Connected future - the u-blox technology magazine No. 8 November 2019
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the u-blox
technology
magazine
No. 8
November 2019
Connected
future
Creating value to accelerate the connected future → 7
Mobility at the crossroads → 12
IoT security for the connected future → 32
Imprint u - The u-blox technology magazine Published by: Thomas Seiler Chief Editor: Sven Etzold Senior Editor: Natacha Seitz Writer: Jan Overney Graphic Design: Klaus Erlinghagen, Marina Sancho Vila Circulation: 20’000, bi-annual Contact: info@u-blox.com Contributors: Sabrina Bochen, Ludger Boeggering, Agnès Derderian, Gina Domanig, Samuele Falcomer, Paul Gough, Diego Grassi, Eric Heiser, Prof. Walter Karlen (ETH), Bo Lyvall (AddMobile), Costas Meimetis, André Müller, Michael Peeters (imec), Julia Rosenqvist (AddMobile), Thomas Seiler, Karin Steinhauser, Andreas Thiel, Ferdinand Veith (Quantum-Systems) © by u-blox AG 2019, Zuercherstrasse 68, 8800 Thalwil, Switzerland 2
Foreword
Dear Readers,
When you think about the future, what do you see? Flying
cars? Robotic nurses? Green cities that respond to our
every need – maybe on Mars? While we need imagination
to conceive our shared tomorrow, innovation, commer-
cialization, and implementation are, ultimately, what get
it built. It’s about hitting the sweet spot between the cut-
ting edge and what actually adds value. It’s a pragmatic
approach, yet it offers ample room to innovate, to set new
standards, to define the future.
As in every endeavor, it helps to have a guide. Ours are five
megatrends, major macroeconomic forces that are shap-
ing our society, its needs, and, by extension our business.
Key among them are urbanization, mobility, and eHealth,
which will impact how we live in the future. Industry 4.0
will transform our factories, production lines, and supply
chains. And, last but not least, security will be vital to
enabling a sustainable and desirable digitally connected
world.
In this eighth edition of our u-blox magazine, we dive into
each of these megatrends, offering our unique perspec-
tive on where they are headed, and how we fit into them.
In our feature interview, we explore the forces shaping our
increasingly connected world and the changes they might
bring. And throughout these pages, we examine many of
the enabling technologies that our connected future will
build on.
As the ongoing digital revolution plays out, we continually
strive to maximize the value we provide our customers.
This mission, a theme in this magazine, has been behind
our intense R&D effort to develop our latest generation
of cellular modem chipsets entirely in-house. It drove our
investment into redefining IoT security with the Kudelski
Group, world leader in digital security. And it motivated our
recent acquisition of Rigado’s Bluetooth module portfolio.
We wish you a delightful and interesting read.
Yours sincerely,
Thomas Seiler, CEO
3
Content
Connected future
03 Foreword
07 Creating value to accelerate the
connected future
12 Mobility at the crossroads
18 Digitalizing the industry will be
a long-term undertaking
22 Smart city, sustainable city
28 When the prescription says “IoT”
32 IoT security for the connected future
Enabling technologies
36 Setting up the next perfect storm
Expert Opinion
42 Peering into the connected future
with…
12 Mobility at the crossroads
22 Smart city, sustainable city
4
Research
54 What drives the connected future?
Partnerships
36 Setting up the next perfect storm
56 Unleashing connected construction
sites
58 A vertical takeoff to exciting new
possibilities
Products
60 In the spotlight
Inside u-blox
62 Five new Bluetooth modules, countless
new possibilities
42 Peering into the connected future with…
5
6
Connected future
Creating value
to accelerate
the connected
future
As digitalization redefines technological
possibilities and customer expectations, our
mission remains unchanged: driving innovation
in the technologies we believe will underpin our
future.
Technology and society dance a fiery tango. present and shape our future. And it’s why we
Feeding off each other, they step, swirl, and have decided to align our corporate strategy and
stop, before picking up again, fueled by society’s research and development efforts with those
desires, its needs, and its innovative spirit. Each that are most relevant to our business: mobility,
successive industrial revolution accelerated the Industry 4.0, urbanization, connected health-
pace, with the steam engine, electrification, and care, and security.
telecommunications impacting every facet of
society. And now the fourth, this time digital, As we move into the future, technological pro-
revolution is taking the crescendo to its next gress continues to forge ahead and deliver more
climax. and more possibilities. But the rapid advance
of the cutting edge reveals only half of the
But on closer observation, each revolution only picture. The majority of our customers tick to
becomes one in hindsight. As they play out, a different clock, with costly investments ex-
they are more evolutionary than revolutionary. pected to return dividends before they become
They unfold step by step, each move setting the obsolete. Understanding that they are not after
stage for the next, with the choreography often the latest hype but rather after solutions that
difficult to discern, the endpoint impossible to they can depend on for a decade or more lets
imagine. We see this progression play out wher- us live up to our key mission, which is creating
ever technology and society intersect as long- extra value for our customers. Doing so requires
term megatrends that constantly transform our restraint. Rather than pouncing on every new
7
technological hype, it demands that we select Today, the entire area of mobility is being shaken
the most promising and relevant technologies to up by evolving societal expectations, unprec-
develop reliable and dependable solutions that edented technological possibilities, and new
deliver long-term value. business models. For the first time in decades,
car ownership is in decline, with users preferring
more flexible and burden-free solutions such
“Understanding that as multi-modal transportation and on-demand
customers are not after ride-hailing. As the number of cars drops, the
the latest hype but rather electronic content of each vehicle is on the rise,
fueled largely by automation and the electric
after solutions that they
drivetrain. And with vehicles becoming more
can depend on for a decade and more autonomous, they are also becoming
or more lets us live up to increasingly reliant on a diverse ecosystem of
our key mission, which is mission-critical data services, from high-defini-
tion mapping to real-time traffic management
creating extra value for to a new generation of global navigation satellite
them.” system (GNSS) correction services. This has
established players and startups alike scurrying
to figure out how best to tap into these new
revenue streams.
