The IoT (Internet of Things) Skeleton

We were on our way back on a Sunday morning from Lokhandwala to my home in Thane. It is definitely a long distance to cover and we were commuting by train and then bus. Me and my daughter. Needless to say we were parched and very exhausted. While the bottled water in the station took care of our needs of thirst it was the heat that we needed to get relieved about. My daughter threw a question to me if we could just turn on the AC of our house while we were just 10 minutes away from there so that once we enter the house it would be cool. Really it was a question to ponder upon. Sometimes kids throw such questions and demands which really make people think. As I said in my earlier blog, "To see the future it is very essential to hear your kids to see them." This was a case like that and so begun my study of a new technology, IoT, Internet of Things. To study something the biggest driver is a purpose and in this case like in many cases the driver was a simple question. So today I take upon this opportunity to humbly jot down some points that make the IoT skeleton. 

I would like to give a disclaimer before you read any further that I am not an expert in this technology and I am still learning the ropes of the same. However, whatever that is learnt needs to be shared because knowledge is the only wealth that multiplies on sharing unlike any other wealth in the world. 

What is the motivation of IoT for a layman? 

While many telecom experts have written tons about this technology that is yet to see a good light of the day, at least in India and other developing countries, it is essential to know how can this technology benefit a person who is not tech savvy or who is not really a technical field person. After all we make things for the people and not only for those who have a deep and sound understanding of technology.  The motivation of IoT is to take the internet from a level where it communicates between persons to a level where there is a level of communication between devices to devices, devices to person and of course person to person. The present internet is people-centric and it always needs a kind of a probe or a kind of an user to be at one end of the system requesting or processing information. IoT on the other side gives a kind of power to Non-Living machines to take the part in a very important process which was in a way limited to the human world, taking decisions. We would be living in a world were machines at some point of time would be able to take the same kind of decisions we take with cognizance of the external and internal environment. The only thing that IoT does not address is the fact that it does not put any emotion to the machines and thank God for that. 

Skeleton of IoT:

It is not easy to explain all aspects of IoT in one blog post rather it is impossible. As Einstein said "Things should be made simple but not further simpler" so we would really want to explore this technology in bits and pieces. Today I am taking an example that answers the question of my daughter and that is to control the machines by some kind of control system and intelligence built in the network. Of course in later posts we will also see how these machines end up taking decisions on their own. 

A primary requirement of this would be to connect the devices by means of some method to the internet after all we are talking about "Internet" of things and this has to be connected to the Internet in some ways. For this the device which in the figure below are  Air conditioner, Smart Electric Meter and Refrigerator need to have a transmitter/receiver that can communicate on a wireless interface with the home SOHO. Also there needs to be a special kind of a Transmitter/Receiver in the SOHO router which can translate these signals from the devices to a legible format that can be read over the internet. 

Let us see the picture below and disect it piece by piece. 

Well it is very clear that on the left side there are devices connected to the SOHO and on the right hand side we have the internet infrastructure. 

LoRa WAN:

A LoRa WAN is similar to that of a wifi protocol the only difference is that it runs on 433MHz. Other bands can also be used, but I found the band of 433MHz to be more popular as this is long range and is less prone to interference in present situations. This is an unlicensed band just like the WiFi and can connect the devices to the SOHO router. Of course the SOHO Router should also have a LoRa WAN concentrator receiver that it may then put to the Internet side. 

Communication:

The communication is same as it is a normal IP communication. There is NAT in the SOHO that converts the private IPs to a public pool with a specific port number and then this is transferred over the internet to the subsequent application servers. Mind you that the user is able to control the system in this case only by means of a dedicated login to the application server either from the home laptop or a mobile device using a specific user name and password that is given for each device service or each device service group. A device service group is a collection of devices that can be managed using the same application by a common user id and password. Eg if you have all the appliance by a similar manufacturer then there may be a possibility of having a device service group for you and then you can control these devices using the same user ID and password. 

The flow of call is never from the user to the device directly it is from the user to the application server and then to the device and the reverse reporting is also in the same way. Well this is the simplest form of how you can setup the IoT in your network. 

Of course there are many devices these days that also do not require the LoRa interface and have an inbuilt WiFi receiver that can connect to your WiFi and there are apps to control that using your WiFi or also over the internet. However that is a different story. 

