IIoT and Work-Life Balance: A Healthy and Productive Relationship
This article was authored by Kirk Byles, FreeWave CEO The Industrial Internet of Things can improve productivity and promote a healthy work-life balance. Here’s how. “There is no such thing as work-life balance anymore. You’ve got to integrate them. Otherwise, you will fail miserably at one of them.” – Benjamin Laker, Forbes Because of COVID-19, the boundaries between our work and home lives continue to blur. I often find myself doing chores while on a conference call or listening to a webinar while cooking at my barbeque. And I’m becoming more interested in who is at the office, now that we’ve opened part-time (I use the key card application on my phone to monitor access). It’s not my intention to be Big Brother – working from the FreeWave office is voluntary. Rather, I want to gauge how folks are feeling. I took the same action to monitor my kid’s activities at home when I was still working from the office, to see whether or not they crank the heat or A/C when they get home from school. These are typical IoT-related activities we take for granted. Like most people, I’ve tried to strike the perfect balance between my life at work and my life at home. Since I’ve worked remotely for most of my professional life, I’m fairly disciplined when it comes to shutting off work at the appropriate time. Still, like so many people, I’ve recently found myself working extended hours. Experts criticize the concept of work-life balance because it suggests life and work are in opposition. And the pursuit of balance is exhausting. Some researchers suggest it’s better to embrace imbalance than strive to achieve a state of work-life nirvana. And I tend to agree with them. Of course, you have to schedule aspects of your work-from-home time, just like you’d plan family activities. Still, there’s nothing wrong with blocking out personal time during the day if you can spend a few hours hiking with your kids or friends during the afternoon. Even if you’ll be working at 10 PM as a result. This balancing act is new to quite a few folks, and it’s difficult. But, if you have the right solutions at your fingertips, it gives you peace of mind and helps you become more efficient. I mentioned mobile apps for my home and office, but what about tools for people working in industries that need to go beyond looking at cameras or names on a screen? Many people work in oilfields, on manufacturing floors, water sanitation sites, farms, or cities. And for most of their careers, they’ve been able to pull data from remote locations, view pressure gauges, monitor flow rates, check on pick and place machines for errors, and in some cases, manipulate those machines remotely (assuming they have the necessary skills). How does this work get done when you have to work from home? The right technology makes it possible. By placing edge computers with industrial applications where the action is happening, people can see the apps at work and relax, knowing they’ll be notified if there is a problem. This helps remote employees see what might be happening, and it also helps them know what is actually happening and how automatic changes improve systems. With edge computers, application-specific software, and communications technologies, folks working from home don’t have to stress about what’s happening on-site. And they don’t have to try to fix issues. The software corrects the issue before you know there’s a problem, so you can cook for the kids and rest easy knowing you’ve had zero downtime and machinery is running at absolute efficiency. The IIoT helps Mom, the field services director for a major utility, work from home, and be 10x more productive because of remote applications at the edge that make sure everything runs as it should. She can spend more time with the kids, and address aspects of her work she couldn’t get to before implementing this technology. It’s about creating efficiencies and solving problems before you even know there is one. An imbalance between work and home life is okay as long as you’re doing all you can to ensure work gets done and your home life isn’t neglected. The Industrial Internet of Things can make this possible for all of us.
