IoT Stars joined Embedded World 2023 to bring together top IoT professionals and discuss the latest products, services, and market trends. From innovative start-ups and scale-ups to established players, the event highlighted the need for collaboration in tackling the challenges of the rapidly growing IoT market.Ray Ozzie said back at IoT Stars 2022, &quot;We&#39;re all in this together.&quot; Whether competitors or partners, collaboration is essential in simplifying technology and educating customers. We&rsquo;re building on each other&rsquo;s tools and features. Eventually, it&#39;s all a Tetris game.Google, IBM and Ericsson leaving the IoT space led some to question the viability of IoT economics. Brandon Satrom from Blues Wireless countered &ldquo;the economics didn&rsquo;t work for them, but they do work for us&rdquo;. IoT simply takes longer because it&rsquo;s not general cloud compute. Marcin Nagy from AVSystem added that the hyperscalers aren&#39;t necessarily leaving the space, they want to keep as much data as possible. &ldquo;We synergize with them by building robust solutions&rdquo;.One of the most significant challenges still facing the market is the chip shortage, as Benjamin Cab&eacute; from the Zephyr Project pointed out. Building future-proof IoT means building firmware which can easily be ported to another hardware platform. &ldquo;You don&rsquo;t want to tie too much into a particular hardware system, because you never know if the chip you&rsquo;re using all of a sudden won&rsquo;t be available anymore&rdquo;.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc5NDk2NzA5NTMxLU1CMjMwMzE0X2lvdHN0YXJzXzAzMjMtbG93cmVzLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Benjamin Cab&eacute;, ZephyrStephen Berard, CTO of Nubix cried: &ldquo;The cloud gets all the cool features like Kubernetes, CI/CD and automated testing. Embedded folks need this too!&rdquo;. With embedded tools like Zephyr and Nubix, we slowly start seeing these cool cloud features being incorporated into embedded development.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1679496747482-MB230314_iotstars_0450-lowres.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Stephen Berard, NubixSimplification in IoT is both the key challenge, and the key catalyst for IoT adoption, according to Ken Yu, CEO of RAKwireless. Most use cases come from very specific industrial scenarios and the biggest problems here is to provide a plug and play solution, &ldquo;like turning a light switch&rdquo;. Brandon Satrom seconded Ken&rsquo;s comment by bringing tribute to unsexy use cases, &ldquo;those are the ones that can get deployed and bring value faster. Just report one thing like temperature or movement, get that live and see the value it brings.&rdquo;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1679496894670-MB230314_iotstars_0937-lowres.jpg" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Brandon Satrom, Marcin Nagy, Ken Yu, Dora Terjek, Brandon Lewis (left to right)However, implementation remains tricky due to fragmentation, interoperability, and poor APIs, as noted by Marcin. To solve some of these key issues and drive scale, open-source solutions like Zephyr and open standard like LwM2M are necessary, Dora Terjek from Soracom highlighted. Fortunately, the collaborative, open-source movement in the hardware space is gaining momentum. The open-source RISC-V is becoming a real competitor to Arm for chip designs, and Zephyr is becoming the go-to operating system for embedded IoT devices, leveraged by companies like Nubix, Blues Wireless, and AVSystem.Let&rsquo;s celebrate hyperscalers leaving, the rise of open-source in IoT, and the deployment of unsexy use cases! Together, this might be the perfect cocktail for innovative IoT companies to start scaling up in 2023.

Let’s celebrate hyperscalers leaving, the rise of open-source in IoT, and the deployment of unsexy use cases! Together, this might be the perfect cocktail for innovative IoT companies to start scaling up in 2023.

