Creative Convergence

One of the most astounding articles I read after the demise of Steve Jobs, Apple co-founder and creative genius, was called “How Steve Jobs Changed the Auto Industry” (in Forbes magazine). Steve Jobs didn't just change the computer and entertainment industries. He also had a huge influence on automobiles. People now see their cars as an extension of their living rooms. Joann Muller, Detroit bureau chief for Forbes, explained that “perhaps no external devices – or one company – have had as much impact on car infotainment as Apple's iPod and iPhone.”

The iPod literally made CDs obsolete when it debuted a decade ago, and it soon became the default device for carrying music into the car. So much so that “iPod integration” became a focus for almost every automaker and an important part of the car lexicon. More recently with the iPhone, Apple once again changed the rules of the in-car infotainment game.

A US$2,000 in-dash navigation system? Why would drivers need that when they have a navigation app on their iPhone? We are just starting to see the impact that apps, which Apple almost singlehandedly popularized, is having on automakers and their electronics strategy. And the Apple iPad is now putting the nail in the coffin of expensive rear-seat entertainment systems.

We are also beginning to see related innovations from the consumer world leaping into the industrial automation world. In the 21st century, engineering, manufacturing, plant and operations managers, maintenance technicians and other factory personnel need access to current operational data on the move and at any time.

Wonderware, a division of Invensys Operations Management, has stemmed this mobility gap by launching SmartGlance, a mobile app that delivers up-to-the-minute critical plant data reports and analysis directly to the user's smartphone.

Secure cloud-based report generation and delivery ensures plant data can be viewed on the move, allowing for faster decision-making and smoother co-operation. The app is designed to work with Wonderware Historian and other data sources.

Ideal for the process, power and manufacturing industries, SmartGlance combines two important mobile computing developments: smartphones and cloud computing, with industrial networking data.Data from the plant is sent to the cloud, where it can be accessed by users with devices running Apple or BlackBerry operating systems. The app converts this data into easily interpretable reports that can be viewed anywhere and at any time. “Coupled with the ability to share reports via email, this can lead to faster, better choices in terms of site management,” according to Susan Roche business unit manager at Wonderware UK & Ireland.

However, stepping back for a reality check, it will perhaps be a while before such examples sweep across the more conservative worlds of control engineering and industrial automation.

“While Moore's Law states processing power will double in power and halve in price every 18 months or so, mine says industrial controls innovation takes dog years. That is, what takes one year to be accepted in IT or consumer electronics takes seven years in industrial automation,” jokes John Kowal, ISA member and one of the directors of the Organization for Machine Automation and Control (OMAC).

“We should also prevent the next ‘fieldbus wars,' which are getting ready to play out in the realm of integrated safety networks,” cautions Kowal. “We need to make advanced automation technology more accessible wherever manufacturing takes place, developed and emerging economies both.”

M2M connections
Perhaps the most visible convergence of the Internet of People and the Internet of Things is via new machineto- machine offerings from existing wireless players. A new study from Machina Research finds that M2M connections will grow from one billion in 2010 to 12 billion in 2020, of which 2.3 billion will be wireless wide area network connections. Mobile network operators can expect to take €40 billion of the €714 billion M2M market in 2020.

“What we're talking about with M2M is little short of a second industrial revolution,” says Matt Hatton, report co-author. The growth in connected devices over the next ten years will fundamentally change the way we live and work. With that shift comes a lot of upheaval which represents an opportunity for nimble service providers to build a business for themselves and an opportunity for intelligent businesses to radically change the way they work.”

The M2M Global Forecast & Analysis 2010-20 report from Machina Research finds that global M2M will account for half of all global data connections in 2020. By 2020 Europe will be the biggest region for M2M, accounting for 28 percent of connections. The biggest single markets will be the China and the US with 21 percent and 20 percent respectively.

Addressing the huge opportunity is also fraught with complexity, cautions report co-author Jim Morrish. “Each and every one of the hundreds of applications that we've analyzed has different dynamics,” says Morris, referring to connectivity requirements from device manufacturers, service providers, and systems integrators. In terms of revenue, M2M will grow from €91 billion in 2010 to €714 billion in 2020, a CAGR of 22.9%. Europe will be generating revenue of over €200 billion in 2020. The US is the largest individual country with over €150 billion revenue, followed by China with over €110 billion.

M2M is also bringing renewed interest in radio frequency identification (RFID) technology in the manufacturing sector, according to a recent report from Heavy Reading Mobile Networks Insider.

“Major corporations in a multitude of industries – ranging from aerospace to oil and gas to electronics – are currently using RFID to manage several M2M applications,” notes Denise Culver, research analyst with Heavy Reading Mobile Networks Insider and author of the report. M2M and RFID solution providers have a tremendous opportunity if they invest in the time, development and trials of newer, cheaper RFID tags, says Culver. The strongest driver for RFID and M2M in the manufacturing sector is in productivity and efficiency of both employees and systems.

