Ericsson and Telia Carrier partner on global IoT backbone

Telia Carrier will provide backhaul and interconnect to Ericsson’s device connection platform via a dedicated global IoT backbone.

Ericsson has selected Telia Carrier for the provision of a global dedicated IoT backbone for its device connection platform (DCP). IoT operators will now be able to connect via any of Telia Carrier’s 220 IPX PoPs directly to Ericsson’s DCP in a single network hop. The solution will enable Ericsson to scale IoT applications and gain end-to-end control over its IoT traffic. “Our operator customers can now connect directly to our Device Connection Platform with a pre-integrated, scalable and secure backbone solution. The combined offering from Telia Carrier and Ericsson is fully aligned to provide the SLAs (Service Level Agreements) demanded by business-critical IoT applications,” said Anders Olin, vice president Product Area Network Functions with Business Unit Cloud and IP at Ericsson.

In the past five years, Telia Carrier has provided Ericsson with IoT connectivity via peering topology. ”In order to scale and have data arrive in a timely manner, we proposed to change the peering set-up to a dedicated backbone set-up. The first benefit is that IoT data is carried securely end-to-end in a lane separate from other data carried in the network; we can see where it is coming from and where it is going,” said Matthew Jones, head of Mobile Solutions at Telia Carrier, to Industrial IoT 5G Insights. While peering is an easy and fast way to market, problems arise as you scale up IoT solutions, because some applications have a low tolerance to delays. In addition, peering does not provide end-to-end visibility. ”What is unique is the fact that you can monitor data end-to-end, trouble-shoot, with a real SLA and scalability. A major problem with IoT is scalabilty and how to cope if a service goes viral within weeks. With this new IoT backbone solution, we can scale up without impacting other businesses already in operation,” said Jones.

16 billion IoT devices by 2021

Ericsson expects IoT connections to surpass mobile phones in 2018. IoT devices are forecast to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 23 percent between 2015 and 2021. In total, 16 billion of the total 28 billion connected devices in 2021 will be IoT devices, according to Ericsson’s latest Mobility Report. A total of 1.5 billion IoT devices are expected to have cellular subscriptions by 2021.

Source: Ericsson Mobility Report 2016

IIoT News Recap: Visa to equip Rio Olympics’ athletes with NFC payment rings; Upcoming public hearing on Industry 4.0 impact; Sierra and Movimento team up on seamless cloud-based software management; Qadium raises $20 million; Today’s forecast: the SEA connected car M2M market

Image: Charles Sykes/AP Images for VISA

IoT payments: Visa to equip Rio Olympics’ athletes with NFC payment rings

Visa is to allow athletes at Rio 2016 Olympic Games to pay with a NFC-enabled (Near Field Communication-enabled) payment wearable ring backed by a Visa account. The water-resistant ring includes a secure microchip made by Gemalto. It does not require use of a battery or recharging. “Visa’s first payment ring puts smart payment technology right on the hands of our athletes for convenient and easy payments,” said Jim McCarthy, executive vice president of innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa Inc. “This ring is the latest example of how Visa is continuously innovating to deliver on its goal of universal acceptance at the games and across the world.” Visa is the exclusive payment provider of the Olympic Games.

Industry 4.0: ITRE organizes public hearing on Industry 4.0 impact

The European Parliament’s committee on Industry, research and Energy, ITRE, is organizing a public hearing on 13 June 2016 to discuss industry 4.0 and its impact on robotics and big data. ”It would explore what lies ahead, how this new industry in which everything is linked will develop in the future, the potential scenarios and required legislation, as well as the impact it will have on all related industries energy, transport and citizens,” ITRE said.

Connected car: Sierra and Movimento team up on seamless cloud-based software management

Sierra Wireless and Movimento have partnered to enable automotive OEMs to offer car owners seamless cloud-based software installations and updates for connected cars. ”Cars are becoming part of our connected life, and we expect that they are not only up to date, secure and reliable, but we also want access to the latest features,” said Philippe Guillemette, chief technology officer at Sierra Wireless. “The solution that we’ve created with Movimento will enable automotive manufacturers to deliver these complex software requirements seamlessly across a vehicle’s entire lifecycle.” The Sierra Wireless-Movimento solutions allows automakers to update software for all Electronic Control Units (ECUs) simultaneously over-the-air.

Today’s startup: Qadium raises $20 million to map out IoT devices

Qadium, a startup that has been called the ”Google Street View” of IoT devices, has raised $20M Series A funding in an investment round led by Scott Sandell, managing partner of NEA. Qadium has built a platform that indexes device on the public internet and identifies relationships between those devices at scale. “Our platform is relevant to every IT transaction. Every time a company would otherwise pay a team of consultants to come in with clipboards, or to have a security team dig through voluminous log files, Qadium can provide analytic software,” said Tim Junio, co-founder and CEO of Qadium. Founded in 2012, Qadium received seed funding from the Pentagon’s research arm, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).

Today’s forecast: SEA connected car M2M market to grow at a 34 percent CAGR by 2020

Technavio forecasts that the global connected car M2M connections and services market in Southeast Asia (SEA) will grow at a CAGR of more than 34 percent by 2020, reaching revenues of nearly $5 billion by then. Growth will be driven primarily by increasing awareness about safety and security. ”During 2015, the safety and driver assistance segment accounted for around 30 percent of the market share to dominate the connected car M2M connections and services market in SEA. The majority share of the connected vehicle services revenue is generated from the driver assistance application owing to the growing demand for safety, convenience, and comfort,” said Technavio.