Top M2M Trends for 2014

Our world changes at a dramatic speed. In a few years, billions of devices will be connected to the Internet in order to be smarter and more efficient. The Internet of Things and M2M technology are unstoppable: their solutions provide us all with an opportunity to significantly improve the way we do things. In this post, I describe what I consider the top 10 M2M trends that the world will follow in the year 2014.

Consolidation of Smart Metering

The United Kingdom took a huge technological leap forward regarding its energy infrastructure in 2013. The world’s largest machine-to-machine (M2M ethernet wifi router ) contract win to date consists in delivering Smart Metering communications to have over 53 smart meters installed across the country by 2020.

It will not be the only country betting on Smart Metering so decisively. More and more countries will join in during 2014. The leadership shown by the UK Government will lead the country to significant savings for consumers (and therefore, for energy production and distribution), while boosting a cleaner energy.

Popularisation of connected cars

Now that M2M technology is reaching non-professional drivers, it will improve safety and efficiency, and will foster the multimedia experience inside cars. You will receive traffic information, alerts and even the latest reviews of the restaurant you go to in your car’s navigator in real time. If your car suffers a breakdown or an accident, it will automatically send alerts with your position and all the data available to the closest authority.

These technologies are currently available in premium models such as the Tesla-S, but we will see them in many mid-range cars during 2014.

Transport Management extends

Connected vehicles are becoming ever more common for professional segments. M2M technology enables Transport Management thanks to the processing of all the data transmitted by the vehicles (such as acceleration, distance, type of road, braking, impacts, real-time vehicle location, fuel consumption) in order to save time and money, and provide a better service. It is proven that owners who actively manage their fleet save around 15-20% in costs.

Many vehicle companies and those that require asset tracking currently enjoy these solutions. Those that do not apply Transport Management solutions are at a clear disadvantage, so the year 2014 will bring them the opportunity to avoid lagging behind.

Consumer electronics for everybody

Currently, M2M is no longer seen just as a technology targeted mainly at businesses or public organisations, as it was in the past. It is present in Smart Home solutions and all kinds of gadgets for fitness, tracking your own goods and assets, or simply entertainment. However, it is still not very extended for mid-market consumers.

New technologies for consumers will arrive and the M2M ecosystem will evolve. As a result, devices and gadgets (not only tablets, readers, etc., but also watches and all kinds of “wearables”) will be more extended and more affordable for everyone.

Insurance Telematics strikes more

Insurance Telematics enables insurance companies to know how their customers drive and thus offer significantly better insurance premiums to low risk drivers. M2M sensors monitor driving parameters in real time. This way, companies can reduce operating costs, decrease fraud, increase loyalty and differentiate from others in a highly competitive market. On the other side, customers can save money because insurance companies often reward them with special discounts for responsible drivers. But most importantly, they increase their safety by improving their driving style.

There are currently solutions deployed by TEF in Germany and Spain, and open possibilities in other countries like the UK and Brazil. Next year, new companies and drivers will join in and will benefit from this revolution in the insurance world, as insurance companies need to look for differentiation by segmenting customers according to real risk instead of demographics.

Ecosystems evolve

Ecosystem economies have given decisive competitive advantages in digital revolutions such as those of smartphones. Companies learn to use ecosystem principles to open entire new markets, like Apple and Google have done with Apps.

M2M markets are at a tipping point similar to smartphones in 2008. By empowering third-party developers to experiment, more value will be created and new users will be attracted. Although the exact successful ecosystem model for M2M is still unclear, we will see companies trying to position themselves in this sense and start applying ecosystem principles.

Big Data, big benefits

We live in the information age - the age where the information produced in one year is larger than the information previously produced throughout the history of mankind.  Big Data is trying to obtain trends and patterns in order to exploit information and M2M technology, and is becoming a key source in many sectors.

Companies are realising that the combination of M2M technology and Big Data delivers extraordinary benefits. We will see more companies sharing this effective approach.

Urban Labs spread

At Telefónica, we have described urban labs as real spaces where innovative projects can be tested in urban environments. They can bring real benefits to the citizens of a certain town by enhancing their lives in areas such as urban development, mobility, tourism or education. They help smart cities projects by facilitating and speeding them up.

As the global economy is recovering, there will be a renewed interest of city governments and other institutions to invest in these technological initiatives, such as the city of Santander [Spain] is doing right now: Santander already has more than 12,000 sensors that are improving the lives of its citizens and the efficiency of city processes. The benefits are clearer every day, considering that smart cities help save time and money in many areas, becoming cost-effective initiatives.

Certifications and standards

As new M2M technologies are born and implemented, new devices require being able to interoperate and understand the “language” of others. Technology needs standards. Institutions like the PTCRB –the wireless device certification forum by North American Mobile Network Operators– and the Global Certification Forum (GCF) work to guarantee technology performance.

Certification programmes also imply a great effort in this regard. Customers will find that any reliable M2M solution requires the proper certifications to work adequately. Companies should always meet this need in order to keep their trust.

At Telefónica, we are part of the M2M World Alliance, which aims to simplify and promote the adoption of M2M communications worldwide by giving our customers the ability to operate connected devices globally at a reduced cost.

