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Contents
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Carrier integration
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Security
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Application development
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Availability
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Scalability
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The IoT is based on the integration of billions of different things, from tiny sensors to video
cameras, from cars to production machines. The main objective is to integrate or connect
Actuators move or control
things (frequently called devices) that can be used as sensors or actuators. In this process,
the variety of connected devices demands special attention. Connecting a device or several
similar devices from the same vendor is easy, but connecting many devices or more
backend.
2.
According to the analyst firm Machina Research, five markets will generate almost 80
percent of IoT-based revenues by 2022: manufacturing, connected cities, utilities,
automotive, and intelligent buildings. These segments will account for 471 billion euros,
covering all players of the ecosystem. To drive the IoT world with innovations and to
maximize commercial value for customers, every IoT company has to adjust its
organizational structure accordingly.
Figure 1: Machina Research estimates that IoT-based revenue will total around 596 billion
euros by 2022, covering all players of the ecosystem. The five industries shown account for
about 80 percent of that revenue.
3.
An IoT platform should provide flexible ways to integrate any IP-enabled device into
enterprise and partner backend systems. A software platform that fulfills these requirements
should be an agile composition of devices, processes, and rules management. This makes
it possible to link things, users, and enterprise and partner systems on one platform (as
depicted in the business ecosystem, figure 2) and provides a basis for building IoT
applications.
Things: The IoT links the physical world of things to the virtual world of the internet. By
linking together computer networks, sensors, actuators, machines, and devices, the IoT
offers a multitude of new opportunities for businesses to develop new products and services.
Users: The IoT focuses heavily on benefits for users, since they ultimately decide whether
to use the things and services on offer. To encourage users to take advantage of them,
products and services should capture users' interest in their own personal environment,
enhance their quality of life, and be easy to use.
Enterprises: Process optimization, device management, end-to-end processes, real-time
decisions, and data integration are just some of the critical topics that are increasingly
demanding the attention of businesses worldwide. To stay on top of these trends and ensure
that everything runs smoothly in the IoT, companies need to optimize their existing services
or develop new ones.
Partners: In the connected world, partnerships between businesses are becoming more
important than ever. That's because no single company can successfully tackle all the
increasingly complex challenges on its own. These partnerships can be anything from
technology partnerships and service partnerships to groups of companies that have decided
to market their products on a joint, collaborative basis. If companies can model and
implement these partnerships using software, they can cooperate more quickly and
efficiently, benefiting all involved.
Device data leverages and controls backend processes and partner systems.
In contrast, IoT systems are specifically designed to grow and evolve to meet future needs.
To take potential developments of new use cases and business models into consideration,
IoT platform development should avoid creating silos by strictly following an approach of
open interfaces and standards. These are not only important for avoiding the development
of silos, but they also serve as a foundation for effectively integrating partner systems into
an IoT ecosystem. For example, a fleet management solution is only complete once a
maintenance or repair appointment can be scheduled without human interaction. To achieve
this, the scheduling system of a garage has to be integrated into the fleet management
system of a car rental company.
integrated process and rules management to be the right one. Many IoT application platform
vendors focus solely on connecting devices and providing some form of basic asset
management in the backend. However, connecting devices with only a backend system
or influence business
does not add any value. To do that, devices have to be managed by backend systems and
decisions, operations, or
constraints.
Based on voice of customer data, Bosch Software Innovations decided to integrate a device
management system with process and rules management software. The fully integrated
software makes it possible to link business processes and rules directly with devices.
Processes and rules trigger devices acting as actuators. They can also react in near realtime to information collected from devices acting as sensors. However, in almost all of our
customer projects, we see that deploying only device management software falls short of
addressing the customers challenges. Customers want more than just passive device
monitoring and management. While this is an important foundation, nearly every IoT project
has a major impact on a large number of business processes and rules in the enterprise. As
a result, a device management solution should offer very flexible ways to be integrated into
business processes and rules or adjacent enterprise backend systems especially when
existing business models and operations have to be made more efficient by integrating
things.
