include:
Lighting Management
Parking
Location Analytics and
Security

NetSense has two kinds of NetSense Nodes, the Core and the Video Core.  Node EX is an integral part of the NetSense platform. It basically converts the LED fixtures into IP_enabled sensory node.

VerizonIoT_01

The Video node is also part of the NetSense platform. The video captures and transmits real-time video data. The video node also has computational power to process HD video and has streaming capabilities.

VerizonIoT_02
Read more on Smart Cities according to Sensity here:
http://www.sensity.com/computer-vision/

Cypress and the Internet of Things

 

Cypress's Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED) combines the following features:

Wireless
MCU
Memory
PMIC

This WICED platform can accelerate time-to-market for IOT products. Cypress's WICED and cloud services can easily be adopted for automotive, industrial and consumer products.

Time-to-market is facilitated by the WICED IoT platform consisting of (from Cypress' site):

• Wireless Internet Connectivity for Embedded Devices (WICED)   

    Eliminate the complexity of adding wireless
    Simplifies adding cloud services
    Allows customers to focus on their IoT product development

• The WICED SDK is pre-integrated, pre-tested and courteously updated

    WICED APIs and drivers make wireless connectivity easy and flexible
    Proven production ready stacks (E.g. networking, security)
    Pre-integrated licensed ecosystem libraries (E.g. HomeKit, Weave)
    Pre-integrated world-leading IoT cloud Platforms (E.g. Amazon AWS, IBM BlueMix)

• The WICED Partner Ecosystem accelerates your time-to-market

    Partners who are experts in product development with the WICED SDK
    Partners who are experts in integrating embedded system with mobile and cloud applications
    Partners who deliver a broad portfolio of certified modules optimized for power, range and interoperability
    Professional highly engaged community

Read more about:

• Cypress Solar-powered Sensor Beacons

• IoT products that connect directly to cloud; that connect to Cloud via IoT Gateway and Connect to Cloud via a mobile device

• State-of-the-art wireless: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee connectivity 

GE to push its PaaS platform Predix to Microsoft Azure

GE's Predix platform (also its OS) builds applications that connect to Industrial assets. Collecting and analyzing data from those assets and delivering realtime, actionable insights to optimize industrial operations will drive the company towards the digital age of IIOT. With GE having its finger in every conceivable business, it can only improve its bottom line. By divesting its financial operations and there by getting rid of the stigma of financial links makes it only better.

As to when this is Microsoft-GE partnership would takeplace was recently answered at the Microsoft Worldwide Partner Conference (WPC) 2016. According to Microsoft this is slated for second quarter of 2017 while a preview should be available by this year's end. Watch Microsoft's AppSource protal for its appearance.

This will be followed by integrating with other of Microsoft's arsenal, Azure IOT Suite; Cortana
s AI; Office 365, Dynamics 365 and many more. More information is expecte to emerge at the November 2016 Mind Plus Machines show in San Francisco.

Microsoft is only GE's recent partner and it has already partnered with Accenture; Amazon's AWS to create the foundation for its IOT dreams. Oracle is also a part of GE's IOT strategy.

Read more here.

Watch this year ago video relate to Predix at Mind+Machine 2015

Invest in GE and you may not regret.

Connecting IOT to 4G LTE Network, the Verizon way

If you are interested in IOT, perhaps you should check out this URL. Verizon lays down its plan to connect IOT with the its 4G LTE Network. You can even get started with this at the above mentioned URL.

 In order to use the Wireless Network Services API, you need the SDK which you request here.

Verizon M2M Platform is central to this with the Wireless Network Services (WNS). With this you automate provisioing, monitoring and control of wireless MEM Devices.

It also provides user interfaces backed by an SDK. These are the,
Unified Web Servies(UWS) SDK and the M2M Management Center, a web portal for all monitoring activities.

What kind of devices will be supported?

Verizon-certified IOT development kits and sensors. Some are self-contained with everything and some operate with platforms like Windows, Arduino, Raspberry PI and BeagleBone.

