Sigfox Workshop in Torino - Nov 26th Full presentation of the Sigfox service : basics, radio protocol & properties, uplink/downlink communications, security, hardware solutions, cloud service, current use cases in production, ... + Support slides for technical workshop with SmartEverything boards

1. Sigfox Makers Tour
#16 Torino

2. Introduction

3. Schedule
Intro
Slides - All about Sigfox
Demos .. hopefully
Workshop - Your turn to work
Enjoy !

4. About us
Alessandro Cremonini
Sales Sigfox Italia
Gianfranco Sita
Nettrotter (Sigfox Operator Italia)
Nicolas Lesconnec
Dev Relations Sigfox

5. Sigfox

6. Sigfox basics

7. About Sigfox
Sigfox is not selling chips
Sigfox is not building connected solutions
Sigfox has invented a radio protocol
Sigfox operates a global network

8. Why Sigfox ?
Need for a solution dedicated to the IoT, not an existing
one tweaked for it.
We only serve the IoT, that’s why we’re doing it efficiently

10. New possibilities
Existing solutions: Cheaper connection & extended battery
life
Enables totally new IoT applications
Backup connectivity for higher bandwidth devices

11. How to communicate
Detect something to send (that’s the hard part)
Power on the communication module
Send
Message is picked up by the network
Data is received on your server

12. How hard ?
Send an AT command
You receive an HTTP Request on your application server

13. Core concepts

14. Out of the box
No connection
No configuration
No pairing
No signaling

15. Energy efficiency
The Sigfox protocol has been designed to maximise energy
efficiency
Tx: <50 mA during a few seconds (25mW ; 14dB)
Key factor: idle consumption (unconnected 99.x% of the time)
Idle consumption: a few µA

16. Very Long Range
Best case scenario
+100km between transmitter & receiver (base station)
Real life
A few kms (city) to tens of kms (countryside), depending
on the topography

17. Outdoor & Indoor
Good indoor propagation properties
Of course, you need to consider signal attenuation
(~20dB)

18. Two-way communication
Devices can receive updates sent from your application
server
Each communication is instigated by the device

19. Small messages
Useful payload: up to 12 bytes
Up to 140 times each day
100 bits/s

20. Payload examples
GPS coordinates (lat x lng) : 6 bytes
Temperature: 2 bytes
State reporting : 1 byte
Heartbeat, update request : 0 byte
And … who needs full bytes when 5 bits are enough ?

21. Payload examples
A (int): 17568 —> 0100010010100000
B (0-32): 17 —> 010001
C (state): 3 —> 10
Frame: 01000100 10100000 01000110
Frame: 0x44 0xA0 0x46
AT$SF=44A046

22. More !
816b1954 | 10000001 01101011 00011001 01010100
10000001 01101011 00011001 01010100 Active mode (Temp)
10000001 01101011 00011001 01010100 Temp. MSB & LSB
10000001 01101011 00011001 01010100 Humidity x2
Temp : 0110011001 = 409 . (409-200) / 8 = 26.125°C
Humidity: 01010100 = 84. 84/2 = 42%

23. Low cost of communication
Small subscription fees
Short SW development cycle
Low cost HW components

24. Security

25. Security
Each message is signed with a key unique to the device
Messages can be encrypted or scrambled
No keys exchanged over the network, no handshake
Security is an ever ongoing effort

26. Message signature
With each message, a hash is calculated & sent; using:
Device ID
Secret key, unique to the device. Never transmitted OTA
Payload
Internal increment

27. Radio properties
Great tolerance to interferors
Jamming resistant
Interception is hard: UNB & frequency diversity

28. Jammers

29. Interferors

30. Radio
Ultra Narrow Band

31. Sigfox use
The network currently monitors a 192KHz part of the
spectrum
Each message is ~100Hz wide

32. UNB Analogy

33. Undesired signals (aka real life)

34. Sigfox messages

35. Sigfox messages

36. Regulations

37. Regulations
Sigfox is operating on unlicensed Sub-GHz frequency
bands all over the world
We just have to pick the right central frequency
Easy, right ?