FreeWave Technologies Introduces ZumEdge™
FreeWave’s Edge Intelligence portfolio allows instant data access and decision-making from the harshest edge environments to Cloud, analytics platforms in an easy-to-use integrated package BOULDER (May 19, 2020) – Today FreeWave Technologies, a leader in industrial edge computing and long-range industrial wireless connectivity, introduced ZumEdge™, the next generation of its Edge Intelligence platform. ZumEdge delivers an integrated I/O edge computing and narrow band radio network platform that makes it easy to connect analog and digital I/O devices directly to IIoT networks. The platform allows enterprise customers across numerous industry verticals to access and monitor critical data in the field and act on it immediately. “ZumEdge is ideal for any industry that requires sensor data capture, edge computing and long-range networking in isolated and potentially hazardous environments in a single, integrated package,” said FreeWave’s Chief Technology Officer, Parthesh Shastri. “The ability to simplify, capture and process a high volume of data at the industrial edge empowers our customers and partners to lower costs and time to market for new solutions.” With limited networking and data acquisition capabilities, critical sensor data is often stranded in the field, creating both inefficiencies and adding costs. ZumEdge with an I/O module reduces complexity, providing enterprises the data they need in minutes, not hours. Its web-based integrated I/O and network configuration tool supports the remote configuration of up to 15 IOEX modules (up to 180 individual I/Os). ZumEdge comes standard with the FreeWave IQ application environment and contains the Z9 radio module, making it over-the-air compatible with existing ZumLink networks and is housed in a DIN-Rail-Mountable case. To learn more about ZumEdge capabilities and specifications, as well as FreeWave’s comprehensive portfolio of edge computing solutions, contact your sales representative or visit www.freewave.com. About FreeWave Technologies With deployments in over 32 countries, FreeWave’s products are leveraged by industrial end users and OEMs alike to connect, control and optimize remote machines and processes to impact smarter decision-making, improve operational efficiencies and drive cost savings. Throughout our 26-year history, Freewave’s IIoT Connectivity and EDGE Solutions have solved thousands of customers’ problems in government/defense, energy, agriculture, and municipalities – achieve reliable connectivity for data telemetry and command and control in some of the most challenging, remote and rugged environments in the world. Today, we are transforming the extreme edge of operations – and the proliferation of smart devices within it – into a connected part of the enterprise with our IQ edge computing platform and ecosystem of solutions evolved for IIoT. Are you ready to transform your operation? Visit freewave.com to get started. Media Contacts: Lisa DiBenedetto Corporate Communications lisa@ldbcomm.biz 630-338-2208 Renea Sloan Director, Channel Marketing rsloan@freewave.com
The Smart Businesses Guide to Intelligence at the Edge and IIOT
Technology that enables business continuity and agility in every condition is essential today and into the future. Remote processes that enable agility in changing conditions are critical, given our current circumstances. And while today’s drastic measures aren’t permanent, it’s never been more crucial to optimize remote operations for business continuity. To that end, tools that limit on-site personnel without compromising integrity are essential. The right Edge computing and IIOT (Industrial Internet of Things) strategies and solutions, not only transform industrial environments and help a business maintain operations under every circumstance, but they also enhance overall efficiency and performance, regardless of factors outside your control. Edge computing and connected devices can give countless critical industries transformative insights into their remote operations. What is IIOT? Before getting too far down the rabbit hole of in-depth technical explanations, we should touch on the basics of IIOT (forgive us if you already know). In simple terms, connected assets and Edge devices send information to data communications infrastructures and turn the insights into actionable info. Engineers can use this data over time to uncover patterns that help identify more significant issues and their root causes. The gathered information can also drive meaningful business decisions, improve processes, and save money. As digitization becomes a critical business priority, the Industrial Internet of Things (sometimes called the Industrial Internet) is increasingly becoming pervasive. But technology is not without its faults. We won’t paint a rosy portrait without transparency around potential challenges. IIOT-specific challenges. Before your business adopts IIOT and Edge computing technologies, you need to take a hard look at security. Any technology that makes business-critical data and information available through the Internet can leave you exposed. The added expense of employee education and training and advanced network security sometimes offset the cost benefits associated with IIOT. If you’re looking at implementing these technologies, you need to be realistic with your expectations around ROI – at least in the beginning. There can also be standardization challenges when implementing IIOT and Edge intelligence technologies. Integrating your industrial environment to the IoT is more complicated than using the standard machine to machine and connected devices. You’ll need to upgrade legacy devices and infrastructures and, at the same time, implement new IIOT and Edge technologies to allow for seamless communication between connected devices, operating systems, connectivity frameworks, and protocol standards. IIOT and Edge computing benefits. Still, the benefits of IIOT and Edge computing technologies far outweigh their challenges and the initial up-front cost. We’ll give you a short run-down of those benefits, starting with overall efficiency. When you have complete visibility into every aspect of your business, from field operations to internal resources and applications, nothing is missed or wasted. FreeWave customers in varying industries have implemented IIOT and Edge technologies across all their businesses to achieve operational intelligence. Intelligence enables them to gain end-to-end visibility to increase productivity, reduce operational risks, mitigate costs, and, most importantly, keep employees and essential on-site personnel safe. IIOT and Edge technologies allow your teams to remotely monitor operations in real-time without putting them at risk – essential, considering today’s circumstances. These technologies also enhance your overall security posture and not just cybersecurity. It’s never been more crucial to track personnel and on-site visitors in the field. We’re not saying that you don’t, or shouldn’t trust your employees, but the reality is people are the biggest threat to your business. Tools that allow you to remotely track and monitor activities in the field keep your business safe – and operational. These technologies also help