Internet of Things &

Sigfox

Colloque Pédagogique GEII - Commission IoT

Longwy, June 23, 2019
About me

Nicolas Lesconnec
Head of Technology Adoption @Sigfox
Email : nicolas.lesconnec@sigfox.com
Sigfox & Education

Join us ! http://bit.ly/sigfox-education
Our goal is to offer to faculty and students:
• Learning content
• Webinars & online Q&A sessions
• Competitions ! J
Internet of Things

• IoT is not restricted to computers

• Can be anything, anywhere

• No need for user interaction

• Full autonomy
Reliable data

• Live information

• No human error (measure, input)

• Structured, easy to associate with Data

Analysis platforms, feed AI models, …

Building the future
Opportunities for pioneers

• IoT is taking off now (25B connected things by 2021 – Gartner)

• Global impact, on all businesses

• Shortage of professionals, with Technology and Business expertise

• Data collection : sensors, edge computing

• Data valorisation : AI, predictive maintenance

Sigfox - The first and global 0G Network

IoT
Bringing the 4th industrial revolution to all sectors

0G
BACK-UP BROADBAND
Secondary connectivity & additional services for systems using
broadband networks

Cost Low Global

efficient Power Network
…built to last forever as the most reliable and
affordable network to transmit small messages
CONFIDENTIAL 9
Unbeatable cost of data extraction

Lower
bandwidth
0G <$2 for Sigfox
and tailored
to Mass IoT
modules

▪ 10x less antennas required than cellular

▪ Up to 20x cheaper modules ▪ Unique cloud
VS ▪ Most cellular devices are
upgradable to Sigfox
▪
▪
Antennas 3-5x less expensive than cellular
No spectrum licensing
▪
▪
Global contract
Seamless service

2G Ever increasing
bandwidth but
3G not natively
4G designed for IoT
5G
$6 for 2G, $15 for 3G and
$35 for 4G LTE modules
…
CONFIDENTIAL 10
Relying on a strong end-to-end ecosystem

Semi & Solutions &

Consulting Device
Module integrators

Presales Tech enablement Mass production Solution delivery

CONFIDENTIAL
Sigfox architecture

x
Usecases examples
ASSET TRACKING
Container tracking

Problem solved
track sea-freight containers in real-time

Solution
Argon Consulting offers an end-
to-end tracking solution.
It notifies Michelin whenever the
signal reaches sea coasts and
gives insights on the container’s
position. This information is key
for lean production.
Benefits
▪ Cross country tracking without
roaming fees
▪ Foreseen transportation lead
time
▪ Lean production & reduced
stock
▪ Alerts in case of delay
▪ Visibility of service for
customers

Video link
 Luggage tracking

Challenge
Enable real-time tracking of consumer’s
luggage worldwide

Solution
Echo is an Indoor and outdoor
tracker using Sigfox + Wi-Fi.
Sigfox geolocation service to
determine in which airport the
suitcase is located.
A smart algorithm detects the
take-off and landing to set the
tracker in flight mode.
Benefits
▪ Works in 130 airports of 50+
countries
▪ Differentiating service for
consumers
▪ Intuitive smartphone
application and alerts
Industrial asset management

Problem solved
Track spare parts between the headquarters and
the sites of its suppliers

Solution
Sensolus offers an end-to-end
tracking solution.
It notifies Airbus about its
assets’ trips and give insights on
supply chain optimization.
The device embeds an internal
memory to record data when
outside of coverage.
Benefits
▪ Cross country tracking without
high roaming fees
▪ Real-time visibility on the asset
during transportation
▪ Automation of the supply chain

GPS tracker + beacons for indoor

and outdoor geolocation
Trailer fleet management

Problem solved
Improve how trailer fleets are used and kept
secure.

Solution Benefits
The solution has been ▪ identify equipment that is
developed by Sigfox IoT Agency underused
and Total’s affiliate Stela and ▪ identify equipment that has been
has been tested for the past lost or stolen
year by the company’s
transporter customers. It’s the
first ATEX GPS tracker.
INDUSTRY
Selected Use Cases
Infrastructure strain monitoring
Challenge
Remote strain monitoring of aging infrastructures such as
bridges, roads or tunnels, to drastically reduce infrastructure
monitoring costs and facilitate maintenance and management

