Digitisation should be smart and things should be under control
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a number of companies and organisations in a strange position: on the one hand, it forced them and their employees to rely more on information technologies, while on the other hand, due to the overall drastic drop in the economy, it has made most of them suspend the deployment of innovative solutions.
The COVID-19 pandemic has put a number of companies and organisations in a strange position: on the one hand, it forced them and their employees to rely more on information technologies, while on the other hand, due to the overall drastic drop in the economy, it has made most of them suspend the deployment of innovative solutions. Nevertheless, IDC analyses predict that the drop is only temporary and the percentage of IT expenditures will return to double digits by 2024. According to IDC, the internet of things will be one of the key features of the return to growth. The drivers of the use of IoT technologies, applications, and solutions will be primarily the increasingly interconnected and digitised healthcare, smart offices and working from home, position or movement tracking, improvement of the quality of life in cities and in the regions, and, above all, the rapidly developing automation of industrial and agricultural production. The IoT is expected to make a significant contribution to increasing the flexibility and operativity of supplier-customer relations that were seriously harmed by the pandemic.
Billions of interconnected devices
The number of interconnected IoT devices has skyrocketed in recent years, and in 2020, it passed the number of “non-IoT” devices, such as computers, tablets, or smart telephones connected to classic internet. As of the end of 2020, out of the total of 21.7 billion interconnected devices worldwide, 11.7 billion, that is, 54%, were IoT devices. Studies forecast that by 2025, the global number of interconnected IoT devices will reach 30.9 billion.
(Un)safe IoT networks
According to the security company SonicWall, the number of cyberattacks was down in 2020; nevertheless, their targeting and success rate increased significantly. The number of ransomware attacks was up by 40%, i.e., nearly 200 million, and the number of attacks targeting IoT was up by 30%. Hence, the security of IoT is a top priority. Furthermore, statistics show that 98% of IoT traffic is not encrypted at all, making it easy to obtain personal data or proprietary information, or that 57% of devices include medium to highly dangerous vulnerabilities and are easy prey for hackers. The selection of an experienced and reliable supplier of an IoT solution with network and end device security at a demonstrable level, or the use of IoT cloud services, therefore, play an integral and key role.
Advanced transmission networks
Over the last few years, IoT transmission technologies have undergone development that is hard to fathom. Between 2010 and 2019, the year-on-year increase in the number of active IoT connections was up by 43%, and in the future, growth of at least 27% per year is expected. So-called LPWAN technologies have experienced absolutely unexpected success. Included among these, with a worldwide share of 41% of active connections, are also LoRaWAN networks developed by a group of companies named LoRa Alliance, of which České Radiokomunikace is a member. The modern LoRaWAN network that České Radiokomunikace operates is reliable and safe for a wireless connection to the internet of things, even over great distances. The possibility of long-term battery power supply for sensors or meters, two-way communication, verified high level security, ideal nation-wide coverage, and IoT connections to more than 25 countries around the world predestine it for truly broad uses. Furthermore, every device connecting to the network must hold CRA certification, which significantly increases the solutions’ overall safety.
Several examples of the use of CRA’s LoRaWAN
České Radiokomunikace has participated in a number of IoT solutions. for some time already. Let us introduce at least the most interesting ones.
Professional temperature tracking solutions in healthcare, pharmacy, or in the food business
MEDICA WATCH is wireless temperature measurement, using external probes that automate routine temperature monitoring. It can be used in particular for tracking temperature in rooms or refrigerators where medications subject to SÚKL inspections are stored, but also for tracking temperature in thermostats, incubators, and other devices or premises. The values read on each probe can be displayed in an easily comprehendible graph and processed further using the user application. A number of other useful services are available, such as notification when maximum or minimum set temperatures are exceeded, the setting of the interval of readings, and the generation of an audit report about temperature behaviour. The solutions are available from www.medicawatch.cz.
Remote water meter readings
Water meter readings used to be, and in many places still are, an unpleasant experience for most of the parties involved. Somebody had to walk around apartments and their inhabitants had to make time for that someone. And that is not always easy. That is, unless the city, homeowners, condos, or housing co-operatives decide to have their water meters read remotely. In the sphere of water consumption metering, České Radiokomunikace works, for example, with IoT.Water. Tens of thousands of active devices are currently connected to the network, sending data on a regular basis. Innogy Energo uses IoT sensors for tracking the quantity of heat and electricity and also for measuring power supply, in particular in the retail segment.
Senior citizens in homecare
A senior in homecare often requires constant supervision, and it is not always possible to obtain that at a social care facility. IoT sensors can detect such matters as whether the client has got out of bed or used the toilet, his movement around the house can be monitored, and an alert given when he leaves a designated area, but it also allows for the monitoring of the temperature in the room, and detection of a flood in the bathroom, a gas leak, fire, or smoke. This allows senior citizens to continue to live in their homes while being under non-intrusive remote supervision by their family or a specialised care service.
IoT in buildings and under ground
A significant increase in coverage with the LoRaWAN network signal makes it possible to communicate with devices even in poorly accessible places, known as ‘deep indoor’, on up to 92% of the territory of the city of Prague. Deep indoor coverage means that signal can reach several metres under the surface, in shafts, sewers, cellars, or inside buildings. This can be successfully used by companies in water-management, in the power sector, and in property management. With the help of IoT devices, it is also possible to detect in a timely manner defects of poorly accessible devices and gas and water leaks.
Knowing where things are
Thanks to the densification of the CRA IoT networks in Prague, any LoRaWAN device can be localised on the basis of its transmission, with an accuracy of several tens of metres.
For a better life in cities and villages
České Radiokomunikace cooperates with the Central Bohemian Region on the IoT. The region offers municipalities, municipal councils, or companies and organisations set up by them, comprehensive infrastructure services for environmental monitoring and for the monitoring of data in certain administrative matters. CRA delivers a comprehensive infrastructure, including IoT cloud, the requisite hardware, as well as end applications that provide for their integration. It is possible to monitor, for example, the internal environment of a building, e.g., the quantity of CO2, temperature, humidity, lighting or movement, environmental values such as the quantity of CO, NO2, SO2, or ozone, temperature, pressure, humidity, light, the number of dust particles, or noise level. All of the values obtained are available in the form of tables and charts via a web-based application, including the possibility to set up alerts when threshold values are exceeded.
A smart farm
Farms and agricultural enterprises generate great quantities of data whose collection and analysis are currently done manually, without the use of modern IT systems. The use of new technologies makes it possible for farmers to cut their costs significantly and fundamentally increase farming efficiency. It is possible to measure, for example, the temperature and humidity in commodity warehouses, rainfall, the temperature and humidity of a field, leaf wetness or soil conditions, or the temperature of stored grain.
How to get started with IoT?
It could not be easier: approach CRA specialists. They will give you advice and design and implement an optimal solution tailormade for each client. If you want to test IoT, just look at www.beconnected.cz where you can set up access within seconds. For more information, detailed descriptions of diverse solutions, references, and many other interesting bits from the world of IoT, see the České Radiokomunikace website HERE and the portal IoTPORT.cz.