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IIoT AT SCALE with LoRaWAN

5 days ago — Manual Equipment Monitoring – Manual Valve Monitoring. •. Predictive Maintenance – Vibration and Energy Monitoring Sensors. Page 3. After the team has selected ...

IIOT at scale with LoRaWAN- White Paper

Site Sync Ignition Module - LoRa Alliance


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IIoT AT SCALE with LoRaWAN®
Why LoRaWAN is the IIoT Easy Button and How to Scale from Proof of Concept to Enterprise-Wide with Little Technical Debt By: Stefanie Funk
Overview
Digital Transformation and Industry 4.0 initiatives are hot topics in the manufacturing industry right now because of the benefits that AI, Machine Learning, and Analytics can deliver to end users. LoRaWAN is a technology in the Digital Transformation space that provides cost effective sensors and the wirelessinfrastructure to provide the data for the Digital Transformation team to utilize in their Industry 4.0 efforts. And while there are incredible benefits to these initiatives, they are notorious for being difficult to scale from the Proof of Concept phase to an Enterprise-Wide Solution. This white paper is going to discuss strategies in the LoRaWAN space for developing a successful Proof of Concept and then scaling that Proof of Concept up to an Enterprise-Wide deployment with minimal investment and very little technical debt on the hardware side.
Introduction to LoRaWAN
LoRaWAN is the wireless technology that was created for large scale, Internet of Things deployments that covers long ranges and runs on low power. By optimizing battery life, distance covered, and maximizing the number of sensors that can be used on gateways, LoRaWAN is the technology that makes previously inaccessible data affordable for use in Industry 4.0. LoRaWAN is also an open protocol so multiple sensors can be deployed on the same network infrastructure, allowing for scalability. For more information on LoRaWAN, check out our website resource here: https://sitesync. cloud/lorawan/
Figure 1. LoRaWAN end devices with a SiteSync LoRaWAN Conduit gateway.
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Digital Transformation Tiers
There are three tiers of personnel in the Digital Transformation effort that are key to making any initiative successful. These are the Technicians, the Automation Engineers, and the IT/Digital Transformation team.
Tier 1: Technicians The Technicians make up Tier 1 and are the boots on the ground that will be critical in deploying the large number of LoRaWAN sensors and will be the first call out if there are any issues with the system.
Tier 2: Automation Engineers The Automation Engineers make up Tier 2 and provide the connectivity from the sensors to the format where the Digital Transformation can utilize the data.

Tier 3: IT and Digital Transformation Team The IT and Digital Transformation Team make up Tier 3 and provide the infrastructure and analysis for Industry 4.0 initiatives.

Each tier plays an important role in Industry 4.0 and all are needed to ensure that the Enterprise-Wide roll outs are successful. This white paper will discuss how the Digital Transformation journey starts with the Tier 3, IT/Digital Transformation Team, but ends up in the hands of the Tier 1, Technicians, with high level support from the Tier 2, Automation Engineers, to bring the ownership and roll out to the plant level, so that the initiative is more successful.

How to Execute a Successful Proof of Concept

When beginning the Digital Transformation journey, the best place to start is the low hanging fruit, which are easy solutions that will provide an immediate Return on Investment. The Tier 3, Digital Transformation team, selects this low hanging fruit and initiates a Proof of Concept test to ensure that the solution is going to give them the expected data for the ROI.

Examples of common problems that can be solved with LoRaWAN are:

·

Inventory Management

·

Personnel Safety

·

Manual Equipment Monitoring

·

Predictive Maintenance

Once the Digital Transformation team picks the low hanging fruit, then they are ready to select the

sensor that is going to be able to solve that particular problem. Sensor selection is very important

because if the sensor that is selected, can't get the data that is needed, the Proof of Concept is going

to fail. Sensors that can be used for the common problems listed above are:

·

Inventory Management ­ Ultrasonic or Radar Levels

·

Personnel Safety ­ GPS Trackers

·

Manual Equipment Monitoring ­ Manual Valve Monitoring

·

Predictive Maintenance ­ Vibration and Energy Monitoring Sensors

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After the team has selected the right sensor for the problem they are trying to solve, then they are ready to determine what network architecture is best suited for this Proof of Concept. Because LoRaWAN is packaged for efficient communication, the data has to be decoded into a usable format. In the Proof of Concept phase, the data decodes and data movement can be done through custom scripts or could only be available in the viewing platform that the sensor manufacturer provides. Both methods are ok at this phase but neither work well at scale.
A better network architecture scheme is to implement a modular architecture that provides the flexibility for adjustments without incurring the technical debt of additional hardware. This is shown in the below network architecture diagram. The end devices send their signal back to a packet forwarding gateway and the gateway sends the data to an external LNS where the data is captured. The SiteSync LoRaWAN module for Ignition, gets the data from the LNS and allows the Digital Transformation team to take the data where they want it for the higher-level Industry 4.0 analytics.
By going ahead and putting this structure in place, the Digital Transformation team has the foundation in place for the Enterprise-Wide rollout. This architecture is modular and not locked in, so it can be modified with without incurring technical debt in the latter phases of the Digital Transformation journey.