Solution
ST-COMM system using up to 4
strain gauge sensors and cloud
application. It allows to detect
structure deformation and stress
before visible damages like cracks
occur. It can be used to measure
and detect deformation of various
structures (materials) including
concrete, mortar, metal, plastic,
wood, asphalt, glass, etc.
Much cheaper and more efficient
than conventional methods (e.g.
visual inspection or image
analysis combining drones and AI)
Benefits
§ Easy to deploy (no wiring)
and long battery (5 years)
§ Infrastructure monitoring
cost reduced by up to 90%
(no more on-site inspection
imposed by regulation)
§ Prevention of aging
infrastructure accidents
§ Check remotely the
structure deformation via
PC and Smartphone app

25

ST-COMM strain sensor device by CACH

Preventive maintenance of
beer equipment
Problem solved

Ensure that beer brewers maintain a correct

temperature for draft beer or cider

Solution Benefits
Alizent’s predictive
maintenance solution • Prevent beer taps breakdown
combined with Sigfox • Prevent expensive repairs
connectivity allows beer • Avoid waste of time and money
brewers to monitor beer due to unusable beer taps
coolers and dispensers’ • Optimize the routing of the
temperature. technician
• Maintain the high image of the
beer’s brand
• Increase customer satisfaction
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 Maturix Concrete Monitoring
by Sensohive (DK)

Challange
Improve drying time of cast concrete and optimize
factory production

Solution Benefits
Sensohive has made a sensor with 21 % increase in factory
external antenna the will be put in
the wet concrete and then monitor capacity.
the curing process. The solution 17% reduction in claims
consists of: from customers
✓ Wireless temperature and moist
sensors. 23% reduction in production
✓ Live curing reports reports. waiste
✓ Notification when concrete is More control points (quality
done hardening. systems).
✓ Hardy IP68 sensors. Better staff utilization and
reduction in energy
comsumption

27
LIFESTYLE
Key Use Cases
Special Olympics
Challenge
7.000 Athletes are in the UAE for the Special Olympics, with potential
security risks for them

Solution
A small and simple tracking device
has been provided free of charge to
each of the athlete arriving in the
UAE
This gives real time updates on
their location, making sure they do
not get lost or put themselves in a
dangerous situation
Benefits
§ Credit-card size
§ Real time information for
the organisation committee
thanks to a dedicated
platform
§ Increased safety

29
 Pilot
Elderly safety monitoring
Challenge
Provide an inexpensive, non intrusive and simple monitoring
solution for elderly safety, via daily life activity check (passive
monitoring) and emergency alerts (active monitoring)

Solution
Using the SimplePack button push
device, e.g. fixed on the door of
the fridge, both passive monitoring
(checking of daily life activity, e.g.
by monitoring fridge door opening
and closing movements) and
active monitoring (button can be
pushed in case of emergency and
alert is raised) can be performed.
Relatives and care services can
be informed and alerted in real
time via Email and SNS
notifications (LINE group chat).
Benefits
§ Low-cost, easy to deploy
(Plug&Play) and easy to use
§ Both automatic daily life
monitoring (using the device
accelerometer) and
emergency alerting (using
the device button) provided
in a unique solution
§ Peace of mind for friends
and relatives, with Email and
SNS (LINE) notifications

30

SimplePack button device by Simple hw

 LIVE
Anti jamming capability
for home alarm
Challenge
Alarms are connected to central system using GSM. Thieves use
sometimes GSM jammers making it inoperative to burgle home.

Solution
This anti-jamming system does
not go through the GSM network,
which the most savvy burglars
manage without difficulty to
scramble with dedicated devices.
The network developed by Sigfox
is inviolable and thus becomes the
ultimate weapon to fight effectively
against alarm jammers.
Benefits
§ Sigfox brings a clear
competitive advantage
towards Securitas Direct
competitor.
§ Ensure service continuity
§ Already in Spain, France,
Portugal!

32

Sigfox a complementary solution to mobile network by Telecom design

Freebox Delta

Back up communication channel in case

of failure of the primary link, or power
outage

33
 Indoor air quality monitoring

Problem solved
Improve the air quality of meeting rooms and
office spaces

Solution Benefits
HummBox Air by • Regulatory compliance for buildings
GreenCityzen monitors (public or private school, nursery,
the CO2 level of a room, …)
its ambient temperature • Improve employees working
and the ambient relative conditions and efficiency
humidity. • Increase cognitive
performance by 10%
• Reduce absenteeism by 30%
• Better management of heating and
ventilation systems

34
Technology
Overview
What we can’t do (with Sigfox only)
• Devices who need a huge number of messages ( ATM, POS etc)
• Important payloads ( Camera, videos, etc)
• Device you need to wake up remotely instantly ( garage doors)

37
What Sigfox is perfect for
• Devices who travel across countries
• Multiple years battery life devices
• Asset tracking
• Sensors data monitoring
• Security use cases ( as a backup)
• Agriculture
• Etc.