This market-driven demand dovetails nicely
with the long-term nature of our product In addition to positioning, which has long been
development process. As emerging production our core business, connectivity is essential to
technologies enable ever-more-complex tech- enable cars to enhance their functionality. Cars
nological solutions, driving innovation in these can only become automated if they are able
competitive markets is becoming more and to exchange data between each other, with
more demanding in terms of research and devel- roadside infrastructure, and with the cloud. As
opment. Still, over the past 18 months, we have a component supplier for both positioning and
announced a series of new integrated circuits connectivity, this trends opens the door to a rich
that are laying a new foundation for our future. field of value that we can deliver to vehicles, pav-
By making us independent of external suppliers ing the way for further growth even as growth in
and third parties, this major R&D investment will the number of cars declines.
allow us to offer more value to our customers,
paving the way for a better, richer and more Connecting the industry
sustainable future, for us and our customers, In the connected industry, known as Industry
across all five of our guiding megatrends. 4.0, market expansion will, instead, be driven by
growing volumes. While the value of individual
Leading in mobility
The megatrends are, of course, nothing new. “Our relationship with
Mobility, for example, has driven us throughout
the lifetime of our company. Our relationship the automotive industry,
with the automotive industry, characterized characterized by their
by their extreme demands in terms of quality, extreme demands in terms
reliability, safety, and security, as well as their
long design and production cycles, played a
of quality, reliability, and
crucial role in defining our corporate culture. By security, as well as their
forging strong ties with them and by catering to long design and production
their technical needs, we were able to grow into
market leaders in satellite-based positioning
cycles, played a crucial role
receivers for automotive navigation and telem- in defining our corporate
atics solutions. culture. ”
8
connected devices will likely remain stable, the data transmission, as well as best-in-class
number of deployed devices has huge growth support. At the end of the day, this translates to
potential, as digitalization penetrates deeper improved value for our industrial partners and
and deeper into industrial systems and process- customers.
es, from controlling machines to monitoring
every aspect of the supply, production, and Making cities more sustainable
distribution chains. Cities have always played a pioneering role in the
adoption of new technologies. And with the re-
The industry may, for instance, well be the first lentless increase in the world’s urban population,
to benefit from performance enhancements poised to hit 70 percent by 2050 according to
offered by 5G, the next generation of mobile the UN, and the rise in the number of 10+ million
network technology. Advanced use cases such inhabitant megacities expected to exceed 43 as
as ultra-reliable low-latency communication early as 2030, leveraging the benefits of smart
(URLLC), a facet of 5G that is particularly city technology will be key to making this urban-
relevant for industrial applications, could first ization trend sustainable. How? By building on
see the light of day in private cellular networks, the benefits of connected devices to solve key
owned and operated by companies themselves. urban challenges, from managing traffic, power,
Enabling everything from advanced robotic and waste to improving air quality, public health,
control to remote maintenance and digital twins, and public safety.
URLLC may offer companies sufficient benefits
to justify the investment in the required proprie- By leveraging wireless technology and the Inter-
tary cellular network infrastructure. net of Things (IoT), cities can optimize the flow
of people, goods, and energy, enabling intelligent
By designing our latest generation of 5G-ready infrastructure and smart services and utilities.
cellular modems with the needs of the con- Residents aren’t the only ones to benefit from
nected industry in mind, we have catapulted more livable cities that welcome increased public
ourselves into a position in which we can serve participation. By becoming more appealing on
the industry with a truly unique offering. Full the global market, cities can attract top employ-
ownership of the silicon makes us independent ers and top talent, feeding into a virtuous cycle
of third party components, guaranteeing the of continual improvement.
longevity of our solution, enabling secured
9
Because smart cities will require vast ecosys- confidentiality, and patient safety are critical
tems of partners and service providers to put to- to developing successful connected healthcare
gether interoperable solutions, standards-based solutions. And widespread adoption will benefit
non-proprietary wireless communication from the same standards-based non-proprie-
technologies such as Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 5G tary wireless technologies mentioned above,
cellular communication are likely to prevail. Over including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and 5G cellular
the past 10 years, we’ve invested in growing our communication.
product portfolio in these areas through intense
research and development, acquisitions, and by Securing the digital revolution
participating in pilot studies. As we transport more and more data via wireless
connectivity, security is becoming an increasing-
Transforming healthcare digitally ly vital need in our society. Even more so as the
The digital transformation promises to expand IoT connects physical objects – vehicles, medical
the capacity of today’s overstretched healthcare devices, buildings, factories – to the cloud,
systems. Arguably a human right and, in many making them, and their users, potential targets
countries, a financial quagmire, global public for petty cybercriminals, organized crime units,
healthcare spending continues to grow year by and hostile governments. As enablers of wire-
year, exceeding 7.5 trillion US$ in 2017 accord- less connectivity, we see it as one of our core
ing to WHO1. And that, despite technological
improvements that could rein in costs, expand
coverage, and, ultimately, improve patient “As enablers of wireless
outcomes. The combined human and financial connectivity, we see it as
incentives are bound to feed off each other to
one of our core missions to
drive the digital transformation of healthcare
over the next decades. support our customers in
building connected devices
Wirelessly connected applications will be that are secure, create
transformational in hospitals, where they will
automatically collect an uninterrupted stream confidence with the end-user
of patient data to improve patient monitoring, and contribute to a desirable,
treatment, and recovery while reducing error sustainable future.”
rates. Tracking medical devices, infrastructure
such as beds, and medical personnel will in-
crease productivity by cutting time spent look- missions to support our customers in building
ing for them. Thanks to remote patient moni- connected devices that are secure and create
toring, doctors will be able to continuously track confidence with the end-user and contribute to
their patients’ recovery once they are discharged a desirable, sustainable future.
from the hospital, and researchers will finally
have a tool to closely assess their participants in To meet this ambition, we partnered with Swiss-
clinical trials, improving their outcomes. And at based Kudelksi, a company with three decades
home, the technology will help keep healthy peo- of experience securing over a billion dollars’
ple healthy and vulnerable people safe, through worth of commercial value, to develop our latest
preventative care and assisted living solutions. generation of highly secure cellular modems.
