M2M : Machine 2 Machine

Snippet from the ZigBee newsletter

The Alliance has seen strong interest from electric utilities around the globe in using ZigBee to help their consumers be more energy efficient. Several utilities are now in active development of customer programs which will make use of ZigBee enabled electric meters being installed at homes throughout the territory. Utilities leading this market development include utilities from California and Texas as well as Canada and Australia. Other utilities beginning to explore the use of ZigBee for their customers include utilities in California, Connecticut, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio and Virginia along with Scandinavia, France and Japan. The key for utilities in developing robust customer programs for energy efficiency is using open standards like ZigBee. ZigBee enables utility owned devices, such as electric meters to communicate with consumer owned devices, such as thermostats, appliances, lighting system, etc. This communication network is known as the Home Area Network (HAN). With a standards-based HAN able to communicate with the electric meter, home owners can receive information about real-time energy prices, up-to-date energy consumption and other information direct from devices in their home without waiting for the monthly bill to telling them what happened last month. In May, Texas became the first state to require utilities to include HANs as part of their upgrade plans, if the utility wishes to seek cost recovery from the public. Currently, several other legislative bodies are considering similar approaches for utilities in their state or country.

http://www.zigbee.org/en/newsletters/2007_08-Newsletter/0807-external.asp#newsletter

Came across this article that points out the current state of wireless M2M implementations. It provides insight into the challenging environment in which adopters of M2M systems have to work.

Here is a snippet

It’s almost a cliché to say that everything is going wireless. And I suppose that’s true enough if you’re talking about person-to-person communication—or applications that are in the direct service of human beings such as wireless PC peripherals and hands-free headsets and entertainment systems.

True machine-to-machine (M2M) communication, on the other hand, is still in its infancy. It’s been there, crawling around in diapers more or less, for quite some time.

The basic technologies are available. The problem seems to lie in the value proposition for companies that want to implement a wireless system.

The wireless module is probably the easiest part—just drop it into the system, box, or vehicle. But then comes the hard part. How do you develop the application? How do you upgrade and maintain the hardware and the application? How do you get information from the end point—let’s say it’s a vending machine that is out of Diet Coke—onto the transport network and into a database? How do you act on the vending machine’s request in a cost-efficient fashion?

Truth be known, that takes a lot of expertise from maybe a half-dozen knowledge domains. Clearly, a job for a system integrator—as long as you have multiple millions of dollars to invest.

Numerex a provider of wireless services focused on the M2M market as a MVNO has now acquired Orbit One which is also a MVNO but primarily provides Satellite based communication systems. This now allows Numerex to offer a full suite of M2M connectivity options for its customers.

Numerex Corp., an Atlanta, Ga.-based wireless telemetry provider, expanded its M2M network services platform by acquiring Orbit One Communications Inc., Bozeman, Mont., a specialist in tracking and monitoring applications using satellite technology, for approximately $6 million.

Numerex’s offerings includes a vending management system called Vendview.

Numerex and Orbit One have very similar and complementary business models. Both companies are M2M MVNOs (mobile virtual network operators), which means they provide network connectivity through partnerships with network operators and also offer application services that are specific to transmitting data from physical assets.

In the case of Orbit One, its solution portfolio includes hardware, software, data management, installation, and maintenance — on top of satellite network service provisioning. Numerex, meanwhile, provides many of the same services but with a primary focus on cellular connectivity. By acquiring Orbit One, Numerex broadens its platform to include proficiency in satellite communications, particularly in the government sector where Orbit One does much of its business.

Come and desing your custome M2M applications …

A leader in wireless device networking technology, Lantronix, Inc. (Nasdaq: LTRX) today announced the 3rd edition of its popular Wireless Design Contest. This year’s contest challenges engineers, students and hobbyists to develop a creative and practical wireless product using Lantronix new MatchPort(tm) b/g , an 802.11 b/g embedded wireless device server module. With MatchPort b/g, contestants can add WiFi to virtually any electronic device with a serial interface so it can be accessed, monitored and controlled wirelessly over the Internet.

To enter, contestants simply submit their application concept through the Lantronix Web site and later submit a working prototype design. All design entries must be received on or before March 3, 2008. Winners will be announced at the Embedded Systems Conference (April 14-18, 2008) in San Jose, Calif.

Came across this article that talks about the coming age where the most spoken language will e MachineTalk (XML)

Quote –
Have Your Machine Talk to My Machine

Steady growth in the range of devices that include some form of connectivity may catalyze growth in the volume of machine-to-machine (M2M) conversations. This could generate an industry worth over $200 billion by 2010 (compared to less than $50 billion today).

By 2010, tens of millions of vehicles may feature an integrated cellular mobile connection, allowing for applications ranging from remote maintenance to vehicle tracking.

Cars, televisions, and even groceries will be talking to computers.
Five percent of the world’s televisions may be connected, directly or indirectly, to broadband networks, allowing remote programming, maintenance and even the insertion of personalized advertising.

Radio-frequency identification (RFID) tags may have become cheap enough for their mainstream use within supply chains – allowing automated systems to interrogate stock levels, check on the status of orders and deliveries, record environmental conditions and track individual items as they move from the factory to the customer.