Concrete Hydration Industrial IoT Remote Monitoring Solution - 1 year
Case Study
Holt, Michigan USA
Archive Cases
“…and how are you going to connect that?”
How does it work
Sensors
Gateways
Network & Platform
Monitoring, Alerts & Reports
LoRa®, the LoRa® Mark and LoRa® Logo are all trademarks of
Semtech
Corporation
“…there aren’t enough
skilled embedded
developers –
who are capable of
untangling the complex
development and
integration challenges
that have
unfortunately been a
feature of many
connectivity
solutions to date”
Alistair Fulton, Semtech
Thermocouple ‘Stinger’ Probe
Adeunis® Field Test Device
InBuilding RF Design
Core Samples’ Tanks
‘Cylinder’ Samples
Introduction : The Internet of Things
After
its
inception
by
British
pioneer
Kevin
Ashton
back
in
1999,
the
term
Internet
of
Things
(IoT)
has
come
a
long
way
since
becoming
more
relevant
as
the
digital
transformation
age
moves
forward.
In
fact,
and
after
two
fast
decades,
its
evolution
has
seen
most
of
the
protocols
and
associated
technologies
already
on
their
way
down
the
so
called
“
peak
of
inflated
expectations
”,
passed
the
“
trough
of
disillusionment
”
and
well
into
the
“
slope
of
enlightenment
”,
as
shown
below
per Gartner’s
Hype Cycle for IoT Standards and Protocols
:
With
this
new
digital
pace
of
‘plateauing’
from
places
to
people
to
‘things
’,
classifying
and
identifying
all
the
potential
verticals
and
solutions
can
be
a
daunting
task.
Yet
the
overall
current
consensus
in
the
industry
has
targeted
IoT
around
two
main
applications
,
from
which
all
others
are
branched:
asset
tracking
and
remote
monitoring
.
And
when
it
comes
to
the
latter,
especially
on
the
industrial
side
of
it,
temperature
will
almost
always
be
the
#1
attribute
on
the
list
to
measure,
monitor and report.
From
monitoring
precise
levels
in
the
soil
for
agriculture,
or
in
critical
freezer
containers
for
Covid-
19
vaccines,
setting
ambiance
thresholds
for
hospitality
and
buildings,
or
mechanical
variances
of
industrial
equipment,
temperature
in
today’s
Fourth
Industrial
Revolution
is
no
longer
the
trivial
measurable
attribute
it
once
was
since
the
first
thermometers
were
invented
back
in
the
early 18th century.
Such
is
the
case
of
rēd
wireless’
geotechnical,
structural
and
environmental
engineering
colleagues
and
clients
at
HAE
&
Associates
located
in
Canton,
Michigan.
Since
1994,
HAE
&
Assoc
.
has
been
trusted
by
dozens
of
public
and
private
clients
for
their
multi-disciplined,
cost-
effective,
yet
practical
solutions
in
construction,
planning,
surveying,
management
and
testing
services.
Having
their
own
in-house
state-of-the-art
testing
lab
that
operates
24
hours
a
day,
7
days
a
week,
HAE
&
Assoc.
is
among
a
selected
few
in
the
industry
certified
to
provide
advanced
materials
evaluation
services
at
all
stages
(from
product
development
to
materials
already
in
place)
and
help
diagnose
failures,
develop
methods
for
improving
existing
products
and/or
find
new
uses
for
materials
for
different
applications
such
as
geotechnical
engineering,
environmental
sciences and construction monitoring.
One
of
their
lab
services
involves
the
placement
of
various
client’s
concrete
‘
cylinders
’
and
other
construction
materials’
‘
core’
samples
inside
a
tank
filled
with
a
precise
pH
temperature-controlled
solution
to
monitor
the
samples’
characteristics
and
performance
before
implementation
in
the
real
world.
As
such,
it
is
imperative
for
HAE
&
Assoc.
professionals
to
keep
accurate,
real-time
records
of
each
sample
and
monitor
the
temperature
inside
each
tank
daily
,
thus
responding
quickly
to
any
changes
in
the
tanks
and
adjusting
conditions
as
needed
–
clearly
not
a
trivial
process
by
any
standard.
An
Industrial
IoT
remote
monitoring
solution
seemed
like
the
ideal
candidate for this use case, so a ‘
pilot’
project was proposed by rēd wireless.