The UBX-R5 chipset and the SARA-R5 module
But healthcare transformation comes with that incorporates it derive their security from
a new set of technical requirements, in par- a highly robust root of trust (RoT) – a secure
ticular for security. Ensuring data privacy, feature that uses a combination of hardware
1
Public Spending on Health: A Closer Look at Global Trends, WHO, 2018
10and software to enable a set of security-related feedback into a forward-looking roadmap. By
functions and lets users trust that they are growing a portfolio of technologies that custom-
interacting with the right device at all times. ers need to connect their products seamlessly to
the cloud, we are constantly brought back to the
Adding value at the core core question: does it create value? In the end,
By developing secure and reliable wireless it’s up to individual customers and the market
communication and positioning technology that to decide which technologies become preferred
lasts for a product lifetime, we are driving the and dominant solutions.
ongoing digital transformation. But where will it
take us next? Predicting the next big disruption With a growing customer base now comprising
is always difficult, in particular with all the ena- close to 7000 companies, it is challenging to
bling technologies that are emerging around us. develop one-size-fits-all hardware solutions that
Every once in a while, something will leap from meet the divergent needs of hundreds of use
the margin into the mainstream and change our cases and applications. Adding value, therefore,
lives. It’s always easy to piece together a story of also involves making our products versatile
how it happened after the fact. enough to meet the needs of a diverse set of
users. Drawing on our extensive experience in
We saw this play out from up close with drones. offering data services for GNSS positioning, we
It began by nurturing contacts with research have added enhanced security services to our
teams and universities that were working on baseline offering. This allows us to preserve our
these flying platforms. Some eventually evolved low cost point low for customers with standard
into full-fledged companies, which, after rein- needs while at the same time tending to the
venting themselves multiple times, have since expectations of those developing highly depend-
become market leaders. Where might this play able solutions.
out next? Regardless of the precise application,
what is essential is that we are prepared with In the end, our mission is clear. By delivering
solutions that help our customers to design key components that package our capabilities
products that work well and deliver value beyond in a broad range of specific knowledge areas in
the silicon they are built on. integrated circuits, we empower customers to
focus their resources on the areas in which they
Doing so requires us to stay attuned to the can make the biggest difference. They say it
technological possibilities that are creating takes two to tango. I would disagree. From the
market traction and to the specifications and dancers to the musicians, from the composers
requirements of emerging use cases within each to the audience, it takes an entire ecosystem.
megatrend. Again it comes down to talking to That’s what makes it beautiful.
customers, sharing ideas, incorporating their
Thomas Seiler
CEO, u-blox
11Connected future
Mobility at the
crossroads
Connectivity is transforming mobility as we
know it. And it’s about time: your phone is
smart, so why settle for a dumb car?
Sometime around 2008, innovation in mobility models are emerging that, instead, monetize
took off. That isn’t to say that there wasn’t any software, services, and data, ultimately increas-
innovation before. After all, it was the era of ing the profit generated by each vehicle. Demand
Segway, and a number of vehicle-sharing plat- for passenger mobility is expected to double by
forms, such as Mobility in Switzerland, already 20501 ; meanwhile, new car ownership is on the
had fleets on our streets counting thousands decline, probably for the first time since the in-
of vehicles. By and large, however, innovation ception of the automobile, facilitated by the likes
happened in the big car companies’ own R&D of Uber, Lyft, and other ridesharing platforms.
departments. But after the financial crisis, the
dam broke and mobility became a new frontier In addition, new forms of micro-mobility and
for entrepreneurs. The number of startups multi-modal mobility offerings are spurring on
skyrocketed to the point that we at Emerald customer expectations for smarter, more flexi-
Technology Ventures, the clean-tech venture ble mobility solutions, as is the promise of highly
fund I founded, had to hire a team of mobility assisted and fully autonomous driving. Enabling
specialists just to keep up with the flood of these will require a whole new set of products
mobility-related projects that were landing on and services on top of the car itself. It remains
our desks. to be seen how the added value generated in the
mobility ecosystem of the future will be divvied
Today, a decade later, every aspect of mobility is
in flux. The internal combustion engine, though
still by far the dominant propulsion system on
“It remains to be seen how
our roads, is under serious pressure from electric the added value generated
drivetrains, which have seen their performance in the mobility ecosystem of
increase dramatically. Value generation is
the future will be divvied up
migrating away from the vehicles themselves,
which are becoming less and less differentiated between automobile OEMs,
in their mechanical performance. New business tech giants, and startups.”
1
A.D. Little, The Future of Mobility 3.0, Reinventing mobility in the era
of disruption and creativity, 2018
12up between automobile OEMs, tech giants, and wheel for short periods with remarkably few (but
startups. One thing seems clear: car manufac- highly mediatized) accidents. Extending this to
turers won’t willingly outsource control of the less predictable areas such as urban centers
vehicle itself, and they certainly don’t want the and suburbs where pedestrians or other traffic
tech giants to control their future. Still, that participants can interfere unexpectedly will be
leaves plenty of room to reshuffle the business. challenging at best.
