November
NEXT BIG KILLER-APP: M2M (MACHINE-TO-MACHINE)
7, 2011
Overview
M2M as a technology is about to experience an unprecedented revival of interest in its
commercialization on potentially countless type of practical M2M applications with the prediction of
phenomenal market demands and will be affecting all areas of our lives.
The condition for innovation and productization of M2M Apps over-the-air, over-the-wire or overpower-lines is ripe and ready and the consumer market’s appetite for “all-Things-Internet” will only
increase with time. With approximately 5 billion people already connected in the mobile communication
arena, the wireless phone market is becoming saturated and highly competitive. Finding a differentiated
edge is paramount for wireless network and service providers to move into the next phase of new
service creation and revenue source.
The advent and gradual adoption of IPv6 with its astronomical addressable units is a solid stepping stone
as well as a springboard for M2M. Without it, trying to identify billions of endpoint devices easily would
very much be a hard problem to solve, indeed.
Wired and Wireless Land and Mobile Network convergence and seamless mobility for the mobile phone
segment of the communication industry has paved the way to a much broader range of vertical
applications for a variety of industries that are heading towards building autonomous self-organizing
networks (SON).
With 3G and now 4G LTE aiming at being ubiquitous in the near future, the cost of moving a byte is
cheaper than ever and the ARPB (average revenue per byte) is going up. Cost of bandwidth still matters
however, as a formidable business overhead for MNOs and MVNOs alike. They need new infusions of
value-added services to sustain a more consistent growth rate with low investment, low churn and
higher ROI.
The M2M market presents a whole new avenue for green field deployments in all areas of a “connected
world” view.
Main Requirements
Standardization is key to M2M interoperability. The stakeholders must come together with
requirements from their respective industry and build standards not unlike the Wireless standards that
are in use today. Off-the-shelf plug-n-play efficiency and lower total cost of ownership (TCO) are also
common features for considerations.
Here are a few main requirements:

Design and architecture need to address the mobility attribute specifically for M2M devices. It
tends to be low to none or only in a bounded region.
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NEXT BIG KILLER-APP: M2M (MACHINE-TO-MACHINE)
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
M2M events detection is needed as a main functionality in addition to device and traffic flow
performance and safety monitoring.

Take into consideration that small amount of data exchanges between M2M devices and M2M
server/service is usually frequent and at pre-defined time intervals.

Take into consideration the non-time-critical nature of M2M data transfers between M2M
devices and M2M servers and the potentially massive volume of bytes arriving simultaneously to
the server for processing.

Network operator must support packet-switched services with or without an MSISDN.

Detection mechanisms must be in place for indicating ‘Offline’ when M2M device is
disconnected from the network and timely reporting of ‘Jamming’ when M2M device is being
jammed due to broadband interference.

Priority Alarm Message (PAM) service is required for immediate reporting of theft or vandalism.

Group categorization of M2M devices based on feature types is essential for automatic device
discovery and bulk provisioning and processing.

Location based services for pre-defined triggers to associated actions via M2M devices.

All communication connections must be secured especially via roaming operators and from a
global perspective.

The wired and wireless system as a whole needs to be made more efficient for M2M
applications where low power consumption (e.g. optimum performance per-watt-density), low
mobility and a small form factor for M2M embedded modules are usually required.