There are more reasons why efficient rule management is particularly important for the IoT.
Rules can manage many different variables (tax rates, sales quotes, technical thresholds,
etc.) that could greatly affect applications. It follows that modifying those rules offers a fast
and easy way to change the variables. Doing so allows companies to shorten their time to
market considerably.
The interrelationship between rules and variables also provides a solid foundation for the
collaboration of IT specialists with business or other experts. If rules are provided as
graphical metaphors, business departments can flexibly integrate industry know-how into
application development and manage their rules themselves. This way, they can automate a
huge number of operational decisions without any programming knowledge.
Figure 3: The role of rules and processes in the IoT business ecosystem
platform acts as middleware between the physical and the IT world, facilitating development
of IoT applications and solutions via Platform as a Service (PaaS) / Software as a Service
(SaaS) environments. Integrating devices on this platform also aids application
development. Bringing all the chain links together the physical world, the internet
connection, and the IT world forms an IoT value chain.
Carrie
rs
Resiliency to errors and failures, enabling smooth operation without total blackout
and safe operations in critical use cases, such as slow internet connections,
unstable mobile connections and devices that go on- and offline. These impose
severe constraints on the design of applications for remote access
Robust security concept including rights and encryption management necessary for
genuine end-to-end security
execute processes. Which functions are more important than others depends on the IoT use
case in question. In our view, a sustainable IoT platform should offer nine features, which
we examine in the following section.
Platform requirements in a
connected world
When formulating a new value proposition or increasing efficiency in fields
such as connected manufacturing, energy, mobility, city, or buildings, the
focus needs to be on incorporating things and devices into enterprise and
partner systems and processes. If an IoT platform is to help realize new IoT
business models, or just leverage existing business models via IoT use
cases, it must meet certain requirements.
Asset and event management
An asset is typically a sizable, more substantial entity such as a machine, vehicle, or power
plant. It consists of multiple devices or things connected via local networks with distributed
software hubs. Typically, an asset or software hub is connected to the backend via a mobile
carrier network or a fixed-line internet connection.
An event, in IoT scenarios, can be generated in different ways. For example, a motion
sensor detects when a person enters a room thats an event. Another example of an event
is when a sensor detects that the temperature of a machine part exceeds a certain
threshold. In most use cases, events are set up to trigger processes. In the first example,
the person enters a room, and this event triggers the device operation switch on the light.
In general, events are device information that determine what action backend systems
should take. Experts have to define and model the appropriate responses of the backend
systems using process or rules management components. What makes event management
so challenging is managing a wide range of possible events depending on the IoT use case
(for instance, machine failure or a customers expression of interest to buy at a specific retail
location). Mastering this challenge makes the difference between superior event
management solutions and those that are just average.
To serve as the foundation for an IoT application, a system must be able to support analysis
of individual events as well as the correlation between different event types (domain events
such as light switched on and technical events such as connection lost).
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Carrier integration
Asset and event management requires reliable connectivity between distributed devices and
backend systems. Of course, on-site components have to be able to establish a connection
to the backend system, but this can be done only with the help of carrier networks or
communication providers. Distributed devices are normally connected with the backend
over mobile networks such as LTE, UMTS, and GSM or fixed-line networks such as DSL.
However, companies may opt for closed systems that dont need carrier support; many
industrial IoT applications are not going to rely on the public internet infrastructure.
Companies will leverage IP technologies, certainly, but they will build up their own private
network infrastructure for mission-critical IoT applications such as smart grids, traffic
management, and drone-based transportation networks.
The use of carrier networks is always cost-sensitive and network availability is often crucial
for IoT use cases. Therefore, monitoring and managing communication (which includes
monitoring network availability and usage) is important. Since carrier support is essential for
most IoT scenarios, an IoT platform should ideally be compatible with all communication
providers. That means not only supporting all cellular and fixed-line standards, but also
being able to integrate different communication management platforms. This can be done
by integrating the communication management functions supplied by most providers into an
IoT platform. A communication management platform should offer a way to set thresholds
and predefine actions that will be automatically triggered if a threshold is exceeded.
