Remote Asset Performance Management in Cellular, 5G & Infrastructure (ft. Three)

[Host]- Welcome to this month's InnoTalks session. Today, I'm joined by Greg Starr, who's an IoT solution architect with Three, a global cellular carrier owned by CK Hutchison Holdings. Greg, thanks for joining us. And could you tell us a bit about Three four those in the audience who don't know them. 

[Greg, Three]- Hi, Tim. Thank you for having me. Well, Three is a mobile network operator and is the largest in Ireland with 3.4 million customers and over 1.9 million IoT SIMs across Ireland and the UK. Three Ireland is the IoT Center of Excellence for Ireland, UK, Sweden, and Denmark. So we manage all of these networks from here. 

But we also have sister networks in Italy, Austria, and Asia. We have 99% 4G coverage and over 85% 5G coverage, and carry over half of all the mobile data in Ireland in our network. That's more than all the other operators combined. Three has invested over $2 billion in our world-class infrastructure, including 820 million in our network since 2015. And we have an annual network investment over 100 million euro. 

Three's aim is to provide its customers with a better connected life to meaningful products, best in class service, and a connected network experience. We are part of the renowned global conglomerate, CK Hutchison Holdings, which is committed to innovation and technology. Its diverse businesses employ over 300,000 people in over 50 countries around the world. 

CK Hutchison has five core businesses, ports, and related services, retail, infrastructure, energy, and telecommunications. 

[Host]-We're going to be looking at asset monitoring in cellular networks and also at the impact that 5G will have on asset monitoring solutions more generally. But to start off, let's define what we mean by asset monitoring for the context of this discussion. When we talk about an asset, we mean a piece of equipment or a collection of devices that contribute to a process, which leads to a business outcome. 

It might be some specific pieces of equipment on a remote site, the building in which they're contained, or the perimeter of the site itself. Some typical examples might be an equipment hut on a cellular transmission site, pipeline pumping station, or wind turbine farm. 

Obviously, this definition is very wide-ranging. And so it's maybe more useful to think generally about the things they have in common. If they fail, they impact other processes or business outcomes. They typically operate in a steady state or cyclic mode in which some normal operating conditions can be defined. They can be impacted by external events, such as ambient conditions, operator error, vandalism, or sabotage. 

And finally, a failure is likely to need an engineer to visit the asset to correct an issue. And the assets are typically geographically remote from where the engineer is normally located. It's this last point which is especially relevant to understanding the need for and benefits of an asset monitoring solution. Sending an engineer to fix a site issue is very expensive and becoming increasingly so. 

Cost of No RAPM

[Greg, Three]- That's right. Engineers are generally high-dollar resources, and the cost of attending a site to fix a problem, it's not just those resource hours to fix that problem. There is the time and the cost to travel. And if the asset is a long way from the engineer's base, there's also the cost of accommodation. 

[Host]- And presumably, a proportion of this takes place outside of normal working hours, so it carries a premium on labor rates. 

[Greg, Three]- Yeah. Depending on the type of process or site we're talking about, it might only be possible to get access to that equipment when that site isn't operating. It's made worse because of often, two trips are needed, one to maybe diagnose the fault and then another to go back with the right parts to fix it. 

[Host]- Which in turn means more truck rolls, which isn't great for the environment. 

[Greg, Three]- That's, of course, if you can actually travel to the site. The one thing that COVID has taught us is that you can't just assume you can travel somewhere without restrictions. But there have been other examples of localized travel restrictions due to things like avian flu or foot and mouth disease. Even without these, if a site is particularly remote, you may have delays simply because of the transportation links. For example, there might only be one or two flights a week to a remote airport. 

[Host]- And of course, all the time that this is going on, the faulty piece of equipment stays faulty, which is going to mean at best, a less than optimum output from the site and at worst, a complete loss of production. 

[Greg, Three]- Exactly. And that's why remote asset monitoring is vitally important because it mitigates these costs and risks. Using remote asset monitoring, we can detect deviations from normal conditions and address them before they result in failure. We might even be able to fix that problem remotely, for example, by implementing a remote power cycle by a connected device. Another benefit is that we can often diagnose the problem remotely, meaning we can take the right parts and tools and therefore saving on truck rolls. 

Cellular Site Monitoring

[Host]- Great. Well, hopefully, between us, we've managed to convince everyone that remote asset management or monitoring is a good idea. So let's move on to what this means in practical terms. What are the types of things you monitor on transmission sites, and what can you do with the information? 

[Greg, Three]- OK. Well, looking at cellular transmission sites, we can split things up into a few different categories based on the complexities of the interface. The first one would be where we're interacting with discrete I/O, so switches, relays, 4 to 20 milliamps, current loops, and so on. This is essentially what people have been doing with scatter systems for years. So there's a lot of solutions out there. The decision about which solution to actually use depends more these days on how and where that data will be handled after. 

