Enabling the “Internet of Things”

Mississippi State University

Dr. Henry Jones, Chief Technology Officerhjones@smartsynch.com(601) 362-1780, ext. 1014

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Outline

• Personal Background• Looking Into the Future• The Internet of Things (M2M)• SmartSynch Overview• Questions and Answers

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Personal Background• BS, Mechanical Engineering, Ole Miss, 1995• MS, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford, 1996• PhD, Aeronautics and Astronautics, Stanford, 2003

– Thesis Topic: Leading Teams of Humans and Robots• Founded two companies

– Forest One (http://www.ForestOne.com)– LumiMap (http://www.LumiMap.org)

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Thesis Dissertation• Worked with an

autonomous robot• Recognized difficulty in

operating it• “What if I had to operate

10 of these at once?”• Abstract the problem, look

for existing solutions

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Forest One• Inherited timberland from my grandfather• Timberland is in Mississippi; I lived in California• “How do I know what I have, and how do I avoid

being taken advantage of in a transaction?”• Spent lots of time in Thompson Hall• Created online access to satellite processing tools

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LumiMap• A chance trip for coffee to answer some questions• The problems I heard fit the solutions I knew• Dive in, stay up all night, make it happen for the first

time – then sell, sell, sell, sell, sell

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Looking Into the Future• Follow the money and the big trends

– Health care & energy are the ‘new’ necessities– Shrinking computing components of greater power– Growing demand to be connected

• Look carefully at history to gain some perspective• Recognize the world moves exponentially

– See Ray Kurzweil’s series of books and articles• Think about what is different now than before• Find the new combinations of innovations

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Wired and Wireless: Overview• 2G: GPRS, EDGE• 3G: HSDPA, WCDMA• 4G: WiMAX, LTE

199520072015

50 kbps – 500 kbps500 kpbs – 2 Mbps2 Mbps – 2 Gbps

• BPL• DSL• Cable• Fiber

3 Mbps8 Mbps20 Mbps2 Gbps

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Internet of Devices (M2M)• The market, more broadly, is Machine-to-Machine (M2M)

– Also Telemetry (been around a long time) & Telematics (vehicle-based)– Some estimates predict 10’s of M2M devices per person in the future– Thus, there are lots of competitors and investment in this space

• Industry magazine available: www.m2mmag.com • SmartSynch strengths

– Firming up the reliability of public wireless WAN– Software with generic data and work flows

• The major near-term markets– Serve M2M providers, not M2M consumers– Jump into another M2M consumer space – Security? Preventive maintenance?

Medical devices? However, these are all very active• Connect numerous low-value or a few high-value devices?• In any case, need 100% reliability & extreme security over public

network

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Market Size

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Intelligent Device Hierarchy

Mobile info

appliances

Static info appliances

Mobile devices

Static devices

Controllers

Smart sensors

Microprocessors & Microcontrollers

Mobile phones, PDAs, scanners, Web Tablets, GPS, etc.

PC’s, servers, etc.

Vehicle cargo containers, tankers, supply chain assets (SKU)s…

Medical Device, HVAC, industrial machinery, distributed generation…

Industrial controllers, appliance controllers…

Accelerometers, pressure gauges, flow, position, speed, temp biosensors, etc.

8-, 16-, 32-, 64-bit chips, etc.

Hum

an-centric

Device-centric

1.5 billion

500 million

350 million (SKUs: trillions)

375 million

500 million

750 million

35 billion

2007 Potential

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Example Architectures

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TMS Seamless Integration

SmartMeters

TMS

ServiceManagement

Dispatch

CorporateBilling

CRMCustomerSupport

MeterInventory

LoadAnalysis

OutageManagement

WebPresentment

Load ControlPDA Pager

Cell Phone

Field Force Automation Customers

Data Collection Distributor Operations

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What are Smart Meters?• Also called “Advanced meters”• Two-way communication• Proactive notifications

– Power outage– Tamper detection

• Remotely re-programmable• Gateway to other devices• Predominantly at commercial & industrial sites

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AMR Migration Path

Walk-by

Drive-by

FixedNetwork

PublicWirelessNetwork

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AMR Migration Path

Walk-by

Drive-by

FixedNetwork

PublicWirelessNetwork

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Pick the Fastest Horse

Data / $

Time

Walk-by

PublicWireless

Drive-by

Fixed Network

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• Billions of dollars of investment• Highly competitive market forces• International deployments possible• No mass build-outs required• Offloaded operations and maintenance burden• Utilize another network’s excess capacity• Capitalize directly on future technology

developments

Advantages of Public Wireless Networks

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Why Use a Worldwide Standard?

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• Founded in 1998, first product in 2000• Leading provider of smart metering solutions via public

wireless networks• 65 employees, headquartered in Jackson, Mississippi• 50+ major utility customers throughout North America

– 4 out of top 5 utilities in United States– 3 out of top 4 utilities in Canada

• Existing smart meters service estimated $15 billion revenue and 35,000 MW annually

• Launching the first public wireless smart meter in North America for residential customers (key business partners – Cingular and Siemens)

• $57 million in venture capital

SmartSynch® Overview

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Current Customer BaseUNITED STATES

CANADA MEXICO

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North American Presence

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Core Business Partners and PartnershipsMETERS

NETWORKS

TECHNOLOGY

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Work Environment• Product-oriented teams• Collaborative environment• Dynamic schedules and tasks• Access to skilled professionals• Flat organizational structure• Continuing education• Patent Incentive Program

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“Real World” Work Lessons• Java and ANSI C• Requirements & Testing: Writing test cases• Smaller vs. Larger companies

– Work in a flexible environment– Become a more well-rounded engineer and person– Get all the responsibility you want– Have a direct impact on company success

• Skunk works projects

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“Real World” Entrepreneurship Lessons• People, People, People• Relationships, Relationships, Relationships• Be Nice to Your Sales & Marketing Guys• Henry’s Rule of 3 for Starting a Company:

– Know the Name, Phone Number, and Budget of three People Who Can’t Wait (CW’s) for your product/service

• Take Initiative• Be Responsible

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Questions and Answers

• Book recommendations:– Innovator’s Dilemma / Solution, Seeing What’s Next

(Clayton Christensen)– Freakonomics (Stephen D. Levitt)– Linked (Albert-László Barabási)

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For additional information contact:

Henry L. Jones, Ph.D. – Chief Technology Officerhjones@smartsynch.com

Global Headquarters4400 Old Canton Road, Suite 300

Jackson, MS 39211

www.smartsynch.com

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TMS Data Acquisition• Device “Push” of Data• Ad-hoc “Pull”• Scheduled System “Pull” of Data

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Scheduled Data Push to TMS

Messages sentautonomously

based onintelligencestored in the

device

Interval/Registerschedules are

stored in deviceduring the

provisioningprocess

DATA PUSH EXPORTS

TMS knowsdevices

scheduledevents and pulls

missing dataautomatically

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Ad Hoc/On Demand Data Pull

DeviceResponds toUser Inquiry

RESULTS EXPORTS

User requestsdata on an ad-

hoc basis

REQUEST

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Scheduled System Data Pull

DeviceResponds to

System Request

RESULTS EXPORTS

Systemrequests data

on a scheduledbasis

REQUEST

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Public Wireless Networks• SmartSynch has a wholesale relationship with wireless

carriers

• SmartSynch utilizes the packet switched protocol for each network

• All data transactions are compressed and encrypted to minimize data size and cost and to maximize security

• All networks, and SmartMeters, operate simultaneously under one Transaction Management System