The Evolution of Hybrid IoT Systems and Finding a Tailored Fit

The IoT technology helps in connecting various smart devices together to ease the operation and sharing of data amongst themselves. The growing adoption across end-user industries such as manufacturing, automotive, and healthcare, is driving the market’s growth positively. Massive shifts in manufacturing due to industry 4.0 and acceptance of IoT require enterprises to adopt agile, smarter, and innovative ways to advance production with technologies that complement and augment human labour with robotics and reduce industrial accidents caused by a process failure. At the same time, IoT market is formed around a number of hyped forecasts. About a decade back, it was expected that the world would have 50 billion connected devices by 2020. A recent estimate from Gartner says that there will be half that volume by the end of this year. Transforma Insights pegs the count of active IoT devices even less at 7.6 billion by end of 2019. What is missing here? There is no value attached to these numbers and we need a better way to collaborate. Enterprise IoT Insights quotes that there are no fewer than 1200 IoT platforms, all highly fragmented.

The industry needs tools to be able to make and remake IoT for a multitude of purposes. We need to abstract complexity away to make solutions easier to integrate, so things work together. To many, this sounds like an anti-platform approach. However, the best marriage in IoT is between short and long-range suitors. One size does not fit all. For example, one could use a hybrid that includes an unlicensed LPWA network along with a licensed, cellular LTE narrowband IoT (NB-IoT). That way you can support cheap, unlicensed IoT short messaging close up, as is offered by Sigfox and some other organizations. The smart metering with star or mesh style short-range sensor networks like BLE or Zigbee handle the work of local data aggregation, handing over to an LPWA for the long-hop back to the cloud.

Some of the key verticals that have emerged for Hybrid IoT applications are:

1. Energy & Grid – Grid applications use short-range technology for real-time communication and data transfers in buildings. These can also use LPWA networks with a grid infrastructure for price regulation and usage.

2. Cities & Lighting – Smart city apps use LPWA networks for reporting via small messages to local control hubs. Lighting uses mesh for control and feedback based on commands.

3. Remote Industry – Industries like docks and chemical plants need support for a wide range of machine sensors. Short-range can be used for local controls and long-range for backhaul. Private networking can be layered on top.

4. Global Logistics & Supply Chain – RFID is used to scan assets in and out of warehouses and BLE / Zigbee for locating them indoors. During transit, the LPWA networks come to use.

5. Fleet Management – Short-range technologies allow vehicle sub-systems to work with each other as well as infotainment systems, including BLE and Wi-Fi. Wide-area technologies can be used for predictive maintenance.

6. Healhcare - RFID to locate the medical devices and short-range devices to communicate with each other for real-time update on health monitoring parameters. This can be scaled across communities and devices for providing proactive than reactive care.

More and more companies have started focusing on Hybrid IoT technology. A pipeline of dual-mode devices will allow for redundancy in connectivity. The low-power networks typically offer low-cost connectivity. However, operators have to build, support, extend, and more importantly secure the network at all times. Licensed band technologies like 4G and 5G provide an ideal base for any IoT solution due to the standardisation, global availability, and consistency of service. This gives OEMs advantage in terms of simplicity of deployment. When clubbed with NB-IoT and LTE-M, they provide connectivity options that adapt well to application requirements. The recent partnerships by LoRaWAN and Sigfox have established unique positions and paved the way for future tie-ups. Recently, one of India’s largest Mobile operator Bharti Airtel announced a partnership with IBM and Red Hat to build an open hybrid cloud network intending to deliver a great customer experience through enhanced network performance and scaling the network to the edge. This will open up new revenue streams for the company with the on-boarding of third party services like gaming, remote media, and enterprise services, allowing an improvement in time-to-market of these services.

There is no perfect technology and not everything can be solved by one. In order to tailor a hybrid IoT project for the right fit, one should try answering the following:

1. Will proprietary technology be helpful?

2. What will be the network complexity?

3. What is the range requirement between devices?

4. What are the security and reliability requirements?

5. What data throughout do you need?

6. Do you need global connectivity?

7. What is the power of the devices and the total cost of the solution?