Of course, you could just fit an off-the-shelf scatter system. But really, nowadays, we want to fit devices that can export data to open platforms like Azure and AWS. We also need to look at what that physical uplink will be and then all of the security around that works. 

Finally, we need to look at how they will be installed on site. Do we run all of the signal cables back to an instrumentation cabinet, where we can fit a concentrated I/O interface device? Or do we distribute the physical I/O interface around the site and just wire our communication links and use wireless transmission? 

[Host]- Ah. So here, we're talking about the kind of requirement we fulfill with our WISE and ADAM ranges of remote I/O. You're right to say the upwards communication options are the most important thing these days. Remote I/Os have been around for years, originally using serial comms and protocols like Modbus and then migrating to ethernet and Modbus TCP. But nowadays, we offer a wide range of options, including things like MQTT and OPC UA for data handoff as well as supporting wired and wireless communication options. 

Of course, because the devices look the same as they did years ago, much of the innovation is hidden. But we even have remote I/O devices that have internal intelligence to allow users to program and perform small tasks operating within the I/O device itself. OK, what's next? 

The Role of Edge Gateway

[Greg, Three]- Well, next, we have equipment which has some intelligence and communication capabilities but which either doesn't use a communications protocol that we support or which can't connect to a backhaul communications network. For example, it might only have a serial port for communication, so it can't directly connect to a network. This is where we start fitting edge gateway devices that take care of that local interfaces and protocols, which then provide a unified data model and protocol to these upstream systems. 

[Host]- So these devices talk to the field equipment using their legacy protocols but then convert everything into a format that can be fed into AWS or Azure or similar, right? 

[Greg, Three]- Exactly. It means that we only have to worry about the authentication and security issues around the link to the gateway device rather than having to restrict the endpoint devices. We can select or have to implement lots of different security mechanisms for each of them. 

[Host]- And once you have the intelligent edge gateway there, it can start to do more than just provide an interface to the downstream devices. You spoke about providing a unified data model to the upstream systems. What does that mean? 

[Greg, Three]- Well, a lot of these endpoint devices still use protocols like Modbus, which are great, but the data from them is presented just as a series of registers, each with binary values in them. If you're going to use that data, then you have to know the significance of each register and the corresponding value in each one means. That's OK if the data is only going to one place, like it does in a typical SCADA system. 

But these days, we want to be able to use that data in a variety of systems. So it's better if we can format this data, timestamp it, see equalizers, and get it in a format that's easily readable but also easily databased and then searched for afterwards. Ideally, this should be done before that data leaves the site, reducing the amount of data being transmitted and reducing the costs of any associated cloud platforms. 

[Host]- So the edge gateway does this transformation. It reads the register 31 in a local device, has a value of 1,000, but has the smarts to convert this into something with a tag and an engineering unit's value, like cabin temperature, 18 degrees centigrade. 

[Greg, Three]- Yes. And that's exactly what it actually sends. Together with something that identifies that site, then any upstream system that needs to know the cabin temperature on that site can find it without having to know anything about the endpoint device that provided that data. The other thing we can do at the edge is filter that data before sending it. Cabin temperature is a great example because in reality, it shouldn't change quickly or go outside of a fairly small range. 

Using intelligence on the edge gateway, we can decide if to not send that temperature every time you read it, but only send that if it goes outside of a certain range or if it changes too quickly or by more than a certain amount since the last time we sent. If we see a sudden rise in temperature, it might indicate a fire or a faulty device. 

If we see a sudden drop, it might mean a cabin door has been left open and so on. Using filtering at the edge can significantly reduce the amount of traffic we have to send upstream, and it also reduces the complexity of any upstream systems because we're sending actionable information rather than just raw data. 

[Host]- Using edge case like this is a trend we're seeing with our edge link-enabled gateways across a variety of industries. One of the other benefits is that if a user wants to upgrade their upstream systems, then using edge gateways can extend the lifetime of the existing endpoint devices by converting from the old protocols to the new. And of course, being able to extend the service life of devices not only saves on capital expenditure, but it's also good from a sustainability viewpoint. 

[Greg, Three]- Great. The other thing that we can start to look at once we have intelligent edge gateways is using machine learning and AI inference to spot trends in the recovered data that can indicate that something is starting to go wrong. 

[Host]- Yes. I did another InnoTalks session recently that was about the adoption of distributed energy resource management systems in the power generation industry. And the guest then was talking about a similar situation, where the performance of individual panels can degrade at different rates over time through simple things like a change in the shade cover or dirt accumulation on the panel's surface. The changes are too small for the human operators to notice, but the AI inference engine embedded in the edge gateway can spot these and proactively raise alarms to get attention before the generation drops off too far. 

