Remote asset control is changing our lives

M2M communications is the networking of intelligent, communications-enabled remote assets. It allows key information to be exchanged automatically without human intervention and covers a broad range of technologies and applications which connect the physical world - whether machines or monitored physical conditions - to a back-end IT infrastructure.

These remote assets, which can be fixed or mobile, include cars and truck fleets, utility meters, copiers and printers, kiosks and wireless displays, ventilation and air-conditioning sensors, home medical devices, fitness monitors and CCTV cameras.

The physical conditions they monitor can include temperature, location, consumption, heart rate, stress levels, light, movement, altitude and speed.

M2M communications can be used to gain immediate feedback on how a particular remote asset is being used, which features are most popular and what problems such as errors or breakdowns typically arise.

This information is useful for shortening the lead time to an improved or updated version, thereby providing a competitive edge.

M2M communications are made possible using intelligent sensors or microprocessors that are embedded in the remote asset.

These sensors include a SIM card - albeit slightly different to the one you have in your mobile device - that is able to receive and transmit data wirelessly to a central server where it can be analysed and acted on.

Wireless communications technologies used to enable this connectivity include GSM, GPRS, EDMA, 3G, LTE, or Wi-Fi and WiMAX. Some of these connections occur over a relatively short range, some over a distance of many kilometres.

The widespread availability and decreasing cost of wireless communications, economies of scale and improvements in bandwidth have redefined what’s now cost-effective to connect.

As a result, multinational businesses can consider M2M not just for their most important production assets, but for almost every remote asset they own or service for customers.

When that networking is conducted globally, it can translate into improved efficiency and reduced operating and maintenance costs.

In addition to commercial pressures to differentiate, new stringent legislation is requiring companies in many sectors to be accountable for product tracking and management.

Over the next few years, M2M could be a key enabler in helping to restore confidence after the world economic crisis, providing the next leap forward in global productivity in much the same way as the mobile phone did in the latter part of the last century.

It’s hard to imagine a time when M2M wasn’t a vital part of the transport and logistics industry. At the end of 2009 there were more than 3.2 million passenger cars in Europe with an onboard telematics device.

M2M is now being used to add new in-car functionality such as ‘infotainment’ and navigation services and to enable the vehicle to self-diagnose and warn the driver of potential difficulties before a journey is undertaken.

In the event of an accident, the vehicle’s M2M system can notify emergency services of its location and establish communications directly with the occupants.

Following a breakdown or accident, roadside assistance can be informed immediately with details of the problem and the vehicle’s precise location.

Other applications include: usage-based vehicle insurance (also known as pay-as-you-drive); vehicle tracking to aid the recovery of stolen vehicles and increase driver safety; measurement of driving behaviours including the G-forces resulting from hard breaking and fast starts and speeding; as well as value-added services such as car concierge and location positioning.

When used in conjunction with satellite-based GPS and location-based services, M2M can provide real-time information such as vehicle location, driver speeds, kilometres driven, fuel consumption and employee work time.

The technology is also being used to manage and dispatch fleets and resources and enable supply chain companies to deliver cost-efficient goods. Delivery at the door can also be confirmed and paid for using M2M.

As part of the efforts to build a sustainable energy system, the traditional mechanical utility meter can now be replaced by a smart meter that can improve efficiency and reliability in energy distribution and better optimisation allocating resources.

Energy regulations and smart-grid funding are likely to push the number of smart meters installed worldwide to more than 100 million during the next few years.

Smart metering incorporates a wide range of applications in the fields of remote meter reading, user relationship management, demand management and value-added services such as home automation.

The deployment of automatic meter reading applications will help users gain better visibility over their energy usage and spending. Similar technology is needed to ensure the motor vehicle and transport markets do their part by moving smoothly from fossil fuels to hybrid and electric cars.

Smart grid technology enables utilities to connect wirelessly to their grid assets, such as circuit breakers, transformers and other substation equipment. This allows them to develop interactive utility networks that are more intelligent, resilient, reliable and self-balancing.

Recent health reports project the global telemedicine industry to be worth US$18 billion by 2015 boosted by new M2M functions in radiology, cardiology, dermatology, psychiatry, dentistry, paediatrics and pathology.

Currently, there are nearly a billion people around the world with at least one chronic disease and the number is rising. By 2020 diabetes is expected to double and deaths caused by heart disease and stroke will increase to more than 20 million a year.

