SWEDEN - A GREAT PLACE FOR TECH STARTUPS
The number of challenges in IoT is many. Therefore, smart solutions are necessary. Not so surprisingly, many of these solutions are right now coming out of Sweden, which is one of the most innovative countries in IT. Successful tech startups have emerged continuously, especially out of Stockholm, with companies like Spotify, Klarna, and Skype. And it is not slowing down - more are coming. On most lists and indexes Sweden and Stockholm rank at the very top.
Sweden is also one of the most connected countries in the world, looking at factors such as bandwidth, internet users, and the number of computers and mobile phones per capita. Together with a strong tradition in ICT, Sweden is an exceptional country for IoT. We see the challenges with IoT and understand that challenges must be addressed in a new way, a new way of thinking. As Albert Einstein put it:
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
MOST CONNECTED THINGS IN IOT WILL BE MOVING
One of the first and perhaps the most important insight was that most connected devices will be moving. So, what are the challenges with moving things? To keep track of them and to gather the data you need to be able to reach them - all the time, indoors and outdoors, far away and close, today and tomorrow. That means moving things demand long battery life, long-range, and good penetration. This directly disqualifies short-range technologies like WiFi and BLE and makes LPWAN within the sub-GHz spectrum very interesting.
POSITIONING IS ONE OF THE CHALLENGES IN IOT
Accurate positioning has however been difficult to accomplish with signals in this part of the spectrum. In theory the other end of the spectrum, Ultra Wideband (UWB), would be the best, using a technique in which timestamps a very narrow energy pulse. The wideband signal creates an extremely narrow pulse with a very fast rise in the energy of the signal, enabling a more accurate measurement of the signal timing. Spreading the energy over a wide bandwidth also reduces the effect of radio reflections disturbing the measurement.
To get accurate distance measures using narrowband energy signals has been said to be close to impossible. SIGFOX says:
“With the current SIGFOX network deployment, you can use LBS to know if an object is in a neighbourhood or a city and this could meet several use cases. For more accurate geolocation, we recommend Wi-Fi or GPS.”
Another well-known actor, LoRa, are of the same opinion:
“While we recognize that people and companies are excited about the prospect of native LoRa localization, our professional expertise leads us to the conclusion that accurate localization using LoRa (or any low power, narrowband, RF technology- Sigfox, etc.) is extremely difficult or impossible to successfully develop into a usable approach.”
It turns out that it is not impossible with a narrow bandwidth. With an innovative and different way of measuring accuracy down to 10 meters is achievable. It almost feels contradictory. The low power, long-range penetrable signals of a narrow band RF technology with accuracy close to that of a UWB system with massive bandwidth. The result is obviously very useful. A scalable and fit-for-purpose solution for the Internet of Moving Things (IoMT).
HAVE YOU MET ANY CHALLENGES IN IOT? NEED HELP?
If you have any questions on this topic or if you would like to receive help with the integration of IoT, then please feel free to contact us here at Wittra.
We also offer great IoT tech solutions such as moving devices, gateways, IoT sensors, mesh networks, routers, and others.
Also, feel free to download our guide below (it's free). It will serve as a tool to help you with implementing IoT into your business.