Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder of BehrTech, a disruptive enabler of next-gen wireless connectivity for Industrial IoT.
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The internet of things (IoT) is gradually hitting its stride across industries. Yet, despite its fast-growing adoption and all the bullish forecasts we’ve heard of, there’s another side of the revolution that’s just as mind-boggling. A recent report by Beecham Research estimated that around three-quarters of all IoT initiatives started will be deemed unsuccessful. Likewise, according to Microsoft’s 2019 IoT Signals report, nearly one-third of projects fail already from the proof-of-concept stage.
So, what goes wrong and why? In the same report by Microsoft, technical challenges and complexity top the list of IoT challenges, with the study by Beecham Research further amplifying connectivity constraints, particularly in terms of coverage, scalability, reliability and bandwidth. Starting out with a typically small deployment, businesses often miss out on an accurate assessment of the technical requirements involved when a network scales to thousands of devices.
Having worked in the communications sector for years, here are five major networking challenges I’ve seen with IoT and what tech leaders should know when considering multiple connectivity options.
1. Limited Scalability For Continuous Network Expansion
The scalability issue is multifold and encompasses the cost, complexity and bandwidth efficiency of the communication network. Many companies implement a connectivity solution only to realize that they can’t keep up with the maintenance and management overheads as the network grows.
Streamlined operations of vast connected endpoints demand extremely power-efficient connectivity for simple and quick device installation, alongside minimal battery replacement and recharging. On top of that, a long-range star topology is much easier to build and manage compared to mesh topology with trees and sidearms. Mesh networks using short-range technologies typically require extra relaying routers to ensure sufficient device density and coverage, which adds to the complexity of network configuration and administration.
Equally important to a future-proof IoT architecture is a bandwidth-efficient, high-capacity communication solution that can handle millions of daily transmissions without compromising message deliverability. With this, new devices can be seamlessly integrated into the network without disrupting the operations of existing devices.
2. Unstable And Inconsistent Network Footprint
Different from consumer applications, the majority of industrial deployments take place at far-flung locations with asymmetric topography and/or metallic, structurally dense environments that cannot be catered to by many wireless solutions.
To avoid the “blind spot” pitfalls of cellular services and other third-party managed connectivity, it’s worth considering a private deployment where you can attain full flexibility and control over the network coverage. What’s more, wireless technologies operating in the sub-gigahertz frequency bands, such as low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN), deliver an extensive range and excellent penetration capability for reliable data connections throughout high-rise buildings and structurally dense, geographically dispersed industry parks.
3. Interference Among Coexisting Radio Networks
Given its gratis accessibility, the license-free spectrum has grown into a popular option for many wireless radio systems. Yet, as more and more connected devices leverage the same license-free frequency band, intersystem and intrasystem interference represents an increasingly acute challenge.
An easy way to mitigate the interference issue is to avoid using already saturated channels. For example, in industrial environments, the 2.4 GHz band is usually overcrowded with systems using Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Thread, Z-Wave and many others. Selecting another channel for IoT device operations can thus alleviate the strain on this band and lessen the risk of data loss. On top of that, wireless technology with proven built-in mechanisms to combat radio interference is paramount to safeguard QoS and network reliability in the long run.
4. Overcoming The OT And IT gap
Wired-based automation protocols such as PROFIBUS are an essential part of ultra-reliable, low-latency factory control networks. Nevertheless, these protocols have never been intended for data connection beyond the shop floor to enterprise IT systems or cloud-based applications. This inevitably creates a gap between OT and IT systems as they remain disconnected from one another.
Today, more and more industrial sensors are built with additional wireless interfaces to enable data acquisition for remote monitoring and diagnostics. With this comes a critical need for a versatile middleware that acts as the bridge between existing OT and IT systems and can be flexibly deployed on- or off-premises depending on the user’s needs. The middleware collates data from IoT networks on the shop floor and effectively reroutes it to the right IT back-end via open interfaces like MQTT. Concurrently, it serves as a central point for device provisioning, data monitoring and network troubleshooting at scale.
5. Long-Term Device Interoperability
The sheer complexity of the IoT ecosystem means that heterogeneous devices are needed to address a wide range of connected applications. Concurrently, amid the ceaseless and breakneck pace of technology advancement, IoT networks must stay nimble to seamlessly integrate and capitalize on innovative, optimized hardware designs that are coming along the line.
For long-term device interoperability of the IoT infrastructure, businesses should steer clear of vendor lock-in and backward compatibility problems often associated with hardware-driven, proprietary wireless solutions. Alternatively, technologies built on robust standards that have been ratified by reputational standard development organizations (e.g., ETSI, IEEE, 3GPP) deliver a transparent, universal framework that fosters global adoption and cross-vendor support in years to come.
Final Thoughts
To ensure IoT success, it’s paramount to look beyond the immediate needs of the connected infrastructure to understand and plan for important technical requirements that might arise further down the road. An IoT initiative might start small, but it’s critical to think big and scale quickly when the time comes.
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