Safety in the driver’s seat Regardless of when and whether our cars
Passenger safety has long been a key driver for lose their steering wheels, each incremental
innovation in the automotive industry. Yet while step leading down that path is making driving
the industry has made tremendous progress safer, cleaner, and more efficient. A key enabler
in increasing safety, its efforts have been frus- of advanced driving automation systems is
trated by the fact that the weakest element has vehicle-to-everything, or V2X, communication.
remained out of their control: the human driver. V2X uses wireless technologies to let vehi-
In a survey, the National Motor Vehicle Crash cles communicate with each other, with the
Causation Survey 2005-2007 found that 94% roadside infrastructure, and with other traffic
of car crashes were due to human error in the
US alone. The US Department of Transportation
estimates that fully autonomous vehicles could “Regardless of when and
reduce road fatalities by the same percentage.
whether our cars lose their
But as our vehicles transition to higher levels of steering wheels, each
driver assistance, we are becoming increasingly incremental step leading
aware of the challenges of full autonomy. To-
down that path is making
day’s most advanced autonomous vehicles have
driven millions of miles in controlled areas such driving safer, cleaner, and
as highways while letting the driver let go of the more efficient.”
1365%
Reduction in air pollution
Source: A.D. Little
participants, including pedestrians. As a result, personal mobility market. But with today’s cars
vehicles have a more complete picture of the generating incredible amounts of data – about
surroundings, even beyond line of sight. There’s twice as much as humans, the times are chang-
little doubt that early warning of oncoming ing. Organizing, accessing, and monetizing the
vehicles, congestion, and other obstacles will oodles of vehicle-generated data is simply not in
increase road safety even before cars become today’s automotive industry’s DNA. As a result,
fully autonomous. much of its value has remained untapped. This
has caught the attention of the big tech com-
By connecting vehicles digitally into a network, panies that pioneered many of today’s data and
V2X also provides a means to better coordinate service-based business models, and of startups
traffic flow, reducing congestion and increasing eager to settle into new, lucrative niches. It’s a
road capacity by up to 80 to 270 percent, ac- clash of the worlds that has left the established
cording to estimates.2 There are environmental automotive industry in the defensive.
benefits as well, as smoother traffic flow also
means less braking and accelerating, and, To fend off efforts by tech giants to take over
consequently, a decrease in noise, and an up to the most lucrative parts of the value chain, the
65 percent reduction in air pollution.3 automotive industry has seen a surge in part-
nerships, investments, and acquisitions over
From sales to services the past years. In 2015, for instance, a group of
If there’s one thing that carmakers excel at, it’s German automakers acquired HERE, a digital
at making, marketing, and selling cars. Increas- mapping company. In 2016 GM acquired Sidecar,
ing passenger safety by improving the car itself a failed Uber competitor, as well as autonomous
was right down their alley. Until recently, this car developer Cruise. Toyota, Daimler, Volks-
gave them full control of a large part of the wagen, and others have partnered with
2
A.D. Little, The Future of Mobility 3.0, Reinventing mobility in the era of
disruption and creativity, 2018
3
Ibid.
14chipmaker Nvidia, while all of the big ridesharing partners to provide the missing components.
companies – Uber, Lyft, Gett, etc. – count one or Incidentally, at Emerald Technology Ventures,
more major automakers as partners or investors. all investors in our fund are large industrial
corporations seeking to tap into and facilitate
This reshaping of the ecosystem has not just innovation outside their own four walls.
been about acquiring hard skills in artificial
intelligence, sensor fusion, and business mod- Ultimately, strength will come from diverse,
els. Carmakers have understood that they need complementary ecosystems, in which incum-
to ride the trend of the new way of working to bents do much of the capital-intensive and
enter these emerging spaces, where they are quality-sensitive heavy lifting, such as develop-
confronted with a younger generation of workers ing functionally safe sensing and communica-
with new expectations. Corporate venture fund- tion systems, while innovation, for instance in
ing has become a mainstay as many automakers advanced sensor fusion or machine learning, is
choose to focus on their strengths and rely on relegated to the more dynamic startups at the
periphery of the network.
“Corporate venture funding The other half of the picture
But focusing entirely on cars misses half the
has become a mainstay as picture. In addition to the conventional and
many automakers choose to increasingly connected vehicles that crowd
focus on their strengths and our streets, and the technological ecosystem
needed to keep traffic flowing smoothly and
rely on partners to provide safely, old ways to get from A to B are getting
the missing components.” a digital facelift. Multi-modal mobility, much
15discussed, combines cars, public transport, cheer for seatbelts or power steering, but no one
and new, softer forms of micro-mobility such as is taking them out of their cars. On the other
shared bikes, e-scooters, and walking to offer hand, drivers have been quite eager to let go of
flexible, affordable, and low impact mobility in the wheel of their Teslas to see what hands-free
urban areas in particular. Fully aware of what is driving might one day feel like. The mobility rev-
technologically possible after having grown up olution will likely only feel like one in hindsight. In
with a smartphone, today’s younger generation reality, it will be more of a gradual transition, as
expects to be able to seamlessly jump from one features slowly evolve from being options to the
mode to the other without being confronted new standard.
with the hassles of complicated ticketing and,
God forbid, standing in line. Now the race is on
to develop smart pricing and ticketing platforms
that bring together a diverse set of service “The mobility revolution will
providers to make multi-modal mobility as easy likely only feel like one in
as hailing an Uber.
hindsight. In reality, it will be
And then there is air, maritime, and heavy more of a gradual transition,
ground transportation. We’re seeing increasing as features slowly evolve
efforts to electrify short distance air travel;
taxi drones are being developed in the United
from being options to the
Arab Emirates, while drone delivery has already new standard.”
been deployed in Rwanda to deliver blood
transfusions to remote villages. Electrification
is also transforming marine mobility, notably At this point, it’s a question of incentivizing
cruise ships; Norway has decreed that its implementation through smart regulation. The
UNESCO world heritage labeled fjords be cruise sooner we get serious about decarbonizing our
ship emission-free by 2029, and already has a economies, the sooner governments will step in
500-passenger hybrid cruise ship sailing the to promote more expensive solutions if they are
fjords for Hurtigruten. And on the roads, the better for the environment. Subsidies and incen-
first pilot tests have been carried out on groups tives to promote electric taxi fleets in cities such
of trucks that semi-autonomously follow a pilot as New York and London, and the above-men-
truck in platoons to optimize fuel consumption, tioned plans to protect the Norwegian fjords are
saving operational costs and protecting the all early steps in the right direction.
environment.