M2M is becoming an integral part of patient care, helping to cut costs as well as save lives. Sensors in the bathroom, by the bed or near the door can collect information without compromising the individual’s privacy.

Remote monitoring devices can be used to allow physicians to remotely monitor information about patients with heart conditions and diabetes.

Patient sensors act as extra eyes and ears for doctors treating chronic illness such as cardiac disease, high blood pressure, diabetes and obesity.

Continuous two-way data feeds over the M2M network provide detailed monitoring information that allows doctors to spot early warnings of medical deterioration and apply treatment earlier than physical diagnosis allows.

Patients can learn to monitor their own vital signs and better administer their own treatment regime, and elderly relatives can be monitored remotely by their families to make sure they are safe and healthy.

Healthcare providers can immediately see whether patients have complied with their physicians’ instructions and treatment regimes.

Statistically, about half all hospital beds are occupied by patients who have chronic illnesses that could equally well be monitored using M2M technologies if they were at home.

So, not only does telemedicine promise better quality patient treatment, it also reduces costs and refocuses resources on face-to-face treatment and allotting bed space to patients with life-threatening conditions or intensive treatment needs.

The industry sector has always needed to closely monitor and control plant and field equipment and processes to ensure production is maximised while all machinery operates within safety limits.

The introduction of remote monitoring and adjustment capabilities from M2M has seen companies increase their productivity and profitability while expanding their services into new areas.

It has empowered expansion and increases in efficiency and productivity by recognising performance issues just before or as they happen, thereby minimising downtime.

Remote machines and robots controlled by M2M can undertake routine repairs and maintenance, while emergency repair crews can arrive at a site fully briefed to resolve an issue quickly, with the right tools.

Over time, industrial business can learn more about the causes of equipment malfunction and downtime and build detailed performance analysis models from M2M data feeds.

Most importantly, M2M offers the industrial sector the opportunity to transform from a hardware-based business model to one that is more user-service orientated.

Retail was one of the first sectors to see significant breakthroughs for wireless M2M. Radio frequency identification tags have been used for many years to provide retailers with real-time visibility into their inventory and allow individual items to be monitored and tracked to the doorstep of the final delivery.

In service-driven industries, M2M will make the difference in revenue generation by providing immediate information on the required items to be replaced. M2M goes beyond this, enabling new business models and market approaches such as pay-per-print.

With no fixed infrastructure required, wireless terminals are one of the fastest growing segments of the payment industry and are being used for applications including point-of-sale terminals.

Meanwhile, retail outlets are becoming savvier in their use of M2M to boost sales through up-to-the-minute in-store shopping discounts based on personalised consumer needs powered by M2M.

M2M can be used to push news or eye-catching advertisements to remote kiosks, electronic display boards and mobile screens displaying information such as location, time of day and passing traffic.

As environmental considerations become more pressing, retailers are also looking to M2M to help them monitor how they consume the energy that powers their business.

The market for security products and services has grown rapidly recently, with the government leading strategic warfare overseas to limit potential terrorist impacts at home.

Individuals have become more aware of their own responsibilities towards security and have renewed efforts to stem a rise in vandalism, theft and violence.

The use of wireless communications to automate remote security solutions provides a more efficient and cost-effective means of monitoring intrusion of CCTV images, allowing remote surveillance and access to control systems, motion detectors, lighting and access points.

The control station can remotely authorise access to controlled areas with the ability to open and close locks, doors and gates via the wireless network. It can generate alerts for security breaches that trigger appropriate actions such as locking doors or calling for assistance.

Personal navigation devices, fitness monitors, e-readers, track-and-trace animal collars and networked digital photo frames are just some of the innovative consumer products and services that are changing people’s lifestyles.

M2M solutions provide quick and easy payment methods for couriers and remote tradespeople, while also providing cost-effective, secure and easy-to-install payment solutions at trade shows, exhibitions and sporting events.

Supermarkets, service stations, convenience stores and retail outlets can also use M2M to reduce ongoing running costs of electronic point-of-sale terminals due to the low-cost tariffs available.

M2M enables an asset, such as a lift or vending machine, to immediately advise its service centre if there is a fault. The service centre can then interrogate the product remotely to determine the fault and ensure that technicians are equipped with the correct parts before making a visit to the site.

