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The Smart City Tech Planning Handbook

August 11, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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Book release alert for the Smart City Tech Planning Handbook. It is out! The Smart City Tech Planning handbook which will give you case studies, technical avenues for smart cities, and ways to deploy! Yes, it’s a guide to get you started.

The pain point is most groups working on a smart city, or a smart campus project doesn’t know where to begin. They often struggle just figuring out what is possible. I noticed that every city has a different definition of what they want for a smart city then they have no idea how to get there. They don’t know what has been done, really been done, and they don’t know how to get started.

Many cities fall prey to the large OEMs because they come in and offer a specific solution which the city may or may not want. So they go with it, or they run demos thinking that this is something that the people want. The people generally tell you what they want, if you’re listening. Don’t forget small business and large business for that matter, what do they really want to do business in your city? How do you get there? What has been done? I’m here to help!

Figure out your foundation, your assets, how to monetize and what you can use for your foundation, it could really help you now by knowing and planning, not guessing or assuming. Let’s work together!

This book is here for you to plan your path to deploying technology in your city for your purpose. Not only that but what assets do you have that you can use or even better yet, make money on. Wouldn’t it be nice if the city could find a way to create revenue streams off what they have? Remember that you don’t need to be tied to a large company to make money from your assets. In fact, do you even know what your assets are? You should figure it out ASAP! Again, this book will help you figure that out, and it will guide you to getting the help that won’t take you down a path you don’t want to do.

Showing you what has been done and what can be done. There is help for you. This is a guide to get started. It will help you see what’s been done and what’s possible. Let me help, take some time and learn all you can. Make informed decisions about how to deploy and learn from what’s been done. Understand why they did what they did. Understand how to get where you want to go.

I’ll explain more but here is how you can get it!

The Smart City Tech Planning Handbook, available at:

PDF version on Gumroad: https://gum.co/saDBQ
PDF on Sellfy: https://sellfy.com/p/QAvq/
Amazon Kindle: Click here.
Paperback: Click here for the paperback!
KOBO, ITUNES, and more!

Here is an overview of the Smart City Tech Planning Handbook!

Your Smart City Planning Guide for broadband, IOT, and solutions in technology. A handbook for learning more about smart city use cases, technology, and roll out.

We want you to prepare and plan for your smart city with all the information needed to move ahead cost effectively to develop your vision. Your city may have more assets to make it smart and bring in revenue, do you know how to do that? Get some help from others who have done it. Look smart by planning for your smart city vision!

Are you working to create a smart city? Are you taking that step to add the technology need to build infrastructure for your smart city? Let me help. You can gain the knowledge to move ahead in this book to plan your deployment, your growth, your services. If you don’t’ want the book, then send me an email, I can help. This book is to help you get started.

Everyone thinks technology is just broadband, and this is a big part of today’s world, but the services need to be aligned with your smart city vision. How do you do this? Plan the vision around the technology and know what you have so you know how far you should go.

This is all covered, with case studies, plenty of links for you to reference and PDFs to download. It’s more than this book, it bigger than that, it’s providing you models and solutions.

Are you ready to build your smart city? Do you have the budget? The infrastructure? Why don’t you make sure? This book will help you and your teams!

Smart City Questions:

Do you know that the smart city is here now?

Most cities want to be a smart city, and they are looking for technology to save them. I once saw a TED talk where they described a smart city as being the way the buildings are built. Let me tell you something; the buildings are constructed in these cities. While it would be wonderful to plan a smart city from scratch, it’s not the reality of the cities out there. They intend to improve the existing city infrastructure, which is no easy task. That’s the purpose of this book, to help you work with cities and have them develop their smart city initiatives. Develop a plan!

Learn this!

What is a Smart City?

How do you plan the Smart City infrastructure?

Where do you start when developing the smart city?

What planning is involved?

Whom should I partner with?

What about permitting, rent, acquisition, construction planning?

Whom should we work with? Learn all this and more from case studies and deployment planning. The rest is up to you!

The Smart City Tech Planning Handbook is broken into 3 general sections.

It provides case studies to show you what has been done in other cities around the world as well as what larger OEMs envision can be done. This is to provide you with real world case studies as well as concepts to get your idea flowing for your city. It also shows you it can be done, it’s not pie in the sky but real solutions to real problems where technology provides the solutions!
We discuss the technology that is out there and available. It is a good idea for you to learn what is real and what is coming. In today’s world, the technology and spectrum can determine what can be done and what is 10 years out. Luckily, things move fast today. The only real limitation is getting past the limitations that people, and governments, impose not themselves.
What is the foundation of smart city technology? While the technology really matters, what good is it if you can’t roll it out. These things need to happen in steps or phases. Providing a foundation is key to your smart city dream becoming a reality. Use this as a guide to building it the way that you would like to see it.

Get it today!

The Smart City Tech Planning Handbook, available at:

PDF version on Gumroad: https://gum.co/saDBQ

PDF on Sellfy: https://sellfy.com/p/QAvq/

Amazon Kindle: Click here.

Paperback: Click here for the paperback!

KOBO, ITUNES, and more!

Below is a sample of the Table of Contents for you to review:

Smart City Questions
Community Living:
The Purpose of this Book
How to use this book
What’s been done?
Smart City Technology overview
The Foundation of your Smart City
Your Smart City Plan
Deploy, Deploy, Deploy!
What is a “Smart City”?
Smart City Research Case Studies
How to read this section
Smart Cities Council and Cisco
Smart Cities Projects
India Smart Cities
Singapore
Santander, Spain
Yinchuan, China
General notes
IDC Government Insights
Multiple Case Studies from National League of Cities, (NLC), “Trends in Smart City” publication.
Case Study Chicago:
Case Study Philadelphia, Pa
Charlotte, NC
San Francisco, Ca
Columbus, Oh, Smart City report
Smart City Cleveland
The US Department of Transportation Smart City Challenge
NYC Planning Document called One New York
Smart City Columbus
The Smart City Playbook by Nokia and Machina Research
Sum up Smart City Focus
Smart Cities Council
Summary
Smart City Technology
How to read this section
An Outline of Smart City Broadband
How do we use and roll out broadband?
Who uses that broadband?
What will the city get from this mass roll out?
What is the transport method?
Who will roll out what?
What technologies are available?
Sum it up
Why does Indoor Connectivity matter in a Smart City?
Fiber
Cable & Copper
Wi-Fi
LTE-U
Public safety bands
DAS systems
Small Cells
CBRS
Indoor coverage summary
Smart City IOT Technologies
What is IOT and how will we use it?
A Little History
What is NB-IOT?
Is IOT a 5G Service?
IOT Services in the Smart City
IOT Wireless Tech:
More “Smart City” IOT resources:
Fixed Wireless in the Smart City
What is Fixed Wireless?
M&A (Mergers and Acquisitions)
Spectrum for 5G Fixed Wireless
Why does Fixed Wireless Matter to a Smart City?
5G Resources
Which Technology is right for us?
What’s first?
Build or lease?
Let’s build!
It built, now what?
Leasing is easy!
Who owns the solution?
Choose your vision, then plan wisely!
Smart City Advantages of Using Technology
Summary
The Foundation of Smart City Technology
How to read this section
Assets
What do we mount on these assets?
Take Inventory of what you have
Smart City Audits
Mounting assets (lamp posts, wood poles, telephone poles)
Underground assets
Fiber assets:
Building tops and Towers
Billboards:
Parking Garages:
Street Furniture:
Wireless Backhaul:
Data Collection:
Notes:
Resources:
Summary:
Smart City Planning
Setting the Vision
How do you make the Smart City Decision?
Decisions: Expense Reduction or Income or Future Vision?
Hard Solutions
Think of your long-term budgets.
Smart City Start-Up Checklist
Don’t let the OEMs push you into something you don’t want!
Smart City Sustainability
Expense Reduction:
Rent
New Sources of Revenue
Potential Business Models
As A Service Models:
You don’t have to do it all!
Smart City “Other” Services
Resources:
How do you get Broadband to the “Underserved”?
Mounting Small Cells in the City
Deployment Solutions for Smart Cities
Smart City Obstacles, (Real and Perceived)
Deployment
Change is Certain!
A Smart City is a Safe City
Acronyms and Definitions
Naming Definitions (To help the non-technical person talk technical)
Overall Summary
Smart City Assets Are Everywhere!