M2M will open with hardware

We are accustomed to hearing the term “Open Software” and its implications. The open source-hardware concept is not so extended, but it is becoming popular in M2M. It applies a similar Free and Open Source Software (FOSS) approach to components. These platforms seek to make the use of electronics in multidisciplinary projects more accessible. Some can sense the environment by receiving input from a variety of sensors and can affect their surroundings by controlling lights, motors, and other actuators.

2014 is set to be an exciting year full of surprises for M2M as we progressively see an effective transformation of value chains. As M2M continues to push the envelope, we will be able to do things more efficiently and see our world in a different way. We are looking forward to seeing the next step in its evolution.

Four-Faith was invited to participate in the 1st International Hydrological Monitoring Equipment Promotion

December 1, Bureau of Hydrology and Technology Promotion Center of Water Resources jointly organized the 1st International Hydrological Monitoring Equipment Promotion, opened in Beijing. The conference invited representatives of well-known enterprises at home and abroad in the field of water quality monitoring technology to introduce related products, these products represent today’s most advanced technological achievements in water quality monitoring. Four-Faith will bringthe latest water monitoring solution and RTU to show in the promotion.

Today Hydrology caused more and more national attention, accuracy, efficiency, timeliness is a new requirement proposed by the hydrological system itself, which means the usage of new technological equipment and production methods can meet the requirements of the development of hydrology.

Four-Faith carrying water conservancy wireless monitoring solutions, including wireless soil moisture monitoring system, small river real-time monitoring system, pumping remote monitoring system, flood disasters monitoring system, reservoirs remote monitoring system, water wells remote monitoring system, hydrology wireless monitoring application, and 4G/3G/2.5G industrial telemetry terminals, industrial wireless RTU, industrial wireless router, industrial M2M wireless data transmission terminal, etc. attended the meeting.

In this promotion Four-Faith launched networking wireless communication technology, products and solutions catched the attention of water industry experts, scholars, suppliers.

F8225 ZigBee+CDMA router

    F8225 ZigBee+CDMA ROUTER is a kind of cellular terminal device that provides data transfer function by public CDMA network and ZigBee function.

    It adopts high-powered industrial 32-bits CPU and embedded real time operating system. It supports RS232 (or RS485/RS422) and Ethernet port that can conveniently and transparently connect one device to a cellular network, allowing you to connect to your existing serial and Ethernet devices with only basic configuration. Also, it supports ZigBee function.

    It has been widely used on M2M fields, such as intelligent transportation, smart grid, industrial automation, telemetry, finance, POS, water supply, environment protection, post, weather, and so on.

Design for Industrial Application

1. High-powered industrial cellular module

2. High-powered industrial 32bits CPU

3. High-powered industrial ZigBee module

4. Support low-consumption mode, including sleep mode, scheduled online/offline mode, scheduled power-on/power-off mode(optional)

5. Housing: iron, providing IP30 protection.

6. Power range: DC 5~35V

Stability and Reliability 

1. Support hardware and software WDT

2. Support auto recovery mechanism, including online detect, auto redial when offline to make router always online 

3. Ethernet port: 1.5KV magnetic isolation protection

4. RS232/RS485/RS422 port: 15KV ESD protection

5. SIM/UIM port: 15KV ESD protection

6. Power port: reverse-voltage and overvoltage protection

7. Antenna port: lightning protection(optional)

Standard and Convenience

1. Support standard RS232(or RS485/RS422) and Ethernet port that can connect to serial and Ethernet devices directly

2. Support intellectual mode, enter into communication state automatically when powered

3. Provide management software for remote management

4. Support several work modes

5. Convenient configuration and maintenance interface（WEB or CLI）

High-performance

1. Support 3G/HSPA/4G WAN access methods

2. Support ZigBee function

3. Support VPN client(PPTP, L2TP, OPENVPN, IPSEC and GRE)(only for VPN version)

4. Support VPN server(PPTP, L2TP, OPENVPN, IPSEC and GRE)(only for VPN version)

5. Support local and remote firmware upgrade,import and export configure file.

6. Support NTP, RTC embedded.

7. Support mulitiple DDNS provider service.

8. Support MAC Address clone, PPPoE Server 

9. Support multi online trigger ways, including SMS, ring and data. Support link disconnection when timeout

10. Support APN/VPDN

11. Support DHCP server and client, firewall, NAT, DMZ host , URL block, QoS, ttraff,statistics, real time link speed statistics etc.

12. Full protocol support , such as TCP/IP, UDP, ICMP, SMTP, HTTP, POP3, OICQ, TELNET, FTP, SNMP, SSHD, etc.

13. Schedule Reboot, Schedule Online and Offline,etc.

The smart way to improve the quality of life: a perspective from Latin America

The increasing tendency towards urbanization, derived from rural migration to the cities, is undoubtedly one of the most relevant processes of the twentieth century. In developing countries, this migratory process has been reinforced due to high birth rates which have resulted in an important increase in urban population growth.

Three of every four Latin Americans, which are more than 400 million people, live in cities. Some of the biggest cities in the world, such as Mexico City and Sao Paulo, are in Latin America. We live in what can truly be considered as mutant, chaotic and complex organisms. We also live in a part of the world which fights to emerge from a situation of underdevelopment and which has achieved great progress in the past decades. However, it still faces significant problems of marginalization and poverty.

Latin Americans yearn to live better. We understand progress as an increasing demand in standards of quality of life and the configuration of an environment of guaranteed essential securities.