The drivers for M2M will vary depending on the specific business and its needs, but generally include:

• As digital cellular coverage has expanded, there has been a corresponding shift away from satellite connectivity towards terrestrial cellular connectivity.
• Cost saving remains one of the primary drivers for businesses to adopt M2M. The recovery of one misplaced diesel generator, for example, can cover the installation and running costs of a tracking deployment.
• While cost saving is still very important and valuable to businesses, this represents only one aspect of the potential of M2M. The most powerful driver for M2M is that it can enable new business models.

Increasingly, M2M solutions are being used to enhance business operations, improve functionality and environmental stewardship, and connect the business with its end users.

At this point M2M moves from simply being part of business processes to a key part of the overall business operation and user experience.

Take, for example, a manufacturer of commercial air-conditioning systems. It sells its products through distributors and building integrators, and may receive equipment fault information only second hand.

It would be unable to track usage and performance data, with no view of who is using its equipment or where it is installed.

By integrating an intelligent monitoring and control M2M system into its air-conditioning assets, the manufacturer gains direct ongoing access to field intelligence about its units.

If this solution were extended to provide a front end accessible to end users, such as a website, the manufacturer could then gain direct access to the user and have the opportunity to enhance its products.

Various governments and regulatory bodies around the world are enacting regulations that mandate functionality of the type enabled by cellular M2M.

For example, Sweden has decreed that all its utilities must read their electricity meters at least once a month. Swedish utilities are using cellular connectivity as part of the advanced metering infrastructure solution, and other Scandinavian countries are expected to follow suit.

M2M can be used to help restructure and improve business relationships; for example, by replacing regular servicing with on-demand servicing.

Rather than removing equipment from service for scheduled monthly maintenance, built-in diagnostics can schedule minor servicing to be done on an ad hoc basis and major servicing only when it’s necessary. It can also record a full audit trail of defects, usage, maintenance activities and any external inputs.

Many industries are now using specialised M2M-enabled badges or more generic ‘man-down’ solutions to ensure that employees away from the office are adequately protected.

We need smart metering because climate change, population growth and the availability of primary fuels mean that how we satisfy our energy needs is changing and that delivering sustainable, affordable, secure energy requires action.

Some companies are leading the way in tackling energy wastage by using M2M technology to monitor their property assets. Information collected from light and heat sensors throughout buildings can be processed and monitored. Instructions can be transmitted back to individual devices to recalibrate their settings, thereby reducing energy consumption and costs.

M2M can be used to strengthen and differentiate service offerings and add greater value to the end user. Sensors built in to a vehicle, for example, can be used to add new functionality such as ‘infotainment’ and navigation services, and to enable the vehicle to self-diagnose and warn the driver of potential difficulties before a long journey is undertaken.

When built into an end-to-end logistics system, more advanced M2M solutions can be extended to provide additional benefits such as producing information for customs officers or providing confirmation that a shipment has satisfied environmental constraints and has not been tampered with en route.

Some solutions offer the ability to continuously monitor and ensure compliance of remote assets regardless of location.

By automatically collecting business distance information, for example, a company can produce employee kilometre claims and tax deduction confirmation without waiting for the employee to submit an expense form.

For those businesses involved in transport and logistics, this easily extends to confirming compliance with drive time regulations, CO₂ emissions, working hours and corporate responsibility for occupational training.

An enterprise commissioning an M2M solution will face unique challenges compared with traditional IT projects.

While IT projects range widely in terms of the lifetime of the project from systems planning to retirement, M2M systems generally have lifetimes of 10 years or more. The build phase alone can take a year or longer.

Once up and running, these systems need maintenance and upgrading so as to be able to incorporate the new technologies that may come along in the interim.

Global M2M deployment is not a trivial task, especially for companies whose core businesses are in non-technical areas. Business terms, device certification requirements and technical configurations can change from one country to the next.

Sourcing communications through a single global supplier can dramatically reduce the cost and complexity of global M2M deployment.

Having a single global M2M solution provider will help facilitate multinational deployments, ease negotiations and technology selection, and simplify ongoing management. By negotiating centrally, deployment cycles can be reduced and seamless cross-border coverage achieved.

The cost of cellular M2M solutions can be an inhibitor for some applications.

However, the cost of connecting remote assets has fallen, which means that M2M can be considered not just for the most important production assets but for almost every other physical asset an organisation owns or services it provides.

The number of interfaces linking the components (not to mention the M2M collection network itself) make it vulnerable to security breaches. Hence it is important to ensure that the data have been transmitted safely and securely and no data have been lost.

Tools and techniques used to monitor and troubleshoot network performance are just as necessary here as with all telecoms networks.

