Communication-driven products will surround us

Within ten years, as many as 50 billion connected devicles will communicate over the net. This means that mobile data traffic will increase by a factor of 39 according to Cisco’s forecasts. Embedded systems form the core of communication-driven products. And embedded systems also form the core of infrastructure products. Consequently, the underlying demand for Enea’s products and services is clearer than ever.

Communication is more than telecom. In a number of areas, communication-driven products have, or will, change our day-to-day lives.

Households will not only be connected through their computers and phones. In many homes, there are already several entertainment devices that communicate both between one another and externally. To enhance security, sensors can warn of rising freezer temperature and domestic alarm systems can send live video images. Heating, sun-protection awnings and ventilation can be controlled remotely to increase comfort and reduce energy consumption.

Consumer electronics is another category where we can already see numerous communicating products. This can involve everything from game consoles, where users can play against others or download new games, to cameras that upload back-up copies of photographs to a server or to training equipment that transmits the user’s results to a computer where the results can be analyzed and compared with others’.

In the transport sector, a trucking company can see where its trucks are in real time, enabling the enhancement of its logistics; mobile phones can be used to find unoccupied parking spots nearby, automated toll stations can register passing vehicles and cars can transmit a tracing signal if reported stolen.

Healthcare is an area where a large amount of technology has been developed that can both increase patient security and cut treatment times. This can involve portable units that transmit ECG data, blood sugar levels and other test results directly to the patient’s physician automated communications between ambulances and hospitals, enabling advance preparation of care measures for acutely sick patients.

At the community level, the technology can be used to improve traffic safety by means of automated alarms and surveillance functions, to even out loads in the electricity network or to compile data in emergency situations, such as video footage and still images that can then be used by rescue personnel, enhancing the efficiency of their efforts.

These examples are just a drop in the ocean of possibilities offered by new technologies. Common to all of these examples is the fact that they are driving development in two entirely different ways that together increase the demand for Enea’s products and services: they increase the number of units with embedded systems and they contribute to increased data traffic, requiring telecom infrastructure investment.

Fifty billion connected devices

There are currently about five billion mobile phones in the world. But, as the examples we have seen demonstrate, it is not only mobile phones that communicate. A rapidly expanding area is Machine-to-Machine, or M2M, where devices and machines communicate with one another without that communication having to be initiated by people.

Some analysts predict that within a few years, two out of three mobile connections will be made by machines  communicating with other machines. That is twice as many machines as people communicating. Ericsson, which is Enea’s largest customer, predicts that there will be 50 billion connected devices in the world by 2020.

These will contain some form of circuit board with one or more core processors. And, for the unit to be able to work, one or more operating systems are needed as well as other kinds of software. Enea’s software is designed specifically for embedded systems and the special requirements such systems impose on operating systems and supplementary software. Furthermore, Enea has more than 40 years of experience of offering consultancy services in areas including embedded systems and communication in sectors including telecom, aerospace/defense, automotive and medical equipment

Infrastructure investment

The increasing number of communication-driven products is driving traffic in the telecommunications networks. It is mainly laptop computers and smartphones that account for the large amounts of data traffic. The proportion of smartphones is expected to rise, from about a third of mobile phones in the western world today to about half of the mobile phones in three years from now. Each smartphone generates ten times more network traffic than feature phones and some smartphones generate 30 times the amount of traffic. Portable computers generate as much as 1,300 times as much traffic as a feature phone. And that figure does not apply solely to traditional portable computers but also to other types of devices with similar capacity, such as tablets and handheld computers.

According to Cisco, data traffic is forecast to increase by a factor of 39 over a five-year period, which is equivalent to traffic doubling every year. At work and at home, but most of all as we move around in our communities, we demand that connections work. Even today, 25 to 45 percent of all data traffic is used by units outside the home or workplace. This all imposes entirely new demands on telecom networks being able to handle increasing data quantities in a fast and reliable way.

Most of the growth towards 50 billion connected devices is expected to be driven by increased use in the business sector and for public service functions. The increase of data traffic in the telecom networks is however driven by new consumer behaviors, leading to increasing demands on infrastructure. Within five years, it is estimated that about three fourths of all data traffic will be used by consumers. And it is the data-intensive services, such as streaming of video and music that are expected to account for the largest quantities of data.

For telecom operators and suppliers of network equipment, this entails increased demand for additional base stations, switches, routers and other network equipment. Not only is more equipment of this type needed, it must also be able to handle larger quantities of data while there will be continued pressure to lower prices per megabyte transferred via the networks.

For Enea, this opens up several opportunities. On the one hand, a base station can contain several hundred hardware boards that, in turn, require operating systems. However, price pressure on hardware is also an opportunity for Enea. If the number of hardware boards can be decreased by increasing the number of core processors on each board (multiple cores per circuit board = multicore), the cost of the hardware can be reduced.

Enea is one of the best companies in the world when it comes to operating systems for multicore. This is another area where Enea has the best consultants, able to deal with all aspects from application development, systems design and testing to assuming responsibility for entire development projects.

The world is facing a major transition that will affect how we, and the devices we surround ourselves with, communicate. With its extensive experience in these areas, Enea will take advantage of the opportunities this brings and will be a key player in the transition to a simpler, more secure and more communicative daily life.