Wireless IoT
Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
Nick Baker
Adaptive Wireless Solutions Ltd
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17
Adaptive Wireless Solutions Ltd
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12+ years’ experience delivering wireless monitoring and control solutions
VAR and Distributor in UK and Europe for a couple of US mesh radio manufacturers
Certified System Partner for HMS Industrial Networks (Netbiter/Anybus) in UK
Projects in a wide range of sectors
Customers in UK, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, Israel,
Saudi Arabia
Have gained a lot of experience and learned a lot of lessons on the way!
BOMBARDIER
Wireless IoT
Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17
Application example – Westfield Shopping Mall
BMS integration for temperature control
55,000 m2 on two floors
with Atrium
49 Air handling units on
roof
1 Wireless network
18 Mesh repeaters
30 Sensing nodes
Ambient Temperature
input to HVAC zone
controls via Modbus TCP
Radio Coexistence with
Wi-Fi in every store
Installed in 2 days
Application example – Large Data Centre
TRH Monitoring Solution
7,500 m2
4 Floors
Floor 3
Floor 2
Control Room
Viewers
Primary Server
Main Mission Critical
Data Centre
Console
Floor 1
Basement
Remote Business
Continuity Centre
Common
Ethernet
Network
Other
Viewers
Secondary Server
Remote Disaster
Recovery Centre
Phase 1
6 Wireless Subnetworks
22 Mesh repeaters
178 Sensing nodes
Secondary
Console
Phase 2
100 additional TRH
sensors on two
floors
4 more wireless subnetworks
Locally connected
via Modbus TCP to
monitoring system
with HMI on DC
‘video wall’
Application example – University Site
Utility submetering
Gas, water and
electricity monitoring
on 6 floors
1 Wireless network
Stage 1 main incomers –
5 meters
Stage 2 – primary
submeters.
44 electricity, 13 gas,
8 water
Supply management
software
£15,000 wireless
equipment, software
and commissioning cost
£15,000 electricity
meters
Other application example projects
• Refrigerator, freezer temperature monitoring.
– 40 Supermarkets nationally. Centralised monitoring.
• Electricity consumption monitoring.
– 7 storey building, 56 meters. Wireless installed and commissioned in
2 days.
• Electricity feeder pillar and generator status monitor and control.
– 100 acre government laboratory site. UPS on wireless devices
• Ambient temperature and Humidity monitoring.
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– 5 warehouses in 56,000 m warehouse complex. SLA compliance
• Pharma laboratory
– Refrigerator, freezer and warehouse monitoring. FDA CFR21 part 11
validated environment.
• Compressors and compressed air system
– Wireless condition monitoring on large electricity substation sites.
– GPRS data transfer to central asset management system.
Wireless IoT
Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17
Project-related characteristics
• Every project has different wireless challenges
• Complex built environments - site survey required
– for 2.4 GHz and even for cellular
• Most projects had an intermediary SI involved.
• All networks have been private, closed.
• Most wireless sensor systems need open, standardsbased, back-end data interface
• Standard commercial sensor interfaces are important
• Data frequency is quite low in most applications
– Much less than 802.15.4 2.4GHz bandwidth provides
Wireless IoT
Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17
Key Lessons Learned
• No one wireless vendor supplies a range of products that
covers all application types
• It took us a while to find ‘good’ suppliers of reliable kit.
• Unreliability destroys commercial economics
• Manufacturers can and do go bust
• There is a substantial wireless equipment implementation
learning curve.
• Hardware cost is a barrier to wide use
• No obvious single vertical market pull
• No obvious single application pull
Wireless IoT
Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17
ON World research survey
‘Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks’
January 2017
“The survey found steady growth for the wireless mesh
standards but there is also a strong awareness and
early adoption of LPWAN solutions.
Satisfaction with WSN solutions has increased overall
but improvements are needed for battery life, costs,
system integration and network range.”
Wireless IoT
Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17
What would I look for now?
• Reliability
• Lower-cost equipment
• Topology that requires less infrastructure devices
– Implies longer range and probably not 2.4GHz
• Automatic gateway failover
• Standards-based gateway data connection
• A wide range of integrated sensors and standard sensor
interfaces at the node
• Some limited node-level data processing capability that can
be user-defined
• Interoperability between different manufacturers’ devices
Wireless IoT
Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17
Conclusions
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Reliability is key
Low-cost is key
Interoperability is key
Wireless definitely has a major role in IoT
Educating the market is a big challenge
End user organisations need help to implement
Non-cellular wireless ‘killer applications’ hard to see at the
moment
• Any ‘bet’ on a particular wireless platform carries a
commercial risk for all involved over the medium term
• We’re looking into LoRa but need to know more about its
real-world capability
Wireless IoT
Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17
Thanks for your attention!
Questions?
Adaptive Wireless Solutions Ltd
42 High Street
Great Missenden
HP16 0AU
Tel:+44 (0) 1494 865992
www.adaptive-wireless.co.uk
Wireless IoT
Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17
Nick Baker
Director
Mobile: 07968 352875
[email protected]
Skype: adaptivewireless