Inventory management in manufacturing plants will be one of the strongest opportunities for RFID and M2M vendors and service providers. The greatest challenge faced by RFID and M2M vendors is the high price of tags, especially as technology budgets continue to decrease.

Supplier moves
Wireless data are being increasingly used in manufacturing execution systems (MES) or enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems for multiple plant connectivity from the device to the enterprise network level. Companies such as EnOcean manufacture wireless modules that draw their power from the surrounding environment through energy harvesting. They draw energy from movement, light or differences in temperature to enable fully energy-autonomous and maintenance-free solutions for industrial automation.

Instrumentation controls company Spectris has bought Red Lion Controls as well as Sixnet, a more recently acquired company which manufactures flexible industrial Ethernet switch, automation and wireless solutions for the industrial market.

Radiocrafts has introduced a new, powerful mesh network protocol operating in sub-1 GHz and 2.4 GHz license free ISM bands. Its TinyMesh networks are self forming and self healing without external interaction. It claims shortest time to market due to its ease of use and self-configuring capabilities.

TinyMesh supports the trend towards large networks of nodes interacting to reduce energy consumption in automation applications, says Hallvard Moholdt, technical solutions manager in Radiocrafts.

Bluetooth Low Energy is a new, open standard developed by the Bluetooth SIG. It is targeted to address the needs of wireless sensing applications such as ultra-low power consumption, fast connection time, reliability and security. Bluetooth Low Energy consumes 10-20 times less power and is able to transmit short bursts of data 50 times quicker than classic Bluetooth solutions.

Vendors such as Bluegiga have already rolled out development tools to embed customer applications. Its energy stack APIs allow developers to use standard development tools to create highly customized Bluetooth low energy applications.

The ZigBee Alliance recently announced it has completed development and ratified the ZigBee Building Automation standard, developed by numerous Alliance members including Convergence Wireless, Johnson Controls, Schneider Electric, Siemens, I n g e rsoll-Rand and Ubilogix. ZigBee offers green and global wireless standards connecting a wide range of devices to work together intelligently.

It has also announced the public availability of its 10th standard, ZigBee Gateway, which provides a simple and costeffective way to enable internet connections, giving service providers and businesses the opportunity to connect ZigBee networks to the internet. ZigBee Gateway provides connectivity to Internet Protocol-based networks, plus access to a variety of cloud services.

Meanwhile, industry heavyweights such as Rockwell Automation support industry-standard wireless networking technologies through integrated architecture systems for outdoor, real-time indoor, and low-power process instrumentation.

Cisco Systems is partnering with Rockwell to bring a new range of wireless solutions into the mainstream of industrial automation. Other players in this space include Data-Linc Group, FreeWave Technologies, Hiprom and Spectrum Controls.

IEEE 802.11n (Wireless-N) standard can change wireless Ethernet in the same way that full duplex 100 Mbps changed wired Ethernet – making real-time control practical for mainstream applications, according to Rockwell Automation. Impacts include controller-tocontroller interlocking and improved operator mobility.

In the near future, wireless technology will be suitable for deployment throughout the factory floor as a complement to wired infrastructure. The “Wireless to the Factory” Reference Architectures, in joint development by Rockwell Automation and Cisco, aim to provide guidance as well as best practices applications on the plant floor. Common standards for network interconnection and the leveraging of common wireless infrastructure open up possibilities to efficiently connect and monitor diverse devices. However, the main challenge in the industry is to simplify the M2M deployment process.

“Implementation of a new service usually requires a different set of hardware infrastructure with suitable software and hardware connections between the devices, IT systems and service providers,” according to Laurel Donoho, research manager for Frost & Sullivan's Industrial Automation & Process Control group.

Collaboration with the entire ecosystem of service providers not only enables companies to leverage each other's strengths, but also provides a basis to understand new technology, and drive value to customers. Web portals and social media are also emerging as powerful 21st century tools for strengthening such ecosystems.

For instance, Deutsche Telekom recently presented its M2M partner portal at an international meeting with 150 solution partners in Rotterdam (www.telekom.com/m2m). The portal offers existing partners, regardless of their company size and country of origin, an opportunity to present their M2M applications to providers of hardware, software and service, systems-integration and end-to-end solutions worldwide and to market these applications globally.

The portal also allows potential new partners from the M2M environment and customers to obtain information about existing products, find the right partner companies and develop new ideas themselves. It contains local portals as well to tap the transnational market.

The international M2M Competence Center and the international M2M Service Alliance help analyze solutions for specific usage scenarios, according to Rainer Deutschmann, senior vice president of Core Business Products at Deutsche Telekom. The M2M portal launches with solutions from 40 partners and 16 countries (including China, India, Taiwan from Asia).

