The Internet of Things: An Overview

There are whispers of a powerful force in the wireless industry.

Warehouse machinery, electronic devices, factory equipment – all seemingly lifeless – are talking to each other. They’re organized. They’re connected. They’re powerful. They are…THE INTERNET OF THINGS!

Okay, when it’s put like that, the Internet of Things (IoT) sounds like a monster from a low-budget sci-fi flick. While it may not be the star of a monster movie, IoT lives up to its wacky name and then some.

So let’s put it in perspective: just what is the Internet of Things?

IoT is the extension of wireless connectivity into everyday objects. Embedded with electronics, internet connectivity, and other forms of hardware, these devices can communicate and interact with others over the Internet.

IoT continues to evolve thanks to the convergence of different technologies. Traditional fields of embedded systems, wireless sensor networks, control systems, automation, and smart buildings all contribute to enabling the Internet of things.

Simply put: IoT is how devices communicate and interact with each other through wireless technology. It’s becoming increasingly common in modern households: smart lighting, bluetooth speakers, automated locks, and more are all becoming essential parts of the home IoT ecosystem.

There are many different types of IoT technologies used today, each with unique standards, purposes, and benefits. Here’s a quick look at some of the most used:

5G: The up-and comer. One of the newest IoT technologies, 5G brings low latency and can connect up to a million IoT devices per square kilometer. With high sensor density and efficient data throughput, 5G provides benefits to outdoor industrial IoT design that other technologies cannot.
BlueTooth: A proprietary technology owned by Ericsson, BlueTooth operates on a master-slave configuration and is commonly found in mobile devices such as smartphones and wireless speakers. While most know it for its application in personal tech, BlueTooth’s low power output also allows it to be used in sensor systems and medical equipment around the world.
LoRa: A proprietary technology owned by Semtech, LoRa is a highly secure IoT platform that can send encrypted data at various frequencies and bitrates. It can provide both indoor and outdoor coverage, and its application is found in offshore industries and the burgeoning ‘smart city’ sector .
ZigBee: A short range technology that offers benefits such as low power output, less expensive system implementation than other IoT types, and low battery consumption. Typically found in industrial applications and home products, ZigBee operates on the 2.4Ghz band.
WiFi: The head honcho. WiFi is the most popular IoT service used around the world, universally adopted for both commercial and personal connectivity purposes. With easy implementation, no spectrum costs, and cross-vendor interoperability, WiFi has become the go-to option for indoor IoT connectivity. Features such as targeted wake time and simultaneous data transfer for up to 18 users make it an appealing option for in-building wireless design.

You can learn more about other IoT technologies with our Wireless Standards Reference Poster.

In the warehouse and factory industries, WiFi IoT design has been a mainstay of the production process for years. At iBwave, we’ve developed software that helps system integrators design wireless networks for these types of venues.

Warehouses present some unique challenges when it comes to IoT design. Tall ceilings, reflective surfaces, and shelves holding inventory can all negatively affect indoor signal strength. Spotty propagation can also occur through material interference from metal machinery.

With that in mind, here are some useful tips when designing and IoT network for warehouse:

Design For Worst Case Scenarios: Warehouses have ever-shifting inventory levels, and the density of product within a building can significantly affect signal strength. Site surveys should be conducted when shelves are full to ensure connectivity can be achieved even when there is a lot of potential signal refraction from warehouse stock.
Stagger Your Antennas: Warehouse layouts typically consist of a series of tall shelves separated into aisles. To ensure the best possible connection, mount antennas to opposite walls of the warehouse, alternating between each aisle. This allows for connectivity throughout the warehouse without purchasing extra antennas.

Ensure You Can Connect Anywhere: Staggered antennas will help ensure connectivity between aisles, but since warehouse stock can be stacked up to 14 meters high, make sure your devices can connect vertically as well as horizontally. Inventory scanners are a crucial tool used in virtually every warehouse, and they need to be functional everywhere in the building.

We’ll cover IoT design tips and challenges for manufacturing plants in a future post.

And there you have it! We hope we’ve demystified the Internet of Things – we promise it isn’t hiding under your bed (or if it is, at least it’s there to connect your devices!).

For a more in-depth discussion on the topic, check out the IoT webinar presented by Dr. Vladan Jevremovic, the Director of Research at iBwave.

Thanks for reading!

How FiberPass Reinvents FTTH Design

We’re bringing the good fibes!

The demand for ultra high-speed wireless access in the home has never been greater. Major operators are rushing to deploy fiber to apartment buildings, townhouses, and residential areas around the world to satisfy the public’s appetite for breakneck internet speeds.