38
Small messages
SIGFOX
CLOUD

UPLINK DOWNLINK
12-Byte payload 8-Byte payload

- Sensor data - Action / actuator trigger

- Event status - Device management
- GPS fix - Application parameter setting
- Application data

1 % duty cycle for Objects 10 % duty cycle for Base Stations

Up to 6 messages/hour 4 guaranteed downlink msg/day
 Ultra Narrow Band
✓ Currently spreads on a 200KHz part of the spectrum

✓ High spectrum efficiency 1bit/s = 1Hz of bandwidth

✓ Each message is ~100Hz wide

f (MHz)

868.0 100 Hz 868.2

192 KHz wide

Ultra Narrow Band
Random Access
✓ Unsynchronized transmission between the network and the device

✓ The device transfers a small amount of energy on a random frequency with no protocol
overhead (frequency hopping)
✓ SIGFOX Base stations permanently listen to the spectrum and interpret received UNB signals

✓ The same frame is sent 3 times enabling time and frequency diversity

Frequency Uplink message

t1
2.08s for 12B payload
t3
Frame1 @F1
t2 Frame3 @F3

Frame2 @F2
Time
High Network Capacity

UNB
+ Frequency &
+ Spatial = Massive capacity &
High Quality of Service
Time diversity diversity

Nb of messages / station Success rate vs. input load

125.00%
>1M
100.00%

75.00%

50.00%
other wireless 25.00%
technologies
0.00%
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6 0.7 0.8 0.9 1

Indoor penetration Pur e non-slotted Al oha w/ spa tial div. w/ repetitions

Bi-directional communication

✓ Requested by the device to the network

✓ Static downlink message size of 8 bytes
✓ Agreed frequency of downlink
 High Energy Efficiency

Current
Communication state
✓ Designed to maximize
energy efficiency Idle state ~6 sec
✓ 30 mA
No Pairing 99.x% of the time
✓
10 to 50mA during a few
seconds (25mW; 14dB)
depending on the chip and
✓ the size of the payload

Idle consumption: negligible Time

6 nA
Security
 FLAT ARCHITECTURE
to minimize the cost of deployment and operation

✓ SDR cognitive spectrum monitoring overcome the complexity on the device side, generally using expensive
TCXOs
✓
Data is relayed to the network back-end. Latency is lower than 5 seconds for 90% of the exception reports
✓ Base stations also ensure SDR simultaneous multi-carrier transmissions to terminals enabled with the UNB
bidirectional feature

49
Hardware
solutions
Open Ecosystem

Sigfox is not a hardware vendor

Ecosystem of established partners
Hardware

Sigfox is not a hardware vendor

Ecosystem of established partners &
module makers
Getting Started
Sigfox Development Kits are the easiest way to get started. Available from multiple
partners and 1-year of connectivity included.

Some examples:

• Arduino (Available in Europe and Africa (RC1) )

• Wisol by Yadom.fr ( Available in Europe and Africa (RC1) )

• Sipy by Pycom.io ( Available everywhere (RC1, RC2, RC4) except in Japon)

• Xkit by Thinxtra ( Available in the USA, Mexico, Brazil (RC2), Asia, Sud America (RC4) and
Japon (RC3) )

• Unashield buy Unabiz (Available everywhere (RC1, RC2, RC3 and RC4) )

• Wisol by SeaSlugLabs (Available in the USA, Mexico and Brazil (RC2) )

54
And much more here!
 Different Sigfox solutions

Modules
➢ Sigfox only
➢ Multi-connectivity
➢ Sigfox certified and type approved
Ref Design
Volumes
➢ eBOM and PCB layout Sigfox certified
Complexity

Transceiver / SoC components

➢ Used for reference designs, modules,

55
The best way to build a device?
COMPATIBLE RADIO ICS/CHIPS CERTIFIED SOC ON-BOARD MODULE
ON-BOARD DESIGN DESIGN

º Customer sources radio ICs º Customer sources radio º Sigfox certified module on-board
Principles components from integrated SoC and additional design
manufacturers components from manufacturers

Cost º Lowest possible cost and size º Lower cost and size than module º 3-5x more expensive than chip on board
º Higher certification process integration º Minimal certification process and cost
and cost º Medium to minimal certification
cost

Integration º Highest integration risk/longer º Intermediary RF integration and º Minimal RF integration and design
time to market E required (certified
design efforts efforts (radio and other ICs already
º Full RF integration and design ref. design available which can be fully integrated)
efforts required 100% copied)