IoT Stars brings tribute to unsexy use cases

During Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, IoT Stars gathered the biggest players in IoT to discuss how to bring the pieces together and start making an impact that will shape the industry. <a href="https://iotstars.com" target="_blank">IoT Stars</a>, a community of IoT professionals focused on sharing knowledge and experiences, welcomed entrepreneurs, developers, engineers, investors and press from the IoT ecosystem.For the eighth annual installment of the event, IoT Stars brought together some of the top experts to discuss how to make a lasting impact.<h2 dir="ltr">Bringing all the pieces together</h2>The Internet of Things (IoT) industry is a dynamic and rapidly evolving landscape, with fast-falling pieces that need to be positioned intelligently in order to realize IoT use cases that generate value.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzgyOTQzMDAyLV9BNzQ4NjYwLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">IoT Stars presenting IoTetrisThe pioneering work has been done as all individual IoT components are available as of today. Cellular connectivity is provided by innovative MVNOs like Soracom and IoT Creators. Or connectivity can be realized by building private networks using existing hardware from companies like RAKwireless and MultiTech in combination with software tools from Monogoto. Easy-to-implement antennas from Ignion and off-the-shelf hardware with advanced sensing capabilities from Kallipr are within our reach.<h2 dir="ltr">Making an impact in the IoT playfield</h2>A panel of experts discussed how we&rsquo;re making an impact as an industry and many agree that our biggest impacts lie in our customers&rsquo; success. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerhard-loots-298bb93/?originalSubdomain=au" target="_blank">Gerhard Loots</a> from <a href="https://kallipr.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Kallipr</a> shared a water utility business case that saved 250 million liters of water, and a rail track company that increased efficiency by $25 million in six months. &ldquo;That&#39;s not about our win. It&#39;s about their win&rdquo;, he concluded.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzgzNDEyNzM4LV9BNzQ4ODczLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Left to right: Jaap Groot, Daniel Quant, Gerhard Loots, Nicolas Lesconnec, Christine Perey<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/christineperey/?originalSubdomain=ch" target="_blank">Christine Perey</a>, who moderated the panel discussion, believes that sharing our successes is what will have the biggest impact on the future. &ldquo;We don&rsquo;t want competitors to know about the advantage that we&rsquo;ve gained through the adoption of new technology. We have great success stories, but can&#39;t talk about them. We can&#39;t give data and yet the data is the thing that&#39;s going to really convince the next customer. So how do we address that?&rdquo;<h2 dir="ltr">There is impact, but why don&rsquo;t we see it?</h2>The IoT impact and use cases are clearly there &mdash; and there are many more examples &mdash; but they&rsquo;re just not always being shared. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/nicolaslesconnec/?originalSubdomain=fr" target="_blank">Nicolas Lesconnec</a> from <a href="https://www.soracom.io" target="_blank">Soracom</a> believes one reason for this is that proven use cases are often not specifically IoT success stories. &ldquo;IoT is just one of the Tetris blocks. I love to speak about the IoT success story, but from the customer&rsquo;s point of view, IoT is just one tiny part of it.&rdquo;IoT antenna supplier&nbsp;<a href="https://ignion.io" style="background-color: transparent;" target="_blank">Ignion</a>&nbsp;is providing solutions that simplify hardware development and pave the way for the creation of maximum value. &ldquo;How we measure impact is simply by success, by the value that we can bring, and by what customers tell us,&rdquo; says&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/grootjaap/" style="background-color: transparent;" target="_blank">Jaap Groot</a>. &ldquo;At the end of the day, 30 million+ antennas for products that are communicating today over networks... for us, that&#39;s impact. Nobody wants to talk about it: &lsquo;It&#39;s my big secret how I designed my device. It&#39;s so special that I don&#39;t want anybody to have this.&rsquo; We have to talk about success stories.&rdquo;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/danquant/" target="_blank">Daniel Quant</a> from <a href="https://www.multitech.com" target="_blank">Multitech</a>, which fulfilled a hand sanitizing solution of 6 million units last year, warned that &ldquo;when somebody in a segment does something disruptive, it doesn&#39;t take long before other companies follow.&rdquo;<h2 dir="ltr">Use cases of the future</h2>In order to show the innovative use cases that are shaping the future, IoT Stars invited leading companies to showcase real products that are on the market today.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzgzNjk2OTcwLV9BNzQ4NzA1LmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Laurens Slats (left) in conversation with Itamar Kunik from Monogoto<a href="https://monogoto.io" target="_blank">Monogoto</a> set out to simplify connectivity, recognizing that innovation lies in simplifying processes for developers. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/itamar-kunik-0142031/?originalSubdomain=il" target="_blank">Itamar Kunik</a> called it &lsquo;the network for developers, by developers&rsquo; during a demonstration of a hybrid LTE solution the organization created using <a href="https://www.rakwireless.com/en-us" target="_blank">RAKwireless</a>&rsquo; 5G small cell. <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jmarcelino/?originalSubdomain=uk" target="_blank">Jose Marcelino</a> from RAKwireless added that private network solutions empower developers and organizations with a firmer grip on their own infrastructure.&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzgzNzM5NDAwLV9BNzQ4ODA4LmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Jose Marcelino (left) from RAKwireless presenting the 5G small cell, with Marc Pous (right)&nbsp;Successful and practical use cases are already available, enabled by the building blocks created by IoT partners that are leading the way in innovation. So&nbsp;isn&rsquo;t it time we stopped keeping our successes to ourselves? Instead, what if we recognized a collective responsibility to share our impacts, in order to develop the IoT market?<h2 dir="ltr">Creating maximum value for a better future</h2><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/leonard-lee-nextcurve/" target="_blank">Leonard Lee</a> held a fireside chat with <a href="https://iotcreators.com" target="_blank">IoT Creators&#39;</a><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/afzalmangal/?originalSubdomain=nl" target="_blank">&nbsp;Afzal Mangal</a>, who called on the IoT industry to think beyond impact, and instead on how we can create maximum value. &ldquo;We usually think of IoT impact in terms of business impact,&rdquo; said Mangal. &ldquo;But is this the impact that we imagined 10 or 20 years ago? I think most of us signed up for IoT to discover maximum values beyond monetization, costs, and profits.&rdquo;&nbsp;<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzgzMTc5MDc0LV9BNzQ4NzcwLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Leonard Lee (left) in conversation with Afzal MangalOne example took place just a few weeks ago: Two main highways between the Hague and Utrecht were closed because of a bridge on the verge of collapse. Thanks to a network of sensors placed on the bridge&rsquo;s structure connected to IoT Creators&rsquo; cellular network, authorities could monitor cracks forming over time and identify whether structural faults justified its closure. With large amounts of pedestrian foot traffic, trains, and vehicles crossing the bridge each day, Mangal believes &ldquo;this is maximum value creation with IoT because it goes beyond saving costs.&rdquo;There is undoubtedly great potential for maximum value still to be discovered. &quot;There are a lot of things possible today, because there is a lot that we can do with IoT,&quot; concludes Mangal. Could it be that the biggest impact IoT can have, lies beyond economic factors?<h2 dir="ltr">Realizing value beyond economic factors</h2>We believe the biggest impact comes from close collaboration within the industry. The right partners can provide you with the all essential building blocks to realize solutions that solve real problems. IoT Stars created in 2023 the IoTetris as an example of how IoT companies can work together to assemble the essential blocks to build the IoT stack that leads to maximum value.<a href="https://iotbuilder.iotstars.com" target="_blank">IoTetris</a> is already available to play, so go ahead and give it a go. And to continue the discussion, be sure not to miss our&nbsp;<a href="https://iotstars.com" target="_blank">next IoT Stars networking event</a>. We&rsquo;re rounding up the key players from the world of embedded development on March 14th during Embedded World in Nuremberg, and it&rsquo;s sure to be just as insightful.

