“IoT is not easy. Estimates vary but in general it is thought that 80% of all IoT initiatives fail,†Kyle Okamoto, general manager of IoT, Ericsson said during our tête-à -tête in this Tech Talk. Okamoto sheds light on why IoT connectivity matters today and how enterprises can avoid costly mistakes to overcome IoT implementation challenges.
He shares how businesses should prepare DevOps teams for IoT implementations and how enterprises can make the right choice in the modem space when deploying IoT platforms.
Key Takeaways on How To Fix IoT Implementation Challenges:
- Use a private cellular APN so that IoT devices are visible only to the data platform.
- Build a tier-one dedicated IoT network to immediately block a suspicious device.
- Work out where and how the devices will be connected to address IoT implementation challenges.
Here are the edited excerpts from our exclusive interview with Kyle Okamoto, General Manager of IoT, Ericsson:
1. Can you tell us what inspired you to enter the world of Internet of Things (IoT)? What challenges did you overcome in your tech journey?
In the beginning, the basic idea of having cellular connected devices talking to each other was new and required pioneers to spread the message. As the concept took hold with the first major customers, we quickly discovered that the cellular networks worked ok at a radio level but at a core and BSS level were quite ill-suited to M2M and IoT requirements, which were still quite nascent and constantly evolving.Â
The challenges were and still are constant. Requirements are constantly evolving, devices are often unpredictable, homemade, and prone to creating signaling storms or randomly consuming an entire data bucket by mistake. Enterprise customers are demanding more and more powerful monitoring, billing, reselling, trigger management and security services. It is not for the faint hearted. This is an exciting space that requires commitment, but the impacts to society and the world are clearly positive and evident, so it is highly motivating to be a part of that effort.Â
See More: 5G and IoT: Pros, Cons, and Some Things You Never Considered
2. Why is IoT connectivity so important today? Which industries are set to benefit directly from its adoption?
We have always said that everything that can benefit from being connected will be connected. To connect something, you need three key elements.Â
Sensors and a modem🡪Connectivity🡪a data platform
Connectivity is the glue that holds everything together. It is the only part of the puzzle that talks to both ends and it is the place where automation and simplification can occur. It also has the highest barrier to entry, using infrastructure that costs billions to install and manage.Â
“We are focused on cellular IoT to address the wide area. Industry wise, we see utilities, transport, healthcare, environmental monitoring and asset tracking as having the most to gain from wide area public networks and manufacturing as having the most to gain from private cellular networks.â€Â
3. What mistakes businesses should avoid when planning and executing IoT connectivity?
We refer to the two phases as the ‘shadow IT spend’ and the ‘formal IT budget’ phase. In the initial shadow IT spend phase, individual development teams start learning IoT and shopping around for developer kits, subscriptions and trial accounts. This phase can take between one and two years and it is in this phase that vendors seek new customers with free samples of modules, connectivity, and data solutions.Â
“Extensive use of subscription management tools, APIs and automation tooling from communication choices tend to create technical lock-in as devices 1 to 100 are deployed and this creates significant problems when the project moves to the next phase. When IT issues a comprehensive request for quote (RFQ) to scale from device 101 to 1 million, it is discovered that the early choices made do not meet the requirements. Costly re-architecture is then required.â€Â
Unfortunately, the network provider whose bread and butter is scaling customers to millions of devices is typically not that focused on handing out free samples and working to educate engineers so there is plenty of opportunity for enterprises to be led astray to their eventual detriment.
See More: Smart Ways to Maximize Your ROA With Internet of Things
4. Two of the key challenges impacting the success of IoT projects today are security threats and implementation. How does a unified IoT platform help iron out these challenges for businesses?
Devices are perfect targets on the internet for hijacking and other nefarious goals. There are two ways of thinking about connecting devices. Firstly, the device could be on the public internet and as such must be well protected at the device level. This typically involves placing root of trust x.509 certificates on each device and implementing transport layer security (TLS) end to end.Â
The philosophy is that the device’s public IP will be constantly targeted and that this needs to be mitigated 24/7. This works fine for powered IoT devices with large data payloads, but unfortunately is highly problematic for narrow band networks such as NBIoT populated by billions of small, constrained devices with small batteries and tiny data payloads.
“The best approach for any constrained device is to use a private cellular APN to keep the traffic off the public internet so that the devices are invisible to anything other than the data platform at the other end of the VPN that the APN is connected to. No complex TLS or certificate management is then required to ensure a secure connection to the data platform.â€Â
This gets complicated however, as most new projects are using AWS IoT Core, Azure IoT Hub and Azure IoT Central as the data platform of choice, and these only accept devices with public TCP IP addresses and TLS encryption, the network itself needs to step up to the task and bridge the two incompatible worlds.