The Challenges
Not
only
this
industrial
temperature
case
was
not
such
a
trivial
‘
attribute
’
to
collect,
but
also
the
specific
pH
-solution
filled
tanks
added
an
additional
level
of
complexity:
the
sensor’s
temperature
measuring
device,
or
‘
probe
’,
needed
to
be
able
to
chemically
withstand
the
various
alkaline/acid
levels
present
inside
the
tanks’
solution
without
altering
the
measurements.
Moreover,
typical
wireless
IoT
and
industrial
monitoring
sensors
only
alert
when
a
certain
threshold
is
‘
triggered’
,
limiting
the
number
of
messages
sent,
thus,
conserving
battery
life
in
the
process.
In
this
case
we
are
requested
to
monitor
every
single
hour
of
every
single
day
of
every
single
month
–
for
12
months.
In
simple
math,
24
temperature
readings
a
day
would
be
measured,
collected,
and
sent
by
the
IoT
temperature
sensor,
each
day
for
365
days
which
amounts
to,
at
least,
8,760
temperature
data
points
in
a
year
(read
‘
at
least’
since
we
are
not
including
periodic
,
supervisory,
and
other
non-temperature
related
messages).
And
since
this
industrial
lab
environment
is
home
to
not
just
the
materials
evaluation
tanks
but
also
many
other
chemical,
environmental
and
geotechnical
experiments
and
applications,
the
radio
frequency
(RF)
‘
ambient
noise
’
and
interference
levels,
hardware
placement
and
antenna
specifications
all
had
to
be
considered
when
selecting
the
appropriate
wireless
connectivity
technology
for
sensor
communication
quality.
Finally,
and
probably
most
important
of
all,
the
pilot
would
be
deployed
right
at
the
start
of the Covid-19 pandemic and under the subsequent
state
and national lock-down guidelines.
The Technology
Given
all
the
requirements
for
this
project,
we
needed
a
robust
wireless
technology
that
could
withstand
the
harshest
of
RF
environments,
with
minimal
or
no
human
intervention
after
setup,
having
the
best
energy
efficiency
given
the
demanding
hourly/daily
polling
of
temperature
readings.
Since
each
of
the
readings
involves
only
a
small
number
of
packets
of
asynchronous
data
(i.e.,
temperature
readings
at
least
once
an
hour,
regardless
of
when
within
that
hour),
technologies
such
as
Wi-Fi
or
Bluetooth
were
not
considered
as
these
have
a
lot
more
data
capacity
(or
bandwidth
)
than
was
needed,
which
in
turn
add
range,
battery,
and
interference
limitations
due
to
their
bigger
data
rates
and/or
higher
frequency
RF
bands
.
Other
technologies
considered
that
do
have
lower
data
and
power
specifications
with
better
range
and
lower
frequency
RF
bands
were
either
proprietary
or
not
well
supported
–
thus
having
the
risk
of
typical
and non-ideal
‘vendor-locked-in’
scenarios with no
future-proof
guarantees of any kind.
After
careful
evaluation
and
considering
rēd
wireless
have
already
tested
and
evaluated
long
range
and
low
power
wireless
technologies
in
the
past,
it
was
determined
that
the
wireless
communication
best
suited
for
this
project
was
the
California-based
Semtech
Corporation
’s
patented
yet
royalty-free
LoRa
®
PHY
(physical)
connectivity
protocol,
in
conjunction
with
the
open-sourced
LoRaWAN
®
MAC
(Medium
Access
Control)
network
protocol,
managed
and
standardized
globally
by
the
LoRa
Alliance
®.
Not
only
does
the
LoRa®
protocol
offers
incredible
robustness
against
‘
noisy
’
RF
environments,
with
long
range
features
capable
of
combating
interference
and
‘jamming’
scenarios
which
dynamically
adjust
so
it
can
still
recover
the
small
messages,
but
also
employs
a
secured
and
encrypted
sensor-to-network-and-application
end-to-
end
AES-128
scheme that comes
standard
, and not just as a later security ‘
add-on
’:
The Sensor
After
selection
of
the
LoRa®
and
LoRaWAN®
technologies,
the
next
step
was
to
choose
the
sensor
that
would
collect
the
ambient
temperature
inside
the
tanks
via
an
external
probe
capable
of
withstanding
the
various
alkaline
or
acid
liquid
levels
present,
transform
this
information
accurately
into
an
electronic
signal
that
could,
then,
be
transmitted
wirelessly
to
a
local
‘gateway’
(or
‘concentrator’
in
LoRa®
‘
lingo
’),
which
in
turn
then
sends
this
data
to
the
network
and
application
platforms,
secured
&
encrypted,
for
analysis,
reporting,
alerting
and
visualizing
(see
diagram
above).