What could have appeared to be a “perfect storm” (demographic changes in an environment of subjacent poverty which made living conditions in the city for a significant part of the Latin American population unviable), is today a reality which is only just beginning to change.

A fundamental part of this change is associated with information technologies. The implementation of these solutions based on the intelligent management of information has resulted in many improvements in our urban habitats: the security in our cities has increased, public transport is more pleasant and efficient, health benefits have a higher quality and coverage, education is facing new challenges, and democracy itself is gaining legitimacy thanks to greater transparency and the involvement of citizens in a deliberative process.

However, there’s no doubt that the challenges are greater than the advancements that have been made.

The realities are heterogeneous and not every city advances in the same way. But the hundreds of success cases of objective progression in our region indicate that the answer to that shared longing for a better living is building increasingly smarter cities.

It is becoming clearer that technological development is what spurs transformation in today’s tech era. However, technology alone does not guarantee a higher quality of life. Technology is and has always been a powerful tool to build realities, to speed up and improve productive, scientific, educational and social processes; but above all it is an instrument which requires a long-term strategic vision to be used to its full advantage.

We are seeing the decisive impact that technology is having in everyday life. In the day to day of a city as the densely populated urban areas that they are, the digitalization of daily life is transforming cities from the past into digital cities.

Building digital cities is a citizens’ process carried out by them for themselves. Digital cities aren’t a software which can be installed or a solution which an authority decides to implement. A digital city is a continuous learning process, where technologies, abilities, leaderships, volition, and above all, the dreams of every citizen are combined. In the same way that human beings never stop learning, cities can only become more or less intelligent. “The” intelligent city doesn’t exist.

A digital city can only be built when variables such as political will, long-term vision, public-private partnerships, investment in telecommunication infrastructures, technological innovation, applications which deliver digital services of the city to its inhabitants, training in digital skills and a lot of citizen involvement converge together. 

This is why a digital city is only possible when there is a digital ecosystem which supports it. This digital ecosystem’s first building block is telecommunications. Without a telecommunications network it is impossible to advance in a digital city project. As time passes, the effective, inclusive and innovative use we give these networks at the service of the citizens will be just as important.

The construction of interoperable and ideally open information systems based on sensors, data transport networks and aggregation mechanisms, information analysis, citizen service platforms, among other technological components are an essential and fundamental part of the construction of an intelligent city. Although technology is a necessary condition, relying only on that is not enough. The citizens are the ones who give life to this ecosystem, and they are the ones who should take technology into their own hands, by using it, valuing it and enjoying it.

Building the future in the present means turning into reality the ethics of networks, sharing and learning from others experiences. We are driving the formation of an alliance between South American smart cities, so that the cooperation and sharing of good practices is a permanent experience. In this same context, other telecommunication companies and digital services alongside Telefónica are supporting the creation of intelligent cities by advising local governments in the construction of their digital agendas and demonstrating the social and economic value they offer a city which systematically incorporates advanced technological systems.

We strongly believe in public-private partnerships as an important development axis. We have the vocation and compromise, as the telecommunications industry, to drive the development of content, applications and services for the digital ecosystem and to support with great emphasis the municipalities who have the idea of improving the lives of their citizens through the intense, efficient and sustainable use of information and communication technologies.

Our challenge is to improve the quality of life of 400 million Latin Americans who live in cities. We will only be able to rise to the challenge as soon as we’re capable of creating a partnership between national and local governments, telecommunication and digital services companies, in an environment which favors innovation, entrepreneurship and investment and stimulates the active involvement of citizens in building a better standard of life for us all. 

lean more :  M2M solution 

M2M For Cities,M2M Industrial router for live

When you hear the phrase M2M (Machine to Machine), what do you think of? If you’re like me, the first time you hear it you might picture a complex futuristic-like factory with machines interacting and connecting with one another. And although M2M is about the communication between machines, it’s so much more than the name suggests. With the name M2M, you have to read between the lines (or in this case, the machines): the power behind M2M is the data that enables insightful, actionable information. And, perhaps the most life-changing M2M （M2M company --Industrial router supplier ） impact is that of our cities speaking to us.

Most people would agree that good communication is key to any relationship. And yet, we’ve lived in cities for years without being able to communicate with them. Do we still adore them? Yes. Do we still feel bonded to them? Yes. Do we still identify with them and feel pride for them? Yes. Do we know what’s really happening in them? Not even close – or at least, not in real time until a citizen, commuter, visitor reports an issue, or in the worst case, not until it’s too late (think infrastructure.)

I’ll admit that having a city talk may sound strange in theory (What would it say? What would it sound like? Why does it matter?). In reality, it is going to drastically improve our quality of life. And when you compare it to other living and non-living things you try to talk to – your pets (‘Come over here, Fluffy.’ or ‘Why are you barking?’) to your car (‘Why are you making that noise?’ or ‘Turn on the radio, please’), it’s actually really not that far- fetched at all to recognize how neat it would be if we could communicate with our cities. If we could talk, they could talk, we could listen to each other, and we could fix a problem – or find a solution to an inefficiency that we didn’t know previously existed.

The City: Claiming Its Independence, and Freeing Us From a Lack of Information

There are so many inefficiencies, significant amounts of money wasted, quality of life impacts, and even strong safety concerns from a lack of the two-way communication and action with our cities. M2M lets our cities become connected so that they talk to us, we talk to them, and city systems talk to each other. It releases our cities from dependence on other people so it can tell its own story all on its own. The connected M2M city is a city that is proactive rather than reactive and takes care of problems either on its own – or by alerting us immediately.