to maximize production and output and allow you to make real-time adjustments with real-time data, something virtually impossible just a decade ago. So, where do you start? We’ve got an in-depth discovery and implementation process when working with new FreeWave customers, but here’s a simple breakdown of the general procedure for implementing your new IIOT and Edge Intelligence project. You first need to define your overall goals for the IIOT project. Second, you’ll want to identify how you plan to measure success. Third, it’s essential that you document your execution plan to shore-up loose ends and consider every detail. Fourth, and this is the most critical component – you need organizational buy-in to move forward. And last but not least, it’s time for work on the initial implementation. The time is now. Your business needs data visibility to transform digitally. But that’s only half the battle. You also need to ensure that all relevant stakeholders can access, assess, and act on that data. FreeWave gives you the power to do it all in a complete and cloud-enabled Edge ecosystem. Our IQ platform provides immediate and expandable capabilities for high fidelity industrial data capture, analysis, control, and automation. And it’s designed for future growth or to build upon your existing infrastructure. Readily expandable as your Edge computing needs evolve, our products give you a future-ready solution to solve today’s operational challenges and to capitalize on the future opportunities that come with a smart edge. Enabling business continuity and agility is essential today. 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The Intelligent Edge: A Deep Dive into Edge Computing with Robert Reid
The industrial data landscape is rapidly evolving because of emerging communications and processing technologies that allow organizations to more efficiently collect data and act upon it in real-time at the device and sensor level– something we at FreeWave like to call ‘Edge Computing.’ The money, time and resource-conserving possibilities are endless with Edge Computing, and industrial organizations are quickly looking to adapt this technology to stay ahead. For the ninth installment in our series “The Intelligent Edge,” we caught up with Senior Software Engineer Bob Reid to discuss his expertise in developing emerging Edge technology – like ZumIQ – at the ‘nuts and bolts’ level. His experience in developing new technology and taking it to the very edge (literally) is vast. FreeWave: Tell us more about yourself. How did you get started in software engineering? Bob Reid: I started writing software at a young age on Apple II computers, but my background is in space science. I have degrees in astronomy and planetary sciences and got involved with a couple Mars missions in the late ‘90s during my time at the University of Arizona. FreeWave: What did you do for the Mars missions? What was it like? Bob Reid: Our team built the cameras for the landers, and I was responsible for image calibration software. During landed operations, we had to follow the Mars day, which is 24 hours and 37 minutes long. There would be times where my work day would start at 8am and then about a week later it would start in the afternoon. There were times where my day would start at 1am – it was an experience. After my work with Mars, I went on to work for the Army developing software for soldier training. I helped develop tools for data collection, analysis, and review of data generated by sensors on equipment and personnel. It really expanded my ability as a professional software developer before coming to FreeWave. FreeWave: What is your focus at FreeWave primarily? Bob Reid: Recently I’ve been focused on ZumIQ on both our App Server and ZumLink radios. I’ve written applications and supported customers on this platform. I also support our Windows-based radio management utility, Tool Suite. I’ve been here long enough to get into a little bit of everything. FreeWave: What programming languages do you work with the most? Bob Reid: In the past year, I’ve worked with JavaScript, TypeScript, Python, Lua, C#, Java, and Node-RED. During my work with the ZumIQ platform, I’ve been able to learn a lot of new languages. It’s really allowed me to explore the space. If it will run on Linux it will run on ZumIQ. FreeWave: What is the ZumIQ? Tell us a little more about it. Bob Reid: ZumIQ is an embedded system – in the same class as a Raspberry Pi in capability – but it’s ruggedized. It can operate anywhere our current radios do, and it allows our customers to develop their own custom applications or implement third-party applications at the edge to solve problems. ZumIQ is a wide-open platform – we haven’t placed a lot of restrictions on it. The hardware is capable of withstanding rugged and remote locations with extreme weather that other products may not be able to survive in. FreeWave: Can you share some real-world examples of how ZumIQ is used? Bob Reid: Sure thing. In oil & gas, companies can install ZumIQ at its well sites to collect more data at a higher resolution and analyze the data at the site. Companies can also use ZumIQ to send back the data that matters, or all the data, back to the cloud for analysis, or the software can make decisions right at the edge. The benefit here is that if your central network goes down, you can still continue to function at the edge with ZumIQ’s capabilities. At these well sites, companies can use ZumIQ to monitor their status and take action if necessary with predictive analysis. An application can find trends within all the data it collects and analyzes, such as if a tank level falls by a certain threshold – companies can then send out a technician out in case something is failing. That’s just one example – there are so many ways ZumIQ can be used across many industries. FreeWave: What are you looking forward to in the future for ZumIQ? Bob Reid: I’m really looking forward to integrating all the components of ZumIQ and creating a one-for-all platform. Taking the Application Server, Application Environment, ZumLink technologies and more, and packaging it all up so companies only need one product to meet all their future needs. That’s what I’m excited to see in the future. FreeWave: Before we let you go, what has been your most memorable problem you’ve helped solve? Bob Reid: There have been so many problems I’ve helped solve, so it’s hard to say. One does stand out – back when I was calibrating images for Mars. It wasn’t just about taking a single picture. We would take image of rocks in several different wavelengths to generate a reflectance spectrum. From that, we were able to do remote sensing to figure out the composition objects on Mars by comparing to reflectance spectra of know materials in a lab. But to figure that out, we had to correct for the Solar illumination, atmospheric illumination, the angle of the rock face, camera sensitivity at different wavelengths, data compression, etc. That was my first professional software project, and I have fond memories of it. ______________________________ Enjoyed learning about what our line of talented experts have to say? Stay tuned for the next Intelligent Edge conversation! In the meantime, catch up on all the blogs in our series here.
