I was contemplating the relationship of sensors to cellular solutions in the M2M space. It seems that the ratio is about 5 to 1, sensors to mobile enabled sensors. I bring this up because I am trying to size up the opportunity to deliver M2M specifically with cellular.

What constitutes a M2M mobile market opportunity in M2M from an application perspective? 

--Security can be associated with alarming and surveillance. It can also represent things remote monitoring family members and pets.

--Transportation with fleet management, telematics and toll payments it can also include emissions controls and road safety. “Amber” alerts are a form of digital signage.

--Healthcare with telemedicine and biosensors also includes a new class of medical products and pills.

--Utilities are so much more that Smart Grid with water, and gas and of course the management of weather and natural disasters.

--Manufacturing with automation and workflow solutions followed by all of logistics management and supply

And the list goes on. All of these are valid markets. However, the problem that intrigues me is the in the interface between devices and networks.

For many of these systems enough power exists and the density is so low that cellular/satellite are the only strategies that make sense. However there are costs in those deliveries. 

At a time when 4G is talking about dual mode and femtocells surely a gateway opportunity exists.

For many of the market opportunities a hybrid model that goes from proximity based solutions like Zigbee and Bluetooth to cellular are probable.

Interdigital recently hosted a meeting of the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) in the US specifically about M2M.

To quote the press release:

“InterDigital (News - Alert) demonstrated a working prototype of an end-to-end architecture that interconnects cellular and non-cellular (e.g. WPAN, WLAN) networks seamlessly, using the cellular network to remotely manage and control both cellular and non-cellular M2M devices. This architecture is being standardized within ETSI (News - Alert) in order to enable a broad range of M2M applications in vertical markets such as smart energy, healthcare, transportation, and security. The standardization of service platforms and application programming interfaces (APIs) creates a much needed and attractive way for cellular operators to capitalize on the boom in wireless M2M deployments.”

The key take away here to me is that work is being done to get to a standardized platform at the crux of the market. 

When I listen to presentations, I always try to listen to what problems people are trying to solve. In this case I know. The problem is that scale cannot be achieved if the gateway between the edge and the network is hardwired to either vision. 

It leads to stovepipe solutions. If gateways can deliver standard interfaces than the apps will be easier to develop and the market will expand beyond our expectations. If you want to impact these standards please contact David Bostwarthick.