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future years.
The potential benefits of adopting
the IIoT in terms of increased
productivity alone mean its rise is
realistically inevitable. Secondary to
that, the possible impact of having so
much performance data at hand could
provide an exponential improvement
in the cost-effectiveness of all future
industrial applications.
The first step on that journey will
be connecting existing devices to
cloud-based services, and wireless
connectivity in the form of pre-
certified modules is emerging as
the frontrunner in realising that
goal. With a wide range of modules
available and, undoubtedly, more
on the way, enabling your existing
and future industrial applications
to benefit from the IIoT could be
almost a ‘Plug & Play’ process.
Figure 4: The ERIC9-FCC module
access to wireless connectivity,
making it simple to design-in or
add-on to equipment operating in
an industrial environment. However,
sometimes the range needed may
extend beyond that offered by PAN
and W-LAN technologies, while the
bandwidth required could still be
relatively modest (a few hundred
bytes of data on an infrequent basis).
In these applications, a wireless
solution operating in the sub-1GHz
band might be more applicable.
The ERIC9-FCC module is part of
the ‘easy Radio Intelligent Controller
‘ (eRIC) range from LPRS. It
operates in the 868MHz range for
use in the UK and Europe, or the
915MHz range for use in the USA
and Canada, and is also pre-certified
to ETSI (Europe) and FCC (USA)
requirements. Instead of using an
IEEE protocol, LPRS has developed
its own easyRadio protocol, which
comes embedded in the module
along with the easyRadio operating
system which abstracts away the
complexity of running a wireless
connection, leaving the end user
with the simpler task of accessing
the functionality using predefined
functions. The surface-mount
device measures just 15mm by
20mm by 2.2mm and includes AES
128bit data encryption and a built-in
temperature sensor.
Conclusion
The Industrial Internet of Things
forms part of the larger ‘Internet
of Everything’ but it is a significant
part; some analyst figures suggest
it could represent more than half of
what will be considered the IoT in
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