What does this look like, exactly? It means that transportation systems – from buses, to parking spaces, to trains, to cars – all talk to each other to make the most efficient schedule to move people through the city as quickly and safely as possible. It means that if a streetlight turns off or carbon monoxide in a home is detected, city personnel are instantly dispatched. It means citizens and visitors feel safer walking alone at night. It means that garbage trucks know which cans actually need to be emptied. It means that air quality can be monitored continuously. It means we know when a building isn’t structurally sound.

We’re just beginning to start the new revolution of our cities and our lives. It is a revolution that shifts the city from being speechless its entire existence – one that must wait for others to report actions, or for people to discover issues by the time it is too late – to an intelligent system that predicts issues before they occur and responds immediately.

Today, sensors are becoming cheaper, people are more aware, and there are real M2M solutions happening right now that are making our cities talk. You could almost make the claim that cities are moving from their dependent childhood state into their independent adulthood. But, how do we get there?

M2M is the Door, But City Leaders Hold the Key

The technology is here. But we are not there. Why? So much of the possibilities available via M2M lie within the power of our city leaders.

Local is key for impact. Grass roots action and improving issues at a local level are often the biggest ways to impact positive change. And the biggest way to do that is to know what is happening, in real time, and make locally based decisions instantly.

City leaders have always had a direct role to improve people’s lives. However, with a lack of information flowing to and from the city, the city itself was preventing leaders from reaching their full impact.

Now that M2M is here, we can expect a better quality of life and more economic growth. But we need local leaders and citizens to embrace, believe in, and pursue what is just starting to unfold in front of us. We’re in the process of seeing whom the early adopters are when it comes to M2M. My advice to city leaders is this: welcome M2M technology. It can be your and your citizens’ best friend. But you need to start. It’s not where you start, but that you start.

Four-Faith ZigBee Products for Agriculture Green House Monitoring System Application

　　In traditional agriculture, the methods that people gain the farmland information is limited,mainly by  manual measuring.It costs lots of human labor.With the great innovation of the agriculture technology, Protected Agriculture has became the important parts of the modern agriculture.The environment monitoring system based on sensor and communication network plays an important role in Protected Agriculture.Especially the environment monitoring network based on wireless communication technology is developing fast.　

    The present wireless environment monitoring network is mainly based on trunked communication system.There are some disadvantages such as high cost of network construction, high difficulty of maintenance and low public network access rate.They all have effect on the promotion of the protected agriculture.Based on the ZigBee technology,Four-Faith come up with the agriculture green house monitoring system based on Zigbee Technology. The system will collect the temperature data,CO2 data,humidity data in real time,and then set on or set off the certain device. It will deal with the data     according to the request of user,The Zigbee Module will collect the single from the sensors,and transfer the data through wireless transceiver module to realize the green house remote monitoring.

    The system consists of there layers, node layer, network layer and application layer.Node layer is the inspection and control unit, cover all the wireless sensors nodesNetwork layer is the part of communication and transmission part,including the internal communication parts based on zigbee, external network communication parts based on GPRS and the gateway. Network layer can realize the networking, and set up the communication mechanism to be the exchange media of the upper application and sub-layer device.Application layer including the data base and remote control manage component, is the convergence analysis of the data, realize the human-computer interaction.

　　Four-Faith product is mainly used in the network layer, use Zigbee Terminal F8914 as the  center node, and Zigbee module F8913-E as communication equinoctial.Every node of Zigbee will trasnfer all the information from every node to the central node F8914. The central node F8914 will transfer the collected data via GPRS to the monitoring managing center.The center will deal with the data.

    The system can collect the data of soil humidity ,nitrogen concentration,precipitation,temperature and air pressure,and send the data to the remote managing center via Gprs. The manager will sent out the control command according to the collected information to make the related department to take the corresponding measures. By this system, the manager only need to stay in the office, he then can take the command of the statue of the temperature,humidity and CO2,sunlight and reduce the cost, improve the output of crops.

Four-Faith 3G Industrial router for self-service terminal application

    The population is densely in the cities of China, some of the necessities of financial payment behavior for life - such as water, electricity, gas, phone charges, traffic travel, bus card recharge, transfer payment, some people are going to a variety of units to pay, some bank or postal savings as a payment window. Banking hours are limited and cumbersome authorization process workload, payment and other problems caused make large number of people pay hard. With 3G wireless business mature, communication equipment networking demand is gradually enhanced, self-service terminal industry from the initial ATM industry expand into convenient payment, self-ticketing, advertising and other various applications. The emergence of self-service terminal solve the problem of the public to pay for all the cost. In the terminal site, with a personal assistance operation, to provide consumers with a fast, convenient and safe service.

    Xiamen Four-Faith Communication Technology Co., Ltd. started to work with Shanghai self-service terminal operating manufacturers in 2011, Four-Faith provide 3G router for 3G networking of self-service terminal over Shanghai subway, Hongqiao hub, business circle, commercial buildings, district government offices, railway stations and other cities nationwide.

     The system is consisted of self-service terminal, Four-Faith 3G router F3X25 and service center. Among them, self-service terminal is including controller, player terminal and display terminal, user operation terminal.