During Mobile World Congress 2023 in Barcelona, the biggest players in IoT gathered

IoT takeaways from MWC 2023

This article is part of the series on Getting Started with LwM2M. If you&rsquo;re new to LwM2M, make sure to start by reading the previous article: <a href="https://www.wevolver.com/article/whats-this-lwm2m-standard-and-why-should-you-care" target="_blank">What&#39;s this LwM2M standard, and why should you care?</a>&nbsp;In today&rsquo;s market, IoT devices come in different forms and shapes. Each device has a unique communication stack which comes with a particular data packet structure and a thoughtfully designed device management layer.Now imagine the struggles of an energy distributor who deployed various brands of smart meters over the years to measure the use of electricity in thousands of buildings. Each meter comes with a different data structure which needs to be formatted. Specific processes need to be implemented to remotely manage the different devices, and particular mechanisms need to be put in place to update the devices&rsquo; firmware.When devices use the LwM2M standard, IoT integrators can be assured that each device reports its data in a similar fashion. The configurations and firmware can be updated using similar server commands independent of the hardware, firmware version or sensors used. In this article, we will explore the three fundamental components of LwM2M that ensure interoperability: the standardized data format, LwM2M architecture and LwM2M operations.<h2 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">LwM2M Data Format - Objects &amp; Resources</h2>LwM2M is an application-layer communication protocol developed by the <a href="https://omaspecworks.org/" target="_blank">OMA SpecWorks</a> to simplify messaging and device management of IoT devices. The protocol defines communication semantics, device management mechanisms, over-the-air updates (FOTA), telemetry data collection and is well suited for resource-constrained devices.To realize data interoperability, the LwM2M standard uses so-called IPSO Smart Objects to represent configurations, functionalities and sensors. When structuring the IPSO Smart Objects in a specific way, a language is created which both the LwM2M Client and the LwM2M Server can comprehend. This language contains Objects, Object Instances and Resources.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzU0OTgzNTM5LVNtYXJ0IE9iamVjdHMyLmpwZWciLCJlZGl0cyI6eyJyZXNpemUiOnsid2lkdGgiOjk1MCwiZml0IjoiY292ZXIifX19" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><h3>Objects</h3>Objects represent a physical component (a sensor, LED or actuator) or a logical entity (such as the preferred radio technology, Firmware Update configuration or security implementation). All objects are defined by an object ID.The LwM2M standard defines three&nbsp;mandatory objects&nbsp;which are considered as essential for the device to connect and communicate with a LwM2M server. The mandatory objects are:<ul><li dir="ltr">Object ID 0: LwM2M Security - contains confidential information about connections to the LwM2M Servers configured on the Client.</li><li dir="ltr">Object ID 1: LwM2M Server - contains non-confidential information about connections to the LwM2M Servers configured on the Client.</li><li dir="ltr">Object ID 3: Device - contains basic information about the device, such as e.g. serial number and firmware version.</li></ul>Next to the mandatory objects, additional objects can be implemented. Examples of non-mandatory objects are:<ul><li dir="ltr">Object ID 4: Connectivity Monitoring - provides information about the device&#39;s connectivity status, such as the signal strength and network type.</li><li dir="ltr">Object ID 5: Firmware Update - allows for remote firmware updates to be performed.</li><li dir="ltr">Object ID 6: Location - provides information about the device&#39;s geographic location, such as its latitude and longitude.</li><li dir="ltr">Object ID 11: LwM2M APN Connection Profile - enables a device to connect to an APN.</li><li dir="ltr">Object ID 3303: Temperature - reports temperature measurements.</li><li dir="ltr">Object ID 3313: Accelerometer&nbsp;- represents a 1-3 axis accelerometer.</li></ul><h3 dir="ltr">Object Instances</h3>Some objects may have multiple&nbsp;object instances. Examples of such objects include the object that manages connections to LwM2M Servers as multiple LwM2M Servers can be configured, or devices which contain multiple SIMs with different APN profiles. When devices contain multiple identical sensors, object instances are used to distinguish the different sensors.<h3 dir="ltr">Resources</h3>Resources represent specific properties of an object which can be read, written or executed. Each Resource is identified by a unique resource ID.For example, a temperature object has the resources current temperature, unit of measurement, and a timestamp. Similarly, the device object has resources like manufacturer name, serial number and firmware version. The location object has the resources latitude, longitude and altitude. All details of the objects and resources are defined in the <a href="https://technical.openmobilealliance.org/OMNA/LwM2M/LwM2MRegistry.html" target="_blank">OMA Registry</a>. There is also a possibility to define your own custom object if a specific feature or sensor is not listed in the OMA Registry.Each resource contains an identifier, a type (float, string, int, opaque) and allowed Server Operations (such as READ, WRITE or EXECUTE).&nbsp;Examples The Device object is represented with the identifier&nbsp;3, the resources include:<div align="left" dir="ltr"><table><tbody><tr><td>Resource ID</td><td>Resource name</td><td>Server Operation</td><td>Type</td></tr><tr><td>0</td><td>Manufacturer</td><td>Read</td><td>String</td></tr><tr><td>1</td><td>Model Number</td><td>Read</td><td>String</td></tr><tr><td>3</td><td>Firmware Version</td><td>Read</td><td>String</td></tr><tr><td>4</td><td>Reboot</td><td>Executable</td><td>-</td></tr><tr><td>13</td><td>Current Time</td><td>Writeable</td><td>Time</td></tr></tbody></table></div>The Temperature object is represented with the identifier 3303, the resources include:<div align="left" dir="ltr"><table><tbody><tr><td>Resource ID</td><td>Resource name</td><td>Server Operation</td><td>Type</td></tr><tr><td>5700</td><td>Sensor Value</td><td>Read</td><td>Float</td></tr><tr><td>5701</td><td>Sensor Units</td><td>Read</td><td>String</td></tr><tr><td>5518</td><td>Timestamp</td><td>Read</td><td>Time</td></tr></tbody></table></div>When sending data, each message is formatted as:<pre dir="ltr">&lt;object id&gt;/&lt;object instance id&gt;/&lt;resource id&gt; = &lt;data&gt;</pre>To send the latest temperature data, it could look something like:&nbsp;<pre dir="ltr">3303/0/5700 = 23.5</pre>To optimize bandwidth, the data is usually encoded to a space-efficient binary payload. Although the data can be sent with plain JSON, more common is to use CBOR or SenML to reduce the payload size.