A matter of implementation
It’s safe to say that the essential technologies
needed to turn the page in this mobility revo-
lution are there. Reluctance on the part of the
public to adopt connected vehicles and other
forms of smart mobility is also unlikely to be the
showstopper it is often made out to be. When
technologies effectively enhance safety, reduce
hassle, or offer improved customer experience,
the public has a record of taking them up, often
even enthusiastically. You won’t see people
© Raffael Waldner
Photography
Gina Domanig
Managing Partner, Emerald
Technology Ventures and
Head of Nomination and
Compensation Committee, u-blox
1617
Connected future Digitalizing the industry will be a long-term undertaking More and more companies are embracing the benefits of the fourth industrial revolution, with automotive players leading the charge. But moving to smarter systems for sourcing, production, and distribution will keep the industry and technology vendors like ourselves busy for decades. When the first mass-market vehicles rolled off only recently became possible, largely thanks to Henry Ford’s production lines at the turn of the the fourth industrial revolution. last century, choice was not big on people’s minds. It was the Model T or a horse. Later, With information at its core and sensing, emerging technological possibilities and the connectivity, and data analytics and storage need for car brands to differentiate themselves as key enablers, the fourth industrial revolution from their competition expanded the palette is already delivering on its promise to increase of vehicles people could pick from. To the point industrial efficiencies at all levels. In addition to that, today, dozens of carmakers offer a catalog the auto industry’s product customization down of configuration options so varied that every the individual unit, companies as diverse as single driver could be behind the wheel of a truly Boss, the fashion label, and Pirelli, the tire brand, one-of-a-kind ride. Managing the complex logis- have embraced Industry 4.0 to improve every tics required to bring together the right com- stage of the value chain, from incoming orders ponents for each individual vehicle from myriad to raw material flows to distribution. Lufthansa, suppliers, assemble them correctly, and deliver the airline, optimizes material flows at all their the right final product to the right end-customer global bases using location-based services. 18
“With information at its core Getting there will involve overcoming a number
of challenges. One is scaling up from tracking a
and sensing, connectivity, single container to the often hundreds or thou-
and data analytics and sands of individual objects it holds. Another is
storage as key enablers, the delivering positions that are accurate enough to
locate them. Ideally indoors, outdoors, at every
fourth industrial revolution
step of the process. It’s just a matter of time
is already delivering on before these challenges find solutions.
its promise to increase
industrial efficiencies at all The logical consequence of this wave of digital
integration are digital twins: cloud-based
levels.” digital representations of all the material flows,
processes, and machines that make up the
While there are several early adopters, Industry industrial process. By tracking “everything,”
4.0 is a very long-term trend. The reasons are operations can be optimized at the system level
pragmatic. Uprooting established industrial to increase resource efficiency, product quality,
processes is always related to big investments. and supply chain and distribution transparency.
Consequently, it tends to be a process of con- Digital twins of industrial machines would help
tinuous retrofitting over years, if not decades, reduce downtime by predicting failures ahead
starting where it adds most value, and pene- of time and scheduling maintenance operations
trating deeper and deeper into existing process rather than being caught by surprise. And
landscapes as new needs emerge. they offer operators a platform to test process
changes before they are implemented on the
Take goods tracking. Today, tracking resolution factory floor.
typically stops at the container level, which is
quite easy to implement. Now, technology is And as these digital platforms become more re-
bringing the resolution down to the individual lied upon, users will expect them to become ever
parcel level. In the future, the resolution might closer representations of the physical world they
extend all the way down to the individual piece. are modeling. Achieving this will require more
19stringent demands on the data communication end-users, including robustness, longevity, and
– such as higher data rates and lower latencies, security aspects that come with the long
or lower data rates but increased coverage and intended lifetimes of deployed products.
power autonomy – driving the need for newer, Throughout the process, we leveraged our deep
higher performance communication technol- experience gained working with industrial and
ogies. These requirements have already found automotive partners in the industrial environ-
their way into the specifications of the next gen- ment, where we have long been present with
eration of wireless technologies, from Bluetooth our global navigation satellite system-based
5 to Wi-Fi 6 (and 7) to 5G, the latest generation positioning receivers as well are our short range
of cellular communication technology. and cellular module portfolio.
What, when, where 5G for the next wave of cellular applications
Answering the three most important questions There have been promising developments in
in the Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) – what, the specifications of cellular communication
where, when – requires small, reliable, and low- technology for Industrial IoT, driven by the 3GPP
cost global positioning devices, as well as low consortium, responsible for defining global
power, wide area and short range communica- cellular communication standards. The focus
tion technologies. But serving industrial custom- there has been on LTE Cat 1 to Cat 4, which are
ers isn’t just about developing and selling silicon. the appropriate technologies for applications
Industrial modems have average lifetimes of a that require high definition audio and video
decade. During this time, a lot can and will hap- streaming, as well as the communication of
pen. Customers expect these needs to be taken other measurement data. In the coming years,
seriously to ensure not only that devices go the our task will be to extend this to the 5G domain.
distance, but also that they evolve to optimize
their performance and adapt to new standards An important development under the 5G um-
and security requirements. brella will be the emergence of ultra-reliable low
latency communication (URLLC), a technology
that we will likely see roll out first in private
(non-public) networks run by individual com-
“Answering the three most panies according to higher performance specs
before it is taken up by mobile network operators
important questions in serving the broader public. Having full control
the Industrial Internet of over the backend of the network will also make
Things (IIoT) – what, where, it easier to guarantee end-to-end security. And
there are plenty of companies that are getting
when – requires small,
prepared to help set up private cellular networks
reliable, and low-cost global for these high performance use cases, from the
positioning devices, as well established base station providers like Nokia
as low power, wide area and and Ericsson to a new cohort of smaller players
that are taking advantage of the fact that
short range communication modern base stations are little more than PCs
technologies. ” running a specific software with an RF head.