Efficient integration of communication management functions is one reason IoT platform
providers should partner with carrier network operators. Another benefit is the option to offer
special, cheap tariffs and customized communication approaches (for example, highly
secure peer-to-peer networks that avoid data transport over the open internet) to their
customers.
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Security
Requirements regarding security and privacy are becoming more stringent. Encrypted
internet communication and protection is necessary for shielding an IoT platform and
connected devices against unauthorized access. Other security requirements depend on
the specific use case and scenario.
Privacy becomes a critical concern if usage data monitoring allows the platform operator to
draw conclusions about customer behavior and production processes. For this reason, data
collection needs to be transparent in these environments, and reliable identity management
is a must-have. This is especially true for scenarios with a lot of changing tenants or users,
where access rights often have to be transferred from one person to another. An IoT
platform should offer answers to these security and privacy challenges. There are different
solutions available, but ultimately, an effective security concept has to fulfill the following
criteria:
Security concepts have to be both preventive and responsive
As connections between things increase, so too do virtual breakpoints and in turn, potential
security threats. An IoT security concept has to protect and strengthen these breakpoints by
enabling rapid detection and mitigation of security breaches. But IT security experts
generally agree that there is no such thing as a 100% secure system. New technology and
business models will prevail only if the value they create outweighs the new risks they
entail. We can define risk as the product of likelihood and potential damage. In assessing
risk, a security concept has to not only minimize the probability of damage, but perhaps
even more importantly the scale of potential damage as well. There is a big difference
between a machine failing for one hour and an entire factory going offline for days.
Essential measures to protect potential breakpoints and to lower potential risks are:
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from hard- and software platforms. Rigorous and consistent use of standards is also
important to ensure the platforms horizontal reusability across domains. Such a horizontal
platform can fulfill the requirements of various industries or vertical integration of users,
system administrators, business developers, and business partners.
Figure 7: The mobility sector offers a good example of various business partners being
brought together on an IoT platform specifically, an electromobility roaming platform.
Roaming here does not have its original sense of GSM roaming (basically, a cellular
customers ability to send and receive calls automatically in a network outside their home
network); instead, it refers to the charging of electric vehicles in the charging networks of
various operators. An electromobility roaming platform facilitates a networked batterycharging infrastructure and links up users with multiple suppliers, thereby creating the
essential framework required to increase the range of electric vehicles.
But guaranteeing future flexibility and system openness requires more than open interfaces
and standards. An IoT platform also needs to follow the principles of a service-oriented
architecture (SOA), in which most software capabilities are delivered and consumed as
services. Within an SOA, the point of usage is always linked to a portal, a device or other
endpoint, and uses a service-based interface. All services in the SOA have to be able to
communicate with each other. Furthermore, strict SOA implementation ensures a modular
composition of system and services even at runtime. The optimum way to implement an
SOA is component-based (process and entity components), which provides one-to-one
mapping between business entities and component implementation. The result is a platform
or enterprise SOA that provides web services externally and also makes business
component services built or specified for internal use readily available. Every IoT platform
developed in accordance with the guidelines of a service-oriented architecture achieves
inherent stability and flexibility.
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Application development
As already stated, one primary functionality of an IoT platform is to provide a basis or
foundation for developing applications. The platform should serve as a link between the IoT
business ecosystem (things, users, enterprise systems, partners) and the applications.
To support application development for an IoT world, the platform has to provide, for
example:
1.
Methods and tools that can handle a wide range of possible data inputs, such as
devices or partner and enterprise systems. This data has to be stored, analyzed,
and processed on one platform so it can be made available to different kinds of
applications that have been built on the IoT platform.
2.
Tools to manage a wide range of business processes and rules that control
devices or leverage device data. An IoT platform should provide access to device
data and be able to manage device operations. Especially provided that devices
can be simply incorporated into existing business processes or rules, new
applications can be built or existing applications can be modified just by modeling
processes and rules.
