July 21, 2016

Is Your Network Right for Your Application?

Cellular or low power? That is a great question to ask when building a future-proof application in the Internet of Things (IoT) space. The IoT world is booming with growth every day and there are so many different applications and so many different options to transport data. According to analyst estimates, 86% of all IoT applications use 3MB of data or less per month. Therefore, cellular networks, not purpose-built for machine traffic may not be the best fit for these applications.  Conversely, Ingenu’s RPMA® (Random Phase Multiple Access) technology is suited for all different types of machine applications. It not only caters to application service providers (ASPs) that are developing applications that use very small amounts of data that need very long battery life, it can also accommodate the applications that need to report more frequently with larger amounts of data. This cannot be achieved with most other low-power or cellular offerings.

In 2018, there will be an estimated nine billion connected IoT devices, so choosing a carrier can be very confusing for an ASP. When deploying a solution, most find it is a struggle to find the right price plan for the right data profile. Considerations should be made for applications, data consumption, network longevity, and serviceability, so it is always good to explore options to find the best carrier that fits with your application.

Whether the solution is high-speed, large profiles, or applications that only need bytes of data, the ASP has an advantage because there are now carriers designed specifically for IoT. These IoT carriers can tailor plans specifically for each application while offering significant rate reductions, not to mention the elimination of network sun-setting.

When choosing an IoT network provider, be sure they understand your specific applications so they can design a plan which appropriately fits your data needs.

 

 

 

 

July 21, 2016

Back to Basics: The Shannon-Hartley Theorem

The Shannon-Hartley Theorem represents a brilliant breakthrough in the way communication theory was viewed in the 1940s and describes the maximum amount of error-free digital data that can be transmitted over a communications channel with a specified bandwidth in the presence of noise. 

As you can see, and as threatened in Blog 1: Categories of LPWA Modulation Schemes, we’re going back to basics and generating the framework and vocabulary to justify and discuss the categories of Low-Power, Wide-Area (LPWA) connectivity: Ultra-Narrow Band (UNB), Non-Coherent M-ary Modulation (NC-MM), Orthogonal Division Multiple Access (OFDM), and Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS).

Before jumping directly into the details of the Shannon-Hartley Theorem, lets set the stage with the concepts of receiver sensitivity, Eb/No, and spectral efficiency (η).

Receiver Sensitivity and Eb/No

Receiver sensitivity is the amount of energy required for demodulation.  A link with better receiver sensitivity will have longer range and more robustness, which will equate to less density of infrastructure.

Eb/No is energy per bit relative to thermal noise spectral density.  To understand Eb/No, its important to understand the relationship between receiver sensitivity (related to range), data rate, and Eb/No:

Receiver sensitivity = (-174 dBm + NF) + Eb/No + 10log10(Data Rate)

  • The number -174 dBm is based on Boltzman’s constant and represents the thermal energy at room temperature per Hz.
  • NF is Noise Figure, which is a figure of merit that is typically around 2 to 5 dB for a given radio front end.
  • There is an inverse linear relationship between receiver sensitivity and data rate. The better the Eb/No, the better the receiver sensitivity at a given data rate.

Spectral Efficiency

Spectral efficiency is the amount of data that can be transmitted in a single link per Hz of bandwidth.  So why is spectral efficiency important?  It’s because spectrum is typically a fixed and valuable asset.  For a multiple access system to operate well, it’s often important to channelize so that multiple communications may occur simultaneously. The formula for the amount of data throughput that can be moved through a piece of spectrum is η x BW.  BW is typically fixed – if it’s free spectrum, there is a very finite amount of it, if it’s licensed spectrum, then it’s extremely expensive.  The role of a good modulation scheme is then to make sure that η is as high as reasonably can be designed.

The Shannon-Hartley Thoerem

The Shannon-Hartley theorem describes the theoretical best that can be done based on the amount of bandwidth efficiency:  the more bandwidth used, the better the Eb/No that may be achieved for error-free demodulation.  Or, equivalently stated: the more bandwidth efficient, there is a sacrifice in Eb/No.  The Shannon-Hartley theorem applies only to a single radio link.  It does not directly apply to a multiple access system that is important in a Wide-Area Network (WAN).   Nevertheless, Shannon-Hartley is a great starting point.

