Falling prices drive M2M advances across several fronts

8 September 2004 News

Peer-to-peer networks offering advanced monitoring and control capabilities are redefining the opportunities for pushing intelligence to the network edge.

According to ABI Research's principal analyst, Erik Michielsen, these developments grew out of a 'fourth wave' of information technology, in which microprocessors are used increasingly as embedded controllers. Now, he says, distributed sensor networks provide the communications necessary to supply realtime information across enterprises. The costs of wireless modules and sensor-driven solutions are now falling to a point at which many more organisations can justify them, for monitoring and control of assets or people. The payoff, says Michielsen, is in an immediate ROI.

These machine-to-machine (M2M) solutions span several technologies, each of which is optimised for particular types of use. For users, it is a matter of understanding the fundamentals of each in order to get the most out of its deployment. RFID is best suited to access control, and asset and supply chain tracking. Mesh and sensor networks work well for both mobile - dedicated short range communications (DSRC) - and non-mobile (cellular M2M) monitoring and control, across industrial, automotive, life sciences, retail, consumer goods, and other markets. GPS can expand the enterprise's knowledge of its assets' physical location anywhere.

In the latest phase of M2M's development, Michielsen says that giant companies such as IBM and Siemens, Microsoft and Oracle are investing heavily (or considering investment) in this market, and are teaming with what he calls 'an army of third party application developers and integrators' to continue this process of moving these capabilities out of the 'IT silo' and distributing them around the network.

ABI Research has released a new report that documents how data-driven wireless machine-to-machine communications are creating new opportunities for the existing cellular value chain as well as new equipment manufacturers and end-market customers.

www.abiresearch.com

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