Get busy! Get the book, read, learn, and plan!

Get it today!

The Smart City Tech Planning Handbook, available at:

PDF version on Gumroad: https://gum.co/saDBQ

PDF on Sellfy: https://sellfy.com/p/QAvq/

Amazon Kindle: Click here.

Paperback: Click here for the paperback!

KOBO, ITUNES, and more!

Other books and products by Wade:

The 5G Deployment Handbook, https://wade4wireless.com/2017/01/30/the-5g-deployment-plan-book-release/
The Wireless Deployment Handbook for LTE small Cells, CRAN, and DAS, https://wade4wireless.com/2015/11/12/wireless-deployment-handbook-for-lte-small-cells-and-das/
Tower Climbing: An Introduction, http://wadesarver.com/tower-climbing-introduction/
The Scope of Work Tutorial, http://wadesarver.com/scope-work-training/
The Wireless Deployment Bundle, https://wade4wireless.com/2016/08/07/the-wireless-deployment-bundle/

About Wade Sarver

Hi, I’m Wade. I write blogs and books. I work as a solution manager for a major OEM. I consult groups on smart city deployments. I help market and bring products to market. I create online products to help tech deployments. Let’s make great tech happen.

It can be summed up like this. Wade Sarver is a blogger and podcaster at www.wade4wireless.com and an author of several nonfiction tech books, a solutions consultant TechFecta, www.techfecta.com, as well as a solution manager for Nokia. To reach out to Wade, you can email at wade4wireless@gmail.com or wade@techfecta.com or twitter @Wade4Wireless.

Thank you for making it to the end! I appreciate your endurance, tenacity, and perseverance!

Wade4Wireless BlogCast

5G Fixed Wireless Spectrum and Why it Matters

May 15, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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I am excited that we talk of 5G and fixed wireless. Fixed Wireless is where we put a radio up and shoot it to a building or a kiosk or a small cell or even a macro cell. If you’re in the wireless deployment business, then you would call this point to point, PTP, or Point to Multi-Point, PTMP or PMP. We used to call these microwave hops, but in this case, it is broadband to a specific facility. While this has been done for a while, not it’s going to be a viable competitor to ISPs and Cable companies. Wireless is taking over, and we have a shot to change the world here. Not just the carriers, but the small businesses who want to become ISPs really have a shot to provide real bandwidth to business and home customers. WOW! Can you feel it, a new era is rising in wireless broadband!

Don’t worry, I tie this into smart cities at the end.

If you test CDMA and LTE UE equipment, check out the deal on the Anritsu ME7834L here!

First, let’s look at the 5G spectrum. I’m not sure if any of you saw it, but the 5G Americas group put together a great sheet on the 5G spectrum. I have the link so go ahead and download it.

http://www.5gamericas.org/files/9114/9324/1786/5GA_5G_Spectrum_Recommendations_2017_FINAL.pdf

Look at the new bands that the FCC is proposing to use:

24 GHz bands: 24.25-24.45 GHz and 25.05-25.25 GHz
Local Multipoint Distribution Service (LMDS) band: 27.5-28.35 GHz, 29.1-29.25 GHz, and 31-31.3 GHz
39 GHz band: 38.6-40 GHz • 37/42 GHz bands: 37.0-38.6 GHz and 42.0-42.5 GHz
60 GHz bands: 57-64 GHz and 64-71 GHz (extension)
70/80 GHz bands: 71-76 GHz, 81-86 GHz, 92-95 GHz

Tower Safety and Instruction has online training and eBooks at http://teltech-college.com/ where you can get drone, tower, safety, 5G, and deployment material on your laptop! TSI, making the best better.

If you think this is just ridiculous because you remember that this is merely a point to point short-haul solution, at least if you’re in the business and been around, you might be surprised that both Verizon and AT&T are bidding on Straight Path for their 38GHz licenses, http://www.phonearena.com/news/AT-T-outbid-for-Straight-Path-by-mystery-firm-rumored-to-be-Verizon_id93451 to gain that particular spectrum. Oh yeah, it is real, and it is valuable, and it will be a pain I the ass to engineer. Don’t forget about the Verizon XO deal, http://www.telecompetitor.com/in-pursuit-of-5g-spectrum-verizon-xo-purchase-closes/ where Verizon wants to lease the 28 to 31 GHz and 39 GHz spectrum.

Here it is “The 5G Deployment Plan” available in PDF, Kindle, and Paperback!

Even T-Mobile is getting in on the act, over a year ago they tested 5G on 38GHz, http://www.fiercewireless.com/tech/t-mobile-files-to-conduct-5g-tests-at-28-38-ghz, to see how viable it is.

I don’t see this spectrum as a mobile solution, but more of a fixed solution. This is going to be a thorn in the side of the cable and ISP business model. Why? It’s a new competitor that will have the reach and customer base and savvy to steal those customers. Remember, fewer millennials are watching traditional TV, they watch on demand as most of you do. Don’t deny it, do you really sit down and watch a show at the designated time or do you watch it on Amazon or Netflix or Zulu or with your DVR?

I tell you that I watch it on my DVR, but also on Amazon. I don’t watch much at the time the show airs except live sports. If there is the demand for live TV, sports is it! Even though I can watch sports on a device as well.

So, the push for massive broadband is coming. Those crappy TV packages that they cable companies are pushing will slowly fade away. Seriously, why can’t I get the channels I want and why do they always change the lineup which cancels the one channel I watch? I really hate paying a lot of money for something that I don’t really want, but the cable companies are not changing fast enough in my opinion. However, they do have great internet speeds to the home. I won’t deny that. They have a great model there with the cable modems.

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The wireless carriers are going to have to make it cost-effective, so all they need to do is come in lower, about 25%, on price to compete. They can’t come in at the same price because cable is very reliable and I get the feeling wireless will need a year to get there. I think they will need to work out the bugs. Then they will do what they always do, slowly raise the price until you leave.

That is why I am hoping that Legere at T-Mobile makes waves by getting there first. He already said he wants to attack the big cable companies the way that he attacked the big wireless carriers. If anyone can do it, I believe that John Legere can do it. He needs to push into fixed wireless. However, I believe he is too smart to just jump in. I think he will wait for Verizon and AT&T to work out the bugs and then pounce. First isn’t always best when there are problems. So why be first when the technology isn’t quite there? When it is, hammer the deals out to the customer, like he did with mobility. Great job there becoming #3 and pushing into #2.

Of course, CBRS will also be a game changer for those businesses that don’t need 100Mbps.It will allow us to do more in the rural areas. Remember CBRS, 3.5GHz? I love this spectrum because it will be open to more than just the big bad carriers who rule the spectrum. We have a chance to create something great when I say we, I mean the small businesses who must feed off the scraps which the carrier doesn’t own or manage. This may be the most valuable of all because it may not require LOS, a line of site, as shown here, http://www.telecompetitor.com/fixed-lte-in-cbrs-band-not-expected-to-require-line-of-sight-for-fixed-wireless/ for the connections to be made. This opens new doors for connectivity. I think it’s real and exciting! Hey don’t take my word for it, ask Google, http://www.rcrwireless.com/20161117/carriers/google-sees-cbrs-spectrum-band-key-5g-new-model-industry-tag2, and they will vouch for this.