In additions to wired connections there are Wi-Fi, cellular and Low Energy BlueTooth are supported.
Here is a link to the showcase that uses Veriaon M2M Platform.

Honeywell Process Solutions (HPS) helps harnessing IIOT

Honeywell is a pioneer in automation, control instrumentation and services for a myriad of industries:

• Oil and Gas, refining
• Pulp and paper
• Industrial power generation, distribution
• Chemicals
• Mining Industry

The list is endless. Honeywell Process Solutions(HPS) is new in the sense it is geared towards Digital Transformation. Recently it has made available the app (Honeywell Pulse) to address Industrial IOT (IIoT). This app helps plant managers, supervisors, and other connected personnel to stay connected irrespective of where they are. It provides metrics and tools to resolve issues directly with mobile devices resulting in timely resolution, improved efficiency and safety.

Read more here

Watch this video regarding Digital Transformation

Remote Labs and Internet of Things - Brief Review

IOT is also invading the class rooms. This article (What remote labs can do for you) in Physics Today April 2016, pp48-53 describes the many aspects of remote physics laboratories using the IOT. If you can monitor, you can also control and this would be a blessing to many places without physical resources to provide physics education. Of course this can be adopted to many other areas of science and technology. All this is possible because of mobile devices and the internet.

This post reviews some aspects of RL and some of the related mostly European resources.

Most smartphones already have a variety of sensors and most of them are connected to the Internet via Wi-Fi or cellular network.

Remote Laboratories (RL) are laboratory equipment connected to the Internet, the main enabler being the Internet of Things. Web applications are frequently used to connect Labs with students (or class rooms). Depending on the type of equipment, anywhere from Electron Microscope or telescope to routine motorized controls, this can be expensive or cheap.

Luis de la Torre, Juan Pedro Sanchez and Sebastian Dormido argue in this article that the remote labs are the most direct application of the Internet of Things in education.

Image from:
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/285549419_Remote_Web-based_Control_Laboratory_for_Mobile_Devices_based_on_EJsS_Raspberry_Pi_and_NodejsThis_work_has_been_supported_by_the_Spanish_National_Research_Project_DPI2013-46665-C2-1-R

This field is expanding as can be witnessed by the number of conferences and meetings in the related area:
Multimedia in Physics Teaching and Learning

Remote Engineering and Virtual Instrumentation

Experiment International

Internet based Control Instrumentation

However, it remains to be answered whether RL can actually be a good substitute for live learning in schools and universities. As we are transitioning from reality to virtual reality, perhaps this is the way to go.

Watch this European Video

Apple SAP partnership, the right direction to move

I hope this applesa(a)p partnership is going to be as sweet as it sounds. Now that Hardware is going to be hardsell, the best approach is to go after services.

The desktop will be gone before we know and it will all be mobile.
The emphasis of this cooperation appears to be in the development of BI apps for the iPhones and iPads. According to this content Apple apps will use the SAP Hana Platform bankend for data and Apple will come up with appropriate SDK for building these apps that integrate the two company products. You will be hearing a lot about 'SAP Fiori for iOS' design language and the learning resource, 'SAP Academy for IOS'.

In all reality you can get away with apps for the tom-dick-harry kind to get their entertainment and satisfy their narcisstic leanings but to build apps that are enterprise worthy focused on security will be altogether different.

Read more here:
Apple/CISCO (Sept 2015): Business collaboration towards WebRTC

Apple/IBM (2014): Cloud, BigData and Business Analytics

Apple/Tesla (into the future): Siri(?), Infotainment(?), or iOT(?)

Internet of Things: Visual Studio 2015 Community Edition and Arduino

Visual Studio 2015 Community is a one-stop tool by Microsoft for most things and you can use the same tool for working with Arduino/Intel line of IOT boards. However, a default installation of VS 2015 Community does not support these boardss. You need to install an extension available online as shown here:

Launch Visual Studio 2015 and click on Tools | Extensions and Updates...