M2M as SaaS (Software as a Service) via cloud computing must take into consideration of
reserving huge storage space for data aggregation and the potentially longer period for data
retention.
Technical Challenges
M2M standards are just beginning to come together amidst a still very fragmented and proprietary
M2M market. Existing M2M applications are built with vertical stack architecture for dedicated single
applications often with proprietary communication stacks or simply making use of the AT command set
as the modem interface targeting specific industries such as remote health management, vehicle
tracking systems and smart grid metering which currently sit as islands and do not interoperate with
each other.
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NEXT BIG KILLER-APP: M2M (MACHINE-TO-MACHINE)
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To facilitate an efficient and easy-to-use mechanism for creating M2M enterprise applications needs a
mature and comprehensive M2M integrated development platform that allows for business-oriented
personnel to navigate and build applications without programming knowledge. A stable and robust
abstraction layer needs to function as the foundation with building blocks for value-added service
creation in M2M-ready networks.
Many M2M devices are equipped with low bandwidth and shorter range wireless technologies including
Bluetooth and Zigbee to higher bandwidth using GPRS, HSPA and the recent emergence of 3G M2M
devices with anticipation of the broader distribution of 4G M2M embedded modules and external
adaptors to come. The shelf life of these gears as installed base will last from 5 to 10 years on average
and lower bandwidth radio serves the need for most of the current M2M applications. Backward
compatibility and optimization for M2M implementations are critical and must still cover the range of
access technologies from RF, WiFi, 2.5G all the way to 4G/LTE-Advanced for the foreseeable future.
One of the form factors for M2M in an endpoint device is the UICC module. Existing UICC modules are
not up to task for best performance under rugged conditions in terms of more extreme temperatures,
humidity and in situations resembling a battle field in that hardened form factors are imperative. M2M
modules are largely characterized by having low processing power and little memory space. A small
footprint for the residing software is essential and can present a real constraint for data transfers,
processing, and message exchanges, parsing and data manipulation.
Strictly speaking, machine-to-machine communication implies zero human intervention. The system
needs to be cognitive and autonomous; being able to self-govern, self-diagnose, self-heal and selfoptimize are desirable M2M design end goals.
Architectural Goals
The “Internet of Things” reference architecture will encompass M2M functionalities overlaying existing
core network infrastructure with components bearing similar service layer capabilities. Connectivity
shall extend to non-conventional devices including home appliances, buildings, vehicles and containers,
monitoring and surveillance devices, recreational devices, telematics and sensors; applicable venues can
only be limited by imagination.
The content and context of an M2M application instance separating from application object models
presents themselves as resources in a hierarchical fashion is common in the design of RESTful
architectures. The core network and transport layers shall be agnostic to the different device types and
data transmission methods even with known limitations in transmission range and capacity, power
availability, spatial coverage and location.
Data mining techniques capable of efficiently handling massive amount of data generated by M2M
devices goes a long way. A horizontal and modular design on service capabilities for the service layer not
unlike the IMS’ (Internet Multimedia Subsystem) has been proposed and posit within each of the M2M
network component, namely the M2M device, M2M gateway and M2M server.
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Currently, this includes Application Enablement, Security, Generic Communication, Reachability,
Addressing and Repository, Remote Entity Management, Communication Selection (e.g. based on a
preferred carrier list or least cost routing table), Subscription Control, Compensation Broker (i.e. for
policy and charging), Telco Operator Exposure, Transaction Management, History and Data Retention
and Interworking Proxy. Service-oriented architecture (SoA) also suits well in supporting peer
communications among the service modules between the 3 main M2M network elements.
In order to leverage available spectrums and unlicensed bands in the emerging TV Whitespace (TVWS)
for over-the-air transmission and general efficiency for M2M applications, the PHY and MAC layers of
the M2M stack needs to be adjusted to cater to the M2M requirements especially in the wireless
personal access networking (WPAN) protocol domain.
