The following are news announcements made during the past week:
PRESS RELEASE:
Kerlink Gateways Supporting DIGIMONDO’s Rollout of LoRaWANTM IoT Network in Europe
Kerlink (ALKLK – FR0013156007), a specialist and global leader in network solutions dedicated to the Internet of Things (IoT), andDIGIMONDO, one of Europe’s leading IoT end-to-end solution providers, has announced that Kerlink gateways are being integrated in DIGIMONDO’s LoRaWANTM network rollouts in Germany and across Europe.
DIGIMONDO offers a cutting-edge LoRaWANTM network server called firefly. Along with E.ON, DIGIMONDO recently completed one of Germany’s largest LoRaWANTM IoT rollouts using firefly software and Kerlink hardware in the city of Gehrden and surrounding areas. The deployment installed more than 1,100 smart electricity meters, and smart-parking sensors. Powered by Kerlink’s WirnetTM iBTS Compact stations, the network generates efficiency of higher than 97 percent uninterrupted connectivity, compared to approximately 80 percent efficiency of meters in basements with classic mobile radio connectivity like LTE.
The LoRaWANTM network server firefly, offered both as software as a service (SAAS) and on-premise, connects objects to DIGIMONDO’s public and site-specific, customer-owned private networks. Firefly-based networks have delivered 99.99 percent uptime. DIGIMONDO will launch an upgrade for firefly in Q4 2017 with advanced features, including the transport layer security (TLS) protocol to protect data and the MQTT IoT and M2M protocols. The LoRaWANTM 1.1 standard will be implemented in the upcoming release.
“The Internet of Things is the next major step towards a digital future, and DIGIMONDO is committed to playing a leading role in that evolution with both rapid network deployments and reliable cloud services,” said DIGIMONDO’s founder and CTO Marcus Walena. “We are one of the big providers of LoRaWANTM end-to-end service, including connectivity across Europe for smart-solution use cases, and Kerlink’s proven gateways assure reliable, high-performance and stable networks that help maintain our momentum for network rollouts.”
“Integrating Kerlink gateways in DIGIMONDO’s IoT networks helps the company rapidly deliver a scalable, turnkey LoRaWANTMsolution for large and small deployments, and supports Kerlink’s goal to bring LoRaWANTM technology to countries around the world,” said William Gouesbet, Kerlink CEO. “We expect this partnership to demonstrate that our combined technologies efficiently and reliably deliver the benefits of the IoT for smart applications across a variety of sectors and in any location.”
DIGIMONDO offers its LoRaWANTM network server firefly to customers with a very competitive pricing model that is based on the number of gateways installed. This highly economical solution contrasts with fee structures based on the number of connected end nodes. Moreover, this gateway-based pricing model increases profit margins for customers because they can scale their sensor connectivity without paying any additional costs.
Kerlink, a co-founder and board member of the LoRa AllianceTM, recently reported first-half 2017 revenue of €10.1 million, up 87 percent from the same period last year. Earlier this year, the company announced nationwide LoRaWANTM deployments with partners in India and Argentina.
PRESS RELEASE:
MTS Selects Ericsson to Prepare Network for 5G, IoT
Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) and MTS, the largest telecommunications operator in Russia, have agreed to upgrade the network of MTS. Ericsson will deliver the newest software features that will be continuously developed during the next three years. The scope of the agreement also includes 5G-ready radio hardware, Ericsson Radio Systems and core network with the latest Ericsson Mobile Softswitch Solution (MSS), as well as User Data Consolidation (UDC), providing consolidation of user data for all network functions.
These solutions will upgrade the mobile networks for 2G, 3G and 4G. In addition, MTS will prepare the network for 5G with Ericsson software for Massive IoT solutions, including NB-IoT and Cat-M1 technologies. This enables a wide range of IoT use-cases including metering and sensor applications.
The agreement fully supports MTS’s strategy of preparing the network with 5G and IoT-ready hardware to enable a fast commercialization of these technologies. The deployment starts Q4 2017 and total value of the contract is expected to exceed EUR 400 million.
Andrey Ushatsky, MTS Chief Technology Officer, says: “In April 2017, in Moscow our companies demonstrated 5G technology with peak data rates up to 25 Gbit/sec. Now we have reached an agreement with Ericsson, which will supply MTS new equipment enabling our network to deploy first solutions based on 5G technologies starting 2020. After upgrade, MTS network will provide higher data rates, increased capacity and low latency. These characteristics are critical for IoT and digital services that we are starting to implement today”.