Data security is a major issue for applications that involve sensitive information such as healthcare records, financial transactions and types of commercially sensitive data.

Encryption, secure password authentication and low-cost, easily deployed, firewall/antivirus products can be deployed to prevent security breaches or hacking into remote devices.

The challenges involved in exploiting M2M are significant but the potential benefits are even greater. For the enterprise there is the potential for greater efficiency, improved business processes and innovative new business models.

The net result is lower costs, faster response times, better service and, most importantly, higher revenue.

M2M communications present a challenge for multinational business. There are many different solution providers and even more branded solutions to choose from.

From the business model to the supply chain and ongoing support for devices thousands of kilometres away, simply purchasing a data plan is not enough. You need the tools, technology and best practices to ensure profitability for your connected device initiatives.

Solutions are determined by the target application and the industry as well as the technologies used along the way. Designing the solution involves optimising all of these components and the way in which they interact.

Some solutions are very specific, such as applications in telemedicine. Others such as the smart grid are long range and large scale and must interconnect with existing, non-M2M-specific systems.

Developers of M2M projects face a two-fold challenge: to address the technical issues for each part of the chain, and to ensure the whole functions properly.

Partnering with a solution provider that has proved M2M global deployment expertise will help to eliminate the challenges and complexity and ensure that any solution implemented can scale globally.

Global M2M solutions are highly specialised, so choosing the right partner, one that fully understands the different components involved and that is financially stable, is critical to successful deployment.

Whichever partner you choose, as a minimum they must be able to:

• Satisfy the enterprise of its financial and corporate stability;
• Demonstrate that it has highly extensive M2M knowledge, skilled people with good experience and a proven methodology;
• Provide a full range of M2M services and capabilities, including proof of concept or testing of M2M applications in a test or live network;
• Provide consistent services, support and account management on a local, regional and global scale;
• Have direct influence and control over the network design and functionality;
• Be of a stature that enables global influence with other operators if needed;
• Demonstrate how it will be able to remove cost and complexity from the enterprise’s operations;
• Guarantee quality of service.

To gain maximum return, a global, business-wide identification of potential M2M candidates and solutions should be undertaken.

This review should aim to identify system synergies across the enterprise; for example, it might be appropriate to integrate the results of a monitoring system with an engineer job despatch system.

When making the case for a global M2M deployment, it is essential to identify a realistic scope for any proposed solution and the investment needed, together with a clear understanding of the returns that the investment will generate.

In this company’s experience, an ROI showing payback within a short term, for example 12 months, is more likely to justify and create successful adoption.

As well as the cost benefit and ROI calculations, it is important to consider the end user of the service. This means thinking about how user-facing applications will be sold, and how they will work, be maintained, charge for and so on.

Having identified that M2M is viable, it is vital to ensure that the solution has the flexibility and scalability to evolve to meet the changing needs of the business and maintain a consistent end-user experience.

The embedded hardware must work and continue to work, even in harsh environments with excessive heat, vibration or dirt.

It is vital to fully understand how the devices behave on the network under many different scenarios. This information can be used to improve connectivity performance and optimise the total data consumption of the device.

The SIM card in the sensor must support the mobile network and spectrum ban employed in the area the remote asset is located. It must also be fully functioning and working before final shipping. The network infrastructure used for communication must be secure, responsive, reliable and impervious to natural disasters and tampering.

The wireless technology chosen must be appropriate for the application in terms of speed, bandwidth, cost and quality of service. There must be no coverage, roaming or interoperability challenges.

Controlling how, when and where remote devices access the network will help to contain costs, particularly for applications where roaming is involved.

Enterprise data tariffs can provide price predictability and simplify the management and complexity of a global deployment.

It is vital to review, test and finetune devices in the field. If possible, benchmark M2M deployment elements against other organisations, industry best practice and industry trends.

It is worth ensuring that a target-based service level agreement is in place covering ongoing performance levels.

In 2009, Vodafone launched its global M2M service platform designed for multinational corporations looking to deploy and manage large, wireless M2M projects.

Today, the company provides users a single point of contact to manage the complex area of M2M connectivity, from early concept development to support for national and multinational deployments.

The company’s M2M global service platform provides corporate users with managed connectivity for M2M smart service deployments and contains a set of management tools to control all aspects of M2M communications in real time.

The company has also put in place a global M2M team to develop services designed to match specific industry needs alongside flexible commercial models.