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To be fair, the 5G Americas Spectrum document that I reference above also has a quick blurb in it about CBRS, and I quote “Other bands of interest, From the point of view of global harmonization in the 3 to 5 GHz range as the main mid-range spectrum target for 5G, interests have been expressed in use of this range for 5G in the United States. This could potentially include current CBRS band (3.55-3.7 GHz) and beyond (e.g. up to 4.2 GHz).” I believe that the CBRS will play a large part because the carrier doesn’t want to deploy small cells everywhere, in fact, they are going to let that up to the business owners or the landlord to do. They won’t admit this but I think they are looking for a neutral host solution and CBRS is a great solution! Licensed and protected and it could potentially have multiple carriers on one band. If you think this is crazy, have you ever heard of Wi-Fi? Does it discriminate based on a carrier in your home? NOPE! It just connects, so this will be a stepped-up version of that where it will connect, but it may discriminate based on your carrier. Amazing!

The Wireless Deployment Handbook Paperback

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

If you want to read more about it, 4G Americas put together a document back in October of 2014, found here http://www.5gamericas.org/files/2414/1323/5229/4G_Americas_Spectrum_Sharing_-_FINAL_Oct_2014.pdf that helps explain CBRS. Go ahead, download it, it’s free!

Why does Fixed Wireless Matter to a Smart City?

Why? Because cities are going to want alternatives to running fiber on poles and underground. The dig once the policy is going to be enforced more and more throughout the USA. The poles are going to be a point of contention among competitors. The access rights and permitting battles will heat up until we find a resolution. The FCC is working to streamline small cell deployments, and the cities are realizing that they must lay out the requirements for a proper installation. If things go as planned, the fixed wireless base stations should be a lot like small cells with batteries. I believe that power is going to be the issue because if the power goes out people still want Internet access. So, this issue needs to be resolved.

The smart city is going to be aware that they need broadband service for small businesses and for kiosks as well as food trucks. They will rely on smartphones, but the demand will grow. As demand grows we come up with new solutions. If you go to a city, you will see stands that sell newspapers, hot dogs, and T-Shirts almost on every busy street. They rely on landlines and smartphones to do business now. It will become a game changer when they can run the online business out of the same small stand that they run the physical business out of. Things change and become more and more advances. As the business grows, revenue grows, the city gains more in tax revenue. It’s a win-win all around.

I am hoping that fixed wireless can be one of the catalysts to help make this happen.

Resources:

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion?

The foundations below do beautiful work, helping families in their time of need. Climbers often get seriously injured or die on the job. The foundations below support those families in their time of greatest need!

Hubble Foundation helps the families of climbers in a time of need and beyond with financial support and counseling!

Tower Family Foundation supports the families of tower climbers at the time of crisis when a climber falls with financial assistance and more.

Wade4Wireless BlogCast

IOT and the Smart City

April 24, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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Will Smart Cities use IOT? Will IOT be an integral part of the smart city vision? Yes and yes! IOT is going to be a key factor in many smart city services and it will fill the holes for services other than broadband. If you wonder if it will take off, just ask AT&T who is building an entire business unit around IOT, AT&T IOT website found here. AT&T has invested in complete end to end services for vehicles, asset management, smart cities, and healthcare. So they see a definite future in the IOT ecosystem.

Tower Safety and Instruction has a new online school, check it out at http://teltech-college.com/ when you are ready to step up your learning in telecom!

What about Verizon? Yes, they have their IOT business as well, the website found here. While they are focused more on the enterprise, they too see the ecosystem that I see. In fact, Verizon had a developers website set up, found here, to encourage developers to come up with solutions and fill holes around the IOT need and exponential growth.

Here it is “The 5G Deployment Plan” available now!

So you’re asking yourself, as a small business consultant or integrator, “How does that help me?”. I will tell you how, you have an opportunity to build, deploy, manage, and fill holes in the IOT solutions. We can compete with the larger behemoths like AT&T and Verizon by building our own systems, or by piggybacking onto their network with our unique solutions. We can provide the answers that smart cities are looking for. We are the local consultants and contractors, the small businesses that are the backbone of America that know what the cities need. However, the cities need help and we can provide them with vendor agnostic solutions. IOT will open new areas of business for smart cities.

The smart city will use IOT services for a foundation of many things. Funding, cutting expenses, services that will make residents and tourist happy. Why? It is going to be the foundation of many services and how they will work in the city. There are many services that you may have heard of, and some you may think are too futuristic. However, this will be the norm in the very near future. Remember when the smartphone was a luxury? How many people claim they can’t live without it? What about Uber, it has changed the way we get a ride and forever hurt the Taxi service model. What services will be needed?

Let’s begin!

Parking services are an immediate need that most cities are addressing. Until the drones and self-driving cars to take over, we need parking meters that should be easy to pay, which are already taking over. Remotely connected meters that people can pay with a credit card or with a phone application. Those services are already here! What about open parking spaces? Parking is a huge issue in many cities. Wouldn’t it be nice to reroute traffic to the parking spaces and garages that have spaces? YES! Did you ever fly over Thanksgiving? Airport garages fill up quickly, they reroute traffic to the open garages. Also, open street parking is a huge issue. Why not let people know where the spaces are by looking at an app and pointing people to the open spaces. This is valuable to avoid small traffic jams. It just makes sense! This is happening, go to http://www.nedapidentification.com/news/insights/the-business-case-for-wireless-parking-sensors.html and https://www.smartparking.com/technologies/smarteye to see some ideas of how it is done today.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook Paperback and

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

Garbage dumpster sensors are something that has been growing as a service. If you don’t think this is a big idea, then you must not care when garbage is laying all over the streets. When a dumpster is full, it’s because there is a lot of garbage and it will start to overflow, and it will blow all over the city. Then the city has to clean it up, especially if it’s going to make the city dirty and possibly spread disease. Now we have a way to get the garbage crews out there when they are needed and if a restaurant is closed for a week and the dumpster stays empty, then why dispatch a truck? What a wasted trip for the garbage company it’s a waste of time and fuel. Think this isn’t real? Then look at https://www.smartbin.com/markets/level-sensor-general-waste-recyclables/ and http://www.enevo.com/waste-analytics-solution/ to see who is doing it.

Sensors around the city are going to be key. This could be water sensors that could detect high water at levees, drains, sewers where an overflow can cause major issues with traffic or resident safety. Water pressure in water mains could drop quickly, which would mean that there is a break in the line which means street flooding or a sinkhole is forming which leads to traffic problems and residents not feeling safe. What about gas lines that have leaks, gas detection could be a huge service.

How about ShotSpotter? Public safety will need to get creative to stay on top of the crime in any city. As luck would have it, someone reminded me of ShotSpotter this morning. Someone just sent me an article, http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2017/03/02/incredible-tech-detects-gunfire-across-america.html that had sensors put all over cities to identify shots fired in the city and locate them and identify them, You’re asking, is this IOT? Yes, it was a completely automated system that would sense gunfire then alert an NOC, probably an e911 call center, that there are shots fired. All automated. How did the system work? Imagine this, microphones that are hyper sensitive all across a city all connected via wireless backhaul to a central location where there is a server that identifies the sound then puts up an alert on a computer screen. There you go, classic IOT automated services connected wireless to a server that alerts a human when something happens, what a great model to follow. Remember that this technology has been around for over 10 years. The article is new, but I installed one around 10 years ago. I installed the system in York, Pa, which let it go because they could not afford to support it. Here is an article for that service specifically, http://ydr.inyork.com/ydr/opinion/ci_9642210 and http://yorkdispatch.inyork.com/yd/local/ci_10618140 stating how it was unreliable. I don’t blame the system, but maybe there needed to be more systems around the city. Remember that it was over 8 years ago, so the technology may not have been there.

