IoT deployment is happening very quickly. According to IoT Analytics, the number of connected devices in 2019 is expected to exceed initial estimates by 14% reaching 9.5 billion. The top three reasons are the explosive growth of consumer devices, much stronger-than-expected mobile IoT/M2M connections, and strong growth in device-to-device connectivity in China thanks to government initiatives. This exponential growth is expected to continue for years to come, reaching 28 billion connected devices by 2025. The technology is already embedded in our personal clothing and accessories. There will be 26 smart objects for every human. 75% of cars will have the necessary hardware to connect to the internet. Healthcare IoT related benefits are predicted to exceed $135 billion by 2025. IoT deployment is diversifying from consumer-based applications, such as small home devices and personal accessories, to mission-critical applications in public safety, emergency services, industrial automation, autonomous vehicles, and the Internet of Things. Health (IoMT – Internet of Medical Things). Mission-critical applications make use of the convenience, low cost, and long battery life of IoT devices, as well as using publicly available infrastructure, to improve interoperability between devices to enable real-time monitoring and control of various systems and critical devices. With the proliferation of these mission-critical applications, IoT systems and devices need to be robust to withstand the rigors of the real world.
With great potential comes great challenges.
IoT provides benefits to consumers and creates new business opportunities in commercial applications. However, a robust and reliable infrastructure is needed.
Emergency response system:
Imagine what would happen if the wireless sensor monitoring the pressure in a gas pipeline failed due to repeated power outages. During an emergency the piping system could explode due to the impossibility of acting in due time to contain the problem.
digital health:
Remote patient monitoring devices allow monitoring of the patient outside of the conventional clinical environment, improving patient access to medical care and lowering healthcare costs. However, if the device needs to work in any environment, such as a crowded stadium or a difficult-to-reach underground warehouse, signal reception through concrete structures and interference from other nearby devices should not impact the device. normal operation of the monitoring device.
Smart meters:
With hundreds of thousands of tiny smart meters installed in all kinds of remote facilities, these meters need to be able to gather and transmit usage data. Any failure in the smart meter will result in erroneous consumption measurements, causing losses and possibly damaging the reputation of the company that uses them.
Connected cars:
A connected car, like the one in figure 1, provides us with many advantages. But it also exposes us to different risks. Failures in the implementation of the security of the Wireless System could allow a hacker to locate and sabotage our car without us noticing. Engineers and designers working on these mission-critical systems and devices face tremendous technological challenges and must make important design and test decisions, making compromises both in the early design stages and in the final stages of manufacturing.
Solving technical challenges through the 5Cs of IoT
A comprehensive approach is necessary to address the multifaceted technical challenges of IoT devices and systems throughout the product lifecycle. As shown in Figure 2, design considerations can be summarized based on the 5Cs of IoT.
- Connectivity
Connectivity is about the ability to maintain a continuous flow of information to and from the device, infrastructure, cloud, and applications. Getting good connectivity is one of the biggest challenges faced by engineers because the wireless connectivity system is very complex and the installation of a large number of devices in a small space makes things even more complicated. Mission-critical IoT devices must perform reliably and fault-free even in the harshest environments. The rapid evolution of wireless standards increases complexity, and engineers are constantly challenged to keep pace with technologies while ensuring that devices can function seamlessly in the IoT ecosystem. Overcoming these connectivity challenges requires careful selection of design and test solutions that are highly flexible, configurable, and upgradeable to meet future challenges. The solution needs to be very flexible to test devices with many different radio formats, be able to evaluate the performance of the device in real use conditions, and allow OTA (Over the Air) testing with signaling without the need for a specific driver for the device. chipset. Preferably, the system should be simple, cheap, and that can be used by both R&D and manufacturing in order to be able to reuse any developed control program and minimize measurement discrepancies in the different phases of development. The demand for IoT devices will increase exponentially due to their rapid proliferation. Manufacturers need to have a system in the pipeline that is easily scalable, economical, and reliable, and that can easily accommodate increased volume while maintaining device quality.
- Continuity
Continuity is about ensuring and extending the battery life of the device. Battery life is one of the most important considerations in IoT devices. Long battery life is a huge competitive advantage in consumer IoT devices. In industrial IoT devices, battery life is expected to be between five and ten years. In medical devices, such as pacemakers, battery life can mean the difference between life and death for the patient. Battery failure is not an option. To meet this battery life requirement, IC designers need to design ICs with deep sleep modes that draw very little current, reduce the clock speed and instruction set, and implement low input voltages. drums. From the perspective of wireless communication, standardization groups are defining new low-power modes of operation such as NB-IoT, LTE-M, LoRa, Sigfox, which offer limited active mode operating time while maintaining a very low consumption. Product designers that integrate the different components for the sensing, processing, control, and communication functions in the final product must know the behavior of the peripherals and their consumption and optimize the firmware and software of the product to simplify its operation and reduce its consumption. energy consumption. All these activities require effective measurement tools that can provide detailed information on the behavior and current consumption of the device.