Specifically, the Shannon-Hartley theorem puts a lower bound on the Eb/No for error-free demodulation given spectrum efficiency as[1]:

equation

where η is spectral efficiency measured in units of bits/Hz.  This relationship is shown in the figure below.  Note that what’s called the Shannon Limit (which is -1.6 dB) is asymptotically approached when η = 10-1.  As spectrum efficiency is increased, the required Eb/No increases.  Stated another way, as η increases, not only is there more power required (or worse receiver sensitivity) because you’re moving more bits, but each bit actually gets more expensive in terms of power required.  That’s a double whammy in terms of receiver sensitivity.

channel capacity

So, let’s be honest, the Shannon-Hartley Theorem is hardly good news for anyone.  Let’s walk through what it means when you’re trying to build a system in a constrained amount of spectrum:

  • Say you want to cover as much distance with your link as possible. Shannon-Hartley tells you that you can reduce data rate to get better range (in theory without limit).  At this limit, it costs a fixed amount of power to get a bit through – so every dB of data rate reduction buys you 1 dB of receive sensitivity.  But, the more you do this, the less the capacity.   You’ll be getting a trickle of data through this admirable amount of spectrum you happen to have access to.
  • Okay fine, you say. Then let me just get a lot of data through my spectrum (that’s a perspective that is important in the cellular industry).  If it’s a fixed amount of power per bit, then I’ll crank up the power and get a factor of 10 data rate increase for every factor of 10 dB increase in transmit power.  But, not so fast, says Shannon-Hartley.  If you look at the curve, the amount of power per bit increases dramatically as η becomes larger than 1.  Not only are you spending power getting more bits through your spectrum, each bit is getting considerably more expensive.  Nevertheless, in the 3GPP standards body, the quest for ever-increasing data rates has caused pushing up this curve as much as possible.  As an example, 256 Quadrature Amplitude Modulation (QAM) that has a spectral efficiency of close to 9 (η=9 which is pretty much the far right point in the figure above) is being currently standardized.
  • Oh, and just to add insult to injury – Shannon-Hartley is the best-case scenario. It’s what could be achieved with infinite computation power, infinite latency (because the coding blocks become infinitely large), infinite frequency accuracy, etc. Everything in the real world will be worse, perhaps even much worse.

What do smart people do when confronted with such bad news?  How about look for a loophole!  We definitely need such a loophole to build a high coverage, yet high capacity network (a trickle won’t do).  Something called “spreading” may be that loophole.  “Spreading” is maintaining the channel bandwidth (BW) regardless of data rate and allowing very low link spectral efficiencies (η <<0.1) to achieve high receiver sensitivity.  On the face of Shannon-Hartley, this seems like an exceedingly bad idea.  Yeah, you may get the coverage you need, but you only get a “trickle” of small amounts of data through that precious spectrum.  That’s okay, a lot of loopholes seems like a bad idea at first and we will explore the implications of this approach in Blog 4: “Spreading” – A Shannon-Hartley Loophole?

But first, because there are multiple ways to “spread” a signal, we need to first understand how LoRa/Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) can be analyzed and we lay that framework in Blog 3: Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS): The Jell-O of Non-Coherent M-ary Modulation.

And finally, we’ll get back into the real world and test whether this discussion is even useful in in Blog 5: The Economics of Receiver Sensitivity and Spectral Efficiency to attempt to quantify the commercial value of that which is discussed on these blogs.

At any point, if you’re interested in a more in-depth treatment of these topics, please download, How RPMA Works:  The Making of RPMA.

July 21, 2016

Not all 2.4 GHz Networks are Created Equal

Oftentimes when discussing the frequency band which Random Phase Multiple Access (RPMA) operates in, depending upon who the audience is, they initially become confused, but then almost immediately confident about the utilization of the spectrum and what performance can be expected with RPMA. Add in the fact that we (Ingenu) and our global partners are currently deploying a publicly accessible Machine Network, and straightaway the audience believes we must need to deploy tens of thousands of access points to provide the coverage for the markets we are targeting. This is because the audience is associating our RPMA technology with other 2.4 GHz technology; your home, office of neighborhood coffee shop Wi-Fi. As the title of this blog post states, not all 2.4 GHz networks are created equal.

When thinking of range, the typical 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi network everyone uses daily and is familiar with, provides an average indoor range of 120’ to 240’ and an average outdoor range of 300’ to 600’ with a single access point depending upon which mode it is operating in. In comparison, a single Ingenu RPMA access point can provide coverage of 70 square miles in urban areas and 400 in rural flat areas. That’s quite a difference!