And
because
this
is
an
industrial
commercial
setting,
the
device
in
question
would
need
to
conform
not
only
to
the
challenges
already
described
above
but
also
to
industry
standards such as
Ingress Protection
(IP) against
dust
and
water
as well as being
FCC certified
.
Given
all
these
‘checklist’
items,
and
after
careful
evaluation
of
many
‘off-the-shelf’
options
available
given
the
broad
adoption
of
LoRa®
with
many
device
manufacturers,
we
decided
on
Minnesota-
based
Radio
Bridge
’s
industrial
RBS306-TEMP-TC-US
LoRaWAN®
Wireless
Thermocouple
Armored
Sensor
™.
The
RBS306-TEMP-TC-US
can
be
deployed
‘
standalone
’,
as
in
this
case,
or
via
the
company’s
sensor-to-cloud
solution.
Each
one
comes
with
an
external
K-type
thermocouple
probe,
which
we
did
not
use
since
our
project
required
one
suited
for
specific
pH
conditions.
Besides
K
-
type,
the
sensor
can
be
configured
for
other
popular
industrial
probe
types
,
such
as
B
,
E
,
J
,
N
,
R
,
S
and
T
.
With
a
NEMA
enclosure,
IP-67
rating,
operating
ambient
temperature
range
between
-40°C
and
+70°C,
16
bits
precision,
.06°C
of
accuracy,
and
lithium
batteries
capable
of
200k+
messages,
this
Armored
Sensor
™
was
the
ideal
choice
for
our
project.
Combined
with
Radio
Bridge’s
unique
messaging
approach,
where
event
payload
data
messages
such
as
temperature
and
humidity
are
separated
from
periodic
ones
such
as
battery
status
which
can
be
scheduled
independently
by
the
user,
full
decoding
documentation
available
and
unmatched
customer
support,
makes
this
sensor
extremely easy and flexible to configure for the
coders
and
non-coders
alike.
Finally,
the
correct
pH
specialized
quick
disconnect
thermocouple
‘stinger
probe’
was
sourced
locally
thanks
to
the
collaboration
of
our
geotechnical
engineering
colleagues
and
partners
at
Livonia,
Michigan-based
Rhino
Wireless
,
which
was
connected
without
any
additional
configuration or calibration needed.
The Platform
Once
the
hardware
challenges
and
network
needs
were
all
addressed,
rēd
wireless
then
proceeded
to
focus
its
attention
on
an
IoT
platform
–
which
is
the
one
‘
piece
of
the
puzzle’
that
customers
will
interface
the
most.
As
such,
we
needed
a
highly
flexible
IoT
user
experience
(UX)
environment
with
the
ability
to
create
a
uniquely
branded
application
for
clients,
easily
accessible
without
the
need
of
special
‘apps’
,
secured,
accurate
and
reliable.
Moreover,
this
project
application
required
real-time
temperature
monitoring,
with
on-demand,
weekly
scheduled
reports,
threshold
programmable
alarms
and
alerts
via
e-mail
and
SMS
.
After
evaluating
6
different
types,
from
‘boxed’
and
‘
closed-coded
’
applications,
to
do-it-yourself
ones,
we
selected
a
cloud-based
Application Enablement Platform
(AEP).
As
a
result,
and
with
minimal
coding,
rēd
wireless
was
able
to
provide
this
industrial
client
with
a
fully
automated
,
real-time
dashboard
view
of
their
pH
-solution
filled
tanks’
exact
temperature
levels,
thresholds,
alarms,
alerts,
events,
and
other
relevant
data
on-demand
,
anytime
and
accessible
from
anywhere
via
secure
HTTPS
.
The
solution
also
allows
for
full
historical
and
current
records
access,
as
well
as
two
separate
weekly
reports
that
await
the
client’s
e-mail
inbox
each
Monday
morning
–
an
overall
weekly
report
and
a
detailed
hourly
report
.