What about Drone Traffic Control? Did you know that Uber is working towards drone passenger service, I would say taxi, but seriously, Uber is the anti-taxi. The article is here, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/09/26/uber-plans-self-flying-drone-taxis-to-beat-city-traffic/ where it explains Uber’s drone vision. My point is if Amazon does the package delivery and Uber does passenger delivery, we will need to have drone traffic control. While it may be the FAA that manages the traffic, each city will need their own way to manage and track the drones. It will be a city service at some point because in the city the drone traffic will be heavy. Deliveries are one thing that the city may not worry about, but when humans take the air, it will be life or death. This is what we have all waited for, to get off the road and into the air. It’s almost here. Why is it the city? Because the intercity traffic will take a long time for drones to do, but intracity traffic is almost here, within the next 5 years. Thank you, Uber! I heard the DJI Matrice, (Amazon affiliate link) which is a great drone for commercial work.

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Wait, how can we connect these services to the main line? Wireless and wired backhaul. Get creative! I actually have a plan that could help, but hey, you need to reach out to me via Wade@TechFecta.com if you want to learn more. I am not talking about putting it all on a carrier’s system, although they would love that. The key is to have a long battery life where there is no power and where you have the power you could use anything. These services don’t need a lot of bandwidth, what some of them need is a great battery life, and that is where wireless comes in. Low power draw sensors that need minimal bandwidth that won’t drain the battery in the sensor. All of this is real. Even Amazon has them available, found on my affiliate link here, and Honeywell writes about their sensor at https://www.alarmgrid.com/products/honeywell-5821 if you’re interested.

So to wrap it up, the IOT services for the city are huge, not just for the businesses to become more efficient and effective, but for the city to maintain safety and cleanliness. This is one of the foundations of the smart city and services that we will all expect every city and town to have. It will become more of an expectation that a luxury.

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion?

Hubble Foundation helps the families of climbers in a time of need and beyond with financial support and counseling!

Tower Family Foundation supports the families of tower climbers at the time of crisis when a climber falls with financial support and more.

Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Will IOT be a 5G Service?

April 10, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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Of course. When we look at 5G it is well beyond the devices that we are used to. It’s time to expand your horizons beyond a simple device. That is why IOT is used along with 5G in so many conversations. IOT and 5G are used synonymously even though they are not the same thing. The thing is, 5G is the network description and IOT is the application.

Tower Safety and Instruction has a new online school, check it out at http://teltech-college.com/ when you are ready to step up your learning in telecom!

When we think of 5G, we think of the signal to a device. Now the signal will go to much more than a smart device. It will go to smartphones and tablets, but it’s also going to go to sensors, video cameras, games, smart gloves, smart anything that can be connected. We already see it with Wi-Fi that set the stage for 5G to connect to anything. The problem is that we need more bandwidth for stuff like that.

Here it is “The 5G Deployment Plan” available now!

Just when we thought more and more bandwidth was the answer, IOT device makers realize that they don’t need the bandwidth, but they also realize that lots of bandwidth needs lots of battery power to support it. So, they thought, how did pagers last so long on that tiny AA battery? How? They did it with less bandwidth, with the power to sleep until the code wakes it, and not using the display all the time. WOW! Paging technology ideas are still the foundation for modern technology! I remember we had QAM 64 before carriers had LTE. Anyway, I digress.

While the broadband is adding amazing opportunities to the modern era, like remote surgery, self-driving cars, long-range drones, gaming, video, and applications. We also have machine to machine communications we call IOT, which we need to track devices that can track and control remote things without having a human constantly looking at a screen. In almost real-time it can adjust.

While wireless gets not only more advanced, it gets more and more efficient with less and less overhead. It’s not all the wireless side, the network is pushing the computing and decision-making to the edge. It all started with the cloud bringing the data closer to where we are. Now the edge is bringing it closer to the wireless edge with less overhead and lower latency. We can have the application’s source get closer to the actual remote device.

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The edge makes all this possible. Efficiencies were built into the wireless formats. Now the network is building in its own efficiencies by reducing the latency that it would normally have in transport. Routers and switch have become more efficient but now we are finding a way to cut out the travel delay that has been there for years. Now we can eliminate the travel delays by having more computing done closer to the device making readings and changes happening real close to real-time.

WOW! Just a quick overview of what is out there and how cool it is.

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The PA Wireless Happy Valley Technology Rally Review

April 4, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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I had the opportunity and honor to speak at the Pennsylvania Wireless Associations’ (PWA) event at State College, Pa. I was on a panel that discussed the IOT use in smart cities. I’ll get into that in a minute, let’s talk about the event and the other panelists first. If you want to see the agenda for the event, click here.

It was really a lot of fun, the first day we got a tour of the Penn State Football stadium, which was awesome. The tour guide’s name was Spider, that’s right, Spider. He was great. He took us all through the penthouses and through the area where they players parents wait and in the locker room and on the field. I really enjoyed it. Thank you for arranging that.

But wait, there’s more! They also have us a front seat to the AT&T and Verizon site and DAS head end for the stadium. That was cool to see; I have some pictures so you can see it was a full site. They have a lot of radio heads crammed into that shelter. They also have a packed DAS head end there as well. Pretty cool to see. The AT&T tech told us that they have a 1Gbps backhaul for that site. It just doesn’t seem like enough for over 100,000 people on gameday. It was an impressive setup and great to see!

Then, the next day was the actual conference. It was great to see so many people interested in wireless at one event. I thought the turnout was great. This was at the Penn Stater Conference Center Hotel.

Let’s get to business, here is where we had the panels that would set the stage for the Smart City work that I hope we all can participate in very soon. It’s finally happening using all the infrastructure that many of us put in over the past 5 years. Seriously.

Here it is “The 5G Deployment Plan” available now!

The opening speaker was Ram Narayanan from the Penn State School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. He runs a lab for the school to do research into wireless systems and offering. He also runs a program where local businesses can come in and work with the school for research to create new things. It looks like a very exciting program and Ram took a lot of pride in what he built. If you are interested in working with Ram at Penn State then you can find his information here, http://www.ee.psu.edu/Directory/FacultyInfo/Narayanan/NarayananProfilePage.aspx to learn more about how it works.

The first panel was AT&T, who really had a nice presentation on how AT&T can do a complete end to end IOT offering. They are already offering the service, and they talked about security for the IOT network and devices. Peter Stephenson presented the offer well. If you would like a turnkey solution, this is the way to go. I am not sure if that’s how everyone would like to go but it’s one possible solution. It sounds like AT&T will have both LTE-M and NBIOT bands up and running. They already have proven solutions, and they are growing the program. They already have a NOC/call center and the coverage in most areas. Amy Mcllvaine explained what a smart city was and gave some examples of the smart city initiatives that were already being worked. Barb Burba was the moderator for this session.