In the search box for items online, type Arduino and Click search. Arduino IDE for Visual Studio get displayed in the results pane as shown.

 Click Download and the program starts downloading the VSIX (5.55.MB) installer.

It is now ready to install but accept the license terms and click Install.

It takes a little while to install and after it is installed you get the following message. You need to restart for changes to take effect,

Restart VS 2015 Community and there are items in Menu, Tools and Project where you can see that the installation has been effective.

vMicro menu item:

 New | Arduino Project

 Tools | Visual Micro

Now that you have installed the extension you can work with Arduino projects importing the Arduino 'Sketches' or creating from scratch.

MySQL datastorage for Internet of Things

That IOT is going to change our world view in the near future is wellknown and need no comments.

MySQL is one of Oracle's widely used storage solutions. This seminar by Charles Bell, 'MySQL for the Internet of Things' explores the details of how MySQL offers a solution to diverse IOT environments, collecting data from microcontrollers to embedded computing nodes.

Charles bell promises to focus on principles and best practices. This should be interesting to those working with IOT. MySQL High Availability  will also be discussed.

The Live Webcast is for 1 hour at 9:)) am Pacific time on Thursday, April 14, 2016.

Try registraion here:
http://www.mysql.com/news-and-events/web-seminars/mysql-for-the-internet-of-things/

Microsoft Azure IoT Hub goes GA

With Azure IoT hub which became generally available(GA) you can be assured of reliable bi-di communication; connect to millions of assets; can operate with wide range of OSs and protocols and of course guaranteed to be secure. Azure IoT hub provides a complete set of services such as connecting, provisioning; monitoring and updating.

AzureIOTonGA

If you are looking for getting a good handle may be you should start with this tutorial. You do not need to have a device, but you will get the hang of it using a simulated device. The tutorial is well structured and clearly delineated. You have a choice of programming help, C#, Java or Node.JS.

• Create an IOT Hub
• Create a device Identity
• Get or receive messages sent by device to cloud
• Create a simulated device app
• Run applications

Watch this video targeted for developers:


Azure IOT Hub documentation is here.

MirrorLink protocol and Car Connnectivity Consortium

Internet of things may appear more rapidly than one believes. Connected cars will be the one that will appear first and make an even greater impact than self-driving cars. Many car manufacturers and software vendors are actively working to make this possible. In addition to car-to-car communication and car-to-internet/cloud communication, communication between smartphones and vehicles infotainment system is also vigorously pursued.

MirrorlLink Protocol which is presently in version 1.1 allows third-party apps to board screens in automobiles. It is an interoperability standard interfacing smartphones to vehicle's infotainment system. This allows drivers to access more mobile apps from dashboards. This may not be as distracting as you think it will be due to the fact that there are resrictions on how it is implemented. The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) showed is behind this using MirrorLink protocol.

This is the driving force for the CCC,
"The Car Connectivity Consortium (CCC) is an organization driving global technologies for smartphone-centric car connectivity solutions. The organization is dedicated to cross-industry collaboration in developing MirrorLink®, an open standard for car-smartphone connectivity. CCC members include a majority of the world’s auto and smartphone manufacturers, along with a who’s who of aftermarket consumer electronics vendors.
"
Read more here; http://carconnectivityconsortium.com/

The interested group consists of Car Manufacturers (about 20); phone manufacturers (8); Infotainment Systems (23); Ecosystem partners(50) and Test Labs(13).
App developers would need the CCC approval which defines two categories, base category and drive category. The drive category apps will be those that can be used while the car in motion. Only approved apps can only be accessed.

View Mirrorlink enabled dashboards here:
http://mirrorlink.com/apps/135#135
A small sample is shown here from the above link:

Optomec and the Internet of Things

IOT depends to a large part on the availability of custom hardware of sensors that can be efficiently manufactured with exacting tolerances in its specifications. Smart Parts manufacturing will be one of the key technologies required to address the IOT 3D Sensors and 3D Antennae.