Once connected there are also many security issues that enterprises need to contend with. More than one smart meter SIM has ended up being ripped out and inserted into a mobile phone or hijacked and used for malicious means. A blind network will happily allow these cases to happen whereas a tier-one dedicated IoT network is programmed to immediately recognize a change in behavior and block the device.Â
See More: How Wireless Power Is Up-Leveling Industrial IoT
5. How should businesses prepare their developers’ team for IoT implementations? Which training and certifications will be most needed to install a plug-and-play IoT platform?
This is a great question and one where there is no easy answer. Currently each business needs to take the journey themselves, dive into the deep end of the pool, be prepared to hear one hundred diverging stories and work out for themselves what makes sense for them.Â
From experience, there is a somewhat predictable thread in terms of how organizations address IoT. Step one is to work out where and how the devices will be connected. As previously mentioned, data destinations are increasingly converging on the hyperscale cloud endpoints and associated data management toolsets.Â
“The next major decision is whether they need wired, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Sigfox, Lora or cellular connectivity. This decision then points to the choice of connectivity modules that are used to build the first prototypes. Once the correct choice of cellular is made, the engineer, using his credit card, will need to find an IoT cellular connectivity provider and start implementing the first prototypes.â€Â
What is important at this stage is that the organization understands that whatever provider choice is made, and whatever APIs and tools are implemented, they will need to survive a detailed RFQ process and scale into mass deployment. Unfortunately, enterprises typically develop this knowledge through trial and error as they discover that choices made early are often not the right ones in the long term.Â
6. What steps companies should follow to get their existing devices prepared for a unified IoT platform?
At a device level, the main considerations are around sensors, processors, and modems. We are primarily focused on helping enterprises make the right choice in the modem space as this will be critical for global deployments.Â
There are four key areas to consider in the modem.
Firstly, which cellular radio(s) the device will use. There is a huge difference between a narrow band low powered network and an LTE or 5G network and the use case, coverage, data payloads and power considerations all play a part here.Â
Secondly, the choice of network will impact the decision as to whether to use root of trust encryption or alternatively use a private IP address (private APN) and rely on 3GPP security.
“Thirdly, the choice of SIM. Is it a slot for a plastic SIM, a soldered e-SIM (eUICC) or an embedded iUICC? If it is an e-SIM, then is it a fixed profile, a multi-profile or a programmable profile. Proprietary multi-profile offerings or “one roaming SIM for the entire world†can be enticing offers, but the reality is unfortunately significantly more complicated for IoT devices.â€
Fourthly, how will the device be managed with firmware over the air (FOTA) and software over the air (SOTA) functions? The modem and connectivity network will need to support these seamlessly.Â
See More: Beyond an IoTa of Doubt: 9 Essentials for IoT Security
7. Ericsson’s pre-MWC product announcement, the IoT Accelerator platform, claims to make IoT easier than ever. What enterprise needs will you meet when implementing this product?
Ericsson IoT Accelerator is already one of the world’s two leading cellular IoT connectivity solutions. It is used by thousands of tier-one enterprises globally for managing fleets numbering in the millions of devices. Until now, our CSP partners typically engage at the RFQ phase and ultimately disappoint a lot of developers who are instructed by management to redesign their solutions to migrate from early choices.Â
We think that this redesign is a waste of resources and so we launched IoT Accelerator Connect to bring tier-one cellular IoT connectivity to every developer in the world from day one of their projects.
And of course, with the Connect Hub, all our CSP partners can easily present themselves for trial, public and private offerings to the developer, cloud, module manufacturer and reseller communities at close to zero incremental cost.
8. Which are the most significant IoT trends in 2022 that will shape the industry’s future?
2022 will continue to introduce a whole new range of innovative business models as the fundamental value chain of device vendor🡪connectivity provider🡪cloud provider solidifies and vendors in each of the categories look to collaborate and bundle each other’s offerings. This will create some interesting dynamics.
“From a technical perspective, we will see an increased focus on business process automation where vendors look to eliminate more and more of the complexity involved in IoT deployment and management.â€
From a network perspective, we will see LTE Cat1 grow and take market share from CatM1 and NBIoT in the narrowband space and see the boundaries between private and public LTE networks blur as more and more enterprises start to demand hybrid solutions and new ways of thinking about the lifecycle of connected devices. Finally, we will see concrete IoT use cases around 5G emerge.Â
About Kyle OkamotoOpens a new window
Kyle Okamoto is the general manager of Ericsson IoT, an industry-leading connectivity management platform on a truly global scale that has partnered with over 35 Service Providers to date. Formerly the general manager for Ericsson Edge Gravity, a global edge cloud platform supporting next-generation use cases of edge compute, Kyle has 20 years of industry experience leading large organizations. Prior to joining Ericsson, Kyle was the chief network officer at Verizon Media and also founded and exited several start-ups in the social enterprise space.Â
About EricssonOpens a new window
Ericsson enables communications service providers to capture the full value of connectivity. The company’s portfolio spans Networks, Digital Services, Managed Services, and Emerging Business and is designed to help our customers go digital, increase efficiency and find new revenue streams. Ericsson’s investments in innovation have delivered the benefits of telephony and mobile broadband to billions of people around the world.Â
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