They
also
receive
SMS
texts
alerts if the temperature levels exceed their own programmable above/below thresholds.
The Deployment
Once
all
the
hardware
and
software
requirements
were
tended
and
the
project
scope,
planning
and
goals
had
been
discussed
and
approved,
rēd
wireless
finally
deployed
the
pilot
system
at
HAE
&
Assoc.
lab
on
March
16th,
2020
–
exactly
one
week
before
Michigan’s
Governor
1st
statewide
stay-at-home
order
for
all
non-essential
workers
due
to
the
start
of
the
Covid-19
pandemic.
Following
early
mask
mandates
and
social
distancing,
we
validated
that
the
location
and
placement
of
the
hardware
was
secured,
including
the
gateway
and
its
connection
via
physical
ethernet
medium
(
not
Wi-Fi)
and
to
the
LoRaWAN®
network,
as
well
as
the
Armored
Sensor
®
and
probe
which
were
mounted
on
a
temporary,
custom
made
wood
frame
next
to
the
pH
-solution
filled tanks at the lab.
rēd
wireless
then
proceeded
to
conduct
an
RF
survey
study
of
the
building
utilizing
a
handheld
spectrum
analyzer
to
measure
and
identify,
among
other
key
performance
indicators
(KPI),
ambient
noise
levels
and
potential
sources
of
interference
to
the
LoRa®
physical
channels.
Once
the
survey
was
completed
and
the
results
were
analyzed
to
be
within
acceptable
thresholds,
we
conducted
an
additional
end-to-end
network
bidirectional
‘
live’
test
using
a
LoRa
Alliance®
certified
Field
Test
Device
(FTD)
with
confirmation
of
messages
to
validate
the
performance
of
both
communication
directions:
the
‘uplink’
(UL,
or
sensor-to-gateway-to-network
),
and
the
‘downlink’
(DL,
or
network-to-gateway-to-sensor
).
Although
many
LoRaWAN®
live
applications
will
use
unconfirmed
messages
(meaning
that,
for
example,
the
sensors
will
typically
send
periodic
messages
to
the
network
without
expecting
a
confirmation
that
the
messages
were
received
successfully)
due
to
the
high
confidence
in
the
LoRa®
protocol
and
its
error
correction
features
that
maximize
battery
and
capacity
efficiency,
when
testing
commercial
solutions
on-premises,
one
must
validate
that
the
system
is
working
as
expected
by
measuring
metrics
such
as
Packet
Error
Rate
(PER)
among
other
KPIs
–
a
common
misconception
of
some
in
the
industry
deemed
as
‘
worthless
’
or
‘
time
consuming
’.
This
type
of
network
testing
is
key
to
have
as
a
baseline
for
any
future
problems
and
since
no
wireless
network
will
ever
be
100%
error
free
all
the
time.
Both,
the
RF
survey
,
and
network
validation
testing
,
come
standard
with
all
rēd
wireless
commercial
projects.
rēd
wireless
also
provides
RF
Indoor/Outdoor
Prediction
Design
Studies
for
bigger
and
more
complex
commercial
projects,
featuring
1,
2
or
more
gateways
with
multiple
sensors.
This
deployment
took
approximately 1-2 hours to complete.
The Results
The
final
dataset
consists
of
8,760
data
points
(hourly
temperature
readings,
every
hour,
every
day,
for
1
year)
from
the
Radio
Bridge’s
industrial
RBS306-TEMP-TC-US
LoRaWAN®
Wireless
Thermocouple
Armored
Sensor
™.
The
errors,
or
‘
lost
’
messages,
were
categorized
as
1.
non-
connectivity
(non-
wireless
and/or
network
),
2.
wireless
(RF)
and
3.
network
.
A
mandatory
network
Application
Programming
Interface
(
API
)
configuration
change
on
the
week
of
October
26th,
2020,
tallied
93
missing
messages
across
4
days
which
were
excluded
from
the
final
count
since
these
were
non-connectivity
related
(
API
config
).
For
the
connectivity
related
errors,
there
were
a
total
of
24
network
connectivity
interruptions
spread
across
4
different
weeks
(
network
errors)
and
only
7 wireless related missing messages
spread across 5 different weeks (
RF
errors):
Our
original
goal
target
for
wireless
(
RF
)
connectivity
related
errors
was
2%
or
less
,
taking
‘
cue’
from
our
3G/4G
cellular
performance
‘
old
testing
’
days.