Optomec which manfuactures production grade 3D printers can manufacture parts both in plastics and metals.

Here is a picture showing some of the smart stuff that can be made using Optomec 3D Printers.

The parts made with additive printing uses the Aerosol Jet Process (no different from spraying a liquid principle). Here is YouTube Video from Optomec.




Here is a high volume production process.


Read more here:
http://www.optomec.com/printed-electronics/aerosol-jet-core-applications/

IoT will get a big boost if Laser Egg takes off

The Chinese are really worried about their environment, which looks pretty bad right now. The winds are not helpful, they drive the pollution across the seas to Japan and Korea.

More importantly Chinese are concerned about themselves. by monitoring pollution using the Laser Egg (a very fancy name: http://www.origins-china.com/) common man on the street is montioring the weather to see for himself what it is like, not waiting for the Government data.
But it could really take on and democratize the pollution question getting it out of the hands of politicians and into the hands of the people. Laser egg will get the data people need to so that they can plan their actions.
Here is a picture of the Laser Egg from the Chinese site,

Here is a video.




Right now it is sold out, wait for a few more days before you try.

Wirepas: Internet of Things (Networks) with limitless scalability

That is correct PINO from Wirepas is the Internet of Things.  PINO is fully automatic, multi-hop mesh IOT platform. Nodes of PINO are the network. All optimization is by the node.
It is also scalable and can handle couple of million nodes.

Get your product brief here:
http://www.wirepas.com/Pino_Product_Brief.pdf

Here is a summary of the above brief:

Fully automatic operation 
Ultra low power, even routers  can be battery-powered
Extreme robustness
Limitless scalability
HW independence

EXAMPLE APPLICATIONS 
ƒSmart metering ƒ
Smart grid ƒ
Smart cities
ƒTraffic control ƒ
Telemetry ƒ
Wireless sensors ƒ
Environmental sensors
ƒHealth monitors
Industrial measurements & control ƒ
Home automation  & security
ƒWireless lighting control ƒ
Waste management

TechNet Asia-Pacific 2015 Conference in Honolulu _Come bask in the sun

Mark up the dates: November 17-19, Honolulu, Also enjoy the daily rainbows, if you are rainbow lover like myself. Every year I attend this conference about this time of the year. In fact, it is a very important technology related conference in this holiday town.



Defense has a big presence with emphasis on security and so are the security ware vendors. There are a number of Continuing Education courses that are a big attraction as well. So it is not just the wind and surf but also listen to the winds of change. There is not much on IOT in this conference but a single vendor from California.

Here is what this conference about:

"TechNet Asia-Pacific, now in its 30th year, is co-sponsored by AFCEA International and AFCEA Hawaii. It is the largest event in the Pacific Rim focusing on regional defense issues. Keynote speakers, panel moderators and panelists will discuss defense policies and challenges in the Asia-Pacific region and their relevance to both Industry and Government.  Industry exhibitors will demonstrate products and solutions to meet the Services' requirements and needs. "

Riak TS and Internet of Things

Riak TS is focused to handle time series application needs. It can do fast read/write to IOT devices, there in is its strength. It also targets financial and economics data as well as in scientific research applications.

This is straight from Riak TS:
"Riak TS automatically co-locates, replicates, and distributes data across the cluster to achieve fast performance and high availability. The unique master-less architecture enables near-linear scale using commodity hardware so you can easily add capacity as your time series data grows.
"
Here is a claimed benefits of using Riak_TS from their PDF datasheet here.

This is again from Riak TS's PDF documents regarding their NoSQL database and the Basho platform.  "Basho Riak® TS is a distributed NoSQL database. Its key/ value architecture is optimized for fast reads and writes of time series data. Riak TS provides high availability, massive scalability, and can be operationalized at lower costs than traditional relational databases while being easy to manage at scale. Riak TS is integrated with Basho Data Platform (BDP), which includes support for Apache™ Spark (in-memory analytics), Redis (caching), and Apache™ Solr (distributed search queries"