- Fulfillment
Compliance is about making sure that your IoT devices conform to the regulatory requirements of radio and global standards before moving to the commercialization stage. There are two main categories of compliance testing: radio standard compliance and carrier acceptance testing, and regulatory compliance testing such as RF, EMC, and SAR testing. Design engineers often struggle to meet tight product completion deadlines and ensure smooth market entry while complying with all regulations. Often, regulatory updates add to the complexity of the process. Figure 3 shows examples of test requirements for conformance and compliance. To reduce the risk of failure during compliance testing and to stay on schedule for product completion, designers may want to consider investing in pre-compliance testing solutions so that they can test at every stage of development to fix any issues that arise. appear as soon as it occurs. Selecting a pre-compliance test system that can be used in both the design and late stages helps ensure good correlation of results and reduces the risk of failures. Compliance testing is complex and time consuming, performing it manually can take many days or even weeks of work. Selecting an automatic measurement system can help save measurement time and speed up the product's arrival on the market.
- Coexistence
Coexistence defines the ability of the wireless device to operate reliably in the presence of interfering signals. With billions of devices working, congestion in radio channels is a problem that worsens over time. To solve this congestion, regulatory bodies have developed test methodologies to evaluate the operation of devices in the presence of interfering signals. For example, in Bluetooth®, Adaptive Frequency Hopping (AFH) allows a Bluetooth device to stop using channels that are experiencing many data collisions (Figure 4). Other collision avoidance techniques such as Listen Before Talk (LBT) and Cooperative Collision Avoidance (CCA) improve transmission efficiency. The effectiveness in a heterogeneous signal environment is unknown. When radio formats cannot detect each other, collisions and data loss occur. In consumer applications, pauses or delays in wireless accessories, such as headphones, can be a nuisance that we can live with. On the other hand, a sensor in an industrial environment that loses its control signal or an element that controls a system that stops working due to the presence of interference in the environment can have serious consequences. Therefore, it is critical to perform coexistence tests that assess how the device will perform in an environment crowded with signals from different wireless technologies. The IEEE has created a guide, ANSI C63.27 (American National Standard for Evaluation of Wireless Coexistence), which addresses key considerations to keep in mind when evaluating device coexistence capabilities, including evaluation processes, measurement configurations , and tests to classify by ranges according to risks. Device manufacturers must assess the potential risk inherent in a device not maintaining its wireless communication capabilities in the presence of unwanted signals in the same operating environment.
- Cybersecurity
With the increase in the deployment of mission-critical IoT applications, the need for protection and cybersecurity is becoming more important. Cyberattacks can occur at many layers, from the device level to the communications network, application level, or even in the cloud. Most traditional security tools are focused on protecting the network and the cloud. The end point of the link and the RF communication are often not considered. Formats like Bluetooth and WLAN are mature technologies that are commonly used in many applications. However, hardly anything has been done to prevent its vulnerabilities. The complexity of these wireless protocols comes with several often unknown potential points of risk that allow hackers to access or even control the device. According to the IDC, 70% of security breaches originate from the link endpoints. Special precautions should be taken to secure these IoT devices. Vulnerabilities in the radio interface and in potential access points should be identified. The device should be tested using a database of known attacks to assess the capabilities of the device to react to them or detect anomalies. This database must be updated frequently to protect devices against the latest threats.
Building a Solid Foundation through the 5Cs of IoT
IoT opens the Door to incredible new applications and opportunities for many industries. But it also opens it up to new challenges that require new ways of solving problems to meet the functional requirements of mission-critical applications. Successfully deploying IoT solutions requires engineers and designers to overcome technical challenges in the 5Cs of IoT. Having a deep understanding of these technical challenges and knowing what the key design and measurement considerations are allows you to create a solid foundation for the implementation and deployment of solutions throughout the IoT ecosystem. Having the right tools for design, validation, compliance testing, and manufacturing measurements throughout the entire product lifecycle will help you ensure that IoT delivers on its promises. For more information about the 5Cs of IoT, please visit the website: www.keysight.com/find/missioncriticaliot.