     Topology is as following:

Four-Faith 3G router for self-service terminal application

Self-service terminal connect to Four-Faith F3x25 router via Ethernet interface, and operation management service center use dedicated circuit as a network access.

     Industrial router F3X25 access to Internet via wireless network, and there are two kinds of networking can be achieved to establish a connection with the service center system: first, the use of special network VPDN Or ANP private network; secondly, through the VPN. Self-service terminal establish communication link to directly exchange data with center management service. Business data of self-service terminal exchange directly with the center via Four-Faith F3x25 router.

The tide in the mobile Internet, self-service terminal system is becoming an import medium for many businesses marketing via Four-Faith 3G router. Four-Faith F3X25 router achieve data transfer steady and rapid, reduce the cost of operation and maintenance of equipment, resolve their worries, allow them to focus on their core business better.

     Shanghai partner locate self-service terminal mainly in Shanghai subway with the average daily passenger flow reached 500 million, of which the peak passenger flow over 6 million people, the media value is immeasurable. Its convenience, timeliness, low cost and network marketing are better than traditional television, newspapers and other media, outdoor self-service equipment location-based service is more accurately achieve marketing for merchants to bring more customers, but also more businesses customers to the manufacturers.

Four-Faith router successfully applied in automatically pollution monitoring project in Hunan Provin

     According to SEPA on accelerating “three systems” work arrangements of the pollution reduction targets, monitoring and evaluation, an environmental protection factory make the construction of the "automatic monitoring system for key pollution sources" to monitor waste water, waste gas and urban sewage treatment plant of hundreds of key polluting enterprises in Hunan province. By installing state-controlled pollution automatic online monitoring devices in the enterprises, the device will collect the pollution data and transfer the data to the environmental monitoring center, monitoring center then alarm for excessive data.

     Since most of these pollution resources companies are in the suburb area, away from the telecommunications access points, the companies will need to pay a lot for line cost of 20,000 yuan per kilometer if laying cable access. Take the case of urban living garbage disposal site for example, the place is about 5km from telecommunications access room, to have fiber access, they need to pay 10 million one-time line construction costs. But as much traffic pollution data acquisition, Telecom 3G signal coverage in the region, and allows off network after resuming, they can use Telecom's CDMA EVDO/1X for transmission, adopt the solution of 3G wireless VPDN access.

     First to install and configure a L2TP network server(L2TP Network Server, hereinafter referred to as LNS) in the environmental monitoring center, and access to the internal network. Measured in the telecommunications L2TP access concentrator configuration (L2TP Access Concentrator, hereinafter referred to as LAC). Users using Four-Faith 4G/3G wireless router F3X34 for L2TP protocol dialing, establish a VPN tunnel between the user and the environmental monitoring center to data transmission. Their network topology as shown below.

On-site data acquisition equipment

Monitor center

Router

Concentrator

Network

Base station

Tunnel

F3x34 router

On-site data acquisition equipment

      This 3G wireless VPDN access can be widely used in somewhere need remote access to the enterprises, such as enterprise remote offices, mobile acceptance business, remote data acquisition, etc., can greatly improve the efficiency of enterprises and level of information. In this case the user using Four-Faith 4G/3G wireless router F3X34 as wireless VPDN access, not only for the enterprise to save a huge amount of network costs, convenient, flexible, rapid deployment approach also praised by the Environmental Protection Agency, the next step is to provide a technical basis to improve monitoring range of the Environmental Protection Agency.

On-site application

 

On-site application

Four-Faith’s vision of a smart city

There is no one universally accepted definition of a smart city, but all of them have something in common: they are cities that make the most out of technology. Four-Faith’s concept is quite flexible and our aim is to provide solutions which suit the needs of every urban environment.

Four-Faith(Wireless Industrial Router) is trying to boost a change in the way that citizens interact with their cities thanks to more efficient services. This is a factor which fits in with the current economic crisis and which coincides with the moment where technology for smart cities is reaching a certain level of maturity.

We offer a service model rather than a model based on investment. So much more can be done with the money that cities currently spend on services. Four-Faith doesn’t just look to implement technology, but to improve services thanks to it.

Following our vision, we have seen that services in cities are isolated. Rather than working together, they are independent from each other. The way to manage these services used to be through dedicated resources: a number of people, of trucks, etc. Four-Faith supports a more transversal approach. We offer a platform that enables the City Council to have a complete vision of all the services that it provides which is focused on results which is what matters, not on resources. If the city is clean, who really cares about the number of trucks that pick up litter? Our city platform makes the exchange of information possible for optimal decision-making.

There are many examples which illustrate integration. One of them is the integration between weather stations and irrigation systems. It allows parks and gardens to be irrigated only when it is necessary. This can save up to 20% in water.

Since we are one of the few players which are able to offer end-to-end solutions, we also provide the City Council with vertical systems, such as smart parkings, waste management, public lighting, building efficiency (that gets energy costs savings around 30% for our customers)... Everything depends on the particular needs of each city. A smart city doesn’t happen overnight. The City Council decides the starting point of what is in reality a never-ending process.

Four-Faith’s vision of a smart city

There is no one universally accepted definition of a smart city, but all of them have something in common: they are cities that make the most out of technology. Four-Faith’s concept is quite flexible and our aim is to provide solutions which suit the needs of every urban environment.