In terms of speed or how much information can be passed on the network, there are a couple of ways to think about it. You can think about the data rate of the network or the capacity of the network. Also keep in mind that in data communications, speed is measured in kilobits or megabits per second, designated as kbps or Mbps. In addition, there are many Wi-Fi standards in use today, and newer technologies can bond multiple channels/frequencies together to achieve higher throughput. However, a single channel on a Wi-Fi access point in a standard configuration can provide the following speeds; 802.11b – 2 to 3 Mbps, 802.11g – 18 to 20 Mbps and 802.11n – 40 to 50 Mbps; with a maximum of 50 devices connected. In comparison, a single channel on an Ingenu access point can provide 100kbps upstream per device with a maximum of 64,000 devices connected. Again, quite a difference.

The reason for such stark differences is because these two technologies where built for two different purposes and while these two technologies operate in the 2.4 GHz ISM band, they are completely different. It’s important to understand that point. The common place Wi-Fi technology was built for includes bandwidth-intensive applications like voice, video and music stream. As such, it has very short range and requires many access points. On the other hand, Ingenu’s RPMA wireless technology was built from the ground up to provide low-power, wide-area connectivity for device communications. Offering unparalleled capacity and extreme coverage per access point, RPMA is designed for connecting applications in difficult to reach locations, and as such, requires a ridiculously low number of access points.

Robust communications are essential for smooth operations, and RPMA offers the most robust wireless connectivity for machines.

July 20, 2016

Setting the Stage: Categories of Low-Power, Wide-Area Modulation Schemes

At first glance, the number of communication technologies being discussed for Low- Power, Wide-Area (LPWA) networks may be a bit overwhelming.  What may be helpful is to look at the underlying technology from a fundamental perspective and tune out the marketing component.  Note that marketing is an extremely important aspect of LPWA success, but since I am a CTO, I would like to push it to the side for this discussion.

Many of you know that Communication Theory is a very mature field going back many decades with a vast wealth of generated knowledge.  Tens of thousands of books, articles, and papers have been published over this time.  There are giants in the field – Claude Shannon, Harry Nyquist, Ralph Hartley, Alan Turing, and Andrew Viterbi (who has been an Ingenu strategic advisor from the beginning) whose work we can turn to for clarity.    This great body of work gives us frameworks and vocabularies for comparison.  It’s often a drier and less interesting world once the marketing innovation is subtracted out – but please, bear with me.

The table below shows four categorizations of the various categories of modulation schemes that are being discussed for LPWA.  Bold denotes those technologies being branded as applicable to Low-Power, Wide-Area networking.  Since this is a technology treatment, I am defining Local Area Network (LAN) and Wide-Network (WAN) by the underlying technology as opposed to how these approaches are being marketed. Note that the most well-known approaches in each category are the Sigfox™ technology, LoRa®, also known as Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS), Narrow-Band IOT (NB-IOT), and Random Phase Multiple Access (RPMA®).  These technologies tend to be those with the best marketing (yes, marketing is very important).

Category Local Area Network Wide Area Network
Ultra-Narrow Band

(UNB)

 Sigfox

Telensa

N-Wave

WaveIOT
Non-Coherent M-ary Modulation (NC-MM) Bluetooth

802.11b

LoRa (CSS)

Sensus (7-FSK)

 GSM/GPRS

EC-GSM

 
Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS) 802.11

Zigbee

 

 W-CDMA

RPMA
Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing

(OFDM)

 802.11a/g LTE

WiMax

NB-IOT

From a technology perspective, the definition of being appropriate as a WAN is whether the multiple-access considerations of coverage and capacity are taken into account:

  • Coverage. If you want to build a WAN, you would like a single piece of network infrastructure (often on a tower or rooftop) to cover as much area as possible.
  • Capacity. There’s not a lot of good in covering a massive area if you cannot support the data needs of all the devices in that footprint.