The second panel was mine along with BIG Wireless. We had a unified message to let the people in that room know that they have an opportunity to participate in the IOT and Smart City ecosystems. Several cities are going to want to deploy their own networks, and it would be anything. If you want to see a copy of our presentation, click here. We drove home the point that cities will all have different priorities and want unique solutions. That is where the people in wireless can come in and look for new sources of revenue as well as provide valuable services for cities. They will have needs for everything from garbage tracking to vehicle tracking to parking meter and space solutions. Routing traffic, alerts, digital signage, city-wide Wi-Fi, and more. They will be looking for income from their poles and other assets that they have available. They will look to reduce their expenses by installing LED lights and tracking people. They have so many opportunities that we, the consultants, contractors, and wireless solution providers, can provide. You get the idea. Special thanks to Bob Hagarman and Roger Hayes from BIG Wireless and Mike Starner for being on the panel with me. It was a really great time.

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The third panel was a varied group. The moderator was Ryan McBreen of Waterford Consultants. He did a fine job of asking relevant questions for each panelist. Tim from Crown Castle did a great job talking about the opportunities out there for deployment and DAS, he was interesting and made some great points about how DAS upgrades continue to keep him busy. Tony Cellucci gave a good talk about the use cases for IOT. It was good to learn what is already happening in the industry with IOT and the availability of new sensors. Joe Conlon got up and showed a video on how Itelisys connects contractors in the industry. That was one of our points, we all need to work together to become the end to end solution.

Then came the closing ceremonies for the event. This is where we could thank the people who worked hard to make it happen. There are so many people who worked hard to put this together, Barbara Burba (Amerisites Wireless Development) and Marc Geddio (Waterford Consultants LLC) went the extra mile to make sure that the event went off without a hitch. Great job! Both of you went above and beyond to make it a great event.

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Chris Pleibel is the president of PWA, and he gave a great talk at the end letting us know that the PWA is there to support the wireless industry growth in PA.

Special thanks go out to the PA Wireless Ass. Steering Committee! Thanks to each of you for putting this together.

Phil Burtner, NB&C, PWA Board
Ryan McBreen, Waterford Consultants
Lisa Batchelor, Crown Castle
John Shive, Crown Castle
Sarb Bassi, American Tower Corp
Michael Starner, Comcast

One thing I would personally like to thank the PWA for is its continued support for the Hubble Foundation. Hubble Foundation has been trying to raise money this year, but it has been tough. They rely on groups like the PWA to support them as well as people like you and me. I make a point to give something to Hubble Foundation each year, more often if possible.

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What is NB IOT and how will we use it?

January 30, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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Are you curious about IOT? Do you know the different flavors of IOT? Do you wonder why they use IOT and 5G interchangeably? Who would use this technology? Read on wireless tech fan if you want to find out.

Here it is “The 5G Deployment Plan” available now!

Isn’t IOT just the internet of things? Do we need so many variations? YES! There are different flavors of IOT that are available. Each one has a different use case. The one thing that you learned about 5G is that it will be made up of HetNet. If you’re building out a network, look at NB-IOT as a very powerful tool in your war chest. Any of us could install a smart thermostat or light switch in our homes, right? While that is cool, it’s very limited, and anyone can do it. For IOT you will want to build a business plan around deploying the network to control thousands of meters for a utility, remote devices, alarms, track equipment, and more. A way for you to break the network down to each specialty item. For low-bandwidth, high battery life remote devices, this is perfect. Maybe open and close doors remotely in a building or track where all the equipment is in real-time, like for a corporate building or a hospital. Cool, right?

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What is NB-IOT?

It is Narrowband Internet of Things which is, according to Wikipedia, “ is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) radio technology standard that has been developed to enable a wide range of devices and services to be connected using cellular telecommunications bands. NB-IoT is a narrowband radio technology designed for the Internet of Things(IoT), and is one of a range of Mobile IoT (MIoT) technologies standardized by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).” So basically, it is a technology used for machines that have low data needs and don’t need to be connected all the time. The connection issue is so that the battery life I extended, hopefully, batteries will last ten years. By that time, you may replace the unit altogether because of the advances in technology.

Why do people use 5G and IOT interchangeably I do? It doesn’t make sense to me mainly because I look at 5G as the network and I look at IOT as a service. Now, IOT will be a big reason for deploying 5G. However, there is also NB IOT for applications in IOT devices.

The application is pretty specific. Let’s look at how they will be used and who will use them.

Let’s look at NB-IOT which I believe is above 3GPP release 13. Yes, 3GPP is developing this along with the IOT technologies, so it’s not a fly by night format. It is a low-power wide area network, LPWAN, format. It means just what it says, low power RF reaching many devices over a wide area. Its major focus is to reach low power devices, something that may need the battery to last over ten years. Limited bandwidth using 250 Kbps up and 250Kbps down. Very low-bandwidth. Not for video, or any high bandwidth application. A meter could report, “I’m reading 35 degrees Fahrenheit” or for the system to tell a relay to close or open. These are short data bursts that don’t require much data to send a simple machine language command. It is half duplex, meaning it will talk and then listen. The antennas are very simple, one transmit, and one receive, SISO which is single in single out. Transmit power is very low, 23dBm, around 200 milliwatts of power.

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It is very limited, but how can it help I the IOT deployments? Who would use this? In large buildings, there could be a need for something like this to track equipment or open and close doors. It would be low latency and quick access because it would be a dedicated network. Most likely be an add-on to an existing network. It would be specifically to contact devices that you may only need to poll once a week or so. It’ss meant to communicate with objects that can give you a simple response or one that you could send a simple command. If you have a large outdoor network, then you could use this to extend it or talk to devices that run on the battery. Maybe even to use for security to send out an alert if it is tripped in a remote area. Look at this as another tool in your HetNet arsenal. A network that you could deploy cost-effectively to communicate with devices that are very remote or don’t have access to power.

There are several possibilities, like remote fence alarms, meters, equipment tracking, animal tracking, and more. An extension of the larger network.

The spectrum is an issue for me here in the USA because there is not dedicated spectrum that I found. It looks like anyone who may have narrowband spectrum may be able to use this. I did read that GSM spectrum would work. I don’t see much of that spectrum nationwide, but I am not sure if a nationwide deployment would be necessary. It looks like 200Khz of bandwidth would work for something like this. Would the GSM bands be re-farmed to run something like this? It could be, why not? What an opportunity to build something for IOT only.

While I said, this is part of the HetNet. There are attempts to build large networks to cover these specialty IOT circumstances. When you think of all the devices and systems that can benefit from a network like this. It could be more than just remote devices. Think about agriculture, metering, lighting control, smart city control and monitoring, and industrial equipment. See the value of a system that could keep these devices connected with extremely long battery life? Remember that these devices only need small data bytes to communicate. What a great opportunity for a new specialized network to be built.

All this when you thought small data networks were history. We need to connect everything, but we need to be smart about it. It means that we can build a better strategy for these specialized networks and hopefully we won’t overcharge customers like the carriers intend to. It makes better business sense to build a cost-effective system for these systems where they don’t want the bandwidth or constant connections. They want to have a connection for a few dollars a month. Here’s a great business plan!

Resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NarrowBand_IOT

http://www.samsung.com/global/business-images/insights/2016/IoT-Whitepaper-0.pdf

http://www.huawei.com/minisite/4-5g/img/NB-IOT.pdf

http://resources.alcatel-lucent.com/asset/200178

https://networks.nokia.com/innovation/iot

http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/whitepapers/wp_iot.pdf

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5G Network Slicing

January 9, 2017 Wade Leave a comment

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Here it is “The 5G Deployment Plan” available now!

