IoT Device Validation Service

Validating your devices with Eseye

We understand how important it is for every IoT device to connect automatically out-of-the-box and stay securely connected. 80% of IoT projects fail due to an issue at the device level, so the key to success is ensuring that your device performs predictably. Devices not only need to connect to any network, but also adapt to network variances automatically and maintain connection.

Eseye’s Device Validation Service includes a rigorous process to ensure that your device is connecting correctly, well before you reach the critical phases of your project. Once a device is fully onboarded, customers can turn to Eseye’s award-winning connectivity management service which allows you to focus on generating value from your deployment.

During five, ten, or more years of deployment, unexpected events can affect your devices. For example, new legislation could restrict roaming in a particular geography, a mobile operator may sunset a critical service or a network might suffer performance degradation. Eseye’s Infinity IoT Connectivity Management Platform has been built to manage how the connectivity is delivered during the lifetime to ensure optimal connectivity in a landscape of changing rules and commercial interests.

During the validation phase, we work closely with you to ensure your device performs as expected:

• We use network logs to ensure that the device is communicating correctly, with no unexpected traffic to drive up the connectivity cost or put the device at risk of a security breach.
• We use test commands to replicate the activity of the Connectivity Management platform and provide reassurance that our tools will successfully manage the connectivity service for years to come.
• Within a controlled environment, our specialist engineering team uses tools to cause a disruption of service and create unusual error conditions – the aim is to try and break the device. All results are monitored and recorded to validate the effectiveness of the device’s ability to recover and reconnect.
• We assess key security provisions to ensure the device is protected using best practice security provisions for IoT.

In this article

• Why 84% of companies struggle with IoT design
• What's the process of designing an IoT device?
• Why is connectivity an important factor?
• Eseye’s device design consultancy service.

Common challenges with IoT devices

Here’s the reformatted text with full-width lines:When embarking on an IoT project, it’s important to fully explore and understand the possible technical constraints and risks relating to the project requirements and how the device will be used in service. The type and configuration of the IoT device and associated connectivity solution affects the build, so making the right procurement choices as early as possible in the project are fundamental to its long-term success.

Typical considerations include:

• Global connectivity and multi-IMSI SIMs: SIMs that provide global connectivity (by roaming and switching networks when required) operate differently from single-IMSI local SIMs. The device applications and modem need to function correctly within this environment (for example, not attempting to re-connect before the SIM has completed its connection algorithm).
• eSIM and eUICC: The GSMA’s embedded SIM Remote Provisioning Architecture (eSIM) enables eUICC SIMs to store multiple network profiles, which can be provisioned and managed over-the-air. The interaction between an eUICC SIM and the device modem is critical to operating successfully in the eSIM ecosystem.
• Sensor software: library software provided with your sensors can operate in unexpected ways, such as continually polling for time. This can lead to increased connectivity and data charges.
• Power supply systems: inadequate power supplies can cause problems, such as modem crashes and restarts.
• SIM Toolkit: the modem SIM Toolkit needs to be configured correctly so that it doesn’t prevent the Eseye SIM software running and communicating with the Connectivity Management Platform.

As a world leader in IoT connectivity solutions, Eseye applies deep IoT device expertise to help businesses realise lasting value from global projects. We work closely with customers from idea to implementation and beyond, to deliver near-100% connectivity to millions of devices across the world.

We see IoT differently. We always start with the device. We have over 15 years of experience designing and building IoT devices, and guiding customers who build their own devices. We can provide the specialist expertise and services to help you mitigate the risks of global IoT cellular connectivity and optimise your devices to ensure successful operation in the field.

Taking this approach, we have delivered successful projects across all industries for global brands such as Shell, Costa, BT, and Amazon.

If the device is the driver of IoT project success, connectivity is the backbone; everything will depend on it."

Steps to success

1. 1. Preparation

Before validation starts and while your IoT project is at an early stage, we gather information about your IoT device, use case and desired outcomes. How you plan to use the device tells us how it should behave, for example, whether it’s always connected or wakes up periodically to send data. Our tools can also provide your engineers and developers with information about the connection and allow them to demonstrate device behaviour.

Understanding the intended device behaviour enables us to:

• Determine how we should run the validation tests – for example, observing a device that connects once a day to send data is very different from observing a device that’s always active.
• Detect unusual behaviour and provide context to our service desk and support team when your deployment is live.

The validation process should start when your device is in the final stages of testing, so it’s still possible to resolve any connectivity issues detected during validation. It’s important not to start the process too early as your engineers will be concentrating on completing the functionality. But leaving the engagement too late can make it difficult for you to include our contribution to the project.

2. . The validation process

The validation process ensures that your device is configured to work correctly within the Eseye ecosystem, so that it can benefit from the sophisticated network switching that the AnyNet SIM and Connectivity Management Platform provides.

The validation process has four stages: Observation to check the normal behaviour of the device, Verification to ensure that the device works correctly with the Eseye systems, Resilience to test how the device responds to unexpected events, and Security to assess the security provisions in the device.

We create a detailed report of the test results and conclusions to share with you. We can discuss any issues that need to be resolved and arrange for re-testing if required to verify any changes made.

Validation is critical in reducing the medium and long-term risks to reliable connectivity and ensure that we deliver a successful managed connectivity service for your IoT devices post-deployment.

If the device is the driver of IoT project success, connectivity is the backbone; everything will depend on it."

