Closing the IoT Connectivity Gap in Design, Deployment and Long-Term Reliability

Eseye

IoT Hardware and Connectivity Specialists

LinkedIn

Deploying and operating IoT at scale can be fraught with complexity, especially if you end up juggling multiple SIMs, operator relationships, data sources, and bills across numerous countries. The biggest challenge by far however, is reliable and consistent connectivity.

Among the businesses that contributed to Eseye’s latest State of IoT Adoption research, the number one challenge was identified as reliable device connectivity across multiple countries, regions, or locations.

The vast majority, some 78% of respondents, said that achieving near 100% connectivity across their IoT estate is crucial to their business case.

Yet only 1% are achieving more than 98% connectivity levels, and only 16% are achieving greater than 95%.

IoT connectivity challenges

This means large numbers of enterprises with mission critical IoT deployments are settling for far lower connectivity levels, and businesses are taking unnecessary risks with subpar connectivity which may impact the success of their project.

Although the telecoms sector has long been burdened with a bad reputation for service levels, many business leaders still assume that one provider is much the same as another, and poor connectivity is the status quo. But this isn’t the reality today, and guaranteed service levels exist for high-performance IoT connectivity.

But first, when looking at the problems and solutions that are unique to your business case and objectives, you need to ask:

1. What are the goals of your IoT project?
2. What are the risks and consequences if reliable IoT connectivity isn’t delivered?
3. What needs to be done to get to a higher level of connectivity?
4. How do you evaluate connectivity on an ongoing basis?
5. Is long-term project value more important than short-term gains?

Device design

From a device perspective, these considerations start in the design phase. If you’re designing and building your device in a laboratory or a research park where the cellular coverage is extremely good, and testing it on the lab or office campus network, it will likely appear to perform more than adequately.

However, when an IoT device is deployed in the field, perhaps with environmental challenges, or in a remote location, it may be that the device only works well when close to the mast, or within a much smaller coverage radius than expected.

This could be because the antenna hasn’t been well designed or positioned, or the device housing hasn’t been properly considered. Putting in the work early on to optimize the design will avoid any unpleasant surprises.

A poorly designed device intended for a mass market can even struggle to get certified by a mobile network operator, as any devices that suffer from connectivity impedance could be rejected for operator certification because they will make the network appear inefficient, and reflect badly on the operator. 

At Eseye, we reduce the chance of failure in deployment or certification by simulating extremely challenging network environments using a private LTE test network that allows customers to check and measure how well their device will perform in situ. Ultimately, we try to break the IoT device’s connectivity to see how well it recovers, and improve resilience through design if it doesn’t.

Device deployment

From a deployment perspective, you need to take the long-term view. If a device is going out into the field for 10 years, a lot could happen in that time frame, with the mobile network operator (MNO) landscape and legislative environment constantly evolving.

As an extreme – but not unheard of – example, three years into the lifecycle of a deployed product, the connectivity it started with may cease to exist, perhaps due to a roaming agreement that has become uneconomic, or been blocked altogether. If you permanently lose connectivity at that point, you have effectively only achieved 30% availability over the 10 years you expected, which could have devastating consequences for the project.

Global IoT brings with it a number of connectivity quirks, not least that networks in different countries operate on different frequency bands. And again, depending on how the hardware has been designed, you may discover that a device works better on lower frequency bands, which potentially deliver better range, and not quite so well in higher bands, where the benefits might be more geared towards bandwidth, for example.

Roaming

Another consideration is that an international IoT estate requires access to multiple networks and the ability for devices to connect to them reliably and perform at a consistently high level, now and long into the future.

Yet the threat to permanent roaming is a significant issue looming on the horizon, as an increasing number of markets clamp down on long-term roaming permissions to preserve network capacity for domestic customers. That and some connectivity providers simply cannot offer it as they do not have widespread geographic coverage agreements in multiple regions.

Finding an unbeatable IoT connectivity partner

To address these issues, your connectivity partner should be immersed in IoT design, development, and operation day-in, and day-out. They must understand what you are trying to do, and be ready to help you achieve the maximum uptime possible so that your business case is successful.

Eseye covers all of the above, with the required deep IoT expertise and experience, codified within our industry-leading technology tools, which is why Kaleido Intelligence Vendor Hub has named us the no.1 market leader in eSIM Connectivity Solutions for three consecutive years.

Specialist IoT device design, goes hand in hand with hardware and connectivity expertise to help build products optimized for battery use, connectivity preservation, and overall performance, not just now but through the lifetime of their deployment.

While our AnyNet Federation has extensive access to over 700 mobile networks across the globe, allowing it to intelligently provide an optimized blend of local and roaming solutions to deliver ultra reliable device connectivity.

This is all coupled with the Infinity IoT Platform for simplified connectivity management that delivers eUICC compliant switching between network service providers to ensure maximum device uptime globally.

Plus, you’re in safe hands. Our service and technical support is unbeaten in the market with a 98.3% customer satisfaction rate and a +50 Net Promoter Score.

Go for gold

Find out how Eseye delivers the gold standard in cellular IoT connectivity with total global coverage from a single eSIM.

Download whitepaper

Select to view linkedin profile Select to view twitter profile Select to view facebook profile Select to view youtube profile

Eseye

IoT Hardware and Connectivity Specialists

LinkedIn

Eseye brings decades of end-to-end expertise to integrate and optimise IoT connectivity delivering near 100% uptime. From idea to implementation and beyond, we deliver lasting value from IoT. Nobody does IoT better.

In this article

• IoT connectivity challenges
• Finding an unbeatable IoT connectivity partner