At iBwave we recognized this demand and recently launched FiberPass, an innovative design solution for fiber deployments in multi-dwelling units.

What exactly is FiberPass? It’s the go-to solution to dramatically accelerate design and deployment for Fiber‑to‑the‑Home (FTTH) network projects.

Developed with FTTH design principles in mind, and with input from major telecommunications operators, FiberPass has simplified the entire fiber deployment lifecycle – from initial design to follow up maintenance.

**FiberPass Streamlines Every Step In The Network Design Process**

Previously, the process for designing and deploying a FTTH network was cumbersome and time consuming. With go-aheads required from different project managers – from operators to property supervisors – past FTTH design projects spent months in limbo waiting for approval.

Property managers were concerned about the effect that FTTH deployment had on tenant disruption, building aesthetics, and time requirements. Each time a change was requested, a new approval was needed.

Before FiberPass, some buildings took up to nine months after initial design before the FTTH network was finally approved. Meanwhile, operators were sinking time and money into projects with no completion in sight.

To make matters worse, design software was also fragmented. Engineers were using a variety of programs and devices to perform site surveys and compile data. Without an all-in-one design solution, synchronizing, organizing and communicating project information posed a significant challenge.

To solve these issues, iBwave worked closely with operators and property managers to understand and ultimately come up with a solution. The result is FiberPass, a software solution that speeds up FTTH design time by 300%.

FiberPass changes the landscape of FTTH design in several ways, and the benefits start right from project conception.

When engineers use FiberPass on mobile to perform site surveys, they’re able to complete up to 80% of the design right on the tablet. With the ability to take photos and annotations while surveying, engineers can compile information for property managers about aesthetics, tenant impact, and unique challenges in a building’s design all in the same application. Best of all, FiberPass can generate beautiful 3D building plan virtualization, giving property managers a convenient and detailed look at the network design.

Once a site survey is completed, FiberPass can generate an electronic sign-off document to send directly to property managers for approval. If changes are requested, an engineer using FiberPass can often accommodate inquiries during the initial survey. That’s a dramatic change from previous design practices, where multiple surveys would need to be conducted before a project could move to approval and deployment.

That’s not the only way FiberPass saves time. There’s a host of built-in automated report generation tools to simplify FTTH design. The Bill of Materials, Approval Sign Off, and Equipment List reports can all be generated instantly to provide property managers with the information they need to validate a design. If an approver is offsite, iBwave Unity’s cloud connectivity ensures they’ll be still be able to immediately access any information shared by the engineer performing the site design.

Fiber networks often require specialized equipment, but with over 22, 000 vendor modelled parts and the option to add more as needed, iBwave’s component database has you covered. Being able to easily find the part needed to complete an FTTH design without leaving the application has a huge impact on efficiency and shortening design time.

How does all this time-saving add up? Since adopting FiberPass, operators have been able to:

Remove 4 day backlogs after site surveys (From 4 days to 3 hours)
Remove 6 day backlogs during Design process (From 6 days to 7.5 hours)
Reduce time to approval from 15 hours to 3 hours

We’ve barely scratched the surface of all the great features included in Fiberpass. To learn more about all the things the software is capable of, check out the FiberPass product page.

Thanks for taking the time to learn more about FiberPass and FTTH. Let’s keep spreading the fibe!

New Feature! Quick Connection Tool

In the newest release of iBwave Wi-Fi a new feature was introduced called the ‘Quick Connection Tool’. And if you often do the cabling in your designs, this is a feature you’re going to appreciate.

What does it do?

It completely automates the cabling of your sources to your APs, enabling you to cable your designs in just seconds whereas before it could take up to an hour or more, depending on the size and complexity of the venue you are working with. For many of our customers, this is a new feature that offers big time savings.

Here’s how it works.

Using the example floor plan of an office space, we can see the placement of the source (switch), the access points, and cable trays (purple lines) on the floor plan.

Note: quick connection tool can be used with or without the cable route defined already, in this case I have placed cable trays which the tool will use to automatically route the cables.

From here, it’s quite simple – simply click on the ‘Quick Connect Tool’ icon from the menu, which presents you with this screen:

Next, you need to do a few things to tell the tool how to connect.

Select your source (in this case the switch)
Select the APs to connect to
Select the cable trays through which the cables should connect (optional)
Select the cable from the smart list of acceptable cables (i.e the software will suggest cables based on your source/APs)

Here is what it looks like…

And voila, you now have your sources/destinations connected – from here you can simply run a Bill of Materials or Cost Details to get a report/estimate of your network design parts.