Eseye has launched AnyNet SMARTConnect, a new flexible on-device connectivity solution that extends the comprehensive IoT platform that Eseye delivers. Eseye made the announcement ahead of the IoT Solutions World Congress, which will be held in Barcelona from January 31st through February 2nd. Attendees will be able to explore the capabilities of the new solution at Stand F640.
SMARTConnect is a module-agnostic connectivity solution. It will enable organisations to install configurable connectivity software onto their devices, reducing the development time by engineers by as much as 50%. Eseye estimates that deploying SMARTConnect reduces the time to market by up to 9 months.
Once installed on a device, the software works with a modern eSIM to connect, manage and optimise Radio Access Type (RAT) and the network provider. When deployed onto a device, the software enables it to optimise connectivity without the input of expensive or hard-to-find connectivity engineers. It will enable organisations to scale production globally and future-proof IoT deployments.
The solution is the next phase of the Eseye IoT ecosystem. SMARTConnect takes advantage of the AnyNet Federation, which includes over 700 operators worldwide, and the Infinity IoT Connectivity Management Platform. Organisations can also leverage other solutions, such as the AnyNet+ IoT eSIM. Devices using the software solution are more resilient and will find ways of staying connected far better than bespoke solutions that cannot adapt similarly.
Learning from the Cloud
As the IoT industry matures, organisations must look for flexible, scalable and resilient solutions that ensure investments into IoT have longevity. The software market has moved to the cloud for continual improvements rather than customised on-premises software that shackled organisations. Eseye is helping organisations avoid the same mistakes in the IoT World. It enables them to deploy IoT networks without the risk of expensive updates.
Matt Hatton, Founding Partner at Transforma Insights, comments, “One key watchword for IoT in 2023 is ‘optimisation’. It’s no longer enough to bolt together a set of components, and hope they work well together. They need to be optimised with each other to ensure that the device, networks, protocols, cloud and edge storage/compute, security and application logic are all optimised to work with each other.
“This is particularly exacerbated by the need to deploy IoT in constrained environments where access to power, processing, bandwidth, and memory might be limited. Another watchword is ‘managed’. Enterprises adopting IoT need to be sure that someone is taking care of these increasingly complex elements so they can concentrate on their regular business. Every enterprise needs an IoT solution that is optimised and managed.”
What is SMARTConnect
The software includes a set of higher-layer communication protocol extensions, including MQTT, CoAP and Lightweight Machine to Machine (LWM2M), that benefit by understanding and responding to the underlying network state. It means that devices will consider the optimal time to update their firmware over the air, waiting for signal strength to improve, optimise the throughput and use more cost-effective bandwidth when available with less risk of failure.
AnyNet SMARTconnect includes the following core components and features:
- Global connectivity selection and optimisation – works with the modem and xSIM to select, manage and optimise the Radio Access Type (RAT) and network provider tailoring connectivity for the application requirement.
- Increased connectivity resilience – continual monitoring of the data session, throughput, and errors and switches to ensure a continuous data path using application data flows, MQTT/CoAP performance metrics, and network stability data.
- Simplified data transport & security – manages all modem, wireless network, and higher-layer protocol complexity providing end-to-end data transfer and security.
- SDK & APIs: simplified “send” and “receive” SDK and APIs for applications and supports MQTT, CoAP, and other higher layer protocols in a customer’s chosen format (such as JSON or Binary).
- Storage: stores time series data and its own configuration file, buffering data persistently during times of poor or no connectivity until it is successfully delivered.
- Data encryption –uses the cryptographic engine provided by the cellular module to implement TLS/DTLS encryption, reducing resource requirements on the device CPU.
- Enhanced management, security & compliance – uses LWM2M to efficiently transport device management information and instructions OTA for connectivity rules, operation, and the customer application (compute, storage, OS, and device requirements).
- Implicit agent leverages MQTT to enable device-to-cloud visibility, providing device health, performance, and security instrumentation.
- Embedded LWM2M can be leveraged to provide full-stack device and software lifecycle management, including CPU, storage, firmware, OS, applications, & ML models.
- Connectivity management & routing improves compliance such as data sovereignty, GDPR, HIPAA, PCI etc.
SMARTConnect, proven and live
American Pharma Technologies initially deployed their PharmaWatch technology using Wi-Fi, relying on customer networks to gain connectivity to the internet. While this enables its solution to provide the monitoring data that ensured pharmaceutical and healthcare environments were being operated in a safe and regulatory-compliant manner, there were flaws.
Network connectivity was outside of their control, and the connection was frequently lost. Casey Harris, Chief Technology Officer, American Pharma Technologies, commented, “We were spending increasing amounts of time fixing connection issues. If connectivity was interrupted, we would collect the data and send it when communication was restored, but that was not ideal.”
It first turned to a first-generation cellular system, which was limited by network coverage and did not allow the company to operate outside the US. It turned to Eseye SMARTConnect to provide a solution that enabled eSIMs to switch seamlessly between networks delivering global coverage.
Harris added, “Our experience with Eseye has been exemplary. Eseye has proven to be a top-notch partner throughout this project – response times are quick, and the answers and help typically go above and beyond. Thanks to Eseye’s AnyNet SMARTconnect on-device connectivity intelligence, our new system is more reliable than Wi-Fi or the other cell system we previously offered.
“It is easier to sell, easier to install, easier to support, and, importantly, easier to scale. We now offer the best, most reliable, world-class system for our market supported by global, resilient connectivity.”
Enterprise Times: What does this mean?
As more organisations look to deploy IoT devices into their products, they need to consider many things. Connectivity is of those that at first look simple. However, as networks shift and change, the devices need agility rarely designed into the devices at the start due to the cost of developing that flexibility. SMARTConnect provides a solution that overcomes that. Not only does it deliver flexibility, but it also promises to speed up deployment. Where Eseye falls short is not providing some financial statistics backing the ROI statements and cost savings that it infers SMARTConnect offers. Perhaps this will come in time.
CEO of Eseye
Nick Earle, CEO of Eseye, said: “The Kaleido 2022 Enterprise IoT survey of 750 global enterprises, who had implemented at least one IoT project, revealed that 84% of them ranked the complexities of designing an IoT device as their number one issue they experienced. Enterprises are not device experts and do not have the budget or the necessary skills, such as firmware design and testing, to achieve this.
“This clearly illustrates that a standard embedded connectivity software solution is needed to enable the device the intelligence to operate in different environments, detect connectivity, and optimise across multiple constraints, including battery performance, latency, and security.
“SMARTconnect addresses these issues with embedded intelligence, thus dramatically reducing the cost and risk associated with IoT deployments and improving IoT device time to market by up to nine months.”
