(Blog) — In this blog, the second post in a multi-part series, Bill Zujewski explores the challenges of dealing with wireless technology as part of an M2M (machine-to-machine) initiative. Today Bill focuses on carrier integration.
Declining costs around cellular components have had a huge impact on how quickly the ‘Internet of Things’ has grown – its significance cannot be understated. Cheap components have enabled the industry to expand into countless new verticals — it’s also why providers like AT&T have turned their full attention to the M2M industry in a big way.
However, cellular connectivity brings M2M architecture and management considerations. For one thing, manufacturers need to effectively and efficiently ensure that existing connected machine solutions can integrate with cellular infrastructure and mobile carrier business systems.
Here are three other things to consider:
- On A Data Budget: Manufacturers need real-time visibility into how their communications are performing against their cellular data plan, and need to be able to adjust data plans and data flow when necessary. Otherwise, they risk going over budget.
- Connectivity Management: Similarly, manufacturers need to be able to understand the status of their connectivity, and the performance and health of their assets at all times.
- Asset Management: Finding connected assets in a carrier’s system can be difficult, as the carrier’s system only identifies assets by their SIM ID. This means manufacturers often have to manually associate the asset’s SIM ID with its VIN or serial number – a long and pain-staking process.
The best solution is to leverage M2M platforms that have already achieved integration with carrier systems. This will drastically cut your time-to-market and start-up costs.
The author is Bill Zujewski, CMO and executive vice president
of Product Strategy at Axeda Corporation.