How it works: the Eseye validation process

Getting started

Your engagement with Eseye ordinarily begins at an early stage of the design and build phase of your device. During this phase we can provide critical early advice and assistance to ensure that your device is ready to operate within the Eseye connectivity environment once deployed in the field.

As your device nears readiness for the validation process, we coordinate the details and logistics with your technical and management teams. At the start of the validation process, one of our Eseye technical consultants will get in touch to arrange when you should power up and connect your device to the network.

We then run the four stages of the validation process.

Stage 1: Observation
When you choose Eseye for your IoT connectivity, your devices connect to the internet through our private APN (Access Point Name), which is distributed across ten data centres globally. This provides a highly secure and resilient connectivity platform for your devices. The validation observation test ensures that your device connects and runs successfully with the Eseye systems.

Eseye RADIUS servers manage the devices that connect to the Eseye APN. A RADIUS server authenticates devices when they connect and allocates IP addresses to them. While a device is connected, the server issues an accounting record every 30 minutes to confirm the connection.

During the validation observation test, devices are monitored for a certain period (typically 24 hours). The observation logs show:

• Authentication and accounting records: These provide information on a device’s typical behaviour, such as how frequently it connects and how long it stays connected.
  Data traffic to and from the device: This shows the protocols used, the destination addresses and the traffic pattern. Data traffic information can help to verify that the device is operating correctly.
  Data throughput and signalling: This shows how multiple devices behave. Devices that are synchronised to connect and transfer data at the same time can cause heavy loads on a network. It’s best practice to configure devices to connect and transfer data at randomised times.

The figure below shows a typical output graph from an observation test for multiple devices.

If the device is the driver of IoT project success, connectivity is the backbone; everything will depend on it."

1. Stage 2: Verification

The AnyNet eUICC-compliant, multi-IMSI SIM and Infinity Connectivity Management Platform (CMP) work together – and with your device modem – to provide a secure and efficient way of connecting devices to the best available network, switching them seamlessly to an alternative routing path or another network if required. The validation verification test ensures that your device behaves as expected within the Eseye ecosystem.

An AnyNet SIM stores a number of network profiles. If a device can’t connect to a network, the SIM in the device automatically selects another profile – the virtual equivalent of physically replacing a SIM card in a device. In addition, the CMP runs sophisticated algorithms to monitor and manage device connectivity. It sends over-the-air encrypted commands to control the SIM, steering the device to roam on a different network or switching the device to use a local network if required. When required, the CMP can download a new network profile over-the-air to the device.

The validation verification test ensures that our tools for controlling device connectivity are compatible with your device. They assess whether your device modem responds appropriately to the AnyNet SIM and CMP instructions, confirming that your device responds seamlessly to maintain connectivity.

Stage 3: Resilience

We deliver service through over 700 networks around the world, so unexpected network events are inevitable. Although we use sophisticated management tools to mitigate these events by providing alternative routing paths, such events will affect device connectivity. The validation resilience test demonstrates that your device can recover quickly, and gracefully, from these sorts of events.

The resilience test can include:

• Abruptly terminating a user session on the device.
• Disconnecting a device from the network.
• Terminating a device on the network.

We expect to see the device attempt to re-connect in a manner that matches your user application, without creating additional issues that arise from making multiple unsuccessful re-connect attempts. The resilience test cannot cover every possible type of network disruption but can highlight issues that may arise if your device encounters unexpected network events.

“When the 19-hour Rogers outage happened in 2022, the vast majority of our devices reconnected in 30 minutes thanks to Eseye’s AnyNet SMARTconnect™.”
Fred Roe, VP of Sales, AmericanPharma Technologies

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If the device is the driver of IoT project success, connectivity is the backbone; everything will depend on it."

1. Stage 4: Security

Cybersecurity is a key challenge in IoT. Taking a secure by design approach and carrying out security risk assessments and threat modelling when developing IoT products and services can help identify the appropriate security provisions that should be implemented. Some countries and industries have legal security regulations and requirements that apply to IoT devices operating within them.

As part of the Eseye validation service, we explore key security provisions that apply to IoT devices. In some cases, we can run tests to ensure that the device behaves as expected. Where testing isn’t possible, our validation consultant can discuss the provisions with you to determine if there are any further steps that you should take to secure your device.

Some examples of the security provisions that we assess are:

• How users authenticate with the device and update authentication details.
• Managing software security updates on the device.
• Storing sensitive security parameters on the device.
• Device communication methods.
• Minimising exposed attack surfaces.
• Ensuring software integrity.

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Output: the validation report

We generate a detailed report of the validation test results and conclusions to share with you. We discuss any issues that need to be resolved and arrange for re-testing if required to verify any changes that you make to your device.

Once your device has successfully passed the validation tests, you have the assurance that your device connectivity has been rigorously tested before you start your production or deployment process.

The validation report forms the basis of our managed connectivity service. It provides vital information that can be used for ongoing change management, to help troubleshoot any future connectivity issues and to answer technical support queries.

Below is an example of validation report pages

Next steps: let us be your guide

With Eseye as your guide throughout the validation process, we ensure that potential connectivity issues are remedied before you reach the critical phases of your project – to give your project the best chance of success and reduce potential risks and costs later on.

With exemplary hardware device engineering and technical know-how, our teams work collaboratively and proactively with you to identify and resolve any configuration issues before you move into full-scale production or extended field trials.

With the technical barriers removed, you can truly take your IoT beyond.

To get help with your IoT device, get in touch with your Account Manager or visit Eseye’s website.

If the device is the driver of IoT project success, connectivity is the backbone; everything will depend on it."