To
say
that
our
expectations
were
exceeded
is
an
understatement,
having
only
a
.35%
message
‘
network
/
RF
’
final
error
rate.
Moreover,
this
pilot
project’s
test
LoRaWAN®
Network
Server
was
not
SLA
’
d
(Service
Level
Agreement)
or
QoS
’
d
(Quality
of
Service),
still
we
were
most
happy
with
these
results
of
just
a
.27%
network
‘
downtime
’
/
99.73%
network
‘
uptime
’
(not
counting
API
config
)
-
just
shy
of
the
typical industrial and commercial ‘
three nines
’ (
99.9%
) SLA standard:
The
Radio
Bridge’s
industrial
RBS306-TEMP-TC-US
LoRaWAN®
Wireless
Thermocouple
Armored
Sensor
™
performed
brilliantly,
including
in
the
‘
energy
department
’,
maintaining
the
same
initial
3.1
volts
averaged*
all
throughout
the
year
without
having
to
replace
the
original
batteries
(*
values
fluctuated
between
3v
and
3.1v
).
Once
again,
these
exceeded
our
expectations
considering
the
large
amount
of
temperature
data
points
collected,
in
addition
to
all
other
periodic
and
configuration
messages,
making
the
business
case
for
this
device
on
stricter
scheduling
requirements (less than 1hr reports) as well as its
sustainability
and battery
waste reduction
.
Finally,
and
without
even
realizing
it,
we
were
able
to
validate
some
of
the
well-known
connectivity
‘corner
cases’
currently
being
addressed
by
many
LoRa
Alliance®
members,
including
questions
such
as
“
what
happens
when
a
device
cannot
connect
for
over
3+
days
”
and
“
how
well
does
a
device
join
back
the
network
after
a
3+
days
interruption
”
–
which
following
our
mandatory
‘
API
configuration
’
4
day
‘outage’
in
October
2020,
the
answer
to
both
questions
is
:
“
this
device
re-joins
the network
flawlessly
”.
These
results
speak
to,
not
only
the
resiliency
of
the
LoRaWAN®
technology,
the
quality
of
the
chosen
hardware
components,
and
the
overall
reliability
of
the
networks
and
platforms,
but
also
of
the
critical
importance
system
integrators
(or
any
other
IoT
implementer
for
that
matter)
and
their
wireless
connectivity
skills
and
experience
play
in
the
success
(or
failure)
of
any
IoT
project
–
big
or
small.
From
Beecham
Research’s
own
web
report,
whyiotprojectsfail.com
,
to
the
LoRa
Alliance®’s
Certification
Test
Tool
(LCTT)
and
RF
Performance
Evaluation
Procedure
,
it
has
finally
become
noticeable
that
the
wireless
#connectivity
side
remains,
as
industry
publication
IoT
-NOW
puts
it
in
their
2021
Q2
edition
,
“
a
complicated
jungle
of
telecoms
industry
technology
”,
something
even
ourselves
have
witnessed
since
rēd
wireless’
inception
back
in
2016,
seeing
(and
advising)
many in the IoT industry that have chosen to overlook this critical piece of the overall
IoT puzzle
for
the
past
7
years.
With
over
25+
years
of
cellular
and
non-cellular
wireless
experience,
connectivity
is
at
the
very
core
of
all
rēd
wireless
operations
and
forms
the
foundation
for
all
our
services and solutions – and this project’s success serves as testament of that.
The Customer Impact
After
only
the
first
3
months
of
operation,
rēd
wireless
asked
Mr.
Gus
Haengel
,
President
of
HAE
&
Associates
,
3
insightful
key
questions
concerning
the
ongoing
project
results
–
below
are
his
answers:
1)
How satisfied are you with the project so far?
“
I am extremely satisfied with the project. Excellent data, fast and easy to make decisions
.”
2)
Any questions or highlights so far?
“
No question[s]. The data information is clear and easy to read
.”
3)
Does this solution bring value to your organization?
“
Yes,
as
we
engineers
do
not
have
extra
time
in
our
days.
This
type
of
data
is
very
valuable
and
time
saving for our precious time. And is excellent to make fast and clear decision on the systems.