But with all the hype surrounding 5G, it’s easy to
get carried away. Most standardization bodies
At u-blox, we are driving the expansion of the are focused on developing massive broadband
IIoT through our chipset development in the cel- for new record-breaking data rates, more rel-
lular domain with precisely these needs in mind. evant for consumer applications than for the
Over the past years, we have developed cellular industry. The other parts of the standard, in
modems for 4G LTE Cat 1, LTE-M, and NB-IoT particular those that are relevant for industrial
applications, starting from scratch and tailoring and automotive use cases, are lagging far be-
our hardware to the requirements of industrial hind. What that means is that we still have quite
20a lot of mileage to go with 4G technology, which Start where it creates value
continues to see new use cases emerge. Change is in the air, and Industry 4.0 promises
huge gains in efficiency, transparency, product
quality, and reliability. Opting for wireless con-
nectivity over today’s wired Ethernet reduces
“We still have quite a lot investment costs needed to sense higher quality
of mileage to go with 4G information and improve operator safety while
being quick to implement, highly flexible, and
technology, which continues massively scalable. On top of that, because
to see new use cases cables can be physically damaged, in particular
emerge.” near the plugs, wireless connections are more
robust in the long run.
But rather than diving into a full digital overhaul
Now that low power wide area (LPWA) networks of an entire production facility, a more piecemeal
– targeting power-constrained applications approach focusing on those specific application
with high coverage and low data throughput areas that help create value is likely to be better
requirements – have been deployed in most in the long run. Industrial sites are often full of
global markets, the number of solutions leverag- processes that have been refined over years.
ing these networks will pick up rapidly. And the Changing everything overnight risks undermin-
expectation that they will serve their customers ing those hard-earned refinements. By starting
for close to a decade means that upcoming where it creates value, gaining experiences
developments will be incremental rather than working within this new digital ecosystem, and
disruptive. Meanwhile, 4G private networks continuously optimizing and improving from
will allow users to push their communication there, any pains from the transition will easily be
infrastructure towards higher quality of service, offset by productivity gains it delivers.
lower latency, and higher data rates, simply by
optimizing their systems via the backend of
their infrastructure.
Andreas Thiel Ludger Boeggering
Head of Product Centers, Senior Professional Product
Co-Founder, u-blox Strategy Market Dev., Product
Center Cellular, u-blox
21Connected future Connected future Smart city, sustainable city Smart cities and the wireless connected systems that underlie them hold the promise to make the places we live better serve our needs. They’re also a powerful engine for value creation. 22
Around the world, cities are experimenting with North America, that figure is far lower in Asia, at
what it means to be smart. Confronted with around 50 percent, as well as in Africa, at around
an unprecedented wave of urbanization, most 42 percent. And as urban populations grow, ten
pronounced in developing regions with poor more cities will graduate to megacities, cities
infrastructure, they are turning to technology that are home to over ten million inhabitants, by
to mitigate problems caused by their ballooning around 2030.
populations. And as cities compete on the global
market to attract top employers and top talent, Megacities amplify urban challenges that we
smartness and the gains in quality of living it are all familiar with. Saturated traffic networks,
promises are becoming key differentiators. insufficient parking spaces, and over-crowded
public transport lead to accidents, air pollu-
Urbanization didn’t exactly sneak up on us. It’s tion, and long commutes. Inadequate energy
been a megatrend for decades and shows little management leads to grid failures, limits the
signs of slowing. By 2050, the UN foresees that potential for renewable energy, and lets losses
68 percent of the global population will live go undetected. Outdated and poorly monitored
in urban areas.1 For context, while urbanites infrastructure restricts the flow of resources,
make up over 82 percent of the population in goods, or people. It wastes resources, and,
1
https://www.un.org/development/desa/en/news/population/2018-revi-
sion-of-world-urbanization-prospects.html
23sometimes, fails catastrophically. And, home to These may sound like utopian ideals, but, in
dense populations with pronounced economic fact, the impact smart city technologies can
inequalities, megacities are often fertile breed- have is far from cosmetic. A study by McKinsey
ing ground for crime. found that they could reduce fatalities by 8-10
percent, accelerate emergency response times
Increasing the sustainability of both mega- and by 20-35 percent, cut the average commute by
ordinary cities means finding ways to address 15-20 percent, lower the disease burden by 8-15
all of these challenges. By tackling them using a percent, and cut greenhouse gas emissions by
holistic approach, smart cities and the wireless 10-15 percent.2
connected systems that underlie them hold the
promise to make the places we live better serve It turns out that we already have all the technol-
our needs, increasing our overall comfort, well- ogies these interventions would require at our
being, and security. disposal. Wireless connectivity – a combination
of cellular 4G, and soon 5G, Bluetooth, and
Wi-Fi – is prepared to connect a gargantuan
web of distributed sensors to the cloud, relaying
“Smart cities and the real-time data on the urban environment as well
as people, material, and resource flows through
wireless connected systems the city. Cloud computing platforms are in place
that underlie them hold the to manage, monitor, and analyze that data. In
promise to make the places other words, the time has come to implement
useful solutions and integrate them into a smart
we live better serve our
city platform.
needs, increasing our overall
comfort, wellbeing, and Solutions serving specific verticals prove this
security.” point. Large-scale smart metering solutions are
rolling out in several countries including Norway
and Spain, while Italy and Sweden are already
on their second generation of the technology.
