Tag: LPWAN

V2G EVSE Announce Digi LTE-M Module

Further to the announcement earlier this week of the seed funding from the United Kingdom’s Department for Transport for our “Vehicle to grid controller with modular communications” project we have another exciting announcement to make this afternoon.

First of all please feel free to take a close look at the module that provides our controller with its LTE-M functionality. Note that it is in single antenna mode in the picture, but supports a second antenna if necessary:

V2G-EVSE-Digi-LTE-M

Secondly also bear in mind that, as an eagle eyed reader from Cambridge spotted earlier this week, the module shown above is mounted in what we prefer to refer to as the “V2G EVSE V2x controller with modular communications”.

Next we invite you to read yesterday’s press release from Digi International® headlined “Digi XBee3 Cellular LTE-M Smart Modem and Development Kits Now Available“:

MINNETONKA, Minn., Aug. 8, 2018 – Digi International®, (NASDAQ: DGII, www.digi.com), a leading global provider of Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity products and services, today announced the immediate availability of the Digi® XBee3™ Cellular LTE-M development kits, featuring Digi’s next-generation smart cellular modem.

This LTE-M certification, to be followed by the certification of Digi XBee3 Cellular NB-IoT in October 2018, allows Digi to bring one of the first LPWAN, software-defined technology-agile modems capable of offering Cat-M or NB-IoT on a single, compact footprint. Designed to be customer-configurable, developers can easily standardize and futureproof their IoT designs by simply changing modems and SIMs to leverage different wireless protocols without having to redesign hardware for different regions or applications.

Ushering in a much more simplified way of testing designs and incorporating cellular connectivity into wireless solutions, the new Digi XBee3 Cellular LTE-M smart modem is integrated into the development kit via a 20-pin Digi XBee socket, ultimately allowing for solution connectivity via millions of sockets already deployed around the globe. The module can also be easily configured and controlled from a centralized platform such as the Digi Remote Manager®.

Digi International is an Amazon Web Services (AWS) Advanced Technology Partner in the AWS Partner Network (APN), and the Digi XBee3 Cellular LTE-M is a smart cellular modem supported by AWS IoT Core. With built-in Digi TrustFence® security, the module’s identity and data privacy features use more than 175 controls to protect against new and evolving cyber threats. It also provides the tools to secure connected devices, including data in motion with TLS 1.2 encryption and bi-directional authentication – required for AWS IoT connectivity.

You may well wish to read the Digi press release in full, and I can reveal that we didn’t make use of Digi’s development kit when constructing our controller. However I’m afraid we’ll have to leave you to speculate for a while about how the V2G EVSE V2x controller delivers its NB-IoT functionality.

If you happen to have noticed that we’re based in the UK you may also be speculating about the SIM card plugged into the Digi LTE-M module shown above? If so we can put you out of your misery on that front at least. We paid the carriage across the pond and received this from Hologram in return:

Hologram-SIM

“A single SIM for all of Earth”!

We haven’t tested that claim of course, but it certainly works for us here in sunny South West England

eHealth, Infrastructure, Security, Regulation and Research

The first article on the V2G EVSE blog is also the first in an occasional series of articles that are not directly related to electric vehicle charging infrastructure! The topic under discussion at the Penryn Campus of the Universities of Exeter and Falmouth yesterday was eHealth. Quoting from the Wikipedia article on the subject:

eHealth (also written e-health) is a relatively recent healthcare practice supported by electronic processes and communication, dating back to at least 1999. Usage of the term varies. A study in 2005 found 51 unique definitions. Some argue that it is interchangeable with health informatics with a broad definition covering electronic/digital processes in health while others use it in the narrower sense of healthcare practice using the Internet. It can also include health applications and links on mobile phones, referred to as mHealth or m-Health. Since about 2011, the increasing recognition of the need for better cyber-security and regulation may result in the need for these specialized resources to develop safer eHealth solutions that can withstand these growing threats.

As I mentioned at one point during the proceedings, I had been “parachuted into the event from the smart grid” because I had the good fortune to bump into Mael and Darren from the Smartline Project at a Software Cornwall event on a snowy day in St. Austell at the beginning of February:

Yesterday I learned much more about the Smartline Project’s Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN for short). Darren said that by the end of March 350 “LoRa but not WAN” gateways and lots of associated sensors will have been installed in social housing across the Camborne/Redruth area of Cornwall. I clarified his remark in the question and answer session:

Somewhat earlier in the proceedings Anna Mankee-Williams had (somewhat tongue in cheek?) set the scene by playing the first part of a video entitled “How IoT Will Destroy Us All”!

Anna summed up her point up by saying:

The Internet of Things is being “pushed” by big business. It’s more like “the Internet of Everything” these days. Who actually NEEDS an Amazon Echo?

I cannot help but agree, since I don’t possess even a single incarnation of Alexa! Does that make me a modern day Luddite?

I expect I’ll have more to say on the Smartline Project’s use of IoT devices when Anna has sent me the slides from the event, but for now I’ll focus on a couple of the exercises Anna asked us to do. The first was to discuss how an omniscient CIO could start to fix the many things that are broken. Having parachuted in from the vehicle-to-grid space I suggested breaking down lots of silos. In my example Transport v Energy v Infrastructure v Buildings v a few more. I was dismayed to learn from the IT expert sat next to me that matters are far worse in the NHS! Apparently it’s nigh on impossible to acquire and compare data from different primary care trusts. Likewise from different hospitals within a single trust. Likewise between different departments within a single hospital.

Suitably chastened I subsequently ate my traditional tin miner’s lunch:

After that we divided into breakout groups. As alluded to above, both the “research” group and my “infrastructure” group decided the top eHealth priorities were:

1) All concerned should have access to a basic minimum level of communications technology. Half of the 350 recipients of a sensor studded social house didn’t previously have internet access and were therefore provided with tablets as part of the Smartline Project, and

2) In order to achieve #1 “regulations” needed to change. In my smart grid (AKA the “Internet of big things“) analogy the UK Government is already “committed” to ensuring that every new build will be fitted with big enough wires to allow the charging of an electric vehicle at some point in the indeterminate future. Why not do the same with Cat 6 cabling and/or a sprinkling of adequately wirelessly connected IoT style sensors?

There had been lots of discussion about these and other issues over lunch:

2018-03-09_13-12-43_165

However I’m pretty sure that all the questions haven’t been answered and all the problems solved just yet!