What is Massive IoT and why does it matter? - Wirepas

What is Massive IoT and why does it matter?

Author:
Haltian

In this article, Haltian joins us to explore just what makes massive IoT so massively interesting.

By now, most companies and enterprises know that digitalization is vital to staying agile and competitive in future markets. IoT solutions can be used to fix problems, limit risks, increase efficiency and get factual data to make better business decisions.

Right now, we are reaching the tipping point of IoT getting tested in some operations to eventually being deployed in all sectors on a massive scale. And, of course, this creates certain requirements for the technologies used. In this article, two industry experts (Haltian as an IoT platform provider and Wirepas as a provider of IoT connectivity) go through the meaning and implications of massive scale IoT.

The future of IoT will mean implementations on a massive scale

So, how should companies tackle this future?

We see a lot of companies that have incorporated IoT into different segments of their operations. Often this has been done with different vendors moving from project to project. And now these businesses are at the point where their IoT solutions don’t communicate with each other and are therefore unable to scale the solutions.

It all means that IoT has reached a stage where businesses need to draft clear business goals in what they want to achieve in digitalizing their business. Customers will need an IoT roadmap to get the most out of digitalization. You will not only need data but a clear business plan on what to do with said data. Here, you need people you can trust – reliable partners and industry experts are a valued source of insight.

But let’s start at the right place. First off, it’s important to explain what we mean by scalable massive IoT. IoT solutions will include an immense number of devices, things and machines that all need to be connected reliably and safely. And on top of a massive number of devices, these solutions will naturally produce massive loads of data that need to travel safely through the technology layers to the customer for analysis.

The right IoT partner makes all the difference when scaling IoT

Large-scale IoT solutions require the highest possible operational efficiency and reliability. Massive IoT has several key requirements a scalable IoT solution needs to have:

  • Reliable devices that work in difficult conditions and remote places

  • Low-power-consuming devices

  • High-end security

  • Scalable connectivity

  • Cloud solutions fit for massive amounts of data

  • Web and mobile interfaces for straightforward operation and maintenance

Here’s a good example. The manufacturing industry has started to see a growing need for monitoring the condition of their assets and to perform predictive maintenance if needed. The challenge is that smart industries require an industrial IoT connectivity solution – a self-healing mesh network that can handle a demanding radio environment.

That’s where Wirepas Massive comes in. It can grow organically and has automated interference avoidance so that one network can handle thousands of assets and multiple use cases. For example:

  • Machine and equipment condition monitoring e.g. vibration, temperature

  • Leakage control for liquids and gases

  • Monitoring and measuring of material levels

  • Environmental monitoring for employee comfort and safety e.g. temperature, humidity, air quality

  • Ambient light

  • Indoor asset tracking making sure you know the whereabouts of all your important assets

Put simply, Wirepas Massive enables wireless IoT networking on a massive scale. It’s an IoT network protocol software that can be used to connect, locate and identify sensors, beacons, assets, machines and meters in buildings, industrial environments and logistics. What’s more, the technology supports up to 4 billion devices in a single network. A network can have multiple gateways without subnets – and this enables almost limitless growth of the network. The multi-hop operation grants massive scale.

Smart Buildings (such as factories, hospitals, schools, shopping malls, ships, warehouses, harbors and shipyards) are not just brick and mortar, but a way to gather important data upon which decisions can be made and actions taken.

Maintaining scalable IoT solutions requires the correct tools: you need to know where all the devices are, what they do and what needs to be done to them. This process needs to be streamlined to the utmost simplicity. Managing thousands of devices should be an easy routine, meaning that the tools must have alerts and the ability for remote monitoring. For example, device installation and identification need to be a straightforward process for the entire maintenance chain to work.

Make no mistake. IoT is hard – but Haltian wants to make it easy. Haltian has built a truly end-to-end IoT solution called Thingsee. The Thingsee IoT platform includes everything from IoT devices to customer applications to make implementing and maintaining IoT solutions easy for everyone. And most importantly, Thingsee is meant for scaling: years of experience in the field have taught us that IoT solutions should grow with the customer’s business seamlessly.

Thingsee IoT platform includes the following components
  • Sensors

  • Gateways

  • Connection

  • Cloud

  • APIs

  • Applications

  • User licenses

As we said before, web and mobile interfaces are an intricate part of scalable IoT solutions, since making any use of the massive loads of data requires analytics and dashboards to make it visible and accessible. Analyzed IoT data can be used to recognize trends, lead innovation, set up the next step in business development and so much more.

Conclusion: How to get started with IoT?

Follow these steps to ensure your solution is successful and has a fast time-to-market:

  1. Define your needs for the IoT solution. And remember that it pays to look beyond your current needs as you want to be able to scale later even if massive IoT is not the initial goal.

  2. Choose competent and experienced partners with future-proof technologies to help you with the solution.

  3. Test the solutions with a PoC (proof of concept) and define your needs further.

  4. Make a pilot to find any final improvement needs for your solution.

  5. Use your partners to finalize the solution and plan your go-to-market.

What’s left? Well, get to know the Wirepas enabled IoT products here.



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