Managing Critical Assets with Industrial IoT Communications
Whether you’re a long-time employee at an industrial organization, or someone who is new to the Internet of Things (IoT) and Industry 4.0 – you likely understand what it means to be agile. To be ahead of the game and thrive in a quickly evolving industrial landscape, you must start with data. Edge Intelligent, rugged and app-programmable platforms and devices like the ZumLink 900 Series and ZumIQ App Server from FreeWave can get you there. The proliferation of data created and collected in remote areas has led companies of all sizes to search for technology that maximizes data efficiency and protection while keeping costs down. Managing and monitoring assets in rugged environments is a priority and innovative technologies continue to be introduced to provide industrial organizations with solutions to these issues. However, there exists a communications technology that has been around for decades, but continues to work effectively in relative obscurity. For collection and control of data in remote Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) networks, Frequency-Hopping, Spread Spectrum (FHSS) technology provides a proven, resilient, robust and industrial cyber-secure data transmission technology. It’s an ideal technology for areas without cellular or WiFi coverage – such as in the APAC region. And it’s been around for a very long time. What is Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum? FHSS is a wireless Radio Frequency (RF) technology that spreads its signal over rapidly-hopping frequencies. It transmits much longer distances and requires lower power than traditional IoT wireless infrastructure including WiFi, Bluetooth, LoRa or ZigBee. It is also highly resistant to interference and difficult to intercept – there are 186,000 possible parameters to be on the same channel with an FHSS radio and data is only on a specific channel for 1/100th of a second. Why is this technology critical in remote industrial settings? Currently, 60 percent of rural and remote Asia-Pacific does not have access to fixed broadband or WiFi. FHSS technology has been used for over 100 years by businesses, and governments can link wireless devices and smart sensors at long ranges – in 900MHz and 2.4GHz – for a long-range alternative to Bluetooth, ZigBee and LoRa. From a cost standpoint, significant CAPEX and OPEX savings can be realized with FHSS relative to cellular. How safe is my data with Frequency-Hopping Spread Spectrum? FreeWave FHSS radios utilize advanced encryption protocols to insure additional layers of cybersecurity, including: FIPS 140-2 Level 2 Encryption 128 or 256-bit AES Encryption Additional benefits? Coupled with the ZumIQ App Environment Platform, organizations can create custom industrial applications to control sensors and gather data in remote locations in real-time. Networks can extend up to 40 miles in remote areas and transmit data at speeds up to 4 Mbps for voice, video, data and sensor links. We are talking LONG range IIoT. Intelligent FHSS technology is leveraged in industrial settings across oil & gas, water/wastewater, precision agriculture, irrigation, unmanned systems, robotics, utilities, and more. At its inaugural Ingram Micro ONE APAC 2018 event in Singapore, Ingram Micro (a FreeWave Technologies partner) unveiled FreeWave’s ZumIQ Platform that combines rugged, intelligent, app-programmability with FHSS technology to link wireless devices at long ranges. Tough AND intelligent data. It’s win-win. For more information, click here.