Network slicing is 5G’s way to get you everything. What is 5G network slicing? It is slicing up the wireless networks to serve specific purposes. You see, one network will not provide all services for everyone, so they have 5G which will encompass many networks, wireless networks, into one big network. You can’t do everything with one wireless network. Like Steven Wright says, “You can’t have everything. Where would you put it?” If you had one network, it would not be efficient enough to serve all the devices on it. You want a network that works. Otherwise, you have a notwork because it does not work! Most IOT devices don’t need broadband. Most smartphones need mobile coverage. Most laptops need broadband. Most gamers need massive broadband to get the VR to work. Each specific group has a different need. Wouldn’t it be nice if you could have several different wireless networks and have them all go into one core and share resources? Well, 5G came up with network slicing so we can do just that!

The Wireless Deployment Handbook Paperback that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS.

The research on network slicing showed me one thing that this is a fancy way to say different networks all connected to a common core. I think this term is interesting, but if you are in IT, then you know that you could have multiple networks, virtual or separated, all sharing the same backbone or even the same physical network. The way I see it, it is all about the RAN! Let’s explore why.

Well, in 5G, it is not much different. The big difference is that you could have a wireless network dedicated to a specific service. What this means is that when planning a network, in this case, a RAN network, make sure you know what the application will be so that you can plan accordingly.

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Think about the different markets 5G will be serving. It could be autonomous cars, virtual reality, or tons of simple IOT devices. Each system will have different need and purpose. The goals are not the

same for each. Therefore, they should not all share the same network. So, for the 5G network to include them all, they came up with a cool term like network slicing. The reality is that they will all be different networks that could be sharing the same core or even backhaul. We are creating a way to share resources and build in efficiencies.

We’ll get into why in a few minutes, let’s look at how they will work together first. It’s all about sharing of resources. Think of the HetNet and how we had small cells working with Macrocells and Wi-Fi all working together as one network. Now you have multiple networks all working independently, yet, connecting to the common core.

Which resources are shared in network slicing? The backhaul and the core but also routers and servers and possibly even cloud resources. The key to getting latency down is to rely on the cloud. However, the end use will determine which network will be used and how it will be utilized. The way I see it, from a wireless viewpoint is that the device will need to have a wireless network that fits the needs. In other words, virtual reality with need low latency and very high bandwidth to work properly. Autonomous cars will have very low latency but lower bandwidth needs. IOT devices will have medium latency but very low data rates, and they will not be listening to the network all the time like the other 2, they will only listen to the network on a need to know basis.

The examples above show us that there will be a need for specific wireless networks to serve each purpose. The common denominator will the core. The core will need to know how to process each part of the network. Making the major carriers happy that they have resource sharing capabilities to save costs. They want to reuse as many resources as possible. Device manufacturers will continue to improve devices and battery life.

Although, battery life is still an issue. While battery life has greatly improved, the power draw is so much higher than it was five years ago, Hell, it’s so much higher than even a year ago, While the processors are drawing less and less power, we have higher demands on many of our devices, like the smartphone. We want bigger and brighter displays, and we are on them for most of the day not only to talk but to gather data. Even when you are not talking on your phone, the chances are good that it’s getting updates for email or other data without you even looking at it, drawing on the battery even more. Not only that but the constant communication with the LTE and Wi-Fi networks are drawing power all day.

Back to network slicing. We will have several different use cases for the network, which will require a specific last mile network to serve the purpose. It seems a bit crazy to have multiple wireless networks until you realize that billions of devices will be connected and each group will have a specific purpose. Each group will have a unique revenue stream. Some will be high usage and draw more money per month and others will have extremely light usage and will only cost pennies a month. Each slice of the network is built for a specific purpose, and the billing for each slice will be dramatically different. Here are the efficiencies.

These networks will be running in parallel to each other. They will be independent of each other but have a common core. With the growth of software defines networking, SDN, and Network Function Virtualization, NFV, the networks will become smarter and smarter and start to improve efficiencies without human intervention. It’s already happening, but it will get better and better with improved efficiencies.

While all of this will be interconnected, they will be isolated from each other. Some networks will be independent of each other. The key to slicing is even though networks share resources, they will not be reliant on each other to keep the network up and running, (unless the core crashes).

The drawback is the core will control everything. Get to the core, and you get to the heart of multiple networks all at one time. If they make changes to the core, they need to be sure it will not affect the other networks. I would imagine that updating the server controlling the IOT network would have no effect on the autonomous driving network. But, what if it does? Then a real problem will be at hand!

The core will be the key connecting point to these networks. Running on the cloud should help efficiencies along with the rise of the virtual core, the impact should be minimal. Just remember, they all need a brain, and that brain is the core!

You could have several companies serving several markets, like the carriers taking care of smartphone users and someone like SigFox working with the IOT users and maybe someone else taking care of virtual reality and yet another company taking care of autonomous automobiles.

While this is a slice if heaven, (sorry, I couldn’t resist), we expect each slice to be running independently of the other even though they share a common core.

Resource: http://www.5gamericas.org/files/3214/7975/0104/5G_Americas_Network_Slicing_11.21_Final.pdf

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What will the IOT wireless protocols look like?

September 4, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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The Internet of Things, IoT, is more than a buzz word, it is the way things are moving. When you hear of 5G they often talk of IoT and how everything will be connected. This is very exciting but the technology is already here. It is being tested and proven as we speak. So what should deployment teams be doing now? They should prepare to deploy!

Kathy over at Tower Safety and Instruction is having a contest where you can win a $100 gift card from Home Depot if you can provide the best caption for her picture, found at http://towersafety.com/get-ready-enter-tower-safety-super-team-contest/ so enter ASAP because it ends August 31st, 2016!

By the way, if you’re interested in IOT and you want to learn more about the smart home and IOT devices, there is a great podcast by Stacey Higginbotham and Kevin Tofel called “The IOT Podcast”, found here, http://iotpodcast.com/ and learn even more about the IOT industry.

You might remember that I put together another blog about IOT needs wireless, found here.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

The thing about industrial IoT is that it will take skilled professionals to install it and test it. There will also be software to make sure that it works, it will take calibration and testing for these systems to be deployed. Specifically when buildings need their systems monitored heating and cooling and water. That’s right! They have water sensors to make sure a leak doesn’t happen in a building. Many industrial companies are going beyond tracking what they have and getting proactive.

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Do you think it only applies to buildings? I know you have heard of the connected car but industrial equipment manufacturer CAT has a system that works over LTE, video found here, that has automated the large vehicles and monitor all aspects of them. It is really amazing.
They use it for mining to safe on the workers but it is as safe as it can be in that environment. It is really amazing.

IoT can be almost anything so make sure you understand what the deployment teams will need to do. For instance, residential IoT will probably be the simple things, like thermostats and refrigerators that can be connected by the homeowner. Alarm companies will add alarm systems and video, in fact, they are already doing that using the customer’s broadband connections. These items may use Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee or Z-Wave for protocols. There are so many IoT protocols out there, but for the wireless deployment teams, chances are good it will be Wi-Fi or LTE.

So for the deployment teams to install this equipment, they should be ready to connect everything outside or inside. Let’s look outside where we could connect street lamps, traffic lights, traffic counters, utility meters, or anything that would be read or controlled in real-time. Like I said, CAT is already controlling heavy equipment at mines. Imagine when all the vehicles will need to be controlled. We have the use of drones for delivery being contemplated, and it won’t happen on Wi-Fi for a large network, it will be LTE. On these networks we will also have video, although that is not IoT, it will be on a similar network and tied the usage. If you think they can see everything now, wait until they put cameras on drones and deploy on a wide scale here in North America.