A very simple example shows how device data is used within a process. An application
switches on a lamp when someone enters a room (process-to-device). Motion sensors in
the room detect when the person enters, and this information from the device triggers the
switch on light process step (device-to-process).
3.
4.
5.
Ease of use and flexible user interfaces (UI). Additional value-adding UI services
should support collaboration between different systems and users.
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Device instances and hierarchies: each device becomes an individual entry in the
database, combined with various device attributes and properties plus its position
in the device hierarchy. The information about the device hierarchy is crucial for
facilitating efficient communication with all devices.
2.
Events related to devices: each device entry contains all events correlated with the
device.
This gives rise to new challenges for data management in an IoT world:
Predictive maintenance is a
As important as data management is, analyzing data from the connected devices to detect
patterns is maybe even more so. For example, in predictive maintenance use cases, a key
capability is detecting patterns indicative of machine failure before the failure actually
occurs. The data itself has limited relevance, but analyzing it can produce crucial findings.
performed.
As a result, an IoT platform should offer tools and mechanisms for high-performance data
analysis. These have to be able to offer near-real-time analysis by simultaneous importing
and querying data. Data analysis and management systems using sequential algorithms are
probably insufficient for near-real-time analysis and for unleashing the potential of IoT use
cases and ecosystems. The challenge is to manage the limitations of current technologies
with respect to growing data volumes and increasing velocity in order to achieve both big
data and near-real-time analysis. To be considered IoT-ready, a data analysis and
management system must be able to:
As a result, IoT platforms require significantly more flexibility, agility, and scalability in data
analysis and management to meet the requirements of IoT business models today and in
the future.
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Efficient resource pooling. The platform is hosted as a single entity that is pooled to
serve multiple customers (provided the IoT platform supports multitenancy).
Resources can be dynamically allocated according to user demand.
Rapid and elastic service provision. The service is available in any quantity and at
any time.
Operating costs are another reason to prefer hosted models. The costs per hosted solution
decrease with each additional customer or installation. An on-premise installation normally
operates a dedicated infrastructure on a single-solution basis. Assuming economies of
scale, it will be cheaper to operate and maintain an infrastructure for several solutions than
for a single one. The main cost-saving drivers of a hosted solution compared to an onpremise solution are:
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Availability
In an IoT world, the whole system has to be error- and failure-resilient, maintaining
operation without total blackout and guaranteeing safe operation for critical appliances.
Slow internet connections, unstable mobile connections, devices that go offline, and so on
impose severe constraints on the design of applications for remote access. An IoT platform
has to back up the system and ensure overall service availability. In cases of slow or
unavailable internet connections, the IoT platform has to buffer events on site until sufficient
connectivity has been restored. To be more independent of backend connectivity, business
rules should be deployable and executable on local hubs. To be proof against errors and
failures, all crucial systems have to be redundant and available in a hot standby mode.
Furthermore, maintaining operations should be possible in runtime to avoid outages and
blackouts.
Scalability
For IoT platforms, both the number of users and the number of connected devices drive
scalability. Scalability is about response times and availability of services, and is also
important for the internet connection of devices. In an IoT world, asset and event
management also has to be scalable. Managed devices and potential events can scale up
to considerably large numbers in an IoT use case. In addition, the number of events
correlates to the number of connected devices and the specific scenario.
Figure 8: A complex industrial tightening tool such as the Rexroth Nexo cordless nutrunner
can generate up to 100 events per second.
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An IoT platform has to be able to grow and evolve to handle future volumes and
.
requirements. The main questions in assessing the scalability of an IoT platform are:
What is the number of possible events per second and per installation under
permanent load?
What is the maximum number of workflows processed per minute and the
maximum number of workflows that can be executed in parallel?
Figure 9: The chart shows the requirements for scalability on two current customer PoCs at
Bosch Software Innovations. These PoCs start in year one with a very low number of
connected devices and sensors. However, in a short space of time, they scale massively
upward for commercial launch and rollout.
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Checklist:
Selecting an IoT platform
Your companys compass points to the connected world. When choosing
the middleware that connects the physical and the IT world, start your
benchmarking with this checklist (in no particular order).