The Intelligent Edge: Navigating the Transformative IIoT Landscape with Renee Garcia (Part 1)
Today’s world is undergoing rapid digital transformation, from the technologies that shape it, business practices and strategies shifting in response and the workforce adapting to stay up-to-date. It’s nearly impossible to predict what’s next for the IoT and IIoT industries. It’s up to the businesses shaping the landscape to know how and when to adapt through innovative technologies and processes. It’s also up to individuals in the field to recognize the value of developing diverse skill sets. For the seventh blog in our series “The Intelligent Edge,” we sat down with Product Line Manager Renee Garcia to discuss her expertise with this adaptation and transformation, all of which she’s experienced through her roles in industry and academia. FreeWave: Tell us a little about your background. How did you end up doing what you do today? Renee Garcia: I started out as a mechanical engineer working in medical designs and diagnostics and learned what it took to develop and deploy products in regulated environments. I was really in the weeds addressing technical problems, but quickly realized I wanted a role with a broader impact on the world – one that I could directly participate in. So, I went back to school full time and got my MBA, concentrating on product management. My first job following that was down the road in Loveland with a water sensor manufacturer. After 10 years, I decided to try something a little bit different, so I joined the University of Colorado Boulder’s Office of Industry Collaboration, where I focused on connecting technology and biotech businesses with the school. I eventually decided I missed industry and being involved in product development. I’ve been with FreeWave since last August. FreeWave: Across your past roles, what’s been one of the most interesting changes you’ve seen in the IoT industry? Renee: At that water sensor manufacturer, I supported a wastewater flow meter that was deployed into collection systems. Wireless IoT technologies were adopted early in this space to consolidate data across the wastewater system. During my five years supporting that product, I saw the IoT revolution make a large impact on capabilities that were brought to the market due to the increased prevalence of cellular communications and cloud-based software. It was fantastic from a product development standpoint to be a part of this transition showing how technology is impacting the IoT. FreeWave: What about your time at CU Boulder? What drew you to the collaboration between universities and businesses? Renee: CU Boulder had formed a new office to better bridge industry and the university. They were looking for program managers with product development experience who could speak both languages. I was very interested in helping fulfill that mission and to improve the industry-university relationship. It’s a two-way relationship; you have masters and PhD-level experts from the school and specialists from a company like FreeWave that can teach each other something new. FreeWave: How exactly can that benefit each party? Renee: Future engineers need to think outside their discipline and not follow some kind of prescribed path. Having students work with businesses grounds a lot of the theoretical classes they take and prepares them for real-world applications. So, when it comes time for them to graduate, students have already developed different skill sets and are familiar with how the industry works. From the business perspective, it’s all about having students interact with a company’s technology. It’s great to see excitement and validation around it, like we saw with our hardware during our time at CU Boulder’s hackathon, HackCU. We received wonderful, instant feedback from this new generation of developers, scientists and engineers. Think of it this way – a beta test typically takes a month at minimum. Feedback during HackCU took only 24 hours. _____ Interested in more insights from Renee? Stay tuned for our continued conversation in the next Intelligent Edge blog!
Top Tips for the New Drone Owner
Recent headlines demonstrate how drones can support public safety and government operations. The Los Angeles Fire Department, for example, used drones for the first time in the Skirball fire that wreaked havoc on Southern California earlier this month. The drones offered real-time situational awareness – allowing responders to see what was happening and change their tactics to avoid hazards. Across the world in Dubai, police are using drones to monitor traffic. Drones truly have made a worldwide impact – and these are just a couple of examples. In addition to providing a critical safety role, the commercial drone market is growing. In the midst of the holiday season, drones make for fun gifts for the aerial hobbyist. While drones are sure to provide hours of entertainment, new drone owners should be aware that there are some basic guidelines, offered by the FAA, that will ensure safe operation. As you peruse the lists of the best drones to buy, make sure to look into the safety guidelines as well. Here are some of the basic rules and regulations that the new drone owner must follow: You Must Register Your Drone The drone registration requirements have been revived. If your drone weighs between .55 pounds and 55 pounds, it must be registered. According to a recent article in Time magazine: “A relative footnote in the National Defense Authorization Act, which was signed into law today, the new regulation requires that drone owners register their unmanned aerial vehicles before taking to the skies. You can register your new drone on the FAA’s drone Unmanned Aircraft System website.” Know Before You Fly Here are a few safety tips (and requirements!) to review before you fly your new drone – straight from the FAA’s website: Fly your drone at or below 400 feet Keep your drone within your line of sight Respect privacy Never fly near other aircraft, especially near airports Never fly over groups of people, public events, or stadiums full of people Never fly near emergencies such as fires or hurricane recovery efforts Never fly under the influence of drugs or alcohol No Drone Zones Did you know that the FAA has a list of locations where drones are forbidden? The FAA recently announced an expanded list of restricted locations, mostly laboratories, where drones cannot fly within 400 feet. When you go out for a day of fun, make sure you’re not close to any of these locations: Hanford Site, Franklin County, WA Pantex Site, Panhandle, TX Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM Idaho National Laboratory, Idaho Falls, ID Savannah River National Laboratory, Aiken, SC Y-12 National Security Site, Oak Ridge, TN Oak Ridge National Laboratory, Oak Ridge, TN Still unclear on drone requirements? The FAA offers excellent resources: https://www.faa.gov/uas/. If you’re lucky enough to get a new drone this holiday season – enjoy and be safe!