Four-Faith(Wireless Industrial Router) is trying to boost a change in the way that citizens interact with their cities thanks to more efficient services. This is a factor which fits in with the current economic crisis and which coincides with the moment where technology for smart cities is reaching a certain level of maturity.

We offer a service model rather than a model based on investment. So much more can be done with the money that cities currently spend on services. Four-Faith doesn’t just look to implement technology, but to improve services thanks to it.

Following our vision, we have seen that services in cities are isolated. Rather than working together, they are independent from each other. The way to manage these services used to be through dedicated resources: a number of people, of trucks, etc. Four-Faith supports a more transversal approach. We offer a platform that enables the City Council to have a complete vision of all the services that it provides which is focused on results which is what matters, not on resources. If the city is clean, who really cares about the number of trucks that pick up litter? Our city platform makes the exchange of information possible for optimal decision-making.

There are many examples which illustrate integration. One of them is the integration between weather stations and irrigation systems. It allows parks and gardens to be irrigated only when it is necessary. This can save up to 20% in water.

Since we are one of the few players which are able to offer end-to-end solutions, we also provide the City Council with vertical systems, such as smart parkings, waste management, public lighting, building efficiency (that gets energy costs savings around 30% for our customers)... Everything depends on the particular needs of each city. A smart city doesn’t happen overnight. The City Council decides the starting point of what is in reality a never-ending process.

Four-Faith will attend Shanghai International Exhibition on Electric Power Equipment and Technology

In recent years,with the support of national policy,the Internet of thing grows more and more hot and promotes the fast development of the smart grid application in China.China’s smart grid emphasizes on the six steps of power generation, power transmission,power transformation,power distribution.power utilization and power dispatch in the power system.It is based on the communication platform and possesses with the features of informatization,digitization,automation and interaction.

   As a specialist of the internet of thing M2M wireless communication,Four-Faith’s industrial wireless communication products and software platforms have widely used in the power supply of solar energy and wind energy monitoring,distribution line monitoring,feeder monitoring,reactive compensation,switches on pillars,electrombile charging spots monitoring,intelligent meter reading and so on.Four-Faith wireless communication devices effectively supply the important technical support for every link of the grid,realization in stable information safety,reliable transmission,coordination handling,uniformed services and application integration.Four-Faith have gained good reputation from the partners in the smart grid field.

   2013 Shanghai International Exhibition on Electric Power Equipment and Technology(2013 International Exhibition on Electric Automation Equipment and Technology) which is hosted by China Electricity Council will be held in the Shanghai World Expo Exhibition& Convention Center(Hall 1,Hall 2) from Oct.30 to Nov.1.It is a old-line,largest and most powerful power show in the domestic electric power industry,with the area of 35,000 square meters and 1000 exhibitors at home and abroad.Four-Faith will attend this distinguished exhibition with 4G/3G wireless communication routers,IP modem(DTU),ZigBee embedded module and the application solution of the internet of thing in smart gird.,display completely the newest wireless communication technology and application solution.We sincerely invite the new and old customers,integration businessman,project businessman and professionals to visit our booth and guide,for promoting  the update and development of some  related intelligent application and realizing the huge economic and social benefits together.

Date:Oct.30 ---Nov. 1

Add:No.1099 Guo Zhan Road,Pudong New Area,Shanghai World Expo Exhibition& Convention Center(Opposite China Pavilion)

Booth:2H32(Hall 2)

M2M technology gives us the chance of doing things better

The smart meter is the foundation of a smarter life. They will enable innovation in the smart and connected home creating new opportunities with remote and automatic climate control, enhanced security and intelligent purchasing.

It is the promise of the smart home that is getting consumers excited. A huge 87% want additional connected services with a smart meter and this demand will see connected devices in the home rise from four today to 16 in 2015 (via industrial HSPA router). It will also vault the global smart home market skywards with it jumping to $51 billion by 2020 (via Markets and Markets).

M2M is a great opportunity to play a major role in this transformation by becoming global leaders of this thriving, fascinating and dynamic industry. We feel privileged to have the opportunity to work on it.

So, besides providing flexible, global solutions to M2M necessities, we also have created this space for sharing. We want to bring this new reality of a connected world to our millions of clients around the world. It is our vocation and the main purpose of Four-Faith to improve the life or the people we care the most. And so, as part of this task, we believe it is of utmost importance to have a place to get the feedback from our customers.

In this blog, we hope to share our knowledge and experiences with clients, partners, suppliers and specialists, as well as this spirit of building the better world we want.

We trust this common knowledge will allow us to continue developing solutions and systems that improve the living quality of our cities, our life, our work and our spare time in them.

M2M technology gives us the chance of doing things better. Would you like to join us in our journey?

We know about wireless communication, more know about self-service terminal network

　　Vending machine is a sign of the level of city development, a common equipment of commercial automation. In developed country, vending machines cover all streets, with an average of 20 people have a vending machine, it becomes a kind of consumption habit. In China, rising rent has become the biggest cost of retailers, and the human cost is also more expensive, the characteristics of unattended, 24 hours of operation allow rapid development in China.