Addressing of the Devices:

Apart from IP the devices and the applications have a unique 64 Bit identifier just like the Mac Address. DevEui and the AppEui are what they are called respectively. These are unique addresses and are also sent in order for the application servers to exactly pinpoint the devices that they are actually accessing with the profile. 

Security:

There are three different 128 bit keys that the LoRa WAN operates upon. This is to ensure a proper secured session between the devices and the application. Because if this session is secure then and only then there would be a kind of integrity of the data reported by the devices to the users and the command chain that the user would provide to control these devices. Why? Because the media is fairly insecure (Unlicensed Band).  

1. AppKey: This is a key which is permanent and is known by the application and the device. This key is a part of the system and is predefined. 
2. AppSKey: This is the Application Session Key and this is generated when a session is established between the device and the application that is hosted on the application server. 
3. NwSKey: This is the Network Security Key and this is also generated when the data flow starts from the Device to the application. The NwSKey is basically from the Device to the end gateway, in this case the point where the application servers are connected to the internet. This basically secures the Network flow or establishes a kind of a secured tunnel for the device to communicate so that there is no tapping of information at any point of time.

The second and the third keys are generated during the session establishment and the data flow while the first key is predefined for identification. 

So my friends you see that how insecure it may seem to be it is not like that. There is a lot of lock and key present in the flow of data which makes the protocols inherently free from hacking. 

Use Cases:

Well there are many use cases of this. One it answers the question that my daughter asked. I can switch on the AC using an app on my mobile phone while I am just 10 minutes away from my house. I can look at my electricity consumption. I can look at my refrigerator cooling and adjust it accordingly also see whether it is full of goods or needs some refill. Of course in this basic model I will not be able to see if I have enough Ice cream in the refrigerator, that is a different case. 

What we look ahead at???

Well this is just the start. We can have a lot of things that we can do with IoT. We have not yet touch-based upon the decision making structure and how we can align devices or share device load in order to have a good use and optimal use of all the devices that we own. Basically from all the machines that our houses/businesses have in silos we bring them to a common ground where we can orchestrate or they themselves can adjust to the environment. 

Till then have a great day ahead and keep evolving....

Cheers,

Kalyan

OTT (Over The Top)...... is just the start of a new era

"If you want to look at the future... Look at your kids......."

Pretty strange words from me this time. Well, someone reminded me yesterday in my office that I also run a blog of technology and technical talks. But for some days or may be a lot of months I was suffering from a writer's block. I know it used to happen generally to authors of fiction but sometimes it really happens to part time bloggers like me. I was not getting an exciting topic to write about in simple words. A complication that can be made simple for others has always been my goal but then I was seeing a lot of confusion rather than complication and thus decided to stay out of it. Now that the air is clear and thanks to some children that I am in touch with including my 10 year old daughter understanding the changes that our industry, telecommunication demands has become simpler. 

So we come to the point. OTT or Over the Top, why did I select this topic for discussion. Well because there are various reasons for this and these reasons are listed below. 

1. We are seeing a heavy demand of video and interactive content and this is not a downloaded content but a streaming content. 
2. The concept of WiW WiW WiW which means (What I Want, Where I Want, When I Want) is on the rise. 
3. People are tired of seeing the same old type of broadcast censored content on the Television and want to see a more mature and "in" content and in much more clarity. 
4. Internet penetration has increased and now people have become content hungry and want to spend more and more time on the Internet to watch new things. 

The consequence of all these new wants led to the rise of a new star, a new entity in the telecom market, which is not regulated, which is cheap and which demands a lot of bandwidth; OTT or Over the Top. 

Netflix, Hotstar, Amazon Prime, VIU, ALT, Adda and many more applications with our very own Youtube is a classical example of OTT. 

And this brings to seeing our future through our kids. All my daughters' friends do not watch TV. In-fact I do not remember them watching TV for the last six or seven months that I have continuously monitored them. I have tried to note their behaviors and watching patterns. Boys and Girls both. They are all into watching content on their personal devices. Entertainment has become more of a personal preference than a family affair and this has given a rise to the concept of OTT.  