FreeWave Blog Series: The Intelligent Edge (Part 4)
The Internet of Things (IoT) has changed the consumer world in ways no one ever imagined. By placing intelligence in the IoT network, the “Thing” can do whatever we want it to do. Now Industrial companies are seeking to take advantage of this edge-deployed intelligence in order to maximize profits, improve safety and streamline operations. In addition to the challenges IoT technology had to overcome – such as cybersecurity, scalability and interoperability – Industrial IoT (IIoT) must also focus on reliability, ruggedness and more. FreeWave is uniquely positioned to understand and address all of these challenges. We have delivered world class IIoT platforms for almost 25 years to thousands of industrial and unmanned systems customers. With that experience, we’re now leading the charge to deploy intelligent applications at the edge of industrial networks and unmanned systems. In the fourth installment of “The Intelligent Edge,” we spoke with Helen Xi, a senior firmware engineer at FreeWave who specializes in high-speed wireless LAN performance, to talk about the use of broadband in the IIoT, as well as FreeWave’s industrial Wi-Fi platform, the WavePro. Read parts one, two and three. FreeWave: Can you talk a little bit about the WavePro platform and where it fits into what you work on at FreeWave? Helen Xi: In our company, the radios mostly operate in the narrowband frequencies, however WavePro is a broadband Wi-Fi system. It’s important for us to have this Wi-Fi system because nowadays there are so many Wi-Fi clients. It’s on every mobile phone, in every laptop, in every household. It’s everywhere. You can’t avoid it. When we have this Wi-Fi product, we can provide a whole communication system to customers. It’s easier for us to integrate them together to make sure they work from our Wi-Fi system to our narrowband radios. Our WavePro product has many features. If you compare it with the industry competitors, they have multiple products and models that meet customers’ specific needs. If you want to provide a long-distance point-to-point link and you buy this model, and you want their system to provide Wi-Fi local coverage, then you must buy another model. WavePro integrates all these features together in a single product, and we can do long-distance point-to-point link, local Wi-Fi coverage and mesh. It can have different clients while providing a backhaul communications in a remote area. FreeWave: Walking back a little bit on some of what you just talked about, one of the things that we’ve been discussing is the transition from traditional RF technology into technology that requires higher bandwidth to transmit bigger data packets in real time and run analytics at the Edge. With WavePro, what I’m wondering is when you talk to clients, what is their number-one priority with this technology? Are they trying to update existing systems or are they wanting to implement entirely new systems? And how important is the broadband aspect? Helen Xi: I think both. Let’s say they want to upgrade an older system. Let me give you an example: nowadays because there are so many Wi-Fi clients, Wi-Fi chips are so well-known, and more sensors have Wi-Fi client chips inside them. If we put our WavePro in the field, it can work as an access point (AP) to talk to these sensors. By the way, our product is an outdoor unit. It’s waterproof IP67. IP67 means you can immerse it underneath water. It has the same industrial-temperature range as our other narrowband radios. It goes from minus-40 up to 70 Celsius. It also has surge protectors from lightening. So, you can safely put it outdoors. If you buy a home Wi-Fi router, say from Netgear, you probably do not want to put it outside. FreeWave: And why is that element important? Helen Xi: Because a lot of our customers use it outdoors. For example, in North Dakota, it’s very cold. It can be minus-20 Celsius. I think you can imagine what happens to your iPhone during winter when you go skiing – it goes dead. Our radios don’t do that. You put it outdoors, on the oil-gas fields where it goes from winter to summer – as cold as North Dakota, as hot as Texas in the deserts – and it’s working well. That’s why the temperature requirement is important. FreeWave: When you’re talking about application examples, where else are you seeing this technology deployed? Helen Xi: It can be used in many areas of the Industrial IoT. For example, we have a utility company that uses WavePros to control large quantities of air conditioners on the roof of two apartment buildings. Each air conditioner has a 2.4GHz Wi-Fi chip in it. They all connect to WavePros on 2.4GHz. One WavePro (we call it “master”) is connected to the utility company’s network. The other three WavePros (we call “slave”) connect to the master WavePro on 5GHz. When the utility company needs to send command to air conditions, it first goes to the master WavePro; the master WavePro passes on its 5GHz to the other slave WavePros; then, the slave WavePros transmit on 2.4GHz to each air conditioner. FreeWave: What do you envision being the trend of the future with regard to Industrial IoT communications? Is it all headed toward broadband? Or do you think that there will still be a balance between that and cellular and RF? Helen Xi: This is a very good question. I believe it will be a combination. I want to elaborate why I think narrowband is still very important where people seem to only be talking about gigabits. Wireless as a resource is very valuable – every Hz (hertz) is valuable. When you are using a frequency band at this location at this instant, other people cannot use it. You are noise to other people. Plus, not every Hz is free to use. In IoT, we’re mostely using unlicensed band that you don’t need to pay a fee to the FCC to use as long as you follow rules. There are only