39. ETSI Duty cycle

40. Unlicensed bands
Compliant with regulations
ETSI 300-220
FCC Part 15
ANATEL 506
AS/NZS 4268

41. Different bands
Regional regulations affect
Central frequency
Power Output / Data Rate
Spectrum access
Handled by the Sigfox stack
Same hardware can be used, with software switches

42. Coverage

43. Global network
Sigfox is offering a global network, not a solution to build
private networks
Roaming is included is the standard service
Devices will work the same all over the network

44. Current coverage
25 countries
~1.5 million km²
~360 million people

45. Current coverage
Nationwide coverage
! France
" Czech Republic
# Ireland
$ Luxembourg
% Netherlands
& Portugal
' Spain

46. Countries under rollout
( Brazil
) Colombia
* Mexico
+ United States
,Australia
- New Zealand
. Oman
/ Singapore
0 Taiwan
1 Belgium
2 Denmark
3 Finland
4 Germany
5 Italy
6 United Kingdom

49. Demo #1
basic hello world message

50. Current use cases
Examples of solutions already in production

51. Internet of Things ?
Consumer gadgets
Boring
& useful
IoT

52. Perfect Sigfox use cases
Independent solutions
no user, no power socket, no local network
Shy devices
Doesn’t speak much, but only useful data

53. Sigfox foundation

54. Antarctica
Tracking scientists & assets
Long reach
Ease of use
Robust trackers

55. Wildlife
Rhinos tracking & monitoring
Anti poaching operation
Implant & play
Long reach

56. Industry

57. Predictive maintenance
Optimize & anticipate maintenance
Alerts when customer needs support
Lower operation costs
Increased safety and/or customer satisfaction

58. Connected boilers
Remote monitoring of boilers
Improve maintenance cycles

59. Remote sites monitoring
Intrusion detection
Fault detection
Works in remote areas
Plug & play
Low cost

60. Health &
Assisted living

61. Assisted Living Box
Elderly people benefiting from home services
Monitor carers come & go
NFC badge reader
ROI : 6 months
Increased service quality

62. Defibrillators
Guarantee that the equipment is in working order
Reduced costs (easy installation)
Notifications
Central supervision

63. Public sector

64. Smart parking
Parking spots monitoring
Real time guidance for users
Traffic optimization
Local enforcement optimization

65. Waste management
Optimize costs of collection
Plug & play
Years of battery life

66. Connected dumpster
Improve collecting of recycled textiles
Filling level monitoring
Route optimisation
New usage data

67. Fire hydrants
Detect faulty hydrants
Fraud detection
Increased security
Long battery life
Easy integration

68. Air quality
Closer monitoring of air quality
Local precision
Better monitoring
Data produced for pollution prediction

69. Street lighting
Save Energy & Costs
Improved maintenance
Light intensity management

70. Water level monitoring
Numerous applications
Ease of use
Low cost

71. Utilities

72. Metering
Different solutions
Smart or add-on to existing meters
Low cost of installation & operation

73. Solar panels monitoring
Remotely monitor solar panel output
Fault detection
Easy to install
Simple, robust

74. Home & lifestyle

75. Sound detector
« Shazam » of home security
Out of the box connectivity
Low TCO
Easy pan-european deployment

76. Home Alarm System
Backup connectivity for GSM solution
Jamming resistant
Continuity of service
Self deployment
High capacity network

77. Smoke detector
Get alerted even when out
Easy install
Fault detection

78. Water quality monitoring
Swimming pool water quality monitor
Long reach (> WiFi)
No install

79. GPS Trackers
Low cost, high precision trackers
No setup
No companion device required
Long reach
Cross borders

80. Agriculture

81. Crop management
Smart irrigation
Environnement sensors
Ease of use
Yield optimisation
24/7 data

82. Connected Beehives
Automate & optimize honey
production
Scales
Remote monitoring
Long battery life

83. Weather monitoring
Accurate & personal weather data
Affordable
Easy installation
Long battery life

84. Retail &
other services

85. Button
Simplest interface possible
Press a button ; trigger a service
No installation
Cloud-based service

86. Customer Satisfaction
Effortless customer feedback
No wiring
No pairing
Long battery life

87. Fleet
management

88. Stolen car recovery
Locate & recover stolen assets
Small form factor
Long battery life
Combined with UHF

89. Hardware
solutions

90. Hardware
SIGFOX is not a hardware vendor
Ecosystem of established partners : Atim, Atmel, OnSemi,
SiLabs, TI, …
More to come soon

91. Solutions
Modules
Easy to get started
Atim, Telit, TD
Chipsets
Cheaper
Atmel, OnSemi
Transceivers
SiLabs, Texas
Instrument
Quite expensive
for industrialisation
Skills needed
Ref.Designs
Cheapest solution
Skills++ needed
Certification
program