Indoors is another story. You could have what I mentioned for residential along with the industrial applications like control of equipment. Meters will need to be read in business buildings so that the program can adjust industrial controls as needed. It will all depend on how they want to control the system indoors. I could see Wi-Fi unless they need batteries then the other formats may be needed. I know that Wi-Fi is coming out with the new devices that have better battery usage. Now, Wi-Fi drains your battery but it’s so convenient.

A quick overview of IoT protocols:

Wi-Fi HaLow – The Wi-Fi Alliance has come out with HaLow, the indoor Wi-Fi format for IoT which uses 900MHz to improve indoor coverage. It will also have better battery life. 900MHz has less spectrum, but remember that most devices send very short message with data and control information. This is why video is not considered part of IoT but it will be expected to run on normal Wi-Fi. The problem with normal Wi-Fi will be battery life. However, Wi-Fi for normal IoT apps will be the most commonly accepted but security may be an issue. The idea here is that the 900MHz will not be running all the time so it will only wake up your device when it has to, not running on 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz which is probably running all the time.
Bluetooth – They are trying this but there are connectivity issues, range issues, and reliability issues. So far it’s not really taking off. Battery life is still an issue.
Bluetooth Smart – low energy Bluetooth to improve the battery life of devices and to improve the IoT connections. Peer to peer, short-range, 2.4GHz,
Z-Wave – proprietary protocol owned by Sigma Designs, 40Kbps and 9.6Kbps and 100Kbps, up to 4 hops, up to 40meters, 908.42Mhz in US, using 20Khz to 110 kHz of bandwidth,

Thread – a type of indoor low power mesh network that many devices used that are made by NEST. They basically have their own equipment on this 802.15.4 format. http://threadgroup.org/

ZigBee – Indoor format, mesh, 802.15.4, open standard if you join the ZigBee alliance, normally 10-30 nodes but in theory could do up to 2,000 nodes. 20Kbps in 868MHz band, 40Kbps in 915MHz band, 250Kbps in 2.4GHz band, less than 400m range, longer range lowers battery life
DECT ULE – Indoor format, Ultra Low Energy using Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications protocol, less than 50m range, up to 1Mbps, up to 400 devices on the network, 1920 to 1930MHz in USA and Canada
Sigfox UNB – outdoor, Sigfox Ultra Narrow Band, 3GPP GERAN, average range 30 to 50Km depending on-line of site, 928MHz in USA, 150mWatt unit in the USA, used in older devices
Semtech’s LoRa – Long Range, outdoor protocol, Open Source, STAR topology, no upper limit on devices, 300bps at long-range typically 1Kbps, 2-5Km range, 80MHz with 125 KHz bandwidth. Low-power sensors can be used in streetlights, gas cylinder level sensor, parking sensors, etc.
LTE – outdoor format, this could be in any LTE band but the problem with LTE is that it’s made for large packets, so there is development underway for smaller bandwidth applications. Ideal format for wide area because every carrier has LTE but needs to improve battery life if a remote device is not connected to power.

Resources:

http://www.lprs.co.uk/assets/media/Rethink%20IoT%20Wireless%20Market%20overview.pdf

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2985233/internet-of-things/lte-standard-for-machines-gets-the-green-light.html

http://www.3gpp.org/news-events/3gpp-news/1607-iot

http://www.wired.com/2016/01/wifi-halow-internet-of-things/

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/802-11ah-wi-fi-protocol-for-iot-solves-two-m2m-problems/

http://electronicdesign.com/iot/understanding-protocols-behind-internet-things

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What will the IOT protocols look like?

August 31, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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Kathy over at Tower Safety and Instruction is having a contest where you can win a $100 gift card from Home Depot if you can provide the best caption for her picture, found at http://towersafety.com/get-ready-enter-tower-safety-super-team-contest/ so enter ASAP because it ends August 31st, 2016!

You might remember that I put together another blog about IOT needs wireless, found here.

The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

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A quick overview of IoT protocols:

Wi-Fi HaLow – The Wi-Fi Alliance has come out with HaLow, the indoor Wi-Fi format for IoT which uses 900MHz to improve indoor coverage. It will also have better battery life. 900MHz has less spectrum, but remember that most devices send very short message with data and control information. This is why video is not considered part of IoT but it will be expected to run on normal Wi-Fi. The problem with normal Wi-Fi will be battery life. However, Wi-Fi for normal IoT apps will be the most commonly accepted but security may be an issue. The idea here is that the 900MHz will not be running all the time so it will only wake up your device when it has to, not running on 2.4GHz and 5.8GHz which is probably running all the time.
Bluetooth – They are trying this but there are connectivity issues, range issues, and reliability issues. So far it’s not really taking off. Battery life is still an issue.
Bluetooth Smart – low energy Bluetooth to improve the battery life of devices and to improve the IoT connections. Peer to peer, short-range, 2.4GHz,
Z-Wave – proprietary protocol owned by Sigma Designs, 40Kbps and 9.6Kbps and 100Kbps, up to 4 hops, up to 40meters, 908.42Mhz in US, using 20Khz to 110 kHz of bandwidth,

Thread – a type of indoor low power mesh network that many devices used that are made by NEST. They basically have their own equipment on this 802.15.4 format. http://threadgroup.org/

ZigBee – Indoor format, mesh, 802.15.4, open standard if you join the ZigBee alliance, normally 10-30 nodes but in theory could do up to 2,000 nodes. 20Kbps in 868MHz band, 40Kbps in 915MHz band, 250Kbps in 2.4GHz band, less than 400m range, longer range lowers battery life
DECT ULE – Indoor format, Ultra Low Energy using Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunications protocol, less than 50m range, up to 1Mbps, up to 400 devices on the network, 1920 to 1930MHz in USA and Canada
Sigfox UNB – outdoor, Sigfox Ultra Narrow Band, 3GPP GERAN, average range 30 to 50Km depending on-line of site, 928MHz in USA, 150mWatt unit in the USA, used in older devices
Semtech’s LoRa – Long Range, outdoor protocol, Open Source, STAR topology, no upper limit on devices, 300bps at long-range typically 1Kbps, 2-5Km range, 80MHz with 125 KHz bandwidth. Low-power sensors can be used in streetlights, gas cylinder level sensor, parking sensors, etc.
LTE – outdoor format, this could be in any LTE band but the problem with LTE is that it’s made for large packets, so there is development underway for smaller bandwidth applications. Ideal format for wide area because every carrier has LTE but needs to improve battery life if a remote device is not connected to power.

Resources:

http://www.lprs.co.uk/assets/media/Rethink%20IoT%20Wireless%20Market%20overview.pdf

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2985233/internet-of-things/lte-standard-for-machines-gets-the-green-light.html

http://www.3gpp.org/news-events/3gpp-news/1607-iot

http://www.wired.com/2016/01/wifi-halow-internet-of-things/

http://www.techrepublic.com/article/802-11ah-wi-fi-protocol-for-iot-solves-two-m2m-problems/

http://electronicdesign.com/iot/understanding-protocols-behind-internet-things

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What is the 5G Business Plan?

August 19, 2016 Wade Leave a comment

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I have heard a lot about 5G and the roll out and how small cells will boom with 5G. Let’s look at the facts, if 5G is in the millimeter wave spectrum, then they will be very small and very line of site networks.

How is this going to work? Are the carriers really going to rely on 28GHz, (here in the USA), to cover much more that a building or a street? They are complaining about putting up small cells and CRAN because of the fiber and rental fees, and the slow payback! It’s catching on now and there is a better business plan, but will it be enough at 28GHz?

