Remote - M2M 2014 - (Page 4)

Feature Article When Does it Makes Sense to Transition to Wireless? Bill Conley, M2M Systems Development Engineering Manager B&B Electronics Wireless M2M networking technology has come a long way. Low power 802.15.4e wireless mesh networks, for example, now use frequency hopping and path diversity to create reliable connections in locations where network nodes must rely upon battery power alone. Wi-Fi provides ever-increasing bandwidth and range, along with interoperability and low cost chipsets. 3G cellular networks feature peak data rates measured in tens of megabytes, more than enough for most M2M applications, and the 4G LTE networks that are being deployed should provide throughputs of up to 1 GB/s, with very low latency. Low energy Bluetooth (Bluetooth LE, marketed as Bluetooth Smart) will let devices operate for months or years on a single battery, while simultaneously giving technicians the ability to communicate with those devices using handheld equipment like tablets and smart phones. Each wireless M2M technology provides us with new capabilities, and many have become robust enough that they can serve as a cable replacement in appropriate industrial networking applications. Wireless tech can also extend the network edge to include locations where cable installations would be impractical. Future Industrial Networks Must Embrace the Past In the consumer world, new technologies quickly drive older ones into obsolescence. That won't be the case with industrial networks. The data networking infrastructure that is already in place is far too valuable and far too complex to be discarded. As new wireless M2M technologies come on line they will add new layers of sophistication to our existing M2M data networks. But they will also have to coexist with more traditional technologies for quite some time. To do this, network engineers will need to accommodate traditional M2M technologies, some of which are decades old. They will have to be prepared to aggregate, convert and transmit multiple data networking protocols, from Rockwell EtherNet IP, Modbus TCP and Modbus Serial RTU, to name a few. While adding millions of smaller, smarter, more capable nodes to networks, new wireless M2M technologies will also have to help keep our existing equipment connected and communicating. Rather than replacing all of our existing installations, wireless M2M technologies will make them more valuable. Cloud-Based Analytics Some of the most important advances in industrial networking are happening up in the cloud. When you can aggregate data from multiple generations of technology, move it all up to the cloud, and combine it with third party inputs, you're presented with an opportunity to use your data in unprecedented ways. Consider irrigation systems, for example. Most rely upon simple timers, many have no automation at all. As a result, the United States Geological Survey estimates that half of all irrigation water is simply wasted, thanks to runoff and evaporation. An intelligent system that monitors actual soil conditions to determine where, when and how much water actually needs to be released can cut those losses dramatically. But a system that connects to the cloud can do even better. The most advanced irrigation systems now use cloud applications to combine data from local sensors with third party data like weather forecasts to make intelligent decisions, like holding back a planned release for a few hours when rain is predicted, and then measuring how much rain has actually fallen. In places like the American West, where water supplies are limited, a cloud-based application that can cut water usage by 80 percent effectively increases the available water supply by 500 percent. Cloud-based analytics and applications will produce similar efficiencies in countless other industrial processes. In many cases, getting data to the cloud can be done via wired connections. But what happens when your traditional SCADA installation is off the grid? Cloud applications like SeeControl's M2M SaaS remote monitoring platform would give your SCADA installation more value and 4 www.RemoteMagazine.com new capabilities. You could put data to work in real time, and from any location. You could specify your custom key performance indicators (KPIs), compare KPIs from multiple sites, integrate third party data, manage multiple sites from a single platform, spot trends, identify potential problem patterns that require attention and make more efficient business decisions. In this situation, cellular data networking would pay dividends. By connecting to your local SCADA system, and providing that system with a wireless connection to the cloud, a cellular router would represent a major upgrade. Your existing SCADA system would continue doing its job, but with enhanced capabilities. Local Intelligence Data plans cost money, of course. You wouldn't want your wireless gateway to report every bit of data that came its way. A simple Modbus pressure indicator, for example, may be designed to report its data continuously, even when conditions are well within acceptable ranges. If you were transmitting that data via the cellular networks this continuous reporting would be an unnecessary expense, and an inefficient use of the data plan. The answer is to place some local intelligence in the wireless gateway. Where incoming data has high sampling rates, a smart gateway can be programmed to compare incoming data with specified parameters, and to decide when information is important enough to be reported to the cloud application. The connected SCADA installation can continue functioning and reporting just as it always has, and the gateway will decide what needs to be transmitted. Case Study: Adding Wireless Capabilities to a Remote Water Well Monitoring System I've operated a water well monitoring test site in the Arizona Desert for many years. It's a tank monitoring system for the Pinal County, Ariz. well owners co-op. Its purpose is to predict system failures by measuring and aggregating pump current. By building intelligence, or analytics, into the system, I have given it the ability to make decisions based on changes detected over time. Currently, the system can alert a technician to schedule preemptive maintenance before a catastrophic failure. I've added new networking technologies whenever it made sense to do so. But I've often kept existing equipment in place as long as it continued to do the job efficiently, and at a reasonable cost. To draw an analogy, think about the tire pressure gauges that we all keep in our toolboxes. The newer, digital versions are easier to read. But they cost more, they require batteries, and they tend to be more fragile. Are they always the better choice? In an early incarnation of my Pinal County site I used I/O radios to transmit data from pressure sensors, current sensors and level sensors to a radio modem. The radio modem then connected to an onsite HMI. (Figure 1) It was a convenient way to gather all of the data in a single location. I was already using some wireless data networking technology. But, even so, I had to be physically present at the site if I wanted to review the results. Eventually I added a 3G cellular Figure 1. SCADA system reporting to an HMI router to the mix. It provided Internet backhaul via the cellular telephone network, making it unnecessary to visit the site in person. I could now monitor the site anywhere I could establish an Internet connection. The router had built-in firewalls and powerful security protocols, and when combined with Virtual Private Networking (VPN) I was able to use the cellular system as securely as if it were proprietary infrastructure. (Figure 2) Note, however, that I didn't have to discard my Modbus sensors, my I/O http://www.RemoteMagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Remote - M2M 2014

Remote - M2M 2014
Editor's Choice
When Does it Makes Sense to Transition to Wireless?
Intelligent Machinery Requires Comprehensive Wireless M2M Communications
Improving M2M Communications with Wireless
Driving the Connected Car - a New World of Mobility
SDN-Based Solutions Strengthen Cyber Security in Industrial Control Infrastructure
Electric Vehicles: Where Telematics, Smart Grid and Mobile Payments Converge
Powering Today’s Wireless Sensors
M2M Visions of 2020
Satellite Communications Takes the Edge out of Risky Mining Operations
New Products
Industry News

Remote - M2M 2014