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzUzMTI0NDk4LUxvY2F0aW9uX29iamVjdC5qcGVnIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Sending Latitude and Longitude using the LwM2M data formatResource InstancesIn some cases, resources have multiple resource instances. For example, the Device object 3 includes the&nbsp;resource 6: Available Power Sources. The different instances describe the different power sources: 0: DC power 1: Internal Battery 2: External Battery 3: Fuel Cell 4: Power over Ethernet 5: USB 6: AC (Mains) power 7: SolarTo describe the availability of solar power, the message format becomes:&nbsp;<pre dir="ltr">3/0/6/7</pre><h2 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">LwM2M Architecture - Client &amp; Server</h2>The LwM2M architecture comprises the LwM2M Client and the LwM2M Server. The communication works independent of the (wireless) technology used and can run on top of both IP and non-IP networks. Popular IP technologies include WiFi and cellular. Non-IP includes Bluetooth, LoRaWAN or Wirepas. Non-IP networks can be addressed using IEEE 802.15.4 (6LoWPAN) networks. For example by running Thread over Bluetooth.&nbsp;The LwM2M standard uses the CoAP protocol to let devices easily communicate with the cloud. Think of CoAP as the HTTP protocol, but designed for resource-constrained devices. CoAP is often compared to MQTT as both protocols are commonly used in IoT applications. A key difference is that CoAP uses UDP by default while MQTT relies on TCP. The small overhead of UDP is often seen as an advantage when compared to TCP. Although CoAP can be used with TCP, UDP is often the preferred choice when efficient use of network resources is a priority.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzUzMjc1ODExLUx3TTJNX0FyY2hpdGVjdHVyZS5qcGVnIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 768px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Popular LwM2M Clients include Anjay (maintained by AVSystem) and Zephyr LwM2M Client (maintained by the Zephyr Project). The LwM2M Server provided by AVSystem is called Coiote and can be used to process device data, configurations and firmware updates.The LwM2M Client runs on the end device and communicates with the LwM2M server using a secure connection. The Client informs the Server about the supported objects and resources during its first connection as well as during periodic status updates. Throughout the lifetime of the device, the client sends notification to the server with telemetry data formatted as defined by the LwM2M standard. All data is captured and stored by the LwM2M Server where it can be further processed or forwarded to specific databases of platforms such as Azure IoT Hub, or AWS IoT Core.<h2 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">LwM2M Operations</h2>The third core feature of the LwM2M protocol are operations that can be initiated from both the Client and the Server. Client Operations are used to inform the Server about telemetry data or the state of devices. Server Operations are used to read or write data, or to remotely update device configurations or firmware over time.Two interfaces can be distinguished: The Information Reporting Interface, and the Device Management Interface.<h3 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">Information Reporting Interface</h3><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzUzMzc0NDk1LUluZm9ybWF0aW9uIFJlcG9ydGluZyBJbnRlcmZhY2UuanBlZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The LwM2M Client can inform the Server about telemetry data or state changes in real-time, initiated by the Client. The Server can also define the device&rsquo;s behavior by requesting the device to send data at periodic intervals, or when values exceed a certain threshold (e.g. when temperature rises above 30 degrees). This can be accomplished using the operations: OBSERVE, SEND and NOTIFY.Server operation<ul><li dir="ltr">OBSERVE: When the Observe operation is invoked, the Client will start sending NOTIFY messages to the Server about its data or state at configurable intervals. The OBSERVE operation can also be canceled when sending CANCEL OBSERVE.</li></ul>Client Operations<ul><li dir="ltr">SEND: The SEND message is used by the Client to send data to the server without explicit request. Depending on the application firmware it can be used to report new measurements, or inform the server about a change in telemetry data or state.</li><li dir="ltr">NOTIFY: In response to the OBSERVE operation initiated from the server, the client sends NOTIFY operations with data. Usually, the server provides a bandwidth in which the client needs to send its data. E.g. At least every 1 hour, but no more than once every 15 minutes.</li></ul><h3 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">Device Management Interface</h3><img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjc3NzUzNDEwMTYyLURldmljZSBNYW5hZ2VtZW50IEludGVyZmFjZS5qcGVnIiwiZWRpdHMiOnsicmVzaXplIjp7IndpZHRoIjo5NTAsImZpdCI6ImNvdmVyIn19fQ==" style="width: 766px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The Device Management Interface allows the server to remotely connect with the LwM2M Client and manage its configuration, software, security etc. The interface comes with a set of standardized operations, all of which are initiated by the Server.<ul><li dir="ltr">DISCOVER: Retrieving the list of objects and resources supported by the Client.</li><li dir="ltr">READ: Retrieving the current value of a specific resource or an object as a whole.</li><li dir="ltr">WRITE: Modifying the value of a specific resource, or an object as a whole.</li><li dir="ltr">EXECUTE: Invoking an action or operation on a resource. For example instructing a device to reset, reboot or upgrade its firmware.</li><li dir="ltr">CREATE: Creating a new object instance.</li><li dir="ltr">DELETE: Deleting an object instance.</li></ul><h2 dir="ltr">Conclusions</h2>The IoT landscape is fragmented and it&#39;s easy to get lost when digging through the wireless technologies, messaging protocols and data formats. LwM2M promises to simplify the connected world through standardization and interoperability.This is accomplished as a result of the IPSO Smart Objects with predefined identifiers, allowing for the creation of a digital representation of the device. The standardized data format allows any LwM2M Server to easily interpret the data. The client-server architecture specifies how data flows between the end devices and the web. Lastly, the pre-defined operations enable devices to send data and be reconfigured over time.To get started with LwM2M, follow AVSystem&rsquo;s <a href="https://iotdevzone.avsystem.com/docs/quickstart/" target="_blank">Quick Start</a> guide, and build your first end to end LwM2M application within 20 minutes.<h3 dir="ltr" id="isPasted"><a href="https://iotdevzone.avsystem.com/docs/quickstart/" target="_blank">Start Building &rarr;</a></h3>