What I don’t’ get is that they are all doing amazing research and getting awesome speeds, but to me, someone who has done point to point (PTP) microwave, it is not a surprise. If you only have 2 or 3 users, of course you can get kick ass speeds in a high spectrum with lots of bandwidth that is not shared. At home, when I am the only one on my Wi-Fi hot spot, the cable modem is the bottleneck, not the Wi-Fi, however, when I am in an airport using the free Wi-Fi with 100 other people, I have no idea where the bottleneck is unless I can’t connect, then I am sure it is the Wi-Fi. It happens all the time.

So let’s look at the business model. Do you really see AT&T and Verizon building a network for 10 people? Let me put it to you this way, when you want to put a small cell in your building for 10 users, will AT&T or Verizon run out and give you one? I will tell you from experience, the answer is no, but they will let you buy one but it’s very small. Now, if I want to put something in for 100 users, will they do it. Again, the answer is no, and now because you want a bigger small cell or 2 of them, they won’t even talk to you because they are afraid of how it will affect the network. I get it, but now let’s think about how they will deploy 5G, will it really be for the mobile user? It doesn’t make sense to me.

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Now, let’s look at fixed wireless, here is an awesome application. One that you need LOS, (line of site), but you have the spectrum and the ability to put a small cell near people’s homes. This is where I see it as a great asset. This would be great and finally would give some wireless competition to the Cable modem.

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So for fixed wireless it looks like an awesome solution, but they have to make it work for the mobile device somehow.

The reason I am not so positive, because let’s look at path loss. At 200 meters there is a lot of free space loss here.

Frequency	Distance (Meters)	Tx Output (dB)	Rx Gain (dB)	Free Space Loss (dB)
600MHz	200	40	3	31.02
700MHz	200	40	3	32.68
1.9GHz	200	40	3	41.04
2.4GHz	200	40	3	43.06
2.5GHz	200	40	3	43.42
5.8GHz	200	40	3	50.73
24GHz	200	40	3	63.06
28GHz	200	40	3	64.4
38GHz	200	40	3	67.06
60GHz	200	40	3	71.02
70GHz	200	40	3	72.36

The reason I added the chart is to show the high loss you have at the higher bands. Now, while the number looks like it is double the loss, it is actually more than that. For every 3dB you lose 1.2 of your power, literally, lose half of your power.

Take a look at this chart showing power in Watts compared to power in dBm, pay attention! It helps put it into perspective. I like to look at watts because it is easy for the field engineer to see loss in power.

Power (dBm)	Power (W)
-30 dBm	0.0000010 W
-20 dBm	0.0000100 W
-10 dBm	0.0001000 W
0 dBm	0.0010000 W
1 dBm	0.0012589 W
2 dBm	0.0015849 W
3 dBm	0.0019953 W
6 dBm	0.0039811 W
9 dBm	0.0079433 W
10 dBm	0.0100000 W
20 dBm	0.1000000 W
30 dBm	1.0000000 W
40 dBm	10.0000000 W
50 dBm	100.0000000 W

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We need to understand what the application will be for 5G to be successful. Let’s face it, LTE would not have taken off without the demand for bandwidth. What caused demand for wireless bandwidth? You could say the laptop, but you know it’s really the smartphone, specifically the iPhone that changed the wireless world. Now we can’t live without it and even the president, (Obama) says it’s a necessity. Link is at the bottom so you know that I’m not making this up.

So how do we make money? The carriers will come up with something, but the mobility factors seems quite limited. The fixed wireless aspect makes a lot of sense to me, but if we can get 10Gbps to our mobile device, I am all for it, but who will pay for the backhaul? Latency is very important, so they have to bring the computing to the edge, NFV and SDN will be a huge part of 5G. The latency has to be low and then the bandwidth will not be as critical, right?

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Who will win in 5G?

We have all heard about 5G, the next big thing, for the carriers anyway. Will it really be all what we think it can be? Super high bandwidth with awesome applications? Who will win the 5G race?

The way I see it Verizon Wireless and AT&T will win, or at least be there first. They invested heavy, they are working to put out real standards, and they really want to win. This is something that the other carriers seem to be playing with but not taking as seriously. Sure, they all say they are working on 5G and I am sure they have something in a lab with high bandwidth in the 28GHz range, or somewhere up there, to test these applications. That way the investors are happy along and the public is impressed. I mean we all want to see virtual reality happen very soon from a wireless device, right?

Verizon seems to be working hard on the technical standards and the testing of the network.

AT&T seems to be finding ways to use it and testing it as well.

While I see that Sprint and T-Mobile are looking at it and testing in labs, they probably are in no hurry to lay out a lot of money just yet. They may wait to see what standard will be adopted then take the money they saved and use it to build a network, or expand what they have. I hope they are planning for this future. In all honesty T-Mobile is doing a great job of laying the ground work for high speeds while Sprint, well, Sprint doesn’t seem to be doing much of anything for the future.

Will 5G be a Failure?

So will it succeed? The issue that I see right now is not the technology, the loading, the multiple access, but really the spectrum. How far can millimeter waves go? How many connections can 28GHz or whatever band they’re in, can it serve? How large of an area can it really serve? We all look to small cells or CRAN to perform here, but will there be a payback. Can the carriers make a play for fixed wireless or will they try to capitalize on dense networks? Can they make the dense network business model work? Does it have to be a carrier to build this or can it be a smaller business who could tie back into another company’s core? Will they need a mobile core or can it start to replace fiber? Remember, there were so many microwave hops connecting broadband when fiber was not so readily available.

I don’t think that the question of 5G is fair, to be honest, its more like, “Will Millimeter Wave be a failure?” Isn’t that the big question here? The elephant in the room, so to speak. Can mm-wave perform the way that today’s spectrum does? Can it go beyond PTP?

The real winner will be the fiber backhaul companies, they will offer maximum bandwidth, chances are it will be dark fiber dedicated to the carriers, one more expense the carriers to look at before deployment. This will be the big cost just like now. Sorry cable companies, but the cable modem may not be able to service such a huge capacity. Fi they really do virtual reality, they will need to get to the edge for low latency and have a lot of bandwidth and the devices will need to maintain connectivity. Or will they?

What is the plan?

Maybe this is where the devices will need to take a step forward again, like the iPhone. Then the networks pushed LTE out so that high-speed data could get the devices reliable. Then devices added more and more memory to improve it once again. This is where the 5G miracle may happen. The devices will really need to make another quantum leap. The way I see it is that the networks will dump data fast in large chunks for high bandwidth applications and the device will need to capture and process that data. The app will rest in the device and the device must take the data and break it down. We are doing this now with applications in our smart phones and tablets, but they need to be the edge, they need to process it all quickly and they need to be able to connect and accept data quickly and efficiently all while processing it for the application.

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I really the think that the edge has to push farther out, so that the cloud will extend farther. I know they talk about fog computing, where the edge is at the end, this is what will really push the network. Hop after hop, so that the computing is done so close to the device that it may be in the device itself. Will there be awesome high-speed kick ass wireless devices that 10 other devices can connect to? I hope so. Will fixed wireless take over the world? I hope so. What are you hoping for, other than a bunch more work in deployment?

One thing that could hold it back is that the carriers do NOT want to replace their networks. They have LTE in as the foundation, they do not want to do another fork lift upgrade. They want to just keep making minor updates until it completely maxed out. They are counting on LTE to push them well past 2020. When we all see 5G released in 2020, it will be on the back of LTE, which technically is still 4G but by then it should be on serious steroids.

One other thing, the carriers do not want to give up their dominance. They intend to rule the wireless world well into 2030. So when the FCC has auctions, they will spend billions. Just look at how much spectrum AT&T is sitting on, you think they would roll it out soon.

Just a few ideas, but worth thinking about.

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So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

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Who will win in 5G?

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