92. Antenna
Not optional :)
Best way to ruin a great device is to mess the antenna
integration
Balance between design & performance
We’re here to help you get in touch with specialists if needed

93. Prototyping
Arduino & Raspberry Pi kits available from various
websites
Check out http://partners.sigfox.com for the full details

94. Cloud

95. Get your data
View messages : Sigfox web platform
Get messages : REST API (pull)
Receive new messages : HTTP Callbacks (push)

96. Callbacks
Each message received from your devices will be
forwarded to your application server
Customisable headers & body
You can set more than one callback

97. 3rd party platforms
You can easily push your data to a 3rd party platform :
AWS, Azure, Telefonica, thethings.iO, IBM, Samsung…

98. Downlink messages
A downlink message can be
Semi automatic : sent directly by the network
Customised : sent by your own application server

99. Semi automatic callback
Simply set up the message to send, it can be:
an hardcoded frame
pre defined variable (timestamp, rssi)

100. Downlink callbacks
Same mechanism as for the uplink callback, set an URL
Reply with the 8-byte downlink frame
Respect this JSON format :
{
'{{deviceId}}': {
'downlinkData':{{data}}
}
}

101. Workshop session

102. Contribute back

103. Contribute
Don’t forget to publish your experiments
Code Samples, HW design, fails … will be useful to other
people
We all start by copy/pasting ;)
Your own website, github, hackster.io, instructables … your call!

104. Useful Resources
Workshop slides http://bit.ly/SMTSmartEverything
Questions ? http://ask.sigfox.com
Github http://github.com/sigfox/makers-tour-resources
Github http://github.com/nicolsc

105. Register
http://backend.sigfox.com/activate
Provider: Arrow // SmartEverything
Country : Italy
Device ID & PAC: sticker on the board

106. HELLO WORLD

107. SmartEverything test
Open the Arduino IDE
Select the board
Board type : Smart Everything Fox (USB)
Try one of the File > Examples > SmartEverything samples
Sigfox : File>Examples>SmartEverything>Sigfox>DataModeEu

108. Hello World Sketch
#include <Arduino.h>
#include <Wire.h>
void setup() {
SerialUSB.begin(115200);
SigFox.begin(19200);
delay(500);
Sigfox.print("+++");
}
void loop() {
char output;
SigFox.print("AT
$SF=CAFECAFE");
SigFox.print("r");
}

109. Message received ?
http://backend.sigfox.com
Navigate to the devices menu in the top bar
Click on the ID of your device
Enter the messages menu from the left navigation column

110. First callback

111. Callback setup
Device Type menu
Click on your device type name
Enter the Callbacks menu
Select new default callback

112. Callback setup
TYPE : DATA UPLINK
Choose a CHANNEL : URL (EMAIL for a quick test)
Url pattern: URL of your own server
Use HTTP method: GET/POST/PUT

113. Callback status
In the Devices > Messages panel, you have a indicator of the
callback status (an arrow)
Black : in progress
Green : Callback OK
Red : Callback KO (at least one of the callbacks failed)
Click the arrow to display details.

114. Downlink

115. How does it work ?
Send a message, with a downlink flag
Once message is sent, the module gets back to sleep
After 20s, it will wake up automatically, in Rx mode
It will wait 20s for a downlink message
Afterwards it will get back to sleep

116. Downlink setup
To setup an automatic callback :
Device Type > Info > Edit
In the Downlink data settings, set the following :
Downlink Mode : DIRECT
Set the following value : 123400000BADCAFE

117. How to request a downlink
Same AT command, with additional parameters
AT$SF=[hex byte]*, 1

118. Handle the response
When entering Rx mode, the module will display
+RX BEGIN
Received frame (if any) will be displayed as:
+RX= [byte] [byte] [byte] [byte] [byte] [byte] [byte] [byte]
End of Rx mode
+RX END

119. Downlink callback
In Device Type > Info > Edit
change Downlink mode to CALLBACK
Create a new default callback, with TYPE : DATA | BIDIR
Then set up your URL

120. Sample input output
AT$SF=55 50 4C 49 4E 4B, 2, 1
OK
+RX BEGIN
+RX=44 4F 57 4E 4C 49 4E 4B
+RX END

121. Sample code
Arduino
https://github.com/sigfox/makers-tour-resources/tree/master/
SmartEverything/downlink
Server side
https://github.com/nicolsc/sigfox-downlink
PR welcome in different languages

122. Keep in touch
devrelations@sigfox.com
twitter: @nlesconnec