Reinventing IoT connectivity in remote areas

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Connectivity is at the heart of society and business. In cities and many rural areas, the connectivity of the Internet of Things (IoT) is an essential part of daily life. It enables buildings to be ‘smart’, vehicle fleets to be monitored and the data from wearable medical devices to be sent to medical practitioners.

But internet connectivity doesn’t easily extend everywhere. There are large areas of desert, mountains and sea where the internet and the IoT do not reach. And yet these places still require communications: for example, to check the proper operation of equipment in remote parts of the world or to track the position of ships as they cross the oceans.

Satellite communications

Even where communication cables do not reach, there is still communication. The IoT can be carried over terrestrial networks using terrestrial technology. But there is a downside. Cellular technology relies on communication towers, which can be expensive, difficult to build and maintain, and prone to natural disasters or technical failures. And while long-range radio does not need such a closely packed network, it still needs internet towers and faces other issues such as intermittent connectivity and a lack of global standardisation.

Satellites are more useful for global communications as they provide almost total global coverage, far broader than terrestrial networks. But satellites are expensive to build, launch and operate. As a result, traditional satellite communication is expensive – too expensive for many IoT applications.

There is however a low-cost satellite solution that can suit IoT applications: low earth orbit (LEO) satellites. It requires less energy to place a satellite into a low earth orbit because, needing smaller antennas, they can be smaller than geostationary earth orbit satellites (GEO). Because of this cost advantage, LEO satellites are used for many communication applications.

Introducing Astrocast

One business that is taking full advantage of LEO satellites to deliver a global IoT service is Astrocast. Founded in 2014 by alumni of EPFL in Lausanne, and employing more than 80 people, Astrocast is the first Swiss satellite operator. Astrocast is also the only new space satellite IoT (SatIoT) player to build and operate its own network of satellites.

Astrocast uses nanosatellites: satellites weighing less than 5kg and equivalent in size to a large shoebox. These are less expensive to launch than typical communications satellites; a normal satellite is the size of a truck and very expensive to put into orbit. Astrocast’s nanosatellites are equipped with propulsion and deorbiting functions that give the operators control of the entire network should communication requirements change, along with the ability to avoid (admittedly unlikely) collisions with space debris.

Astrocast spent seven years developing this technology, which allows companies to connect with equipment and vehicles in remote areas of the globe where the cellular telephone network isn’t available – some 85 per cent of the planet’s surface.

Global tracking

Astrocast’s technology has many potential functions. For example, it can be used to track ships around the world. Cargo ships normally have tracking devices that only operate when they are close to a terrestrial network, generally when they are near the coast. However, most cargo ships don’t operate near the coast and shipping lines need to receive information about the condition of their cargo at least once a day. Using terrestrial networks doesn’t allow for this.

In contrast, Astrocast’s current constellation of 10 satellites can deliver four to six messages a day, to or from any point, offering a low-cost solution to this problem. This is more efficient than continuous communication for situations where you don’t need to be (or can’t be) there quickly, making it suitable for the management of equipment in remote locations. Take the example of a water-treatment plant in a remote location. The water filters will need regular, but not hourly, monitoring. Sending someone to check on the filters every day would be prohibitively expensive. Instead, nanosatellites can be used to conduct regular checks on whether the equipment is working properly, with people visiting the plant only when necessary.

Bidirectional communications

Another advantage of Astrocast’s system is that it is bidirectional: you can send and receive messages, such as an acknowledgement that a message has been received. This is important as, for many devices that operate on battery power in remote locations, such as a device monitoring environmental conditions for a farmer, power consumption is a critical factor. With bidirectional signalling, an automatic acknowledgement can stop unnecessary messages from draining the battery of a remote device. This feature also allows for commands to be sent to assets such as the deployment of security patches and software updates.

Some of these functionalities can also be found at existing legacy satellite companies, but one major difference is the price. Traditional legacy satellite communication is very expensive, but Astrocast’s unique services are up to three times less costly.

This is not just because nanosatellites are less expensive to build and launch. It is also because they use less power. Astrocast’s Astronode S has a peak power consumption of less than 0.35W, making it the lowest available in the market and with an energy consumption similar to terrestrial IoT networks.

As well as being a low-power, cost-efficient network, Astrocast has increased reliability through its use of the L-band radio spectrum (from 1GHz to 2GHz). This is the most efficient spectrum for satellite IoT because L-band radios have superior performance characteristics, including better propagation and fewer interference risks than other bands. In other words, the Astrocast network means regular, reliable contact at a far lower cost than traditional satellite technology.

The future of IoT communications

Astrocast is transforming the potential of the IoT by making it available beyond terrestrial coverage. And because its business model is based on data consumption, it is opening doors for companies that want to scale their communications as needed.

The company also has a strong focus on sustainability. As well as its lower power use, Astrocast has pre- and post-launch procedures in place that use propulsion and active deorbiting for collision avoidance and to reduce space debris: these are not industry mandatory but are taken because they reflect the company’s values. This attention to environmental issues has led to some innovative and important climate initiatives. For example, one Astrocast customer is placing a tiny and non-invasive satellite communications device on turtles so that data about the water condition can be sent whenever the turtle surfaces.

Around 30 million devices will be connected to satellites by 2025 and Astrocast’s innovative business model supports its ambitious plans to take on 25 per cent of these, with a strong emphasis on market verticals in shipping, land and transport, mining, oil and gas, agriculture and environmental monitoring.

With low-cost, low-power, bidirectional IoT communications that can operate in all weather conditions, Astrocast is changing the way that businesses of all sizes think about the potential of the IoT.

Learn more about Astrocast’s satellite IoT services at astrocast.com

Originally published on Business Reporter