Target º Medium to limited risk/medium º Lowest integration risk/faster time

º High volume projects
to short time to market to market
º Medium-high volume projects º Prototypes and lower volume
projects
Providers
Sigfox solutions with external app MCU
Module

Application MCU: for application

Modulation Sigfox library is provided by Sigfox
Modulation code and SPI driver are provided by MCU and transceiver maker
Sigfox enabled solutions with SDK

MCU: for application and RF control

Modulation Sigfox library is provided by Sigfox
Modulation code and SPI driver are provided by MCU and transceiver maker
Sigfox enabled solutions with SDK

Modulation Sigfox library is provided by Sigfox

Application notes & software modulation provided by silicon vendor
Product designer integrates the sigfox library with its application in the MCU
 Verified : 87 Hardware certified
Sigfox-only SoC / Modules
SoC

With With With

SDK SDK SDK

RC 1

RC
2

RC 3

RC 4

Silicon and Module Partners, Roadmap Update, May 2017, V0.4 - 61 -

 Verified : 87 Hardware certified
Module combo
Sigfox + GPS + WIFI + BLE Sigfox + WIFI + BLE Sigfox + WIFI Sigfox + BLE Sigfox + GPS Sigfox + LoRa
 DEVELOPMENT KITS SECURE ELEMENT
On top of all chip & module makers’ evaluation kits, the most
popular development kits:
To encrypt the credentials & messages

RC 1

RC
2

RC 3

RC 4

CONFIDENTIAL 63
So.. Which one to choose ?
It all depends on the use case !
Most important :
• SDK ?
• Other technologies ?
• Support ?
• Price ?
• Power Consumption ?
• Availability ?
• Size ?
Inside the Sens’it
Most of devices have the same components
• Casing
• Battery
• Sensors
• Microcontroller
• Sigfox Modem
• Antenna
Sens’it

Antenna

Battery connector

Radio components

Magnet

Transceiver (CC1125)

MCU (STM 32)

BATTERY LIFE

• Typical consumption during Battery Type

Baterry Degradation
(per month) Battery Productivity Comment
transmission: 20-30 mA (EU) "Ideal" 0 1 -
Li-ion 0.05 0.9 Expensive
• Best transceivers/MCUs have very Ni-MH
Li-FeS2
0.15
0.00167
0.85
1
Cheap
Expensive
low idle current < 100nA Alkaline 0.0025 1 Cheap
LeadAcid 0.05 1 Heavy
• Energy to send a message: 20mA x Bat_NC 0.0025 0.8 -

(3x2sec) / 3600sec = 33 uAh

•Alkaline 2000 mAh ~ 60k
messages Coin cell: short lifetime
Can work with extra
(super)-capacitor circuit

Prefer multiple smaller

batteries over a big one
Security
Strong Security Mechanisms
Coverage
Global network

Sigfox is offering a global network, not a

solution to build private networks
Roaming is included in the standard service
Devices will work the same all over the
network
Deployment model

All deployments aims to achieve a nationwide coverage

quickly
Low density of access points : metropolitan France is
covered with 2200 stations
Low cost of base stations + Small number = Low CAPEX &
Low OPEX = Low subscription costs
Densification

Micro base stations available for sale online (400€), to

extend coverage if needed (remote areas, deep indoor, ..)
Cloud
Get your data

View messages : Sigfox web platform

Get messages : REST API (pull)
Receive new messages : HTTP Callbacks
(push)
Callbacks

Each message received from your devices will be forwarded to

your application server(s)
Fully customizable HTTP requests
Used to send data back to the device as well
Easy integration with major Cloud solutions :
AWS, MS Azure, IBM, Samsung, SAP, theThings.io, Thingworx, …
Sigfox integrates with Azure IoT hub
natively
2-ways native connector at Sigfox
back-end level

Sigfox <=> Microsoft cloud-to-cloud integration

Each message sent from Sigfox devices having

an Azure subscription is automatically forwarded

to Microsoft IoT hub

Sigfox integrates with AWS IoT natively

AWS IoT

AWS-sigfox connector uses AWS CloudFormation to

manage Identity and Authentication AWS Cloud
Rules Engine allows to route sigfox messages to other
AWS services
 PaaS: 50 Platforms certified
Some Platform Partners Smart Cities
Utilities
Storage, Analytics &
Device management

Logistics
Industry

Agriculture
Smart building

82
Thank you !

nicolas.lesconnec@sigfox.com