Aug 05, 2020Tracking wireless devices throughout large properties has traditionally required the deployment of readers, gateways or nodes to detect hundreds or thousands of sensors located on many floors or in multiple buildings. Global real estate development company QuadReal Property Group has launched an Internet of Things (IoT) solution from Andorix, a smart buildings solutions company that leverages BehrTech's MYTHINGS solution with long-range, MIOTY-protocol, low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) to identify sensor-based data, such as occupancy temperature, lighting and air quality.
Since a single base station can capture data from sensors located more than a kilometer away, a skyscraper or a campus of multiple buildings, for instance, could be managed with just a single device. With the IoT solution, QuadReal intends to better manage the conditions at multiple commercial properties throughout the Toronto area and beyond, and to not only understand when occupancy, traffic flow or air quality issues pose problems, but also alert building occupants in real time via digital signage. The solution enables QuadReal to identify underused spaces, improve tenant comfort and detect problems such as leaks before damage can occur, as it adds sensors to the solution.
QuadReal's Thano Lambrinos
As an industry, real estate has lagged behind others in terms of digital technology, relying on manual processes and rarely challenging the status quo, according to Thano Lambrinos, QuadReal's VP of digital innovation and smart buildings. In recent years, however, the company has seen technology development enable solutions that he says were unachievable or too expensive in the near-past. "Over the last several years," Lambrinos explains, "we've seen an exponential increase in the technology available for the industry." He cites scalable IoT systems that enable the use of a variety of sensors to achieve such use cases as tracking how facilities are used, as well as when conditions require maintenance or adjustments.
QuadReal is a property company based in Vancouver. For several years, Lambrinos says, the company had been seeking a wireless system that would be reliable, cost-effective, scalable and secure. The goal, he adds, was to expedite the expansion of its IoT strategy across a global real-estate portfolio.
"We're interested in high-value outcomes to further differentiate ourselves in the market, driving operational efficiency to lower costs, reducing carbon and energy use," Lambrinos says, in addition to improving sustainability "and providing an enhanced user experience for those who visit, live, play, work and shop in our spaces." No manual methods can accomplish such use cases effectively across multiple properties, he notes, adding, "In today's world, those outcomes are realized by deploying a data-driven strategy, which is supported by pervasive IoT, which is supported by robust wireless communications."
As buildings reopen following the COVID-19 quarantine, QuadReal wanted sensors to be able to monitor air quality and traffic flow so that it could understand how space is being used. The MYTHINGS system is initially being launched in several of the company's central business district office buildings, as an enabler of multiple return-to-work use cases. The solution employs a single Intel I3 gateway running MYTHINGS software to manage the collected sensor data,
BehrTech's technology consists of a software platform that is hardware-agnostic, so that any sensors, equipment and building-management systems can be modified to send data to the MYTHINGS system. "We provide an IoT wireless software overlay," says Albert Behr, BehrTech's founder and CEO. The system, he explains, is designed to enable more sensors and functionality to be added as required. While QuadReal sought to start with air quality and occupancy for social-distancing purposes, "It scales from there," Behr says. "QuadReal is a sophisticated company that can grow with the data it begins collecting."
Two types of sensors are deployed around each of several buildings, which communicate directly with the gateway. Air-quality devices can detect up to 10 different gasses, while radar sensors identify the presence of people and count them as they enter and exit public areas, such as lunch rooms, or pass through corridors and hallways. Each sensor is modified with a radio unit from BehrTech, loaded with software to capture and transmit sensor data. The system supports up to 10,000 sensors on a single base station from up to 15 kilometers (9.3 miles) away.
The solution's network employs MIOTY, a telegram splitting wireless technology that sends low packets of data in the license-free spectrum. Telegram splitting divides an ultra-narrowband telegram into multiple equal-sized sub-packets, and since each sub-packet is smaller than the original telegram (packet of data), its on-air time is greatly reduced. This enables long-range transmission at low power of the small sub-packets over variable frequency and time.
Additionally, Behr says, forward error correction built into the protocol ensures that even if 50 percent of sub-packets are lost, the full message can still be retrieved at the base station, and it falls within the ETSI 103.357 protocol. "This is a supported standard," he states, which is an important distinction so users are not restricted by a proprietary system.
Sensors transmit data to the base station, which comes with MYTHINGS Central, a network- and device-management platform. The collected data is relayed to the cloud for analytics and visualization. The software can provide heatmaps that provide data regarding where heavy traffic flow is taking place. If the software determines that too many people are within a given space in terms of health and safety, digital signage installed around the buildings can instruct them to move along other routes. The system can accommodate other sensors for leak protection, or to monitor temperature or lighting levels.
BehrTech, an IoT startup in Toronto, was founded two and a half years ago. "We're growing up really fast," Behr says. "We're working globally," and the company has launched subsidiaries in Europe, "so it's all about scale now." He says the solution will be deployed for manufacturing, automotive, smart buildings, retail and logistics centers—in short, anywhere that requires long-distance wireless data transmissions. Its solutions are typically resold through systems integrators like Andorix. Companies can provide their own software platform, such as Microsoft Azure or Amazon Web Services. Since COVID-19 quarantines are now ending and companies are seeking safe working conditions at their facilities, Behr says, "Business has accelerated dramatically."
For QuadReal, Lambrinos says, the benefits will grow as it expands the solution. "When successful," he states, "this will quickly spread through other asset classes, including our residential multi-family buildings that have historically lacked robust IoT-capable connectivity, opening up a number of opportunities." He predicts that the number of IoT devices will grow rapidly "as we aggressively deploy the digital strategy that we've developed for our built environments."