1.
Your platform caters to both worlds: business and tech. First you have to
successfully integrate users, things, and enterprise and partner systems on
one platform.
2.
3.
Connectivity is a must-have for IoT use cases. Ideally, your IoT platform should
support all communication standards and protocols and be compatible with
the communication platforms of all major carriers.
4.
The security features of your IoT platform protect you, your partners, and users
from unauthorized access. Reliable, transparent, and fully integrated security
concepts should offer the highest possible level of security for all stakeholders on
your platform.
5.
IoT ecosystems will not be built by single companies, but by various players
integrated on one platform. Open interfaces and standards facilitate
collaboration with third-party systems and platforms.
6.
Your platform should serve as the basis for application development by providing
methods and tools that can handle a wide range of data inputs. Furthermore, the
platform should be able to manage business processes and rules that control
devices or leverage device data.
7.
The platform should be able to manage the challenge of huge data volumes and
increasing velocity to achieve big data and near-real-time analysis.
8.
Your platform should ideally be available both on premise and as a hosted service
to be able to adjust to changing future requirements. A platform as a service
solution should offer rapid and elastic service provision according to specific
demands.
9.
IoT applications require service availability and stable operations. Your platform
has to recognize them all (and know how to handle them): slow internet
connection, unstable mobile connection, devices that go on- and offline, etc.
10. Most IoT projects start with small numbers of connected devices. Select a platform
that makes economic sense, but scales with you, your customers, and partners.
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Bosch Software Innovations GmbH, the Bosch Groups software and systems house, designs,
develops, and operates innovative software and system solutions that help our customers around
the world both in the Internet of Things and in the traditional enterprise environment. We place
particular focus on the topics of mobility, energy, manufacturing, and smart home. Our software
suite is the perfect foundation not only for projects relating to the Internet of Things but also for
projects in the fields of Device Management (M2M), Business Process Management (BPM) and
Business Rules Management (BRM).
With some 500 associates worldwide, Bosch Software Innovations has locations in Germany
(Berlin, Immenstaad, and Stuttgart), Singapore, China (Shanghai), and the United States
(Chicago and Palo Alto).
More information can be found at www.bosch-si.com, www.twitter.com/BoschSI,
www.blog.bosch-si.com.
The Bosch Group is a leading global supplier of technology and services. In 2013, its roughly
281,000 associates generated sales of 46.1 billion euros. (NB: Due to a change in accounting
policies, the 2013 figures can only be compared to a limited extent with the 2012 figures). Its
operations are divided into four business sectors: Automotive Technology, Industrial Technology,
Consumer Goods, and Energy and Building Technology. The Bosch Group comprises Robert
Bosch GmbH and its more than 360 subsidiaries and regional companies in some 50 countries. If
its sales and service partners are included, then Bosch is represented in roughly 150 countries.
This worldwide development, manufacturing, and sales network is the foundation for further
growth. In 2013, the Bosch Group invested some 4.5 billion euros in research and development
and applied for some 5,000 patents. This is an average of 20 patents per day. The Bosch
Groups products and services are designed to fascinate, and to improve the quality of life by
providing solutions which are both innovative and beneficial. In this way, the company offers
technology worldwide that is Invented for life.
Additional information is available online at www.bosch.com, www.bosch-presse.de,
www.twitter.com/BoschPresse.
Europe
Bosch Software Innovations GmbH
Schneberger Ufer 8991
10785 Berlin
Germany
Tel. +49 30 726112-0
Fax +49 30 726112-100
www.bosch-si.de
America
Bosch Software Innovations Corp.
161 N. Clark Street
Suite 3550
Chicago, Illinois 60601/USA
Tel. +1 312 368-2500
Fax +1 312 268-6286
www.bosch-si.com
Asia
Bosch Software Innovations
c/o Robert Bosch (SEA) Pte Ltd.
11 Bishan Street 21
Singapore 573943
Tel. +65 6571 2220
Fax +65 6258 4671
www.bosch-si.sg
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