Giving a bit more color on the categories:

  • Ultra-Narrow Band (UNB). The reason many companies have elected this approach is the advantage of low barrier to entry.  Companies in this category can leverage commodity radios and skip any technology development.  These companies tend to argue that no new technology is required.  We disagree for many reasons including the inability to make the economics of LPWA work as discussed in Blog 5: The Economics of Receiver Sensitivity and Spectral Efficiency.
  • Non-Coherent M-ary Modulation (NC-MM). This is a commonly used modulation in both LAN and WAN applications. Cellular 2G technology was based on GSM/GPRS which uses a modulation approach called Minimum Shift Keying (MSK) and is also being repurposed to Extended Coverage GSM (EC-GSM) which is cellular LPWA in 2G spectrum.  The LoRa modulation (CSS) is a member of this category (as is justified in Blog 3: Chirp Spread Spectrum: The Jell-O of Non-Coherent M-ary Modulation.  The “spreading” of CSS has no discernible advantage and indeed, as discussed in Blog 4: “Spreading” – A Shannon-Hartley Loophole?, has some significant drawbacks in terms of spectral efficiency.
  • Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum (DSSS). We described LoRa as “spreading” for no discernible reason.  Well it turns out NC-MM does not have the monopoly on this. DSSS has a couple of technologies that also spread for no discernible reason – IEEE 802.11 (the original 1 and 2 Mbps data rates) and Zigbee (based on IEEE 802.15.4).  This is just one example to show you that standards bodies are less about technology and more about politics.  I will discuss this in more depth in a future blog.
  • Orthogonal Division Multiple Access (OFDM). This is the way you get extreme spectral efficiency.  It’s great for voice high-speed data and has enabled LTE (4G) to become the dominant cellular standard. When you try to point this approach at LPWA (such as NB-IOT), significant problems emerge.  I will discuss this in more depth in a future blog.

In the next blog, we visit the building blocks of communication and translate the perfectly good and intuitively understandable terms of coverage and capacity to nerd in Blog 2: Back to Basics – The Shannon-Hartley Theorem.

  • Coverage translates to receive sensitivity, which is a function of something called Eb/No (energy per bit relative to thermal noise spectral density).
  • Capacity translates into something called spectral efficiency and we need to go even one level deeper into nerd and assign it a Greek letter (of course) and that Greek letter is…. η.

Using this fundamental framework, in Blog 3: Chirp Spread Spectrum: The Jell-o of Non-Coherent M-ary Modulation, I’ll talk about a category of approaches that is very similar from a technology point of view and one very successfully marketed approach in this category called Chirp Spread Spectrum (also known as LoRa).

And while we’re on the subject of spreading, I’ll discuss how there a potential capacity loophole to take advantage of in Blog 4: “Spreading” – A Shannon-Hartley Loophole?.

And finally, let’s get back into the real world and test whether this discussion is even useful in Blog 5: The Economics of Receiver Sensitivity and Spectral Efficiency to attempt to quantify the commercial value of that which is discussed on these blogs.

At any point, if you’re interested in a more in-depth treatment of these topics, please download How RPMA Works: The Making of RPMA.

July 20, 2016

Why Use RPMA over Wi-Fi?

What sort of security is embedded in RPMA? How secure is the technology? Are there any security certificates in place for the end device to the network? What sort of disaster recovery and/or hacking plans do we have in place?

Why would you utilize RPMA® (Random Phase Multiple Access) when Wi-Fi or Google fiber Wi-Fi is available?

So, you may be thinking as you review RPMA, that it operates in the 2.4GHz spectrum, which is the same frequency as my Wi-Fi in my home. You then ask yourself why you would look to buy another technology when you already have Wi-Fi and just learned that Google is coming to your city? Why should you look at Ingenu that will soon be coming to your city as well?

You know that you use Wi-Fi, literally every day and it gets the job done, right?

Well, not exactly, if you take a deeper look at how RPMA was designed and what it was built for. You will quickly realize all the benefits that RPMA has to offer. Ingenu is building the the Machine Network™, which is a pretty straightforward name for its purpose – for machines. This means it was built for sensors boxes gathering information and data and then reporting as designed. It is not built for you, your family members or a few kids to stream YouTube or read the latest new blogs.

RPMA was built with two key and major differentiating factors – reliability and security.