”
Indeed.
As
rēd
wireless
became
more
familiarized
with
the
many
aspects
of
the
geotechnical
industry
through
this
remote
monitoring
pilot
project,
we
quickly
realized
this
was
no
typical,
trivial
‘
temperature
logging
’
exercise.
Due
to
the
tanks’
specific
heater
element
characteristics,
lab
ever-changing
‘dynamics’
and
strict
required
pH
levels,
once
new
core
samples
have
entered
the
tank
(as
seen
in
the
graph
below
at
the
beginning
of
the
week),
if
the
temperature
goes
above/below
the
specified
thresholds
it
could
take
up
to
16
hours
of
manual
daily
‘
adjustments
’
to
bring it back to ‘
normal
’ and in compliance:
To
keep
the
integrity
of
these
core
samples,
which
is
critical
to
the
success
of
the
lab,
careful
inspections
and
methodical
measurements
must
be
accurately
logged
hourly
,
daily
,
and
weekly
.
The
consequences
for
any
errors
or
omissions
can
be
costly,
both,
in
time
and
money
and
cannot
simply
be
‘
pencil-whipped
’:
each
core
sample
(which
can
be
as
many
as
20
or
more
present
in
the
tanks
at
any
given
time)
must
be
meticulously
extracted
from
the
field
by
a
specialized
crew,
using
sophisticated
and
expensive
‘coring
’
equipment,
and
shipped
to
the
lab
–
to
the
tune
of
about
$1,000
to
$3,000
per
sample
.
This
price
can
easily
double
in
the
wintertime,
as
the
extraction
of
the samples become more challenging.
With
rēd’s
remote
monitoring
solution,
all
hourly,
daily,
and
weekly
trends
can
now
be
monitored
,
visualized
,
alerted
,
reported
,
and
reacted
in
real
time
before
‘
hitting’
the
specified
thresholds,
thus
cutting
the
critical
time
once
passed
the
thresholds
to
4
hours
or
less,
greatly
minimizing
risk
while
increasing productivity
by about fourfold.
Mr.
Haengel
has
also
expressed
how
invaluable
it
has
been
for
him
to
receive
via
e-mail
every
Monday
morning
the
two
automated
reports:
the
one-page
summary
weekly
overview
,
and
the
multiple-pages
detailed
log
for
each
individual
hourly
data
point.
It
allows
him
a
quick
and
effective
analysis
and
sharing
of
the
data
with
his
team
on
what
has
transpired
the
week
prior
and
what’s
trending in the week ahead.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
In
collaboration
with
our
friends
and
colleagues
at
Elipsa.ai
,
we
decided
to
go
even
further
with
this
project.
Providing
Elipsa
with
the
last
6
months’
worth
of
data
for
them
to
process
through
their
‘
AI
outliers
’
algorithm,
we
wanted
to
see
if
any
additional
trends
or
other
relevant
information
would
come
up.
And
although
we
were
collecting
just
hourly
temperature
readings
and
the
alerts
when
temperature
levels
were
above/below
a
certain
specified
threshold
from
just
1
device,
an
interesting
‘
pattern’
did
come
up
as
a
result:
the
AI
model,
based
on
roughly
4,380
temperature
data
points
collected
and
their
associated
above/below
thresholds,
suggested
changing
the
present
above/below
thresholds
to
more
precise
values
for
better
performance
and
less
‘
reaction’
time,
lining
up
almost
perfectly
with
our
own
findings,
results
and
recommendations
and
serving
as
proof
of
the
benefits
and
efficacy
of
AI
services
such
as
Elipsa’s,
something
we’re
keen
in
offering as well as part of our solutions in the future.
What Is Next?
It
should
be
no
surprise
to
anyone
reading
at
this
point,
and
rēd
wireless
is
also
happy
to
announce,
that
we
have
officially
begun
the
transition
of
this
project’s
status
from
‘pilot’
to,
now,
‘
commercial’
implementation.