For embedded Internet on the M2M module, protocols like HTTP, TCP/IP, XML and SOAP are not
designed for machine-type communications. A binary form of XML, EXI (Extensible XML Interchange) on
the other hand is designed to restrict the size of the module and optimize transmission. IETF’s CoAP
(Constrained Application Protocol) is another M2M-friendly protocol which simplifies signaling and
compress data packets to achieve smaller M2M application footprints.
Interpretive programming language like ’lua’ is a light weight and robust programming tool for M2M
devices; together with a recently completed lightweight remote device management protocol; the
Converged Personal Network Service (CPNS) module from OMA DM, they are offered as building tools
designed specifically for M2M and can make a big impact on device size, performance and robustness.
Connectionless transport protocol UDP is used with the option to request acknowledgment if desired.
Addressing and routing over IPv6 shall be made compatible with the requirements for low power and
lossy networks.
To provide scalability and extensibility, pushing M2M network intelligence to the edge so as to reduce
signaling and control traffic over the network is recommended. It needs to strike a delicate balance
however, with what little resources a M2M device may have to carry out required processing. M2M
gateway plays the role of providing core functionalities such as Threshold checking, Least cost route
searching, etc. and act as an Aggregator Proxy for all traffic coming through from connected M2M
devices.
Current Standards
The ETSI (European Telecommunication Standards Committee) TS 102 series specifications cover M2M
requirements, functionalities, architectural components and use cases for vertical application types such
as eHealth, City Automation and Smart Grids. At the heart of these specifications is a strategy to reuseby-modification existing networking components to suit the requirements of M2M.
3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) has started to address Machine-Type Communication (MTC)
since Release 10 and its latest draft on Systems Improvements for Machine-Type Communication TR
23.888 is well on its way to rectification. The major components are the MTC Application, MTC Server,
MTC-IWF (Interworking Function) and the MTC module on endpoint devices. Associated interfaces
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include MTCsp, MTCsms, MTCi and MTCu. Together with the TS 37 series on Multiple radio access
technology aspects, 3GPP’s progress made on M2M is now catching up and in parallel to ETSI's.
OMA (Open Mobile Alliance) is also well positioned to adopt M2M with a new service enabler module,
Converged Personal Network Service (CPNS) designed for configuring, maintaining, monitoring and
updating M2M devices in the categories of intelligent buildings, fleet management, sensor equipment
just to name a few. It is working with other major standard bodies on the subject including GSMA (GSM
Association), UPnP (Universal Plug-n-Play), DLNA (Digital Living Network Alliance) and ETSI (European
Telecommunications Standards Institute).
Reusing and overlaying of the existing OMA DM service enablers with M2M requirements fits the bill
nicely. Some of the mapped functionalities include but not limited to M2M’s NIP (Network Interworking
Proxy) to OMA’s CPNS (Converged Personal Network Service) and GwMO (Gateway Management
Object), TOE (Telco Operator Exposure) to XDM (XML Document Management), ParlayREST (Restful
bindings for Parlay X Web Services) and LOC (Location Based Services); M2M’s RAR (Reachability,
Addressing and Repository) to GwMO (Gateway Managed Object) and CPNS (Converged Personal
Network Service), as well as REM (Remote Entity Management) to FUMO (Firmware Update
Management Object), SCOMO (Software Component Management Object), DM (Device Management)
and GwMO (Gateway Management Object).
IETF (Internet Engineering Task Force) studied implications of Embedded Internet since 2007 with RFC
4919 (draft-ietf-6lowpan-problem) on 6LoWPAN (IPv6 over Low Power and Lossy Networks) and is
continuing that effort in the areas of defining a M2M web transfer protocol designed for contrained
networks, the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), Neighbor Discovery Optimization, Transmission
of IPv6 Packets over Low Energy access technologies e.g. Bluetooth and more. Another piece of
important work is on IPv6 Routing for Low power and Lossy Networks.
PTCRB as a global organization created by Mobile Network Operators to provide an independent
evaluation process where GERAN, UTRAN and E-TRAN device type Certification can take place has added
M2M devices to its service portfolio.
Along with DLMS (Device Language Message Specifications), a lightweight interpretive and embeddable
scripting language Lua is especially suited for rapid prototyping for M2M devices and is becoming an
M2M scripting language of choice.
The latest indication of M2M being the next if not the current Killer-App comes from the announcement