Exploring the three fundamental aspects of IoT interoperability: a standardized data format, architecture and client-server operations.

IoT Device Management using LwM2M

The Internet of Things promised us a new era. One with ubiquitous connectivity which would lead to an abundance of data, allowing us to make smarter decisions. Today, reality caught up with this promise. Wireless networks are widely available, connectivity is relatively cheap to use and off the shelf hardware is available. However, instead of focusing on gaining meaningful insights from rich data, we&rsquo;re trapped in never-ending discussions about what wireless technology to use, which communication protocol to utilize or what security standard to implement.This often results in companies implementing different devices from different vendors, each using a different wireless technology and a different messaging protocol and data format. Once the data ends up in the cloud, it&rsquo;s unstructured and hard to make sense of. Device management is challenging as different devices adhere to different standards which need to be addressed differently, and the firmware update process needs to be redesigned for each device. Managing a heterogeneous fleet of devices and integrating the data into one platform is a heavy burden.<h2>Finding our way out of a labyrinth of wireless technologies&nbsp;</h2>As of 2017, a group of engineers promised an easy way out of this labyrinth of wireless technologies, messaging protocols and data formats. They proposed a simplified communication and device management standard to be implemented industry-wide. A new application-layer protocol for resource-constrained devices was launched called Lightweight Machine to Machine,&nbsp;or&nbsp;LwM2M. This novel protocol dictates a standardized way of formatting application data, and orchestrates device management and firmware updates mechanisms which should forever end the need for reinventing the wheel.<h2>LwM2M Basics</h2><a href="https://www.omaspecworks.org/what-is-oma-specworks/iot/lightweight-m2m-lwm2m/" target="_blank">LwM2M</a> is an application-layer communication protocol developed by the <a href="https://omaspecworks.org/" target="_blank">OMA SpecWorks</a> to simplify messaging and device management of IoT devices.&nbsp;LwM2M is the response to the ever-growing need for faster, easier and more power-efficient communication. The standardized message semantics enable embedded developers to focus on functionality rather than reinventing communication protocols. The efficient data format makes this standard well suited for resource-constrained IoT devices. Ideal for microcontrollers using expensive cellular connections or running low-power applications which require devices to optimize their communication.LwM2M simplifies the design and development of IoT solutions by standardizing the data format, and taking care of the complicated processes of secure device authentication. The standard also defines the process of sensor data collection, connectivity monitoring and firmware updates.<h2>LwM2M Architecture</h2><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1671637030635-architecture.jpeg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">The architecture of a LwM2M application comprises 3 components: the LwM2M client running on the end device, the LwM2M Server which manages the device, its data and firmware in the cloud, and the LwM2M Bootstrap Server a cloud service to authenticate and provision the LwM2M Client.<h3>LwM2M Client</h3>The LwM2M Client communicates with the LwM2M Server and LwM2M Bootstrap Server. It ensures a secure (i.e., authenticated and encrypted) connection with these servers, and sends the data in the right format as dictated by the standard.Several open source clients are available and ready to be used with your hardware platform of choice. Including:<ul><li>Anjay - maintained by AVSystem <a href="https://avsystem.github.io/Anjay-doc/index.html" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>Zephyr LwM2M Client - maintained by the Zephyr Project <a href="https://docs.zephyrproject.org/latest/connectivity/networking/api/lwm2m.html" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>Leshan&nbsp; - maintained by the Eclipse Foundation &nbsp;<a href="https://www.eclipse.org/leshan/" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>Wakaama - maintained by the Eclipse Foundation <a href="https://www.eclipse.org/wakaama/" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>IOWA - maintained by Ioterop (limited open source version available) <a href="https://github.com/IOTEROP/IOWA" target="_blank">link</a></li></ul><h3>LwM2M Server</h3>The LwM2M Server maintains the connections with the clients. Servers often come with a user interface allowing the end user to monitor the devices, send commands to one or multiple devices and schedule firmware updates.&nbsp;Specific operations, comparable to RESTful API methods, are defined in the LwM2M protocol. Operations for device management sent by the LwM2M server are DISCOVER, CREATE, READ, WRITE, DELETE and EXECUTE. The operations to manage sensor data collection are OBSERVE and CANCEL OBSERVATION. On the client side, a device sends data using the NOTIFY and SEND operations.From the LwM2M Server, data integrations to third party platforms can be initiated. As the data integrations are not defined in the LwM2M protocol, LwM2M Servers implement their data connector differently. Depending on the server implementation, APIs can be used to retrieve sensor data. Some pre-built connectors may be used to send data to popular IoT platforms such as AWS IoT Core or Azure IoT Hub.&nbsp;Popular LwM2M Servers are:<ul><li>Coiote IoT Device Management - from AVSystem <a href="https://www.avsystem.com/products/coiote-iot-device-management-platform/" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>ALASKA - from Ioterop <a href="https://ioterop.com/alaska" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>Leshan LwM2M server - from Eclipse (Open Source, evaluation purposes only) <a href="https://github.com/eclipse/leshan#test-server-sandbox" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>Thingsboard - <a href="https://thingsboard.io/" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>Cumulocity -&nbsp;from SoftwareAG <a href="https://www.softwareag.com/en_corporate/platform/iot/iot-analytics-platform.html" target="_blank">link</a></li></ul><h3>LwM2M Bootstrap Server</h3>The LwM2M Bootstrap Server is a cloud service which the LwM2M Client can connect to and often runs on the same instance as the LwM2M Server. LwM2M Clients usually connect to the Bootstrap Server during their very first boot-up, after an explicit command from the LwM2M Server, or after a factory reset.&nbsp;The Bootstrap Server provides the clients with credentials which are required to connect to a LwM2M Server. In addition, it initializes the data model and writes new configurations to the device. Once the device is provisioned using commands sent from the Bootstrap server, the Client is ready to start communicating with the LwM2M Server.The usage of the Bootstrap Server is optional, all necessary information can also be hard coded into the device. This is, however, not recommended as it poses complications with updating configurations over time such as renewing security credentials or migrating to different LwM2M servers.<h2>LwM2M Data model</h2>Each data message is sent using a data format which identifies standardized objects, object instances and resources, all defined by the OMA in the <a href="https://technical.openmobilealliance.org/OMNA/LwM2M/LwM2MRegistry.html" target="_blank">LwM2M Registry</a>.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1671637072647-objects-and-resources.jpeg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Devices contain different building blocks, each of these blocks is represented by an Object and identified by an Object ID. An object describes a particular part of a device. For example, the Firmware Update Objects is used to invoke and track status of the firmware update process. Objects can also describe the connectivity technology (e.g. cellular or WiFi), device information (serial number, manufacturer, firmware version), sensors (temperature, air quality) or peripherals (GPS, LEDs, buzzers). All Objects combined can be used to construct a digital twin; a virtual representation of the end device.Each Object may have different Instances, e.g. multiple temperature sensors embedded on one device.&nbsp;Object Instances have one or multiple Resources. For example, the &ldquo;device&rdquo; object has multiple resources such as the manufacturer, serial number and firmware version. The &ldquo;location&rdquo; object has the resources latitude and longitude.The data sent using the LwM2M standard follows the format<pre>&lt;object id&gt;/&lt;object instance id&gt;/&lt;resource id&gt; = &lt;data&gt;</pre>As an example, to send the temperature data of 23.5, the data format becomes:&nbsp;<pre>3303/0/5700 = 23.5</pre>The figure below illustrates this concept of object and resources.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1671637090093-data+format.jpeg" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib"><h2>Getting started with LwM2M</h2>This article gave you an understanding of the need for the LwM2M standard. In my opinion, the best way to really learn how LwM2M works is through hands-on experience.AVSystem developed an open-source LwM2M Client called Anjay which can be used with different hardware platforms such as Nordic, Espressif, Raspberry Pi and STM32. AVSystem&rsquo;s LwM2M server called&nbsp;<a href="https://eu.iot.avsystem.cloud/" target="_blank">Coiote</a> has a free developers tier, allowing you to connect up to ten devices.Select your preferred hardware platform and get started with LwM2M:<ul><li>Nordic - <a href="https://iotdevzone.avsystem.com/docs/Anjay_integrations/Anjay_Nordic_integration/Thingy91/" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>Espressif - <a href="https://iotdevzone.avsystem.com/docs/Anjay_integrations/ESP32_integration/M5Stick/" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>STM32 - <a href="https://iotdevzone.avsystem.com/docs/Anjay_integrations/Anjay_ST_integration/Building_LwM2M_applications/Building_LwM2M_applications_with_I-CUBE-Anjay/" target="_blank">link</a></li><li>Raspberry Pi - <a href="https://iotdevzone.avsystem.com/docs/Anjay_integrations/Implementing_LwM2M_objects_on_RaspberryPi/" target="_blank">link</a></li></ul>Need help? Join the <a href="https://discord.avsystem.com/" target="_blank">AVSystem Discord</a>.<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1671637107758-AVSystem+Discord.png" style="width: 300px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">