Ingenu has been in the IoT/M2M business since 2008 and has worked with some very sensitive data. Perhaps you have seen our work with oil and gas lines, for instance. Even though RPMA operates on the 2.4 GHz band, our technology was designed and engineered with reliability as a key component, with over 99% uptime. Now, Wi-Fi is pretty consistent, but on average, in your home or at work, how often does it not operate consistently? I know that if someone is down the street working on a gas line or perhaps a water line and cuts the line, I am down for the afternoon. Or, if we have a good thunderstorm and my power goes out, I am also done for that day or perhaps another. Wi-Fi has great speeds and very easy to access and use but what happens when the lights go out? You need the reliability of a network built from the ground up. RPMA is a network topology which means it is built similar to a cellular network, but with a lot less infrastructure and congestion. The network blankets an area, in some cases 300 square miles per access point, and is on all the time talking to the machines they support.

Let’s now discuss the other key factor I mentioned above, security. I feel like I should say that three times – security, security, and security. In a world of numerous hacks, malware and viruses on any given message, how do you protect your information and sensitive data? Do you think free public Wi-Fi will have enough security to protect you and your business from an attack? RPMA, although on the same frequency as Wi-Fi, has engineered and 32 patents around the security and design of how we communicate through this crowded highway of spectrum. Ingenu’s technical teams have perfected and tested this over the last eight-plus years. Come take a look download a white paper and get your inner geek on to learn more!

July 18, 2016

Reduce, Rethink, Recycle

When deploying an Internet of Things (IoT) strategy, it is important to consider the longevity of the network as well as the longevity of the devices that will be attached to said network.  The benefit of the IoT lies in its relatively low device costs, but this benefit can be all but negated when the device needs regular servicing or replacement.

Avoiding an expensive service truck roll is paramount, especially when it is just to change out a device battery. Low-power networks typically serve devices which are battery powered, and ideally, these devices should remain operational for years, even decades without the need for attention.

Changing IoT device batteries can harm profitability, but it can be even more harmful to the environment.

According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), each year Americans throw away more than three billion batteries, which equates to about 180,000 tons of waste.  While modern batteries do not contain the same harmful properties of their predecessors, choosing to recycle these batteries is still a better choice as they can take decades to break down in a landfill.

Although the U.S. is a leader in IoT device adoption, it lags far behind other countries in battery recycling initiatives.  It is estimated that European countries such as Switzerland, Belgium and Sweden recycle more than 50% of all batteries, while the United States is in the low double digits for battery recycling, despite the prevalence of clean initiatives throughout the nation.

Aside from changing habits, we should look at changing consumption.  As advances in battery life technology continue to progress, devices can utilize fewer and fewer batteries throughout their lifetimes.  Additionally, designing an IoT network to effectively transmit data at very low power can also help extend battery life.   So, when implementing an Internet of Things strategy, remember that the battery is one of the most important “things” that should be considered.

For more discussion on this topic, download our white paper, The Six Secrets to Extremely Long Battery Life.

July 15, 2016

Is RPMA Just Another Wi-Fi?

When I first received this question I didn’t know how to respond.  In fact, I was a little offended.  After further reflection, I could understand how people could lump Ingenu™’s technology into the Wi-Fi category.  Ingenu offers a wide-area network, utilizing Random Phase Multiple Access(RPMA®) technology, in the 2.4GHz frequency. Most Wi-Fi routers in people’s homes utilize the same 2.4GHz frequency.  I guess it could then be inferred that since RPMA uses 2.4GHz and Wi-Fi uses 2.4GHz they may be similar. However, RPMA is very different from Wi-Fi on many levels.

Without getting too technical, the major difference between the two technologies is that Wi-Fi was created for local area networks designed for people who want extremely fast data speeds to stream high-bandwidth content. Conversely, RPMA was purpose-built for machines that want to transmit small amounts of sensor data over wide areas. Like many other high-throughput technologies, Wi-Fi places priority on downlink bandwidth, whereas RPMA prioritizes uplink, because machines need to upload data far more often than download data (though RPMA has generous two-way communication, including supporting over-the-air  firmware upgrades behind the scenes). Overall, both technologies are different in many ways and the reason is because they were both built for two different purposes, RPMA for machines and Wi-Fi for people’s high bandwidth data needs.

You can compare the two terms of vehicles, Wi-Fi could liken to a Chevy Corvette and RPMA could be likened to a Honda Accord.  The Corvette will allow you to travel at extremely fast speeds but, depending upon who you talk to, is overkill for everyday driving.  Also, the cost of maintaining a Corvette is much higher than the cost of maintaining an Accord.  As for the Accord, it uses gas more efficiently, is less expensive to maintain, and can last a lot longer on the road.  Sticking with the vehicle comparison, it is again important to remember that both vehicles are built with two different purposes, one for speed and horsepower and the other for longevity and reliability.

