1. Wireless IoT Lessons learned from Industrial Implementations
Nick Baker
Adaptive Wireless Solutions Ltd
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17

2. Adaptive Wireless Solutions Ltd
12+ years’ experience delivering wireless monitoring and control solutions
VAR and Distributor in UK and Europe for a couple of US mesh radio manufacturers
Certified System Partner for HMS Industrial Networks (Netbiter/Anybus) in UK
Projects in a wide range of sectors
Customers in UK, Ireland, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Belgium, Hungary, Israel, Saudi Arabia
Have gained a lot of experience and learned a lot of lessons on the way!
BOMBARDIER
Over 12 years’ experience in delivering monitoring and control solutions using wireless mesh sensor networks and other wireless technologies
Projects in
BMS extension
energy management
industrial plants
IT environments
commercial offices
universities and colleges
hotels and apartment complexes
Warehousing
recycling plants
food companies
national utilities
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17

3. Application example – Westfield Shopping Mall BMS integration for temperature control
55,000 m2 on two floors with Atrium
49 Air handling units on roof
1 Wireless network
18 Mesh repeaters
30 Sensing nodes
Ambient Temperature input to HVAC zone controls via Modbus TCP
Radio Coexistence with
Wi-Fi in every store
Installed in 2 days 3

4. Application example – Large Data Centre TRH Monitoring Solution
4 Floors
Phase 1
6 Wireless Sub-networks
22 Mesh repeaters
178 Sensing nodes
Phase 2
100 additional TRH sensors on two floors
4 more wireless sub-networks
Locally connected via Modbus TCP to monitoring system with HMI on DC ‘video wall’
Floor 3
Floor 2
Control Room
Viewers
Primary Server
Main Mission Critical Data Centre
Console
Floor 1
Other
Viewers
Basement
Common
Ethernet Network
Remote Business Continuity Centre
Secondary Server
Remote Disaster Recovery Centre
Secondary Console 4

5. Application example – University Site
Utility submetering
Gas, water and electricity monitoring on 6 floors
1 Wireless network
Stage 1 main incomers – 5 meters
Stage 2 – primary submeters.
44 electricity, 13 gas,
8 water
Supply management software
£15,000 wireless equipment, software and commissioning cost
£15,000 electricity meters

6. Other application example projects
Refrigerator, freezer temperature monitoring.
40 Supermarkets nationally. Centralised monitoring.
Electricity consumption monitoring.
7 storey building, 56 meters. Wireless installed and commissioned in 2 days.
Electricity feeder pillar and generator status monitor and control.
100 acre government laboratory site. UPS on wireless devices
Ambient temperature and Humidity monitoring.
5 warehouses in 56,000 m2 warehouse complex. SLA compliance
Pharma laboratory
Refrigerator, freezer and warehouse monitoring. FDA CFR21 part 11 validated environment.
Compressors and compressed air system
Wireless condition monitoring on large electricity substation sites.
GPRS data transfer to central asset management system.
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17

7. Project-related characteristics
Every project has different wireless challenges
Complex built environments - site survey required
for 2.4 GHz and even for cellular
Most projects had an intermediary SI involved.
All networks have been private, closed.
Most wireless sensor systems need open, standards-based, back-end data interface
Standard commercial sensor interfaces are important
Data frequency is quite low in most applications
Much less than GHz bandwidth provides
E.g. Modbus TCP and RS485, BACnet, OPC
E.g. PT100, 0-10V, 0-20mA, Thermistor, RS485
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17

8. Key Lessons Learned
No one wireless vendor supplies a range of products that covers all application types
It took us a while to find ‘good’ suppliers of reliable kit.
Unreliability destroys commercial economics
Manufacturers can and do go bust
There is a substantial wireless equipment implementation learning curve.
Hardware cost is a barrier to wide use
No obvious single vertical market pull
No obvious single application pull
It took us a while to find ‘good’ suppliers of reliable kit.
Protocol must perform in real-world radio environment (interference avoidance)
Device reliability is essential
Wireless data transfer reliability is essential
There is a substantial wireless equipment implementation learning curve.
Integrators/Distributors must know the capabilities and limitations of what they are selling
Practical experience is vital (i.e. not just a list of theoretical dos and don’ts)
Wireless equipment could not be bought and implemented by the end-user or SI without our help, at least initially.
Our customers have not shown any inclination to go through the learning curve themselves
No obvious single vertical market pull, and no obvious single application pull
Tough to justify development of a vertical market application ‘solution’
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17

9. ON World research survey ‘Industrial Wireless Sensor Networks’ January 2017
“The survey found steady growth for the wireless mesh standards but there is also a strong awareness and early adoption of LPWAN solutions. 
Satisfaction with WSN solutions has increased overall but improvements are needed for battery life, costs, system integration and network range.”
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17

10. What would I look for now?
Reliability
Lower-cost equipment
Topology that requires less infrastructure devices
Implies longer range and probably not 2.4GHz
Automatic gateway failover
Standards-based gateway data connection
A wide range of integrated sensors and standard sensor interfaces at the node
Some limited node-level data processing capability that can be user-defined
Interoperability between different manufacturers’ devices
To convert from data to engineering units, apply alert levels
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17

11. Conclusions Reliability is key Low-cost is key Interoperability is key
Wireless definitely has a major role in IoT
Educating the market is a big challenge
End user organisations need help to implement
Non-cellular wireless ‘killer applications’ hard to see at the moment
Any ‘bet’ on a particular wireless platform carries a commercial risk for all involved over the medium term
We’re looking into LoRa but need to know more about its real-world capability
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17

12. Thanks for your attention!
Questions?
Adaptive Wireless Solutions Ltd 42 High Street Great Missenden HP16 0AU Tel:+44 (0)
Nick Baker
Director
Mobile:
Skype: adaptivewireless
TV IoT Meetup 25/01/17