Lightweight Machine to Machine, a simplified communication and device management standard for the Internet of Things.

What's this LwM2M standard, and why should you care?

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<h2 align="center" id="isPasted">Leading companies present intralogistics technology trends</h2><h3 align="center" id="isPasted">Future of Intralogistics Days 2022</h3>Concentrated logistics power without the waffle – at the virtual&nbsp;<a href="https://www.future-of-intralogistics.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Future of Intralogistics Days 2022</a> conference on March 9th and 10th, 18 famous companies will be presenting the latest intralogistics technologies and best practices. The free event is aimed at experienced intralogistics experts in the European B2B sector. The focus of the 20-minute sessions will be new and future trends and examples of applications for intralogistics processes in storage environments, e-commerce and production.<img src="https://images.wevolver.com/eyJidWNrZXQiOiJ3ZXZvbHZlci1wcm9qZWN0LWltYWdlcyIsImtleSI6ImZyb2FsYS8xNjQ1NzA3NTk1OTUzLWFsbGVfbG9nb3MxLmpwZyIsImVkaXRzIjp7InJlc2l6ZSI6eyJ3aWR0aCI6OTUwLCJmaXQiOiJjb3ZlciJ9fX0=" class="fr-fic fr-dib"> Driverless transport systems, sensor technology and digital infrastructure – the first day of the event is defined by mobile robotics. Exciting application examples, technology presentations and live discussions will illustrate the results that can be achieved with mobile robots and the demands that implementation will bring. Everything is user-related and practical. The same is true of the second day. Here, it’s all about wearables, software and materials handling. There will be speakers from<ul><li>Siemens</li><li>SAFELOG</li><li>SICK&nbsp;</li><li>FlexQube&nbsp;</li><li>NIMMSTA&nbsp;</li><li>Picavi&nbsp;</li><li>cellumation&nbsp;</li><li>Phoenix Contact&nbsp;</li><li>REMIRA&nbsp;</li><li>Sherpa Mobile Robots&nbsp;</li><li>MHP - A Porsche Company and <a href="https://future-of-intralogistics.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">more...</a></li></ul>Interested logistics experts will find the full program at <a href="https://future-of-intralogistics.com" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">www.future-of-intralogistics.com</a>. The event will be in English.

Concentrated logistics power without the waffle – at the virtual Future of Intralogistics Days 2022 conference on March 9th and 10th, 18 famous companies will be presenting the latest intralogistics technologies. The free event is aimed at experienced intralogistics experts in the B2B sector. 