In closing, RPMA uses the same frequency as many Wi-Fi routers, but Wi-Fi and RPMA are two completely different technologies built for two completely different purposes.

July 15, 2016

We Have Interference Covered

Any good business lives by the mantra that the customer is always right.  At Ingenu™, we follow that mantra and strive to provide all of our customers with excellent service. However, there may be just a few things that our potential partners may initially have wrong when inquiring about the RPMA® (Random Phase Multiple Access) technology and the significant role it plays in the M2M/IoT space today. We take pride in clearing up theses misconceptions and are excited to set our potential customers on the right track.

When finding out that Ingenu’s RPMA technology operates on the globally free unlicensed band of 2.4GHz, the first response and concern we typically get is, “There is no way you can utilize such a crowded spectrum like 2.4GHz and not have a problem with interference.” Although interference is a valid concern, it was one that our founders considered when they were developing the technology over eight years ago.   I typically find myself trying to share all of the things that our engineers did when designing the technology to battle interference. I share how Ingenu built the RPMA technology from the ground up with interference in mind and has the capability to control all layers of the technology stack.  Not only do we have access to the application layer, but Ingenu has full control over the network, MAC and Physical Layer as well. This gives Ingenu a huge advantage when it comes to interference.

I also like to share several other advantages, such as that RPMA is a DSSS (direct sequence spread spectrum) technology that allows for unprecedented processing gain, which helps to curb same channel interference or any noise from adjacent channels in the spectrum. We have added forward error correction and data acknowledgment to minimize transmission times by only sending the data that was lost and sending back an acknowledgment message to ensure all data was received. From there, I make sure that customers know that what makes the RPMA technology even more robust and resistant to interference is its capability to run an entire network on a single 1MHz channel of the 80 available on the 2.4GHz spectrum. This allows us to avoid the well known channels of large contributors of interference like Wi-Fi modems. The RPMA technology is even capable of choosing another tower to communicate with altogether if the interference is too great. Simply put, our technology is smart enough to choose the best communication path to make sure there is no data loss during the transmission.

There are several other things that we do to handle interference and the items listed above are all great attributes of the technology. But, I sometimes think that even after sharing all of the technical advantages of RPMA, the best argument to be made on handling interference doesn’t lie in the technical details.  The best way to put to rest any concern is to simply share the success that RPMA has already had worldwide. We have 38 private networks in 16 different countries sending 4.3 million messages every day on that same congested, overloaded 2.4GHz band, and have been doing this for more than five years.  We have interference covered.

July 14, 2016

Solving Coverage Issues

Coverage, coverage, coverage, this is what the market is looking for. It is ready to have a solution that can meet its coverage demands and yet not sunset. All it takes is a quick conversation with Ingenu™ and the attention quickly turns to, “how fast can development begin?”

So how does Ingenu help solve the long-term coverage issues plaguing IoT/M2M?

Low cost of infrastructure means low network costs. Ingenu has purpose-built its technology from the ground up with this very thought in mind. With a two-year deployment plan for domestic ubiquitous coverage, there has to be minimal infrastructure in order to make that happen. It starts with the access points. Our APs have an expansive range to which no other LPWAN or even cellular carrier can compare. In perfect topography, each access point can reach 400 square miles (like some down in Texas). It takes 10 times that amount with a cellular tower. The ability to scale is clearly seen with that kind of range and coverage availability. Our APs also have an incredible ability to “talk” to multiple devices simultaneously. One of our APs can talk to over 260,000 end points with no loss of message. We have built message acknowledgement into our technology and have protocols assigned to avoid things like message congestion and interference. The scalability factor is also just as impressive. To cover a given area in the United States, it takes one Ingenu AP compared to 18 with LoRa and 70 with Sigfox.

Network guarantees are just as important. When creating a network dedicated to IoT and M2M connectivity, a long lifecycle of the network is crucial. Unlike the carriers whose constant battle is network sunsetting, Ingenu will never face that problem. That comes from spectrum choice. We operate on the 2.4 GHz ISM band. This is globally available and costs nothing to use. It’s the same band that Wi-Fi uses and supports everything from your home microwave to large wireless networks. The decision to use this spectrum gave us the ability to offer these 20 years-plus network guarantees. When you look at the cellular carriers, they’ll always have to be thinking of the next best network. They will always prioritize on the heavy data and voice users as that is where the majority of the revenue is derived. Cellular carriers rededicate 40% of their yearly revenues to spectrum, quite an expensive task. AT&T, for example, will complete their 2G shutdown by January 1, 2017.