of the forming of an M2M Industry Working Group led by Sierra Wireless, Eclipse Foundation, IBM and
Eurotech to provide open source tools for M2M.
Explorations into how M2M relates to Cognitive Radio, SON (Self Organizing Network) and TV White
Space are yet some of the many pieces to the seamless connectivity and autonomous computing puzzle.
Role of the M2M operator
M2M network operators (MNOs), M2M virtual network operators (MVNOs) and Application Service
Providers (ASPs) are anticipating explosive growth of the M2M market and from it a major revenue
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source. MNO partnerships with carriers and software vendors to provide a complete end-to-end
solution for M2M customers allow early market entry in building a customer base that is more often
committed to a longer term relationship with their M2M service providers than mobile phone
customers. M2M customer presents relatively lower churn, lower cost to maintain and lower profit
margin than the mobile phone subscription business. This calls for a new business model that can be
scaled up quickly in density and application types vertically from different industries.
The primary component of operator’s M2M platform is the M2M server offering M2M Service
Capabilities to 3rd party M2M application providers via M2M Application API, which expedites
application development and facilitates application interoperability.
M2M requires specific customer support for areas that current MNOs may not necessarily have
expertise in e.g. truck tracking devices for fleet management, telematics, intelligent buildings covered by
surveillance cameras or medical monitoring devices. It would be a CAPEX for M2M operators to acquire
this expertise as new applications and new device types are being added to their support offerings.
To be competitive and be able to differentiate one self, MNOs have to ensure that their network can
function conducive to M2M runtime requirements i.e. network optimized for M2M operations. Being
able to maintain connectivity for a large number of M2M devices and to handle big burst of a huge
number of small packet data transmissions in turn triggering certain actions from each and all devices
simultaneously can tax the system and may require special load balancing strategies as a counter
measure.
ASPs require a robust and reliable network infrastructure on which to build vertical applications on.
They are not concerned about technical details on the mobile network architecture or implementation.
Ensuring a high level of QoS, operation control and tools for diagnostic are goals of ASPs when it comes
to selecting partners for providing this M2M development platform for building new M2M applications
efficiently and in a timely manner.
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M2M Ecosystem
*** Courtesy of Intel.com ***
Current Players in the M2M space
The enthusiastic interest in the M2M market brought on many players up and down the M2M value
chain from chip manufacturers to certification agencies for M2M devices.
Intel is one of the early adopters of M2M by providing the Intel® Atom™ processors designed for
machine-type communication in which actions are triggered by machine data requiring low power, low
mobility, time controlled and time delayed attributes with quality-of-service built in.
Players in the M2M communication embedded modules and external box market include Cinterion,
Sierra Wireless, InterDigital, Motorola, Juniper, CradlePoint and Laird Technologies just to name a few.
They offer wireless M2M via ZigBee, ZWave, Bluetooth, 802.15.4, GSM/GPRS, HSPA, 2.5G, 3G and 4G to
proprietary radio stacks. For RF products to cellular M2M modules, RFMD also has a portfolio of access
technology modules from low data rate M2M applications to higher data rates including WCDMA and
LTE.
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Axeda, Jasper Wireless, nPhase, Numerex and Sensorlogic are major players in the cloud based M2M IDE
(Integrated Development Environment) domain. They also provide customized M2M solutions for
vertical markets and partner with carriers such as AT&T, Verizon, Telfonica and others in offering endto-end M2M solutions.
Red Band Software provides vRapid Mobile FOTA which is distributed mobile Device Management
software for bandwidth constrained networks for firmware and software updates, remote configuration,
provisioning and diagnostic.
In addition to large carriers like AT&T or Verizon; Kore Telematics and Cetecom provide M2M device
certification services. To get an idea on the width and breath of certified M2M devices, a list of
approved M2M devices from Kore can be found at:
http://services.koretelematics.com/devices/device_search.asp#results.
The M2M value chain and service community is expanding fast as market demand rises resulting in the
gradual fulfillment of the visions “All things Internet” and “Everything-connected-everywhere”.
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