According to latest edition of Ericsson Mobility Report, many operators will deploy 5G commercially from 2020, in line with the time plan for 5G standardization. In 2022, the number of 5G subscriptions is forecast to reach more than 500 million. The adoption rate of 5G mobile broadband is expected to be similar to that of LTE, and rollout will commence in major metropolitan areas, reaching around 15 percent population coverage by 2022. 5G will enable a wide range of use cases for massive IoT and critical IoT.
Arun Bansal, Head of Ericsson in Europe and Latin America, says: “Early deployment of IoT and 5G technologies positions Russia as an early adopter of the most advanced ICT solutions. Ericsson supports MTS in the company’s goals to meet growing capacity needs and be ready for huge opportunities that will come with 5G and IoT. 5G will be a major technology in booming industrial digitalization, creating and enhancing industry digitalization use cases such as immersive gaming, autonomous driving, remote robotic surgery, and augmented-reality support in maintenance and repair situations.”
This announcement represents a milestone in the large-scale commercialization of IoT and 5G technologies in Russia. It follows the agreement of an extensive 5G Memorandum of Understanding signed by MTS and Ericsson in December 2015.
To further demonstrate the capabilities of 5G and IoT technologies, the two companies will roll out 5G demo zones during FIFA 2018 World Cup in Russia.
PRESS RELEASE:
STMicroelectronics Microcontrollers Leverage Arm Security Platform to Boost Protection for Connected Smart Devices
STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor leader serving customers across the spectrum of electronics applications and a leading supplier of Arm-based microcontrollers (MCU) used in Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices, welcomes Platform Security Architecture (PSA) from Arm, has announced, as a major enabler for ubiquitous, best-in-class cyber security. ST’s STM32H7 high-performing MCUs are designed with the same security concepts as the PSA framework and combine these principles with STM32-family enhanced security features and services.
People and organizations are increasingly dependent on connected electronic devices to manage time, monitor health, handle social interactions, consume or deliver services, maximize productivity, and many other activities. Preventing unauthorized interactions with these devices is essential to protecting identity, personal information, physical assets, and intellectual property. As the IoT grows in scope and pervasiveness, public safety and national security are also at stake. As device manufacturers must always innovate to beat new and inventive hacking exploits, PSA helps them implement state-of-the-art security cost-effectively in small, resource-constrained devices.
“Security is a major priority to ensure the success of the IoT. Winning the confidence of end users — from individual consumers to businesses and government agencies – is critical to adoption,” said Michel Buffa, Microcontroller Division General Manager, STMicroelectronics. “PSA from Arm is making core security capabilities like device identity and over-the-air (OTA) updates more affordable and scalable for small autonomous IoT devices, and we’ve made it work with the existing security features of STM32 microcontrollers, including on our high-performing STM32H7 series.”
ST’s STM32H7 MCU devices integrate hardware-based security features including a True Random-Number Generator (TRNG) and advanced cryptographic processor, which will simplify protecting embedded applications and global IoT systems against attacks like eavesdropping, spoofing, or man-in-the-middle interception. In addition, secure firmware loading facilities help OEMs ensure their products can be programmed safely and securely, even off-site at a contract manufacturer or programming house.
To enable secure loading, security keys and software services already on-board the MCU permit OEMs to provide manufacturing partners with already-encrypted firmware, making intercepting, copying, or tampering with the code impossible. This enables programming and authenticating the device to establish the root-of-trust mechanism needed for the device to be connected to the end-user’s network and remotely updated over the air (OTA) to apply security patches or feature upgrades throughout the lifetime of the device.
PRESS RELEASE:
DataArt, Espressif Partner to Offer Complete IoT Solutions
DataArt, the global technology consultancy that designs, develops and supports unique software solutions, has announced its partnership with Espressif Systems, a world-leading Internet-of-Things company that builds the widely popular ESP8266 and ESP32 chips. The chips have Wi-Fi network and microcontroller capabilities and are used to add Internet connectivity to devices.
DataArt develops and commercially supports the open source IoT data platform DeviceHive that provides infrastructure for building scalable and secure IoT solutions across a number of industries including automotive, utilities and smart environments.
As a result of the partnership DataArt developed a custom DeviceHive firmware for ESP8266 chips, that enables zero-configuration networking, supports a wide range of popular sensor devices out of the box and allows users to build local web page enabled devices. The new firmware also ensures a direct connection with DeviceHive cloud service, bypassing additional gateway devices and providing a foundation for DeviceHive-ready hardware.