We have defined Ingenu as “Simply Genius” and that truly is what our network represents. Not only have we built this technology from the ground up, we’ve made it accessible to all. Ingenu is just getting started and with global markets already built and domestic sites already completed, we will continue to dominate the IoT market in a way no other carrier can.

July 14, 2016

Why RPMA? Why Now?

In reading through all of the technology and MNO (mobile network operator) strategies, the question many business owners contemplate is, “Which technology should I invest in, and when should I do so?

Google the “Cycle Hype of IoT”, and there are copious eye charts of each emerging technology and productivity. It is no wonder why some companies are afraid of adopting new technologies.

There is always comfort in the known. However, even within the known technologies there is an extreme amount of movement, and with each release a faster, smarter or new wave of communication.

The pace of each dying technology is also rapidly evolving, for example 2G, 3G and 4G have already begun or will be sun setting their networks in the very near future.

If you attended any large conferences this year there is already marketing activity surrounding 5G and NB-IoT and of course the various categories of LTE (M, O, 1, etc.) These all sound like alphabet soup to me!  How do you know which category of LTE to select?  When will the hardware for that specific category be widely available? Will that category have all the frequencies you need in the US or internationally?  How long will it last before another category replaces it and what sort of network performance are you left with? There are so many questions with few answers available.

What I know, have tested and proven, is that with RPMA® (Random Phase Multiple Access) you get a network that is built for real IoT solutions that closes the gap on network and communication problems.  There is not a list of frequencies, categories and service features you have to navigate and understand from an operator perspective.  As a business owner, you get what you ask for: TRANSPORT of your data from your device to your solution, one simple selection, service!  It is pretty simple and straightforward as it should be.

But let’s return to the question at hand – which technology should a business owner invest in?   Which technology can stand the test of time? Is it possible a technology can be implemented beyond two or three years anymore?  Will a business owner need to constantly plan for this type of technology evolution and at this extreme pace?

Ingenu’s RPMA, I know, another technology acronym, a new(er) technology, but certainly tested and used by some industry giants, provides the security and communication confirmations used in IoT solutions.

RPMA has the same out-of-the-box connectivity you get with a cellular network, with security layers and redundancy, but with distinct advantages cellular doesn’t have because RPMA is designed exclusively for machines. For instance, RPMA can support 20-year battery life, something cellular couldn’t even dream of.

Is the frequency different? Absolutely. However, if you look around the world and examine the frequencies used over the last five years, there has been quite a bit of shifting as the frequencies used needed to be re-optimized for more and more users of each network. These networks have been built for consumers and the million of Android and Apple phones among others along with wireless tablets and gadgets all streaming applications, videos and other apps. It’s no wonder they are crowded and sometimes even throttled.  There have been numerous articles outlining the frequency crunch with US operators but let’s leave that to Washington to settle.   However, with RPMA, you have access to the “Machine Network” which is carefully crafted and designed to allow machines to talk to one another.  Are there millions of machines all talking together? Absolutely, but this network was designed for this traffic, navigating it carefully and efficiently. Additionally, there is no re-optimization or change for the RPMA frequency. So, you may be thinking, what happens when the next generation presents itself?  Technology updates can be managed over the air, resulting in not touching the device you have deployed.  You can simply manage your update over the air. It has been built to last.

So why now?  Technology is rapidly changing and evolving and the timeline to your next truck roll should already be a part of your business plan if you’re continuing down the cellular operator path.

If you’re looking for your next-generation device, and may be moving from an older 2G or 3G technology and want to ensure your capital investments are materialized into a long-term plan, you should think about RPMA.  Perhaps you are a new company looking for a long-term strategy to design your solution? Again, the clear answer is RPMA. With RPMA, you have a network with a proven commitment to solutions with only the machines talking to one another.

Take a walk outside your comfort zone and take a look behind the curtain and see what RPMA is really all about.  In turn, your dollars and cents will add up quickly, returns on investment will outperform and increase your bottom line and the technology will stand well beyond the next decade.

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