Future of Intralogistics - Days 2022

Deep neural networks have always been at the forefront of the implementation of computer vision applications. However, the increase in ML computation from cloud to edge introduces new challenges in a resource-constrained environment. For DNN, there are multiple layers between the input and output as the information from the input is represented through nonlinear functions. The existing challenges of increasing energy consumption due to continuous computation of the incoming data and reduction in accuracy with latency constraints have led the researchers from the University of California at Irvine and Northeastern University to develop a robust framework to overcome these issues. &nbsp;Before jumping to the new BottleFit framework’s proposition, let us look at the existing design flow approach. The recent developments for solving the computation requirements focused on reducing model complexity and designing lightweight models like MobileNet and MnasNet. But these innovations came at the cost of significant accuracy loss of up to 6.4% compared to the large CNN models ResNet-152.&nbsp;In this paper, the innovators have introduced a holistic approach and alternative solution to edge computing wherein, through split computing, a larger DNN is divided into head and tail models to be executed at the mobile device and edge server, respectively. The BottleFit framework not only aims to not only reduce power consumption and latency but achieves high accuracy even with strong compression rates. The critical aspect while designing the framework is to maintain the tradeoff between head model compression and tail model accuracy. Usually, with high compression rates, there comes a severe decrease in accuracy; however, this novel architecture and custom design flow of improved strategies goals towards maintaining high accuracy and bottleneck compression.<h2>Effective and Efficient Split Computing in DNN</h2><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1643392197564-Split+Computing+System.png" style="width: 800px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Split Computing System in DNN">Split computing: (Left) The original pre-trained model is introduced with a bottleneck and then split into head and tail sections. (Right) Split computing system used in this experimentation setup. [Image Credit: Research Paper]<div is-sapling-overlay="true" style='pointer-events: none; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 2px; z-index: auto; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 397.1px; height: 63px; width: 766px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: 100%; font-size: 14px; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; text-align: center; text-transform: none; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; tab-size: 8;'> </div>Understanding the split computing model used in this experimentation setup: the mobile edge device captures a high-resolution image given to the head model that performs compression and sends it to the edge server through wireless channels. The results are received at the edge server, which is fed to the tail model to provide inference output and transmitted wirelessly to the mobile device.&nbsp;In split computing, the training process is not split but done offline. A bottleneck is defined to split the original model into head and tail sections. The bottleneck is introduced through encoder and decoder structures within the original model in the new proposed methodology. The layers are operated in the encoder-decoder approach of mapping the model input to the intermediate output and training to execute the downstream task without significant loss in accuracy. Through this approach, the researchers could influence the tradeoff between computing load on the mobile device and complexity and compression gains. All these factors substantially affect the overall performance of energy consumption, low latency and improved accuracy.“Thus, when introducing bottlenecks, we need to carefully design the encoder and decoder; choose the bottleneck placement in the head model, and preserve the accuracy of the unaltered original model as much as possible,” the researchers explain.&nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr" id="isPasted">Performance of BottleFit Framework– Outperforming Existing Design Flow Approaches</h2><img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1643392214341-Experimental+Setup.png" style="width: 800px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib" alt="Experimentation Setup of BottleFit">The hardware setup showing the Raspberry Pi 4 General Purpose Single Board Computer and NVIDIA Jetson Nano (GPU-based) [Image Credit: Research Paper]<div is-sapling-overlay="true" style='pointer-events: none; overflow: hidden; padding-bottom: 2px; z-index: auto; position: absolute; left: 0px; top: 436.662px; height: 63px; width: 766px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: 100%; font-size: 14px; font-family: "PT Serif", serif; text-align: center; text-transform: none; letter-spacing: normal; word-spacing: 0px; tab-size: 8;'> </div>The experimentation of the framework is carried out on one of the most widely used TinyML applications, image classification, showing the BottleFit framework achieving over 70% data compression while only losing 0.6% on the accuracy front on the ImageNet dataset. The existing state-of-the-art design flow approaches, such as SPINN lose up to 6% in the accuracy for high compression rates. These evaluations were done on two famous embedded electronic devices, one popular for edge AI applications and the other known for its general-purpose tasks, NVIDIA Jetson Nano (GPU-based) and Raspberry Pi (GPU-less), respectively.&nbsp;When we discussed improving the energy efficiency and lower latency, the BottleFit framework deployed on NVIDIA Jetson Nano shows the reduction of both parameters by up to 54% and 44%, respectively. While the exact model running on Raspberry Pi demonstrated a decrease of 40% and 62% on the power consumption and overall execution time. Along with this, it is noticed that the size of the head model executed on the mobile devices is 83 times smaller.<h2 id="isPasted">Summary of BottleFit Framework</h2>Summarizing the new BottleFit framework that improves power consumption at high compression rates and maintains accuracy loss:<ol><li dir="ltr">A novel framework of multistage training strategy that archives high accuracy with strong compression rates through properly designing the encoder and decoder structures to introduce bottlenecks in the original pre-trained model.</li><li dir="ltr">The evaluation of Jetson Nano board commuting with the edge server using Wi-Fi and LTE while RPi using LoRa shows considerable improvements in the overall performance.&nbsp;</li></ol>For more details on the research methodology, check out the <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.02693" target="_blank">open-sourced research paper</a>.&nbsp;<h2 dir="ltr">Reference</h2>Yoshitomo Matsubara, Davide Callegaro, Sameer Singh, Marco Levorato, Francesco Restuccia: BottleFit: Learning Compressed Representations in Deep Neural Networks for Effective and Efficient Split Computing. DOI <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2201.02693" target="_blank">arXiv:2201.02693</a> [cs.LG]M. Sandler, A. Howard, M. Zhu, A. Zhmoginov, and L.-C. Chen, “MobileNetV2: Inverted Residuals and Linear Bottlenecks,” in Proceedings of the IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2018, pp. 4510–4520.M. Tan, B. Chen, R. Pang, V. Vasudevan, M. Sandler, A. Howard, and Q. V. Le, “MnasNet: Platform-Aware Neural Architecture Search for Mobile,” in Proceedings of the IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2019, pp. 2820–2828.

BottleFit Image Classification through Advanced Split Computing Strategy with Jetson Nano and Raspberry Pi 4

BottleFit framework applied DNN models in image classification achieves 77.1% data compression with up to 0.6% accuracy loss on the ImageNet dataset.