[Greg, Three]- AI is interesting for all sorts of reasons. Applying it to video feeds, either by taking dome cameras and using the edge gateway to provide the AI or by fitting smarter cameras, we can do lots of things around boundary security, access control, vehicle movement tracking, and so on. 

[Host]- Yes. Again, we're seeing a lot of similar things in other infrastructure sectors and also in manufacturing, where the shift to using AI for optical inspection and for eliminating repetitive processes through the use of cobots is really beginning to take off. I think a lot of industries are going to be transformed by AI and ML over the next few years. It's an exciting time. 

Talking of which, one of the other emerging technologies that's said to be likely to have a transformative effect on the monitoring control and automation industries is, of course, 5G itself. We've spoken about what's currently happening with remote asset monitoring, but what are the new applications and interest areas that Three see emerging? 

Application of Cellular Networks

[Greg, Three]- Well, with 5G, there are a number of interesting use cases. But it really is divided into two very distinct areas, and that's public and private 5G. If you think of public 5G as the fair and wide, extending the functionality of narrowband IoT and LTE Category M, so millions of devices from various different owners sending their data to thousands of different endpoints, much in the same way as the internet now, and how flexible that has become with smartphones and tablets. 

Private 5G, however, brings a whole new dimension. If you think of a large facility or campus where traditional problems of wireless are compacted by the unsuitability of Wi-Fi. now with a private network offering data and voice services but primarily bringing automation, robotic control, and AI to that edge in a controlled, secured, and manageable wireless network. 

Previously unheard of low latency is now possible, ideal for automated vehicles, cranes, lifting devices, but also for safety and security applications. Where people and automation interact and mix, safety is key. But with that low latency, wireless communication, safety, light curtains, warning systems, perimeter management, and proximity systems now become easier, faster, and a lot more cost-effective to deploy. 

[Host]- Things like NB-IoT that you mentioned are, of course, already available as part of LTE. And a lot of applications don't need the extremely high data rates that 5G can bring. Do you think enough use is being made of the existing LTE services in the M2M sector? I guess I'm asking whether potential users should wait until 5G and all of its planned services are fully rolled out before considering a switch to cellular, or should they start now with LTE and add 5G for the bits they can't address when the service is rolled out? 

[Greg, Three]- That's a great question. As you say, quite a lot of current use cases work perfectly fine over LTE. The great thing about 5G is that it incorporates NB-IoT, LTE Cat M, and LTE as well as those 5G offerings. So by careful planning and designing your deployments, it's much easier to ensure that you're future-proofed. 

Design with a little bit of forward thinking is important. We have come across customers who now are in a little bit of a pickle because they have been deploying 3G devices, even up until recent times. But as network operators around the world turn off 3G and UMTS services, they are now forced in the position of hardware migration. 

[Host]- Does that also hold true for private networks? 

[Greg, Three]- Yes. It's especially relevant for private networks because the private core network can handle multiple technologies as well as offering network slicing and the ability to offer each end device the exact services needed to save resources and helping better monetize those assets. So careful design and consideration will extend your network's life by many years. 

A close working relationship with your network operator, forming a partnership and that co-creation model is vital for the longevity of this network. In Three, we often act as consultants and design partners, helping manage design and rollout of IoT deployments, not just in Ireland and the UK, but globally. 

Key Takeaways

[Host]- Thanks, Greg. It's been really interesting to get Three's view on remote asset management and on the new possibilities 5G will unlock. I think, for me, we've covered a few important points. Firstly, at the most basic level, it's that remote asset management is something everyone should be considering and probably implementing, as it really makes a difference to the lifetime cost of ownership of a system and to the resources needed to support it. 

It can provide a mechanism to overcome travel restrictions and in any case will reduce the number of truck rolls and service visits needed throughout the operational life of an asset. Also, in a world where cyber threats are an increasing reality, it provides the quickest way to roll out security patches and upgrades across a large number of locations. 

Next, it's that it isn't just something for new system implementations. We've heard how asset monitoring can be overlaid on top of existing devices to achieve if not all, then a large proportion of its benefits for users running legacy systems which don't already have remote management capabilities available. 

Finally, I think we've gained an insight into the benefits of using cellular technology to implement remote asset management. Independence from customer network constraints, global deployment potential with, in the case of mobile assets, the ability to roam between networks depending on service provision at any location, and high levels of availability by using diverse redundant carriers. 

We've also heard about some of the new applications that 5G will leverage, but importantly that for a large proportion of these kinds of applications, the existing LTE network is more than sufficient. So users can start implementing immediately. 

I hope you found today's discussion both interesting and informative, and I'd like once again to thank Greg Starr from Three for joining us and sharing his insights. Advantech offers a range of solutions for remote asset management, both for existing and new deployments. So if you'd like to find out more, then please get in touch using the details on the screen. Until next time, goodbye.