FreeWave Blog Series: The Intelligent Edge (Part 2)
Part 2: Novice App Dev – A Q&A with Greg Corey from FreeWave The Internet of Things (IoT) has changed the consumer world in ways no one ever imagined. By placing intelligence in the IoT network, the “Thing” can do whatever we want it to do. Now Industrial companies are seeking to take advantage of this edge-deployed intelligence in order to maximize profits, improve safety and streamline operations. In addition to the challenges IoT technology had to overcome – such as cybersecurity, scalability and interoperability – Industrial IoT (IIoT) must also focus on reliability, ruggedness and more. FreeWave is uniquely positioned to understand and address all of these challenges. We have delivered world class IIoT platforms for almost 25 years to thousands of industrial and unmanned systems customers. With that experience, we’re now leading the charge to deploy intelligent applications at the edge of industrial networks and unmanned systems. In the third installment – and second half of an interview we ran last week (read part one of the interview here) – of “The Intelligent Edge,” we sat down with Greg Corey, FreeWave systems engineer, to talk about his new app – ZumDash – and the future of app development of the Internet of Things. FreeWave: Over the course of developing ZumDash, are there any lessons or things that you took away from it that if you could go back and do it again, you would change, or moving forward you kind of see as something that you will incorporate into future projects? Greg: Yes, definitely. I’ve only been using this a couple months, and I’ve learned a lot about it. I think what’s really important about Node-RED is that it empowers non-software developers to solve problems using software, and it’s taught me a lot about the types of problems that you’ll run into when doing software development. There are some challenges I’ve had to overcome in that. But, every release that I make of this app it gets better and it becomes more usable. FreeWave: When you say more usable, what are some of the things that you’ve of tweaked to make that happen? Greg: So, instead of having to change a setting in five different places, you change it in one and then you can store that setting and pull it from there. Bringing stuff to the forefront where a user can modify it instead of having to modify the code underneath. Basically, giving users more control over how the application runs and making it simpler after setup are two of the things I’ve tried to flip this on. Incorporating some UX/UI elements. FreeWave: Are there any high-level industry points that you think are important to consider as well? Greg: One thing is that FreeWave radios have always been just a radio product, and that goes for any radio manufacturer: you put data in and then it comes out the other side. And our radios have been put on sites to do just simply that task. If you look at the consumer space, 10 years ago, and you think of all the devices that we had in our lives, like a GPS navigation device, and then maybe an iPod, and a tablet, and then maybe a voice recorder or something like that. Those are like four or five different pieces of hardware that only did specific tasks. Now, in 2017, everybody has a smartphone, nobody has an iPod anymore, nobody has a GPS navigation device anymore because they’ve all leveraged software on hardware on smartphones. Eventually, radio platforms are going to go the same way. In the industrial setting, people are going to buy a radio and put it out there, then they have all these other specific hardware devices to do these things. What if the radio could be that smartphone where you just leverage some software and were able to cannibalize all these other hardware-specific devices by using software just like the smartphone revolution. FreeWave: So, ‘things’ are becoming not just smarter but they’re having a greater possibility to put interactive software applications onto devices that didn’t really used to have that capability? Greg: Hardware has gotten really cheap and it’s gotten really commodified, so any manufacturer can put together a little hardware solution in a very small form factor. The advantage anymore is not hardware anymore, it’s software because a lot of these hardware manufacturers are using the same chipsets from the same vendors. And, really, the playing platform is equal if you’re making just hardware, but the real secret sauce and the advantage comes in leveraging software on devices. FreeWave: What about the Fog Computing aspect of this that seems to be a growing piece of the puzzle? Greg: Fog Computing – that’s the paradigm where you can have these intelligent Edge devices that are making decisions instead of having everything centrally located. It’s like mainframes back in the day, everything was centralized, and then we got decentralized, right? And then everybody got a laptop. And then going to the Internet of Things, and the IIoT, it’s like we went back to something that was centralized, and now we’re going back to the decentralized aspect, where we’re thinking, “Maybe devices need to be independent and intelligent out on the Edge.” It’s a really broad category. It just depends on what you’re looking to do in a network. FreeWave: Are there any projects or anything that you’re working on that you wanted to share? Greg: I’m constantly improving the usability of the ZumDash right now. And then, I don’t want to say too much, but we’re working on a couple of projects where customers want to implement this type of technology, but we’re not really ready to release names or corporate specifics about these projects. FreeWave: Do you see any other interesting trends or challenges facing the Industrial IoT app development space? Greg: There’s this paradigm that in the future everybody will be a software developer. And the reason that everybody isn’t a software developer today is