Advanced Split Computing Strategy to Achieve High Accuracy under Strong Compression Rates

As a novel coronavirus swept the world in early 2020, thousands of software developers began working from home. Many did so on short notice, under difficult and stressful conditions, feeling frustrated and insecure. However, others used this remote work opportunity with optimism and turned their temporary limitations into new opportunities.&nbsp;A <a href="https://www.rinf.tech/" target="_blank">rinf.tech</a>&nbsp;senior software engineer – <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/emanueloprea/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Emanuel Oprea</a> – is one of those who used the pandemic and self-isolation to indulge in a pet project that subsequently became a full-fledged solution enabling users to use VPN client software on many different devices at the same time.We’ve talked to Emanuel about the drivers of his solution development and how his product evolved from a simple script into a market-ready router VPN management solution.<h3 dir="ltr">• &nbsp; &nbsp;Emanuel, can you please share a story behind your technology solution?</h3>Once upon a time, my wife saw an enticing trailer of a new show and wanted to watch it through a streaming service. In particular, she wanted to watch the show on a large TV screen in the living room, lolling in the comfort of the couch. However, she couldn’t do it due to the streaming service geo limitations in Romania.An active VPN connection is needed to bypass those limitations and watch certain shows that are unavailable in your country. &nbsp;While this issue can be easily solved with a VPN on a laptop or a smartphone, watching the same show on TV is an entirely different story.That’s exactly how I stumbled upon a user's need for streaming content blocked by ISPs on a smart TV or other devices like gaming consoles, etc. And, since I had more free time due to the pandemic and remote work, I decided to help my wife find a solution to enable her to watch blocked shows through VPN on our smart TV.<h3 dir="ltr">• &nbsp; &nbsp;And what was your first step?</h3>Like anyone in my situation, I searched on Google and tried to find an existing product. And then, it was already mid-2020, and I’ve ended up spending quite a lot of time looking for software already out there on the market. Almost all the solutions I found only covered PC or mobile/tablets. The ones that directly tackled my issue proved to have more limitations than benefits.One of the initial options I discovered was a VPN provider that also has its own custom firmware. Ideally, one could install it on their router, but after further investigation, I found that it only supports five router models, and of course, due to Murphy’s law, mine wasn’t supported.The other option meant buying a new router from a company specialized in router firmware customization. After device acquisition, the company would install a proprietary VPN client on my future router. The downside of this was the final cost of the router (versus retail price) and the dramatic increase in shipping time. It also proves to be a warranty nightmare since they would have to open the package to operate changes on the device before finally sending it to me.Since I already had a router, I didn’t want to spend more money buying a new one, and I also wanted to keep my existing VPN subscription. So, I said to myself:<blockquote>“C’mon, Emanuel, you’re a software engineer! Why don’t you try to build an ultimate router VPN solution and help others easily overcome streaming platforms’ limitations with an added security boost to the internet connection?”&nbsp;</blockquote>That’s how I took on this new challenge which eventually resulted in ShieldMe solutions.<h3 dir="ltr">• &nbsp; &nbsp;And what did you do next?</h3>I started with writing a simple bash script to try to connect my router to VPN. It was a proof-of-concept that worked well. However, it could only be used by my peers, tech-savvy people. A solution like this would prove to be a bottleneck for mass adoption, much like the already existing ones. So, I understood I had to make something more user-friendly and polish the solution further. This translated into my next goal: building a simple and intuitive app that would be available for “virtually” any router.The app started small, with just a couple of simple screens with basic options. Then, thankfully, my wife gladly accepted to act as my trusted quality assurance department. With her precious, albeit intense (but very constructive) feedback, the initial MVP was ready after a few iterations, and I launched my VPN router client in April 2021. However, the solution had its limitations as an MVP, so that I couldn’t call it “universal” just yet.&nbsp;<img src="https://s3-us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wevolver-project-images/froala%2F1637669578420-Showcase-ConnectionHistory.png" style="width: 720px;" class="fr-fic fr-dib">Initially, users had to know how to run an installation script to use my VPN client, discouraging most people from trying it out. As such, to fine-tune the initial solution, I started working on transforming it into a set of multiple user-friendly tools: a router manager and a VPN manager. I really wanted users with limited to no tech background to be able to use it with no pain in the neck.That’s what pushed me to build and release a complementary router automation app. With it, users can now install custom firmware on their router and set it up automatically through a user-friendly interface: just two actions, and they’re good to go.<h3 dir="ltr">• &nbsp; &nbsp;Can you tell us more about how a non-tech user can benefit from your router VPN solution?</h3>Well, to name just a few: users can access media content anywhere and anytime, privately and securely, through an app that is easy to install and use. They can enjoy streaming with no geo-restrictions or interruption, thanks to the fast connection with no speed or bandwidth limits on their devices. They can also use the internet much safer, thanks to the underlying connection encryption and anonymization. Usually, VPN services limit the number of connections to their servers. Still, by using my client directly on the router, you essentially allow all devices behind it to count as a single connection. And more exciting developments are on the way, as I am currently working on a mobile app for my solution!<blockquote>But I believe that the main benefit is that my solution helps democratize access to streaming services and content around the world.</blockquote><h3>• &nbsp; &nbsp;What technologies and frameworks did you use to build your product?</h3>I used JavaScript for the app front-end, PHP for router back-end, and .NET for interfacing with VPN APIs.&nbsp;Feel free to learn more about Emanuel's solution on the <a href="https://shield-me.net" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ShieldMe website</a>.

Emanuel Oprea, a software engineer at rinf.tech, shares a story of how he accidentally identified a user near during the last year's Covid-19 lockdown and built a market-ready router VPN manager to help democratize access to streaming content and services.

From a simple bash script into a full-fledged router VPN management solution

This article provides a comparison between NB-IoT and LTE-M protocols and explores how NB-IoT facilitates energy-efficient and latency-tolerant IoT solutions for hard-to-reach locations.


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Nordic Semiconductor

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Synopsys Inc

rinf.tech

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