“The partnership with Espressif enhances our ability to provide powerful, innovative, scalable and cost-effective IoT solutions to our clients.” said Igor Ilunin, Head of the IoT Practice at DataArt. “We’re looking forward to close collaboration in our future projects.”
PRESS RELEASE:
PrismTech Moves DDS Solution to Open-Source Ecosystem
PrismTech, a global leader in software platforms for distributed systems, has announced that it is expanding its Vortex DDS product portfolio to offer the open source option “Eclipse Cyclone.” With support from the Eclipse Foundation and its open source ecosystem, Eclipse Cyclone represents a genuinely open source data distribution solution with full source code access and updates.
For users that are building mission- and/or business-critical systems, the company also offers a commercially supported version with extra features and guarantees of support.
As part of this effort, the company is undergoing a strategic marketing and enhanced branding initiative to more precisely reflect its core offerings and value proposition, amplify its relationship with parent company ADLINK, and serve as a leader in embedded edge computing and distributed systems.
“Expanding to open source is an efficient, effective and logical solution to address the industry’s challenges of moving data in a high performance, distributed system,” said Rob Risany, Executive Vice President, IoT Strategy and Business solutions, ADLINK Technology. “Whether standard open source or additional support is required, we are providing customers with the future proofing and scalability made possible through our powerful, elegant DDS solutions.”
With the launch of Eclipse Cyclone, PrismTech’s product portfolio will include the product lines Eclipse Cyclone, Vortex DDS, Vortex Edge and Spectra. Eclipse Cyclone and Vortex DDS are built on the Object Management Group®’s (OMG®) Data-Distribution Service (DDS) open standard and Spectra is built on the Software Communications Architecture (SCA) open architecture.
With the anticipated exponential growth of the Industrial IoT and the continued trajectory away from siloed, proprietary technologies that support these high performance distributed systems, an open source strategy allows the company to fuel innovation and serve a more diverse customer base. DDS, which is managed by the OMG and is specifically designed for high performance distributed systems, is widely deployed in some of the most mission-critical systems throughout the defense, air-traffic control, telecommunications and financial industries.
“With the continued growth of the Industrial IoT, 5G, artificial intelligence and autonomous machine technology, we fully anticipate DDS to serve as the data sharing platform of choice,” said Risany. “Quite frankly, its strengths such as responsiveness, scalability and fault tolerance are just too compelling.”
The company will be announcing the project proposal of Eclipse Cyclone at EclipseCon Europe Oct. 24-26 in Germany.
“Open source technologies are driving the IoT industry and providing the core technologies within advanced, distributed systems,” said Mike Milinkovich, Executive Director at Eclipse Foundation. “With this new strategy, the PrismTech-ADLINK team is firmly positioning itself in a lead role in enabling innovation and market growth for these types of systems, and allowing the Eclipse IoT developer community to work with these advanced, leading edge technologies.”
PRESS RELEASE:
SURE Universal, Open Connectivity Foundation Provide Interoperability for Connected Home
SURE Universal, creators of next-generation software solutions for smart home and IoT, will spearhead a series of product demonstrations at the 2018 International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) that will represent a milestone in IoT market development.
The company has been selected by the Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) to showcase the groundbreaking interoperability between home electronics that are NOW possible through the emergence of the OCF standard. SURE Universal will conduct demonstrations that will effortlessly operate multiple smart home and IoT devices of different types and brands, such as set-top boxes, gateways, smart TVs and appliances, using its OCF compliant software. The OCF standard is now supported by over 300 global technology leaders, including Samsung, LG, Intel, Microsoft, Qualcomm, Cisco and Electrolux.
“It will be an honor to be at the center of this historic demonstration,” says Viktor Ariel, Founder and CEO of SURE Universal. “The Open Connectivity Foundation has delivered a true interoperable standard that is reliable and secure, and covers all the key components that make up the IoT for the smart home; the mobile device, the gateway, and the cloud. At CES 2018, SURE Universal will show that remote operation of any of these devices is now easy for manufacturers and consumers, which will greatly speed the adoption and value of IoT products and services.”
As the first client software certified by OCF, SURE Universal will participate in the OCF Pavilion at CES, demonstrating products from multiple OCF member companies working seamlessly with other through SURE Universal Remote. In addition, SURE Universal will be showing both Linux and Android gateways and set-top boxes featuring its award-winning smart home solutions. The company will also announce certification of its iOS mobile client, which will join the company’s top-rated and massively popular Android SURE Universal client (30 million downloads) as the universal remote control solution.