Know Before You Buy: How to Find Secure IoT Devices
As the number of IoT devices skyrockets, we are seeing the amazing powers of connected networks. Businesses are able to transform as they approach operations with smart, informed decisions. In the industrial sectors, IT decision makers have visibility into the OT networks and are now able to execute logic locally at the edge devices and transport critical data globally – enabling intelligent command and control of the network. We are starting to see glimpses of a connected world we never knew possible just a few years ago. As adoption of IoT rapidly expands, the Achilles Heel of these devices continues to be security – at least in the minds of end-users and consumers. A Recent report circulating around IoT news outlets states that 90 percent of consumers lack confidence in the security of IoT devices. Yet more than half of these consumers own one or more IoT devices. The report, based on a survey conducted by Gemalto, revealed other concerning and somewhat astonishing statistics that have been reported in recent articles, including: 60 percent of respondents say their main fear is hackers taking control of their devices. 54 percent are concerned about personal information being accessed. 54 percent of the consumers surveyed said they own an IoT device but only 14 percent said they knew enough about how to protect it. Only 11 percent of manufacturers and service providers total IoT budget is spent on securing devices. Two thirds of organizations use encryption as their main means of security, with 62 percent encrypting data as soon as it hits the device and 59 percent as it leaves it. Only 50 percent of IoT companies have adopted a security-by-design approach. 92 percent of companies reported an increase in sales or product usage after devices have been made more secure, demonstrating a link between security and adoption 61 percent of businesses said regulation needs to be greater to specify who is responsible for security and data at each stage of its journey. 55 percent said safeguards are needed for ensuring non-compliance with security. 86 percent of businesses and 90 percent of consumers believe governments should handle regulation of the sector. Smart Device Selection Despite security concerns, adoption of IoT devices continues to rapidly expand. For industrial IoT (IIoT) networks, future business success is going to depend on connecting those edge networks in order optimize operations, drive production, reduce downtime, and create a safer work environment. When decision makers choose the IoT devices that will be deployed in their networks, it is critical to find products that meet the security and operating standards of the business. This can be determined through a careful evaluation of options. Are you looking to purchase IoT devices for your IIoT network? Consider carefully reviewing and answering these questions before you make your decision: What are your requirements? Must haves versus Nice to haves? Are there any regulatory considerations? What is the M2M communications technology controlling or automating? Is it essential that it operates without failure? What data is being collected and/or transmitted with this technology? Is it time sensitive and/or mission critical? What technology solutions have a proven track record for the applications being served? What external factors might impact the reliable transmission and receipt of critical data from one point to another? How does this M2M communications technology address challenges such as data encryption, network access control and signal interference? Can the vendor describe the security mechanisms? Can you understand them? Will this be secure even if everyone knows the security measures? (The right answer is yes, otherwise keep looking) Do we need this technology solution to be fail-safe, in order to prevent or eliminate catastrophic damage from occurring? What are the threat vectors I’m most concerned about? Is cyber security or physical security a greater concern for this deployment? What vulnerabilities have the Information Security community identified in the type or category of IIoT equipment I use? What is the right tradeoff between features, ease of use and security for my installation? Do I have a testing or evaluation plan in place? What ongoing improvements do I expect? While device security is going to be a lingering concern – especially as the lines between the IT and OT networks blur – companies have the power to prioritize security in their networks and make informed decisions when it comes to selecting their devices. Until there are more government guidelines in place, it is up to the IIoT decision maker to find these options in their quest for connectivity.