　　In the just-concluded  the 10th China Self-service & Vending Show exhibition, many domestic and foreign self-service terminal manufacturers show the newest self-service products, such as a self-lottery machine, self-vending machine, self-service coffee machine, self canteen vending machine, even for crab sales, gold sales, show the vitality and high popularity.

self-vending machine for gold sales

self-vending machine for lobster sales

　　Different from the traditional vending machine, these advanced automatic vending machines is a network terminal, operator can real-time monitor the operation, online payment, adjusting supply chain timely and promotional advertising in the touchscreen of each vending machine.

　　　Four-Faith is the first company to explore wireless communication technology applications in the field of financial and self-service by investing technology and resources. Provide powerful equipments and technical supports for independent research and development of IOT wireless communication router, M2M data transmission terminal for wireless network construction, security encryption, remote maintenance, supply chain management, advertising management.

　　　Four-Faith self-service wireless router, M2M data transmission terminal

　　　In this exhibition, Four-Faith displayed wireless router, DTU and so on, one-stop solution to all kinds of product demands and technical problems of self-service terminal wireless networking, widely accepted by many self-help terminal manufacturers and operators. During the 3 days of exhibition, Four-Faith booth is one of the most popular booth, communication products and self-service terminal networking solutions sold out within a day which are planed to spare 3 days.

　　New and old customers come to Four-Faith booth

Speed up informatization of chain of tea enterprise, Four-Faith WIFI shows strength

　　September 26th, Chain of Tea Enterprise Informatization Forum held in held in Fuzhou. The general assembly invited leading industry experts and Fujian tea industry elite, business executives to discuss the chain of tea enterprise informatization marketing. Xiamen Four-Faith Communication Technology Co., Ltd as the designated technical support to participate in the general assembly, and provided industrial WIFI router for it.

　　The congress focused on how to popularize the chain of tea enterprise informatization solution, raising the level of informatization of tea enterprises, through information technology to achieve enterprise informatization management, expand new media marketing means, open up e-commerce new sales channels and other aspects, bring new ideas for the enterprises in the aspects of management, cost saving, sales promotion.

      With the business development of tea enterprises, rapid expansion of chain stores, a major problem is derived: how to efficiently manage these stores? How to timely control the important data of sales, stock, in transit, distribution, payment collection? 

      Four-Faith 3G/4G wireless router F3X34 provide network access, can establish a connection of IPSEC between chain stores and headquarters, chain stores submit financial information, sales information to headquarters data server through IPSEC encryption, the headquarters use these data to do statistics, analysis, management, decision to realize effective remote management.

      In the meeting, the experts discuss about micro-marketing, one hundred audience participate in the interaction of micro-blog and micro-message by intelligent mobile phones, through Four-Faith industrial WIFI router can quickly receive stable signal, playing micro-blog and micro-message let the consumer process more easier and have more fun.

      With the maturity of 3G technology, communication requirements of the large chain stores also gradually improve, Four-Faith 3G/4G industrial wireless router has been successfully applied in many large tea chain stores network system, provide technical support for tea enterprise informatization promotion.

Speed up informatization of chain of tea enterprise, Four-Faith WIFI shows strength

　　September 26th, Chain of Tea Enterprise Informatization Forum held in held in Fuzhou. The general assembly invited leading industry experts and Fujian tea industry elite, business executives to discuss the chain of tea enterprise informatization marketing. Xiamen Four-Faith Communication Technology Co., Ltd as the designated technical support to participate in the general assembly, and provided industrial WIFI router for it.

　　The congress focused on how to popularize the chain of tea enterprise informatization solution, raising the level of informatization of tea enterprises, through information technology to achieve enterprise informatization management, expand new media marketing means, open up e-commerce new sales channels and other aspects, bring new ideas for the enterprises in the aspects of management, cost saving, sales promotion.

      With the business development of tea enterprises, rapid expansion of chain stores, a major problem is derived: how to efficiently manage these stores? How to timely control the important data of sales, stock, in transit, distribution, payment collection? 

      Four-Faith 3G/4G wireless router F3X34 provide network access, can establish a connection of IPSEC between chain stores and headquarters, chain stores submit financial information, sales information to headquarters data server through IPSEC encryption, the headquarters use these data to do statistics, analysis, management, decision to realize effective remote management.

      In the meeting, the experts discuss about micro-marketing, one hundred audience participate in the interaction of micro-blog and micro-message by intelligent mobile phones, through Four-Faith industrial WIFI router can quickly receive stable signal, playing micro-blog and micro-message let the consumer process more easier and have more fun.

      With the maturity of 3G technology, communication requirements of the large chain stores also gradually improve, Four-Faith 3G/4G industrial wireless router has been successfully applied in many large tea chain stores network system, provide technical support for tea enterprise informatization promotion.

What is a smart building with M2M industrial wireless router?

Smart buildings are much about energy saving. This is probably the main approach to the concept, but there are also other features that differentiate a ‘normal’ building from a smart one, such as security controls, the remote control of elevators and disaster prevention systems.

Energy saving is a fundamental issue because buildings consume more energy than transportation or industry sectors, accounting for nearly 40 percent of the total U.S. energy use, according to the U.S. Departament of Energy. This means that just a little effort in saving energy in each one would derive in a huge amount of resources. Also, there is an enormous room for improvement, up to 30 or 40 percent, depending of the kind of building.

There are many ways to achieve this. In Four-Faith’s main building in Santiago de Chile, for instance, we are developing a network of sensors that measure the consumption of air conditioning, central heating, light and energy in elevators to calculate the electrical performance of the building, and to be alerted when some device or system is wasting more than the usual amount of energy in order to take care of it. We estimate that the system is able to save up to 30% of energy.