But the biggest question is are we as telecom engineers and the industry at large ready to answer the needs of our future? Are we really going in the direction which has been clearly indicated by our future generation? The answer, well is a yes and a no both. Yes because we are being more innovative and fast. We took 10 years to go from 1G to 2G, 5 years to go from 2G to 3G, 2 Years to go from 3G to 4G and while 4G is still baking in the oven we are starting to talk about 5G already. So the development graph has been exponential nevertheless. No because we are not addressing some of the core fundamentals of this business which is resulting into huge CAPEX flows for the Operator without any substantial return. 

Difference in the Business Model:

Operators need to know one thing very clearly over here, their domination over the services is no more autonomous. When we talk about voice an operator owns the circuit and also controls the customer. A voice customer is an asset of the operator as he/she is actually the content without the copyright for the operator and previously was the cash cow of the operator. However now the game has changed. Customers with this new entity and more Data - Centric entities in the foray are looking for more Data oriented services. 

The problem with Data is that it is repetitive at times, it belongs to some other entity with copyrights and demands variable bandwidth portions most of which is much higher that what voice demands. Setting up the infrastructure to enable high bandwidth data oriented services is very high as compared to voice however the end price that the customer expects is really very less. So the question is how an operator can make money in this business? 

The answer is fairly simple. The operator has to consider itself as a content service carrier rather than a service provider. This business model is not new. In-fact it is a very old business model, a legacy one which was started by our very own Door-Darshan (The national television channel of India). The service to the customer is free of cost but the revenue is earned from the content and the advertisements that come  in the channel. 

In the very case of OTT also the operator needs to know that major money is being minted by the OTT player who has just put a content server somewhere physically or in the cloud and is using the multi million dollar infrastructure of the operator to make billions of dollars for its own. It is but fair that the operator demands his pound of flesh from these OTT players. An operator ought to negotiate terms like advertisement revenue share or advertisement placement in the webpage or app that is being distributed by it. This would potentially be the other earning opportunity for the operator and thus can make a lot of money for it. 

So the rule is simple. 

"STOP MILKING YOUR SUBSCRIBERS.......EARN FROM THE CONTENT."

Easier Said than Done:

While what I mentioned above may seem to be a logical conclusion towards the diminishing revenues that an operator is having for the services, it is really easier said than done. 

1. Over the years players like Facebook, Google and Amazon have become powerhouses of content. 
2. Google controls more than 40% of the internet content that is flowing world wide with its own innovative solutions. 
3. These content giants have become so big that it is apparent for every operator to give them a red carpet than to actually negotiate them on terms of service. 

Where there is a will.... There is a way....

Yes, it is difficult. Yes, some of us may think we have missed the bus and we have just landed in a big mess. There is no other option to sustain than to invest but expect very less in returns. However, invest where is the question. 

1. Invest more in creating sophisticated Data centers so that content hosting becomes easier for the content provider in your environment. 
2. Invest in networks that are more evolving and allows more software-centric features. Networks that can sustain the changing environments of the industry and are not use and throw. They are stable and at the same time evolving. 
3. Invest in manpower who are innovative. Encourage innovation and unconventional ideas. Remember the biggest industries in the world cropped up as a result of unconventional ideas and not "Grey - Hair Experience". 
4. Prepare for change faster. This is because we have seen exponential changes happening from the year 2000 to 2020 and we will see a lot of changes. 

But the biggest question is..... Are the telecom operators "Willing" to do this????

OTT delivery needs an infrastructure that is robust, interactive and very high in bandwidth and at the same time takes a very less OPEX. It requires the operator to be steady because once the OTT is in mobile it is fine but when it enters devices like Smart TVs or any other high resolution visual devices then it becomes a big animal. 

I may understand a factor of buffering when I am seeing a movie in my mobile but then when I see it on my $1000 Smart TV I want to see it un-interrupted and high quality and this leads to the operator to upscale the services for the same. The networks have to be device sensitive so that they can understand device based requests and serve accordingly. This means high bandwidth networks are now evident. The 100Gbps is now going to be a store in the last mile rather than just being in the core part of the network and the core will be a multi Terabit mesh connecting several Data-Centers and servers in a resilient manner. 

Multiple feeds have to run a the same time and this would also mean local instancing of application in the edges that would require virtualization in great proportions. 

Therefore my friends the future is there.... It is certainly not dark.... And if you feel it is dark... Have a look at your kids..... However, it is a time where we as an industry invest in knowledge and innovation. 

Cheers

Kalyan