Get started with SIGFOX

Iot Shifts, Barcelona — 2015.10.20

SIGFOX in a nutshell

About SIGFOX

• SIGFOX has invented a radiocommunication protocol

• SIGFOX is operating a global network

• SIGFOX does not sell hardware components

• SIGFOX does not build connected solutions

Why SIGFOX

• Hub-based technologies are not compatible with independent devices

• Need for a protocol designed for the IoT, and not one tweaked to address it.

Ultra Narrow Band• The SIGFOX protocol relies on the Ultra Narrow

Band technology, and a BPSK modulation

• A message : ~100Hz wide

• Each base station listens to a 200KHz part of the spectrum

• Hard part: detect message without knowledge of the precise frequency or schedule

Frequency used

• SIGFOX uses unlicensed sub-GHz bands :

• 868MHz in Europe

• 915MHz in the US

Unlicensed != unregulated

• SIGFOX complies with both ETSI (Europe) & FCC (US) regulations

• ETSI : 1% duty cycle

• FCC : duration of emission

Core concepts• Energy efficiency

• Very Long Range

• Out of the box connectivity

• Outdoor + Indoor

• Two-way communication

• Low bandwith, small messages

• Ultra Narrow Band

Energy efficiency

• Tx : ~25/30 mA pendant quelques secondes

• 99.x% of the time, device is silent

• Idle consumption is key

• Idle : a few µA

Very Long Range

• Countryside : 40, 50 kms

• Cities : A few kms

• Direct line of sight : wow !

Out of the box

• Network is serving the devices, not the other way round

• Device simply sends a frame, message is detected by n base stations

• Message is validated / deduplicated by our backend

Outdoor + indoor

• 868MHz has good propagation properties

• But radio waves are not magic

• Consider ~20dB of attenuation indoor, and ~30dB for light underground or tricky buildings

Two-way communication

• No full duplex here

• Default behaviour: wake up, send, back to sleep

• No passive Rx mode

• Device can receive a message upon request

• Every communication is instigated by the device

Low bandwidth

• 100 bits / s

• 12 bytes per message

12 bytes !?

• Yes. Seriously. 12 bytes.

• This is the available payload.

• You can put a lot of info in 96 bits

• 2^96 is a 30ish-digit number.

• 8 billions of billions of billions of possible values

How frequently ?

• 140 times a day

Coverage

Current - Nationwide

• France

• Netherlands

• Spain

• UK

Rollout in progress

• Belgium

• Denmark

• Italy

• Luxembourg

• Portugal

Rollout in progress• Belgium

• Denmark

• Italy

• Luxembourg

• Portugal

• USA

Current - cities• Bogota

• Dublin

• Milan

• Munich

• Santiago

• San Francisco

• …

USA

• Currently: San Francisco

• Early 2016 : 10 majors cities, including Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, NY

• And we’re just starting :)

Use cases

Good use cases

• Not that talkative devices : small messages every now and then

• Independent devices

Metering & utilities

Smart City

Ifttt-like

• Press the button, send an empty frame & trigger any pre determined action

• « Mom I’m home ! »

• « Get me a taxi»

• « Hey PizzaHut, remember ? Yes, same than last time »

More

• Assisted .. and Predictive Maintenance

• Logistics : GPS Tracking

• Security

• Healthcare, stay-at-home people

DIY Projects

• Connected wine cellar. Because french.

• Connected cat food dispenser. Because cats.

• Kitchen garden: temperature, moisture, …

• GPS Tracking of anything

You ?• You can build a PoC very quickly

• Lot of funny stuff to make

• And lot of $$$ to make too ;)

• KISS, dumb device means:

• Cheap

• Less prone to failure

IoT != Connected gadgets

Sexy Stuff

BORING BUT USEFUL

IOT

Hardware

Hardware SIGFOX

• SIGFOX is not a hardware vendor

• Many established partners offer SIGFOX-ready chips: Atmel, TI, Silicon Labs, Axsem, Atim, …

• Most Sub-GHz radio transceivers are compatible, it’s just about a software upgrade.

Prototyping

• Arduino : Snootlab, Atmel

• Raspberry Pi : Yadom

• Can be bought one unit a time

• Get started within minutes

• Not for industrial use

Modules

• Easy to work with : AT commands

• Price range from ~10 to 20€

• Evaluation boards available from manufacturers : Adeunis, Telecom Design, Telit, ..

SoC, transceivers

• TI CC1120, Atmel, SiLabs, Axsem, ..

• Cheap

• More complex to work with if not familiar

• Certification needed if you don’t stick to the provided ref design.

Antenna

• Critical when doing radio

• 868MHz -> best case is 17cm (lambda/2)

• Helicoidal, patch, … antennas possible.

Data management

Get your data

• 3 ways

• View - website

• Pull - HTTP API

• Push - HTTP Callback

Common use case : push callbacks

• Get notified each time of your devices send a message

• Can trigger whatever you want : alarm, notification, data processing, …

• Example here: http://github.com/nicolsc/sigfox-callback-demo

Downlink

• Message sent to a device can be

• Automatic with a pre configuration

• Sent from your own server

Downlink auto

• Simply set what message you want to send back

• Hardcoded

• Time, Station ID, .. for sync purposes

Downlink callback

• Same mechanism than the uplink callback

• Set up an URL

• An when called, send your 8-byte frame within the response body

MeNicolas Lesconnec

Developer & Maker Evangelist

nicolas.lesconnec@sigfox.com

http://makers.sigfox.com Twitter: @nlesconnec

Github: @nicolsc