Cities like Ann Harbor in the US have been
successfully piloting smart traffic management
A digital nervous system in the making systems. Smart streetlights are increasing their
Ultimately, smart cities are all about making footprint in metropolitan areas around the world
better use of resources to optimize their res- to improve public safety while reducing power
idents’ lives. Smart traffic management and consumption and light pollution. Cities like San
parking schemes save time and protect the air. Diego, also in the US, are equipping the lamp-
Smart metering infrastructure saves electricity, posts with microphones to accurately locate
gas, and, water. Smart health helps increase the gunshots to cut the time it takes law enforce-
capacity of an already overstretched healthcare ment to reach the scene of the crime. And the
system. Smart policing can increase public safe- possibilities go further still, with companies
ty and help rein in crime. And smart initiatives such as Tvilight3 offering a smart lighting-based
to engage with the community can encourage platform to track traffic, monitor the weather,
public participation, fostering a stronger sense and provide a connectivity hub for third party
of belonging and being heard. smart city applications.
2
McKinsey Global Institute, Smart cities: Digital solutions for a more
livable future, June 2018
3
www.tvilight.com
24Despite these applications, McKinsey found an increasingly transparent and participatory
that even today’s most advanced smart cities government, and new value-added services
are only scratching the surface in terms of their and mobile applications. By making cities eco-
potential. So what is holding them back? Lead- nomically attractive to businesses, they benefit
ership is important, a city’s political framework from high-quality job opportunities. Municipal
alone does not determine its smartness. Unsur- governments, on the other hand, can benefit
prisingly, wealthy cities tend to lead the pack, from increased tax revenues as well as consid-
as they are best able to support the deployment erable savings, due both to the more efficient
of the required sensing and communication use of inputs as well as from increased capacity
networks and open data portals. But key to of existing infrastructure, from roads and utility
success is public awareness and uptake of the networks to hospitals and police forces.
technologies, most prevalent in Asian cities
heavily populated by young digital natives. We’re seeing the X-as-a-Service (XaaS) model be
welcomed by smart cities. For one, it lets cities
With that in mind, smart cities should address shift expenses from capital expenditures to
the needs of their residents and engage with operational expenditures. It also lets municipal
them early on, empowering them to participate authorities tap into external pools of talent and
in the city’s decision-making process. It’s an expertise, rather than requiring a new team of
iterative process, and as more and more cities in-house experts to re-invent recurrent needs in
embark on this journey, a shared set of best each city. And in some cases, the savings that
practices will emerge as citizens come to expect accrue year by year using smart technology are
their cities to be as intelligent as many of the sufficient to finance the investment required
online platforms they engage with. and the service fees.
However they are financed, smart cities are
likely to continue to grow incrementally, as new
“As more and more cities use cases latch onto the evolving smart city
embark on this journey, a platform. To make it easier for cities to source
their technology from a patchwork of hardware
shared set of best practices
suppliers, we expect standardized technologies
will emerge as citizens come such as 4G LTE and 5G cellular networks as
to expect their cities to be well as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to make up the
as intelligent as many of the communication backbone of smart cities rather
than proprietary ones. Similarly, standardized
online platforms they engage interfaces and APIs will be crucial in getting the
with.” components to “speak the same language.”
For technology vendors like ourselves, smart
cities present an exciting and rapidly growing
market that much of our product portfolio
A powerful engine for value creation is well-tailored to serve. Our satellite-based
Smart cities are powerful engines for value positioning solutions featuring dead reckoning
creation with benefits for stakeholders at all deliver accurate positioning information to cars
levels. Residents reap the fruits of smart city deep inside urban canyons. Our short range
technology in the form of improved life quality, wireless communication portfolio covering Wi-Fi,
25Bluetooth low energy, Bluetooth mesh, and using energy harvesting. Extending the scope of
Bluetooth 5 meets the requirements to connect positioning technologies will require developing
the smart buildings that make up the smart seamless indoor-outdoor positioning solutions.
city and enable a broad range of smart city use And dealing with the abundance of data these
cases. Our vehicle-to-everything (V2X) chipset sensors generate will demand endowing the
will play an integral role in enabling smart traffic devices at the edge of the smart city network
management and advanced driver assistance with some degree of analytical intelligence to
schemes in urban environments. And our range process the raw data and limit power-hungry
of cellular technologies, in particular in the low data transmission to those bits and bytes that
power wide area segment, is a perfect fit to deliver relevant insights.
securely and reliably connect the web of distrib-
uted wireless sensors that underlies every smart The rural impact of urbanization
city. While cities are clearly the nexus of the ongoing
wave of urbanization, the flow of people moving
That said, many new frontiers remain to be away from rural areas also impacts them and
explored. Many smart city applications, such their ability to provide the societal services
as smart parking, would benefit from “fit and expected of them. Nowhere is this more obvious
forget” technologies that, once deployed, remain than in farming, where the rising demand for
operational for decades without requiring any agricultural produce, include grains, meat, and
maintenance. Today’s low power, wide area dairy, is running into a dwindling number of
(LPWA) networks have set a new bar in terms of farms and agricultural workers. It probably won’t
increasing the longevity of wirelessly connected surprise you that there’s an IoT based solution
devices. Pushing it even further will require to this as well. It’s one that we’ve covered in a
tapping into small but steady power sources previous edition of our u-blox magazine. Follow
that the devices are exposed to once in the field the QR code below to learn more.
Costas Meimetis
Senior Principal, Corporate
Strategy, u-blox
2627
Connected future
When the
prescription says
“IoT”
Connected health applications can transform
our understanding of sickness and health,
extend our autonomy by years, and take the
pressure off our healthcare systems. For that,
they need to be secure, dependable, and cost
effective.