End Devices

LoRaWAAN Network Server
Gateway in Packet Forward Mode Data Flow Encryption
LoRaWAN AES128 Encryption
MQTT 3.1.1 Qos O, TLS
MQTT Sparkplug B, TLS

Data Analytics and Visualization

Figure 2. Displays the flow of data from End Devices to Data Analytics and Visualization platforms in a LoRaWAN Proof of Concept deployment.
Now that the hardware is specified, the Digital Transformation team needs to define metrics for what a successful proof of concept looks like. This can be overlooked step, but it is a critical step in the Proof of Concept process, so that you can know if it was successful or not.

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The Digital Transformation team has defined the problem, selected the sensor and architecture to solve the problem, and defined what a successful trial looks like, and now they are ready to deploy the sensors and measure the results. It is important to ensure that the sensors are installed correctly in the field so that they are gathering accurate data for the trial. It is also important to analyze the data throughout the Proof of Concept to ensure it is going well, or if it is not going as expected, then there is the opportunity to pivot or make changes.
After the Proof of Concept is completed and the data shows that this is a good solution that should be scaled up, the Digital Transformation team is ready to start working on the Enterprise-Wide roll out. Because of the module architecture that LoRaWAN allows for and that was setup in the Proof of Concept, the Digital Transformation team will have a much easier path to engage their Technicians and Automation Engineers to ensure that the Enterprise-Wide rollout is successful.
Enterprise-Wide Roll Out
The Tier 3, Digital Transformation team, is typically a small, centralized group of people, which works great for Proof of Concept projects, but makes it incrediblydifficult to scale them. Because of this, the Enterprise-Wide rollouts require the support of the Tier 1, Technicians and Tier 2, Automation Engineers to be successful. By engaging the Tier 1 and Tier 2 personnel, you eliminate one of the main reasons that IIoT Enterprise-Wide rollouts fail, which is lack of resources.
The modularity of the gateway and network architecture that was used in the Proof of Concept phase allows the Digital Transformation team to move the gateway (if needed) from the Proof of Concept phase to the initial Enterprise-Wife rollout site. The gateway and LNS are already configured to decode and take the data where it is needed, so the connectivity piece does not have to be recreated or modified. The below network architecture shows what an Enterprise-Wide rollout would look like, where the hardware and software that was implemented in the Proof of Concept phase is shown in gray. The modularity and scalability of LoRaWAN only requires the addition of gateways and sensors for the scaling up of the Proof of Concept packages.
Because of the number of end devices needed in a LoRaWAN system, the Digital Transformation team has to enable the Tier 1, Technicians to be the primary implementation and troubleshooting team for these systems, with additional support from the Tier 2, Automation Engineers as needed in order for the Enterprise-Wide rollout to be successful.
A key component of that is to put the power to add and troubleshoot sensors into the hands of the Technicians by giving them the tools to add sensors through a basic QR Scan or similar and an accessible dashboard that indicates if there are any issues with the sensors and what those issues might be. It is also important to make the system diagnostics accessible to the Tier 2, Automation Engineers so that they can support the Technicians if there is an issue that can't be solved at the Tier 1 level. The accessibility of this data make it so that limited support from Tier 3 is needed once the Enterprise-Wide rollout starts.
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End Devices

Gateway in packet forward mode

End Devices

Gateway in packet forward mode
Gateway in packet forward mode

Data Analytics and Visualization
Data Flow Encryption
LoRaWAN AES128 Encryption MQTT 3.1.1 Qos O, TLS MQTT Sparkplug B, TLS

Figure 3. Displays a Sample Enterprise Wide LoRaWAN deployment utilizing many of the components already put in place during the Proof of Concept phase.
Similar to the Proof of Concept phase, it is also important to have success metrics for the Enterprise-Wide roll out. These are critical to have because it helps this large scale roll out to focused on the key portion and it shows that the investment in the system is providing the desired data to be able to realize the ROI.

Once the Enterprise-Wide rollout is completed, that facility now has a full LoRaWAN infrastructure and can continue to add new applications and additional sensors to the network without the overhead of the networking equipment. The Tier 1 and Tier 2 teams will also have the knowledge to implement the next application on their own with little support needed from the Digital Transformation team and they become multipliers in the company for the various IIoT initiatives.

Contact us to find out how the SiteSync LoRaWAN module can become the Easy
button for the Digital Transformation team to take a LoRaWAN Proof of Concept
system and scale it up to an Enterprise-Wide rollout by enabling the front line
Technicians and Automation Engineers to become the key support personnel in
Industry 4.0 initiatives.
Website: SiteSync.cloud Email: contact@sitesync.cloud Linkedin: linkedin.com/company/sitesyncsolutions/

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References

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