In
collaboration
with
our
geotechnical
engineering
colleagues
and
partners
at
Livonia,
Michigan-based
Rhino
Wireless,
and
after
a
100%
satisfaction
rating
from
HAE
&
Associates,
this
project
becomes
our
2nd
successful
industrial
IoT
implementation
(a
score
of
2
out
of
2
)
in
less
than
3
years
–
a
1st
under
the
rēd
wireless
name;
the
second
(and
prior
one)
in
2018
seeing
our
involvement
only
as
professional
contractors
for
one
of
the
largest
global
automotive
companies
in
Detroit,
Michigan,
with
equally
successful
completion
of
our
wireless
connectivity ‘
piece of the puzzle
’ in just under 6 months.
Below
are
some
of
the
more
relevant
‘
next
steps
’
in
the
ongoing
development
of
this
now
proven,
successful industrial IoT implementation:
1)
Add
new
sensors
with
specialized
probes
to
monitor
the
water
levels
of
the
specific
pH-
solution
filled
tanks
–
As
the
temperature
rises
–
or
changes
–
within
each
tank,
the
water
of
the
specific
pH
-solution
slowly
evaporates,
something
which
also
needs
remote
monitoring
in
conjunction with the temperature levels.
2)
Lab
environment
also
needs
temperature
and
humidity
remote
monitoring
–
we
are
also
deploying
temperature
and
humidity
ambient
sensors,
not
only
on
the
lab,
but
all
throughout
the building as well - which may include other attributes such as
CO2
.
3)
Develop
a
new
Elipsa.ai
routine
to
identify
an
upward/downward
temperature
trend
–
As
the
temperature
inside
each
tank
trends
upward
(or
downward)
for
a
specific
amount
of
time
and
before
a
specific
threshold
value,
identify
and
create
a
sort
of
‘
pre-alarm
’
condition
just
before
hitting the actual threshold limit.
4)
Switch
to
an
SLA’d/QoS’d,
commercial
and
fully-technical-support-backed
LoRaWAN®
Network
Server
(LNS)
–
Last
but
not
least,
although
the
results
for
this
project
exceeded
all
our
expectations,
the
current
LNS
used
in
this
pilot
was
NOT
backed
by
any
typical
Carrier
Grade
commercial
Service
Level
Agreement
(SLA)
and/or
Quality
of
Service
(QoS)
requirements,
which
is
perfectly
normal
for
‘testing’
purposes
and
expected
of
this
type
of
so
called
‘
community
’ LNS servers like the one chosen.
But
the
bigger
issue
is
the
fact
that
with
these
community
LNS
services
there
is
simply
no
guarantee
of
any
kind
of
network
uptime
,
with
minimal
or
no
technical
support
available
other
than
public
‘
forum
’
online
spaces
-
regardless
of
problem
origin
or
source.
As
such,
we
were
‘
left
in
the
dark’
for
4
days
when
our
non-connectivity
related
API
mandatory
config
in
the
week
of
October
26th,
2020,
left
us
‘
AWOL
’
-
resulting
in
93
missing
messages
in
one
week
.
rēd
wireless
was
forced
to
deal
with
the
situation
in
the
most
creative
of
ways,
even
though
it
was
found
to
be
an
unforeseen
internal
LNS
problem
(read
‘
not
rēd
’)
–
something
totally
unacceptable
for
any/all
commercial solutions (even for home/office cases as well, at least in our professional view).
For
this
and
many
other
reasons,
and
after
evaluating
6
other
different
commercial
LoRaWAN®
Network
Server
offerings
from
around
the
globe
in
the
last
3
years,
all
rēd
wireless
commercial
remote
monitoring
solutions
moving
forward
will
now
be
hosted
and
supported
in
the
US
by
global
IoT
company
and
Swiss-based
LORIOT
–
including
this
HAE
&
Associates
industrial
commercial solution.
Among
the
many
features
and
advantages
of
selecting
LORIOT
as
our
commercial
LNS
of
choice
and,
subsequently,
of
rēd
wireless’
offerings
and
solutions
are
:
Carrier
Grade,
99.9
%
(
three
nines
)
network
SLA
,
end-to-end
encrypted
bidirectional
data
and
device
protection,
LoRaWAN®
AES-
128
encryption
combined
with
high-grade
TLS
v1.2
communication,
‘battle-tested’
security,
scalability
with
built-in
redundancy,
high-availability,
minimal
maintenance,
MQTTS
integration
(rēd
wireless’
protocol
of
choice
for
communication
between
LNS
and
AEP),
multi-tenancy,
gateway
logs, alerts and alarms and many others.
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