How long did you sleep last night? Eight hours? And as we cut back on sleep, we deprive our-
Seven? Six? Today’s society is sleep deprived, selves of its many benefits that are only now
and that sleep deprivation has real-world conse- coming to light. Whether the lack of sleep is
quences. Studies have found that four consec- caused by a medical condition such as sleep
utive nights of four to five hours of sleep leaves apnea, or self-induced, it keeps the immune
individuals with the decision-making faculties system from performing at peak performance.
they’d have after enjoying a glass of wine. That Sleep literally helps us stay alive longer. It’s the
may not be an insurmountable obstacle to brain’s janitor, flushing out harmful residual
worldly success. But making it the rule, rather products that accumulate throughout the day,
the exception, is unlikely to be a good recipe for a such as amyloid plaques, linked with the devel-
thriving society. opment of Alzheimer’s disease.
Sleep epitomizes the potential and the perils Monitoring activity, and sleep, 24/7
of a connected society. It also points at some So how is connectivity helping us confront this
ways these perils can be overcome. Let’s face silent epidemic? First, by offering tools to revo-
it, the connected society is one of the reasons lutionize our understanding of sleep. Sleep labs
why we’re getting so little sleep in the first place. are costly, scarce, and just don’t feel like home.
From social media to on-demand movies, our As a result, the data they produce are costly,
screens and the content they bring us are either scarce, and somewhat flawed. Wirelessly con-
keeping us awake longer and longer or driving nected sleep monitoring equipment that test
us to do more, travel more, at an ever increasing subjects and patients can take home with them
pace. is transforming research, increasing the quanti-
ty and the quality of data available to scientists.
28Rather than studying patients during a brief Taking healthcare out of overdrive
checkup or, in the best case, over a single Healthcare is expensive. According to the World
night, mobile health technologies help doctors Economic Forum, by 2030 the world will lose
get their hands on a continuous data record around 30 trillion US$ in the treatment of the
spanning days or weeks to accurately diagnose abovementioned non-communicable diseases
disease. Armed with new insights they glean, alone. And just about everywhere, healthcare
it’s only a matter of time before new apps come systems are under tremendous pressure, finan-
out to nudge us into making healthier lifestyle cially, and in terms of capacity.
choices.
Continuous monitoring using connected tech- “Connected healthcare
nology is set to have similar effects on a variety
devices represent a valuable
of non-communicable diseases plaguing our so-
ciety, from diabetes to Alzheimer’s and Parkin- toolkit to increase the
son’s. With one billion people globally affected by capacity of the world’s
hypertension, and 17 million people dying from healthcare systems.”
cardiovascular problems each year, monitoring
patients continuously or over extended periods
of time could provide insights transforming our
understanding of these and other diseases. Not Connected healthcare devices represent a valua-
only that, they may also offer a means of early ble toolkit to increase the capacity of the world’s
diagnosis, and, for patients that are already healthcare systems. Gathering patient data
living with the diseases, a convenient way to prior to seeing a GP, for instance, means that
connect with their doctors. the doctor’s visit can be dedicated to discussing
29treatment options rather than attempting a “If connected healthcare
high-quality on-the-spot diagnosis. Adopting
electronic health record systems can then
solutions have an Achilles
ensure that patient data gets past through the heel, it’s concerns over
continuum of care intact and unmodified. And, safety, privacy, and
when possible, connected outpatient monitoring
confidentiality.”
could let patients move out of intensive care
units faster and return home earlier, while still
benefiting from sufficient monitoring. tracking system, making the management of
people and equipment much more straightfor-
Outside the clinic, our aging society is also ward. Seamless indoor and outdoor positioning
creating problems that we have not been con- solutions integrating satellite-based positioning
fronted with before. The possibility of sending could extend their reach further, for instance
the elderly to institutions where they can receive enabling emergency rescue services that oper-
quality care is running into a cost barrier. As a ate outside the confines of the hospital.
result of this, and of the widespread malaise as-
sociated with elderly care homes, assisted living Tackling the Achilles heel of trust
solutions are becoming increasingly widespread, If connected healthcare solutions have an Achil-
allowing elderly people to stay home and live les heel, it’s concerns over safety, privacy, and
autonomously for longer. confidentiality. Connected medical devices, from
dialysis machines to cardiac pacemakers, are
In addition to enabling remote medical mon- potentially exposed to malevolent hackers who,
itoring of elderly individuals, these solutions by controlling the devices, could put patients
can make it easier for them to interact with at risk. Others might set out to interfere with
their homes, monitoring air quality and in- and connected hospital management systems just
outdoor security. Ambient assisted living solu- for the sake of it. For all the improvements they
tions can also connect them to family members, offer, electronic medical records are exposed to
caregivers, medical professionals, and emergen- far more bad actors than conventional paper
cy services. And they make financial sense as records. There are countless ways that such
well: remote monitoring could reduce elderly care data can be misappropriated for financial gain.
expenditures in rural regions by one quarter. Fears over privacy breaches raise demands for
high levels of confidentiality.
Finding the hypodermic needle in the haystack
It isn’t just about patient monitoring. Hospitals For the connected healthcare industry to be
are fast-paced environments in which minutes broadly adopted, applications will, therefore,
wasted to find misplaced equipment can have require extremely high levels of digital security.
dire consequences. According to estimates by Whether devices are connected to the cloud
ABI Research, looking for lost equipment could via a short range gateway or directly over cel-
consume hundreds of hours per month in a lular communication, applications have to be
single hospital. These hours are, therefore, not designed to perform securely throughout their
available to deliver high quality and potentially entire lifetime. In addition to highly robust data
life-saving medical services to patients. Addi- encryption, the devices need to be continuously
tionally, quickly and efficiently locating patients, kept up to date against emerging threats, often
visitors, and medical staff can increase the over the air and under tight power constraints.
quality of service and safety. This calls for highly scalable, lightweight, and
reliable device management.
Many of these challenges can be overcome
through the deployment of real-time indoor The right kind of connectivity
positioning systems. By leveraging Bluetooth Connected health devices designed for global
or Wi-Fi signals from a network of beacons or markets need to operate in extremely diverse
routers, for instance, battery-powered trackers settings to easily connect to a large number
can continuously ping their position to an asset of clinical, proprietary, or national patient
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