There’s no point in having the air conditioning on if no one is in the room. This can be solved automatically without any human intervention thanks to M2M industrial wireless router . It is capable of monitoring each room and detecting whenever someone is there to act accordingly. 

Although many of the efforts to smarten buildings up is through ways to reduce energy consumption, there is a great variety of technologies that contribute to making a building more comfortable for anyone living or working there. Another pillar of a smart building lies in its  safety. A network of connected fire sensors monitored from a smart platform is one example. Surveillance cameras and connected elevators and escalators that can be managed remotely are others features of a smart building.

Putting customers at the heart of M2M industrial router

As I’m sure everyone is aware, we are in the middle of a Digital Revolution.  Yet as an industry we have this strange tendency of taking amazing, life changing & truly transformational innovations & trends and giving them strange names and odd descriptions!  We talk about the connecting things and regularly use terms like machine to machine or M2M (Industrial Router).  Yet the value for us as a business and for our customers isn’t around the connection but the benefits that it brings to help people in the everyday lives.

In life as human beings we are constantly searching for Meaning and Value. And it’s through this customer lens that I want to look at some of the most exciting developments in this digital revolution. Namely, “Big Data” and the “Internet of Things” or through my chosen lens, “Big Value” and the “Internet of Meaning.”

Why is this important? It isn’t just about changing the words but it’s about adopting a customer centric approach rather than one that is technology focused.  It enables us to look at the real customer benefits that we can bring to life to help customers in this new digital world and not to talk about the technology or number of connections.

The traditional way of looking at the industry is by reference the 50billion potential connections, a possible $1.2trillion opportunity and the 25% year on year growth. Now these are big, impressive numbers without a doubt but let’s approach this in a different way and view it through our customer lens. What really inspires me and stirs my imagination is how all this maximises some very different statistics. Think about what this means for you and me – the number of seconds each and every one of us has available each and every year – 31 ½ million give or take!  That’s an impressive stat in itself but now times it by 7 billion people and counting. Think about how much data we are capable of creating and what we could enable.  Now that’s truly a big number which means every second really does count.

So the issue becomes not how much data we produce - how” big” the data is if you like - but how we use it. How can we use the potential of an increasingly connected world and the rich data that it provides us with to ultimately add value and meaning to people’s lives?

To create the “Internet of Meaning”, we need firstly need to make it simple for customers so that it becomes a catalyst for adoption and enjoyment. It’s about building relationships, NOT enabling transactions. To do this we need to deliver benefits that the customer values. And they need to be accessible by everyone. So that it benefits the daily lives – at work and at home.

Big data sounds complicated. It sounds vast. It’s conceptually challenging to envision how this new world will add meaning and value. We need to provide a personal touch, the reassuring feeling that the system and the sensors are serving and understanding the way we work and interact as people in an intelligent way. And we need to broaden accessibility so that it really does achieve its potential.  Accessibility will be a significant factor in both adding value to the network - the greater the crowd, the greater the wisdom - and for guiding the sustainability and healthy development of the “Internet of Meaning”. 

In Conclusion... It’s a truly exciting time and we are in the middle of a digital revolution.  Everyone agrees that the scale will be huge. What's coming is a perfect storm where the systems, software and capability come together to build a connected and more social world.  More and more people and devices are getting connected every day. Devices are getting smarter, costs are going down and availability is going up. Applying a customer lens, success for us all will be measured by how much we enrich people’s lives by delivering Meaning and Value.

All around M2M data

M2M generates a big amount of data. On the one hand, all connected devices provide us with a lot of information. On the other hand, we are constantly seeing predictions and estimations about how many millions of things are connected, how many will eventually be connected and how much money this business generates. Here’s an overview of what’s happening in the machine-to-machine industry.

Data regarding the industry varies according to different studies. Four-Faith (M2M industrial wireless router ) states that 80 things per second are being connected to the internet. By 2020, more than 250 things will be connected every second. This makes a total of more than 50 billion things which will be connected to the internet by this year. This is a huge number, but lower than the one that IDATE gives. They assure that 15 billion objects were connected to the Internet in 2012. In 2020, there will be 80 billion, according to IDATE.

If we center ourselves on vehicles, Strategy Analytics estimates that by 2017 there will be 140 million connected cars on the road globally. This seems like realistic data taking into account that there are currently around 3 million vehicles that are directly connected to the data centers of only one manufacturer: BMW.

Taking a brief look at the industry of POS terminals, Berg Insight forecasts that the base of cellular terminals that will be installed will grow at a compound annual growth rate of 21.4 percent between 2011 and 2017. They will reach 29.4 million units worldwide by 2017. This is just another example of the huge amounts of connections per sector that exist.

At home, data is not so impressive, but if we add all the homes of a given country, we realise that  the predicted 50 internet-connected devices there will be in each one by 2022 is also an important number.

And, what about money? Operators are already generating strong revenue in this sector, amounting to $10 billion worldwide in 2013, and increasing to $88 billion by 2023, according to Analysys Mason. If we look at the big picture, which doesn’t strictly include connected devices, the amount grows: an analysis from Frost & Sullivan reveals a $3.3 trillion market potential in smart cities by 2025, including infrastructure development, technology integration, and energy and security services.