EMAIL INTERVIEW – Sohrab Modi and Ken Sinclair

Sohrab Modi, Chief Technology Officer, is responsible for leading Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) technical strategy at Echelon Corp. An experienced technical executive, he holds a bachelor’s degree in physics from the University of Mumbai and a master’s degree in computer science from the Rochester (N.Y.) Institute of Technology.

Contact him at smodi@echelon.com

The Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) is the next big wave in commercial building automation. Accenture recently released research forecasting that the IIoT could drive many trillions of dollars in economic growth worldwide in the next 15 years.

We asked Sohrab Modi, Chief Technology Officer of Echelon Corp., a leader in IIoT device connectivity, about some of the challenges and opportunities in commercial building automation and the IIoT.

Sinclair:  How is the Industrial IoT different from the consumer IoT?

Sinclair:  How would you characterize the higher-level promise of the IIoT in building automation? Put another way, why is the IIoT even worth pursuing?

Sinclair:  Are there any historical models for this kind of convergence?

Modi:  Absolutely. The computer networking world of the 1980s and 1990s saw the convergence of previously siloed systems when mainframes, minicomputers and personal computers converged with the beginnings of the Internet and the World Wide Web. We all know the impact that the web has had.

But the impact of the IoT and IIoT is expected to be even greater. In an October 2014 article in the Harvard Business Review, Simona Jankowski of Goldman Sachs provided the following context:

• The Internet of the 1990s connected approximately one billion personal computer users.
• The Internet of the 2000s connected two billion users via smartphones, on its way to six billion users.
• The IoT is expected to connect 28 billion ‘things’ to the Internet by 2020.

Sinclair:  What are some of the practical challenges in integrating older technology with the new?

Modi:  Automation within buildings is still very fragmented. Lighting, security, HVAC, elevator and other systems each have their own networks, their own protocols, and their own sets of data they collect and use.

When you talk about the IIoT, you’re adding other layers of activities and technologies that include sensing, computing, communications, analytics and automated actions. When each of these technologies remains separate from the others, it’s not possible to have a fully functioning IIoT.

Melding the worlds of OT and IT presents significant challenges, largely because so many OT devices were put in place before IP was implemented broadly, or at all. Additionally, many of these existing devices, such as sensors, are very small. IP-enabling these small devices—adding the IP stack, security and other technologies—can be impossible or prohibitively expensive.

Unfortunately, many of the things that are easy to interconnect with IP have already been connected. In general, the easy interconnections include anything to which a cellular connection or Wi-Fi radio can be attached. Connecting things that can’t support these interfaces—which includes a long list of building automation devices—is much harder.

For instance:

• The value of connecting most lighting fixtures is less than the cost of the Wi-Fi or cellular radio, so it doesn’t make economic sense to try integrating them with an IP-based IIoT network.
• Many devices are not suited to radio connections due to their requirements for high levels of reliability and security. As I mentioned earlier, those are core characteristics of the IIoT.
• Any environment with harsh physical conditions, which again is common in IIoT situations, presents challenges to easy connectivity. Devices located in very hot or humid environments, or encased in concrete or underground, are often incompatible with Wi-Fi and radio signals.

[an error occurred while processing this directive]Sinclair:  For those interested in jumping on the IIoT bandwagon, where should they start, and what should they keep in mind?

Modi:  It‘s important to keep in mind that the structural changes represented by the IIoT are on a par with the industrial revolution. What’s happening is nothing less than the creation of entirely new ecosystems, based on networks being established peer-to-peer among industrial and commercial devices; between humans and industrial devices; and with the Internet. On a technical level, what allows these networks to coalesce is IP.

But as I mentioned earlier, it’s not enough to stick Wi-Fi and cellular radios onto various devices, collect data and call it an IIoT solution.

It’s premature to lay out step-by-step instructions for turning building automation solutions into IIoT solutions, but here are some things to consider.

Following the model of previous convergence examples, the IIoT convergence building blocks are expected to be:

• IP all the way to the device level
• Coexistence of wireless and Ethernet networking
• Developer enablement
• Cloud computing
• Big data gathering and analytics

When evaluating potential IIoT solutions, parameters to consider include:

• IP everywhere, as a way of merging OT and IT networks
• Multiprotocol support
• Support for both wired and wireless communications