Oct. 2016

Datanet Systems has recently launched an IoT solution based on a hardware product and a software application developed inside the company. Datanet is delivering turnkey, integrated IoT systems and ensures a complete portfolio of technical services that includes design, project implementation, software development and maintenance.

At the moment, the penetration of Internet of Things (IoT) solutions is rapidly developing in several industries.  The estimated number of the connected devices through wireless technologies is constantly increasing, indicating an accelerated adoption (Gartner predicts 21 billion by 20150, IDC – 30 billions, Cisco – 50 billions). Apart from the numbers, it is certain that in order to reach their full potential, IoT applications need performant connectivity solutions. What is the right solution for each application, individually, depends on the context where these applications are used. If until a couple of years ago, the majority of Machine-to-Machine solutions (M2M) were mainly using mobile data connections, for the new generation of IoT equipment the energy consumption and the complexity of the communication protocols are reduced. This is why increasingly more suppliers of IoT equipment and solutions for enterprises are heading towards Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) technologies, that are designed to comply with these challenges.

 

The LPWA offensive

Nowadays, there are LPWA applications in various industries, the largest adoption being expected in the following areas:

• Distribution of energy and utility services (remote meter reading);
• Environmental monitoring (monitoring of physical and chemical properties of water, air and soil);
• Logistics, retail (goods, containers, pallets tracking);
• Monitoring the physical infrastructure (buildings, pipes, bridges, etc.);
• Tracking and remote control of industrial equipment.

In addition, new developments are constantly added in the Smart City area, with applications in Building Management, traffic monitoring, public transportation, Smart Parking, waste management, etc. The low cost of the LPWA technologies allows for their integration in durable consumer goods, for geolocation and remote maintenance operations.

“The interest in LPWA technologies is sustained by the key advantages they provide: large coverage, low power consumption, low price and communication security.” said Gabriel Musat, Technical & Marketing Director at Datanet Systems.

Datanet Systems is producing its own LPWA terminal, together with the software necessary for using it, delivered as a complete turnkey system.

 

Datanet Systems solution’ technical parameters

The solution designed, produced and implemented by Datanet Systems has the following characteristics:

• Has a reduced power consumption, ensuring several years of life battery duration for the equipment.
• Works in unlicensed frequency band of 868 MHz, using LoRaWAN protocol;
• Ensures a coverage radius of 3-5 km in urban areas and 13-15 km in rural environments;
• Provides a data rate between 0.25 and about 5 Kbps, adaptive by distance;
• It is robust to interference;
• It can propagate through buildings;
• It is implemented in a star topology;
• The modulation used is designed to scale up to thousands or tenths of thousands of sensors per network.

The IoT terminal proposed by Datanet Systems doesn’t require an external power source, the internal battery ensuring a 3 years lifespan, is compliant with industrial use requirements (IP65 and operating temperatures of -20 to +60 degrees Celsius) and provides a RS485 or RS232 serial interface.

 

Datanet services and fields of application

“Currently, we provide turnkey systems that include endpoint devices, wireless gateways, network and application server software and integration services. The systems are designed so they can be deployed quickly, at low cost, and to work immediately as an integrated system. We are driven primarily by data collection in industrial applications, remote diagnostic and control, remote reading of electricity and water meters, monitoring of physical infrastructure and public parking areas” explains Gabriel Musat.

The software from the endpoint device and the application server ensures the following:

• Temporary data storage in the endpoint device, in case of nework unavailability, with configurable data lifetime;
• Data Deduplication – data caching functionality for reducing WAN traffic;
• Power consumption management – switching-off hardware components when not in use;
• Application server data export at customer request;
• Customized reports with data received by the application server, network parameters and endpoint status.
• Flexible interfacing with customer software applications.

 

Objective for 2017 : an enhanced and cheaper LPWA endpoint device 

“Next year, our objective is to produce a multifunctional LPWA deviceequipped with a RS 232/RS 485 serial interface, multiple analog inputs and multiple digital inputs/outputs, at an estimated unit price of 50 Euro. Datanet Systems it is a partner that delivers a complete solution and has the relevant specialists with competence and experience in this technology, ready to solve specific issues”, said Gabriel Musat, Technical & Marketing Director Datanet Systems.

Datanet Systems has the advantage of the experience gained from several critical infrastructure projects (in the financial industry and banking, telecom and air traffic control) and is one of the leading system integrators in Romania, with skills and experience proven by dozens of implementations at a national and regional scale.

 

Learn more about Datanet Systems’ portfolio, in the dedicated section.
For more details please contact:
Gabriel Mușat
Technical and Marketing Manager
office@datanets.ro
www.datanets.ro