They show a wide range of solutions from the nine areas of application of the Telekom M2M Competence Center, namely energy, vehicle telematics, healthcare, retail & commerce, industrial automation, public sector, security, transport and logistics, and consumer electronics.

The road ahead
In sum, one of the more sweeping trends in the field of industrial automation has been the power of real-time data via control networks, via Ethernet, mesh and wireless networks. Wireless networking is quickly becoming a key part of the comprehensive control and information infrastructure in industrial infrastructure.

Key requisites for resilient wireless industry applications include automated communication retries, immunity to reflections, reduced latency, and increased packet transmission rates.

Other pluses include integration with long-haul communications using IP over commercial radio technologies, and with low-power, sensor mesh networks. Security services features should include logical locks to protect operation and intellectual property.

Technology advancements are a key factor in driving down cost while driving up elements of innovation. The commoditization of components like sensors, control points, and other field devices – along with the need to maximize asset efficiency and with the ubiquity of internet – is driving the use of innovative and cuttingedge M2M applications.

The industry standard of deployment is about six to 18 months (dependent on scale), but emerging technologies can reduce this to a few weeks thanks to tighter communication at multiple levels: device-to-device, device-to-database (for inter-play of information) and device-to-application (to drive asset management and business processing). Academic research networks are also actively getting into industrial wireless applications. For instance, researchers at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, have developed a software solution called Airshark, which can identify Bluetooth and ZigBee devices with high degrees of accuracy even in conditions of ambient noise, with analog and digital devices.

Emerging wireless technologies will continue to provide the resiliency and deterministic, high-speed performance to meet the needs of mobile workers and of real-time communication in industrial settings.

Information convergence between manufacturing and business systems within the enterprise allows greater business agility and opportunities for innovation. Professionals in the fields of IT, wireless communication and plant networking need to spend more time understanding each other's domains – and cultures.

Madanmohan Rao is editor of The Asia-Pacific Internet Handbook.

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‘Companies want an instant, accurate, real-time view of their operations”

In an exclusive interview, Drew Brandy, director of Inmarsat's Land Mobile business, shares his insights on the M2M potential in Asia.

Satellite services provider Inmarsat's data services currently account for approximately 70 percent of its revenues. This year the company launched two new services that comprise its M2M offering. IsatData Pro is a new packet data service developed through SkyWave that will support SCADA applications. And its new BGAN M2M service is an IP based solution designed to support smart metering and IP SCADA.

Q: What is the size of the Asia market in your global portfolio, and how is this growing?
A: Since the launch of the third I4 satellite, the Asia-Pacific region has represented one of the fastest growing regions for mobile satellite services. Asia represents a great market place for us given its perfect blend of remote, unconnected land masses coupled with vast reserves of hydrocarbons and minerals. China is an increasingly significant market for us both as a place of purchase as well as a point of deployment. However, we are witnessing growth in a number of other territories in the region such as Vietnam and the Philippines.

Inmarsat has a long history of supporting remote users around the world who operate beyond the reach of terrestrial networks or in many instances where networks are unavailable or unreliable. With the introduction of our broadband portfolio we have been able to deliver the same type of services and applications to users in remote regions that they enjoy from their corporate offices.

Q: Can you cite some case examples of companies using your M2M services and the benefits gained?
A: In China, Sino-Hydro Corporation, the largest hydraulics and hydroelectricity construction enterprise, primarily uses the BGAN services in their rolling construction projects where their project teams are constantly on the move as they develop pipelines, power lines, and road/rail infrastructure. They use BGAN because of its simplicity in setting up the connection during each setup and tear down of project sites. They utilize the M2M services in monitoring their assets, personnel as well as for site security.

Q: What are some of your new innovations on the M2M device and service front?
A: The M2M market is set to continue its rapid growth globally, but it is currently underserved by services that cannot match the increasing data demands. We've just launched a new service together with Skywave Mobile Communications, called IsatData Pro. It offers a significant increase in payload capacity compared to other satellite-based M2M services in the market, delivering up to 10,000 bytes to the device and up to 6,400 bytes from the device.

Other global M2M satellite services currently available offer data connectivity at between 270 and 340 bytes. BGAN M2M will enable us to address the requirements of our existing customers but extend the Inmarsat value proposition to new users who have a requirement for unmanned terminal operations.

Q: What will the M2M world look like in 2020?
A: Technology moves so quickly that it's very difficult to predict with any degree of accuracy! But certainly from the current trends, we would expect demand for ever increasing payloads to increase as end users develop increasingly sophisticated, data intensive applications to drive efficiency. We would expect it to become the norm for companies to be able to provide an instant, accurate, incredibly robust real time view of their operations at the press of a button.