Burak Sefa Alpsoy

In this article I’d like to talk about Watson IoT platform and LPWAN Technology.

Article is divided 3 main points,

Firstly I will talk about Fundamentals for IoT – LPWAN

Second, we will look at IBM Watson IoT Platform

And finally I will show you some use cases of Watson IoT platform

Let’s start with “ What is IoT? It will be good to remember fundamentals of IoT before other parts.

This is really good explanation which I use in my other articles too. “IoT consists of structures where devices can share data with the center and can take action with the analysis of the data obtained.”

Graph 1 clearly shows connected devices in World since 2012 till 2020, there are lots of graphs which tries to explain same point with this, for example in 1950 only 5000 devices were connected and in 2020 the number is .30 billion More than 100 billion devices will be connected in 2050 regarding to some researches.

In the graph 2 you can see market share of IoT systems, especially industrial IoT and agriculture iot systems are most common trends around the World right now.

Now, lets move on components of IoT, software and cloud take special part of this kind of projects but IoT hardware also should be chosen and planned in detail.

• Sensors ( Temperature, Humidity, Distance, Voice etc.)
• Microchips and programmable devices ( NodeMCU ESP8266, Ardunio etc.)
• Network systems ( GSM, Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN etc.)
• Central systems ( Watson IoT Platform etc.)
• Analyze – Report applications
• Front end devices to take action

Sensors are starting point because data mostly comes from sensors like temperature and humidity.

Microchips and programmable devices are parts of IoT Projects like Notebooks in our jobs. There are various devices like Node MCUs, Ardunio etc.

Network is another important parts as you can imagine, but network systems also should be chosen according to Project. We talk about details.

Central system like Watson IoT Platform is heart of Internet of things Project.

Analyze and reports are goals of projects.

Also you can add front end devices to take actions like closing a door or shut down of system which Works at high degrees.

As I mentioned before network system should be chosen based on Project.

Local are network is most common one which has well standards in building but which is expensive and causes poor battery life.

Cellular network is our every thing thanks to mobile phones and has high data rate but still expensive to use in IoT projects.

Come up of LPWAN Technology changed age of IoT because it can work with low power and it is really cost effective solution.

5G, operates at frequencies of about 28 GHz and 39GHz. This is considerably higher than 4G networks, which use about 700 MHz-2500 MHz frequency to transfer information.

To help with the features that 5G Ultra Wideband promises, including potentially supporting 1 million devices per square kilometer LPWan Works in 868 MHz or 902 MHz bands,

Graph 4 is a sample architecture of an LPWAN system. Devices are connected to gateway, than LoraWAN Gateway. Finally system can reach central system securely with  https protocol.

In the 5th graphic you can compare some of network Technologies.

Advantage of LPWAN is its working frequency because it can work in frequencies like 868 Mhz or 902 Mhz which are close to radio frequencies.

This is also another topic which should be explained in a detailed article, it has lots of features and details.

So that brings us main subject of article,

Watson iot platform has large scalable and secure ecosystem for connecting all kind of devices directly or through gateway.

What can Platform do for us?

Device Management

Using device management service, you can perform device actions like rebooting or updating firmware, receive device metadata, or perform bulk device addition and removal.

Responsive, scalable connectivity

Platform uses the industry-standard MQTT protocol to connect devices and applications.

MQTT is designed for efficient exchange of data, TO and FROM devices in real-time.

Secure Communication

Securely receive data from and send commands to your devices. Platform do this using MQTT with TLS to secure all communication between your devices and IBM service.

MQTT: The Message Queuing Telemetry Transport is a network protocol that transports messages between devices

TLS: The TLS protocol encrypts internet traffic of all types. The most common is web traffic; you know your browser is connected via TLS if the URL in your address starts with “https,” and there’s an indicator with a padlock telling you the connection is secure,

Data lifecycle management

As well as having access to real-time data coming from your devices, you can choose to store data for a period, allowing you to have access to historical and real-time data for your devices.

We can sum platform in 3 different services,

• Connection
• Analytics
• And Blockchain Service,

Connection service is responsible for device connectivity, management and data management

Analytics service Works on data visualization, Pre-built models and, AI driven insights

Blockchain service provides transaction transparency and trusted credentials, this is also some another topic which we can talk in different article thanks to Blockchain Technology

With platform you are able to use third part applications, create solutions and have a dashboard for your system

I want to shortly talk about analytics service, it is one of main points in IoT Technology after industry 4.0 because earlier iot systems were mostly used for automation systems. Now, we are able to talk AI driven IoT which brings us self decision of system.

With analyze of data from IoT you create smart areas which provides more effective RTO and RPO times. For example, in a shipyard Project we were working, self decision of system was really important because if worker is a dangerous situation and there is no one close to worker. System should be able ask help from central Office or even call for an ambulance if needed.

Let’s move to use cases

Our first use case is Poseidon Project, they were looking for a smarter irrigation system and by developing low-cost iot enabled soid measuring system Poseidon Project achieved to help farmers to pick most effective times to irrigate.

Second use case is providing new link from customers to warrantee services,. With a projects using Watson IoT platform 70% decrease expected in customer service call time,

50% reduction projected in service and parts provision costs

Reduce in IT costs with cloud-based hosting and solution as a service delivery

So that brings us to end of article, we looked at

• Fundamentals of IoT
• Watson IoT platform and
• Some use case.

IoT’s border is your imagination, you can create your own IoT system for Daily or business life.