Until now, one of the greatest obstacles to IoT and smart home adoption has been the lack of a universal IoT standard for manufacturers to use when designing smart home products, and one that consumers can trust to work as expected inside their homes. The market has so far been confused and constricted by proprietary systems from large and small tech companies that don’t communicate with products that exist outside their own branded ecosystems.
By contrast, the OCF standard provides a universal language for device interoperability. The OCF technology incorporates and builds on the proven technologies of both the Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) and Universal Plug-and-Play (UPnP) standards, which have been successfully deployed in billions of electronics products worldwide. OCF takes these core technologies deeper into the smart home environment, particularly through the inclusion of a security architecture that manufacturers can count on.
Security against hacking and other intrusions is a primary concern for consumers as they fill their homes with smart, connected IoT products. However, many simple smart devices, such as light switches and outlets, cannot provide genuine security because of the lack of built-in computing power in such cost-driven products. As a result, many manufacturers don’t enter the market, because no one manufacturer or business can take responsibility for attack vulnerabilities that might hit millions of smart home networks. By adding its own layer of security, particularly through the cloud and the gateway — the prime entry points for unwanted intrusion — OCF is able to assume responsibility for network security. This brings tremendous value to the IoT market, especially for manufacturers.
“There is no other logical option for IoT device interoperability than OCF,” says Ariel, “and it already has the critical mass of many of the top manufacturers and IoT vendors in the world. We recently spoke to several set-top box makers in China, where there are close to ten different IoT standards available. They don’t know what to implement, so OCF is an advancement they’ve been waiting for. Consumers expect this too. They don’t want to buy products that don’t work together, and find that their new purchases make their old purchases obsolete. OCF finally brings stability to the IoT, so that the IoT ecosystem is no longer segregated.”
PRESS RELEASE:
Particle Program Provides Organizations With Resources and Benefits Regarding the IoT
Particle has announced Particle for Good, a program to provide qualified organizations with resources and other benefits to help bring impactful IoT to life. With this program, Particle hopes to enable innovators to use Particle to promote equality, protect the environment, empower underserved communities, support the arts, and more.
“At Particle, we see IoT as more than just a business opportunity. We see it as a way to make positive societal impact,” said Jeff Eiden, Product Manager at Particle. “And that belief isn’t founded on ‘Some days’ and ‘What ifs’. It’s founded on the wealth of real-world IoT applications that are already bringing a brighter future into full view. Over the years, we’ve seen the Particle platform used in innumerable ways that are improving our world one connection at a time.”
The benefits of the program include discounts on hardware and platform costs, co-marketing opportunities, and access to the Particle for Good community. Many organizations have already begun making a positive social impact with Particle:
• Envirofit has improved the lives of over 7.5 million people living in extreme poverty by introducing smarter, safer, and more affordable cookstoves that minimize toxic emissions. Particle technology is actively being used to monitor and quantify the environmental and health benefits of Envirofit’s products.
• Opti is building the “Internet of Stormwater” to help protect water resources. In the US alone, consumers discharge over 900 billion gallons of raw sewage into natural bodies of water each year due to sewer overflows. Opti’s Particle-powered solution automatically controls when and how fast stormwater flows, preventing flooding and pollution. To date, Opti’s solution has been deployed in more than 130 commercial and public projects across 21 states.
• dev/Mission aims to train untapped young adults for careers in technology to build wealth and prosperity in local communities. dev/Mission is using Particle in IoT curriculum to empower the next generation of IoT developers, in addition to connecting young adults with mentorship and internship opportunities in tech.
A few specific areas that Particle believes IoT can make a significant impact include:
• Environmental Preservation: Protecting natural assets and promoting responsible use of resources
• Developing Regions: Creating opportunity and improving quality of life in emerging economies
• STEM Education: Empowering a diverse range of students to learn technical skills for today’s digital economy
• Social Justice: Promoting equal economic, political, and social rights for everyone
Particle for Good is intended for organizations that have a documented purpose of social good or charity that aligns with Particle’s objectives and focus areas. Specifically, this includes nonprofit organizations, B-corporations, or public benefit corporations.
The power of IoT to shape a better future is already on full display, and Particle is excited to help bring about its fruition. For more information, please visit particle.io/for-good. If you are working on an IoT initiative with a positive social impact, please sign up here to receive the latest news on Particle for Good as it becomes available.