IoT / Fog Computing

Inumerable devices will connect to public and private networks, collecting vast amounts of data to inform and reinforce deep machine learning, improving and enriching our lives.

Photo by Przemyslaw Marczynski on Unsplash

Net New Things

Gateways

Independent public / private peering.

Gateways form the bridge between devices and LPWAN (and occasionally WiFi and Bluetooth) to connect to the Gateway, while the Gateway uses higher bandwidth networks like WiFi, Ethernet or Cellular to connect to the internet.

A single LoRa (abbreviated from Long Range) gateway can serve thousands of devices.

Gateways are routers equipped with a LoRa concentrator, allowing them to receive LoRa packets. You can usually find two kinds of gateways:

Gateways running on a minimal firmware, making them low-cost and easy to use running only the packet forwarding software.
Gateways running an operating system, for which the packet forwarding software is run as a background program. This gives more liberty to the gateway administrator to manage their gateway and to install their own software.

Our preferred LoRaWAN provider is a leader in community and private LoRaWAN and provide them on a permanent, temporary, fixed or mobile basis.

Imagine all of your network bearers on one low power, super small, well designed board which is capable of sending sensor data to gateways over 100km away (we hit Dublin from Wales).

Whether it be a remote intrusion event when the node has been woken from a deep sleep (user defined) or when it has been promoted to a border router by the network should a component fail, you will always have a means of back up for receiving the data.

Full flexibility during testing, install, deployment and even later when you want to switch your airtime network, or just keep using free / community provided access, there is no lock in.

You can change bearer based on vicinity or proximity barriers and programme them to do so automatically. The mobile devices can switch networks to make use of higher bandwidth or to increase the size and range of the localised mesh.

All of our nodes feature best in class boards

Powerful CPU
WiFi, BLE, cellular LTE-CAT M1/NB1, LoRa and Sigfox
1KM WiFi range
MicroPython enabled
Ultra-low power usage: a fraction compared to other connected microcontrollers

Devices

Low power, long range, long life.

Applications

Multiple sensors, multiple use cases.

By Applications, we mean whatever it is your devices communicate with on the internet. This could be as simple as an IFTTT Maker Applet or a visual flow using Node-RED to custom code on some server. Even a simple mapping node piggy backing off your smartphone and sharing the data real time can save truck rolls and wasted engineering resource.

Before you can communicate with devices, you will need to add the application to the network and register devices to it.

For example, there are multiple options to integrate applications ranging from working directly with APIs, via more friendly SDKs or click-and-run Platform Integrations.

No-one has a network just to have one, connecting the sensor data to back end visualisations suites enables decision support but over time it can foster machine learning and reinforce that deep learning by recommending different approaches to dealing with problems.

Updating work packages, capturing site specific information, detecting intrusion or tampering and sharing or collaborating seamlessly are just some examples.

Utilising all of these networks sounds complicated. We prefer to think of meshing as a simple chain of command with devices capable of being promoted or being specialised and concentrated on a single role.

We like this description from OpenThread, a leader in open source mesh technology.

End Device

Communicates primarily with a single router,does not forward packets for other network device, can disable its transceiver to reduce power.

Full Thread Device

A Full Thread Device (FTD) always has its radio on, subscribes to the all-routers multicast address, and maintains IPv6 address mappings.

Minimal Thread Device

A Minimal Thread Device does not subscribe to multicast traffic and forwards all messages to its Parent.

Device limits

There are limits to the number of device types a single mesh network supports.

1 Leader / 32 Routers / 511 End devices per router

Meshing

Five networks on a single chipset.

Utilities

Fewer truck rolls, less sleep time ~ gas, telecoms, water

The New Roads and Street Works Act (NRSWA) places a huge emphasis on multiple agencies to carry out their work with minimal disruption to the community and wider carriageway and footpath users.

Very often, multiple contractors can be working in the same area upgrading services on behalf of their customers, but there is no shared record of either the work undertaken or detail of the authorised parties relevant notice / permit information.

Technology now is capable of knowing when someone accesses any street furniture by state changes in light level, accelerometer / gyrometer axis movement, decibel increases and even temperature and spikes in relative humidity .

When combined with low power mesh networks and modern visualisation techniques, managing operations can become supercharged by the local knowledge that people often don't possess.

Responsibility and accountability are no longer driven by burdensome spreadsheets but instead by event notification and action triggers determined by you.

A low power node equipped with GPS, LoRaWAN, a 3 axis 12-bit accelerometer, temperature and relative humidity sensors opens up a world of shared meteorological environmental and even tidal events.

Easily and quickly deployed on fixed assets on major arterial coastal routes such as offshore wind farms or oil & gas installations, the real-time view of what is happening can be powerful.

Not all small craft owners can afford commercial grade equipment and the information is not currently shared as well is it might be.

These nodes are able to capture data on wave height, attitude of the boat, share weather information and even broadcast a SOS within a large radius. They can even be fitted to personal flotation devices or high value items and reveal their location in real time, potentially saving both life and property.

Marine

Connected assets, no satellite needed.

Agriculture

Get the flock out of there, check up.

Farmers and agricultural workers often work in inclement weather and in difficult conditions to help put food on all of our tables.

Knowing where livestock is (and has been) can be problematic and time consuming. LoRaWAN nodes and gateways can be easily fitted to livestock through the use of 3D printed designs and good old fashioned "Raddles".

Dry summers have produced less organic feed and placed a heavier than usual financial burden on the farming community.

In the case of sheep farmers, it is crucial for their livelihoods that when the the "tupping" season begins, that they have a clear idea on how active the males are. Capturing and transporting this data is now easily achieved and if there is no gateway there, you can drive or fly one in, no problem. The sheep themselves become the mesh.

Older animals can become more easily involved in aggressive behaviour. Identifying and removing this behaviour can help in managing the flock in a simple but effective way.