Nuts and Volts - August 2012

OPENCOMMUNICATION

THE LATEST IN NETWORKING AND WIRELESS TECHNOLOGIES

■ BY LOUIS E. FRENZEL W5LEF M2M Machine-to-Machine Communications The Next Big Thing

Electronic communications has always been about humans communicating with one another whether it is by radio, TV, ham radio, email, texting, or Skyping. All the while — in the background — there has been an ongoing expansion of communications between machines or non-human objects. This movement is known as machine-to-machine (M2M) communications. Think of it as communications in the background because we don't usually see it or feel it in any way. It just happens as it does the specific job assigned to it. Now, because of low cost wireless and other forms of electronic communications, M2M is a rapidly growing phenomenon. It may be affecting you now, and in the future it will certainly have a positive impact on your life.

JUST WHAT IS M2M?

M2M is essentially automatic communications between two “things.” An example is a vending machine sending data to a remote computer indicating that it needs refilling and the money box needs emptying. Or, it could be a remote oil pipeline sending a temperature or flow rate reading back to a pumping station. Another instance is a truck sending its location back to the home

office via GPS coordinates. Then, there is the air quality sensor sending data back to a monitoring station that can give an alert. The list goes on. All of these operations take place without human interaction. Although, at some point, a human does benefit in some way from the communicated data. The more recognizable name for such communications is telemetry. Telemetry is the science of measuring things at a distance. It is generally associated with measurements on a missile or satellite. Measurements in a chemical plant are another example. Again, the goal is data collection from a remote location. In some cases, feedback control can take place automatically. The whole idea of M2M is automated remote monitoring and control. Wireless and wired methods of communications make that possible, but that’s not all. Because we have computers, such systems can make decisions and initiate actions without human interaction. The computers may be large fast PCs, but today embedded microcontrollers are small enough and cheap enough to build into any device no matter how

■ FIGURE 1. The Sierra wireless SL6087 GSM/GPRS module for M2M applications. The dimensions are only 25 x 30 x 2. 65 mm, making it easy to embed into the smallest products.