Over the last 10 years, the internet of things has opened up near-endless opportunities for device developers and hardware manufactures around the world. From bespoke boards to internet-enabled microcontrollers, limited-purpose IoT hardware has become a booming business and a significant source of revenue for many distributors and big-name electronics brands.
While this hardware boom has certainly proved vital in the development of the existing IoT, as we move towards 2020 it’s difficult not to wonder how much of a role such bespoke, limited-purpose hardware will have to play in our increasingly connected futures.
As the price and size of single board computers such as the Raspberry Pi continues to drop year-on-year, many design engineers are left wondering whether it’s worth investing in limited-purpose IoT hardware at all? Instead of paying for specific components with limited functionalities, wouldn’t designers be better off installing a single board computer (SBC) such as the Raspberry Pi (or even lower cost Orange Pi) at the heart of their IoT devices?
Where once such a decision would have been seen as wasteful, today’s SBCs are lower energy, lower cost and more powerful than ever before. At the same time, the development of IoT-specific operating systems such as Ubuntu Core means that, rather than developing fixed IoT systems, developers can now upgrade and evolve their designs through an almost entirely software-defined ecosystem. Whether used to define the functionality of smart fridges, robots, drones or even autonomous cars, everything is on its way to eventually becoming software defined.
While in many applications the notion of ‘software defined everything’ is somewhat blue-sky, in some areas of the IoT, the prioritisation of software over hardware is rapidly becoming a reality. One such area is software defined radios.
A Software Defined Radio (SDR) is a radio with its operating parameters configured in software. For years the notion of an affordable, capable and easily-updatable network-grade software-defined radio has been seen as the missing piece in the virtualised communications network, extending software controls from the very core to the Radio Access Network (RAN). Thenin 2016 Lime Microsystems (makers of the first multi-band LTE transceiver) launched LimeSDR, the company’s first truly software-defined radio/base station. Backed by EE, and crowdfunded to the tune of $970,000, the LimeSDR is a field programmable RF transceiver combined with FPGA and microcontroller chipsets which connect to a computer via USB3.
As we move into 2017, projects such as the LimeSDR represent the first wave in a whole new generation of software defined devices. From digital signage to drones, the future of the IoT will be increasingly driven and defined by software rather than hardware.
This focus on software-defined functionality may also prove the key to IoT’s wider monetisation. Through the opportunity to sell additional functionality in the form of apps, IoT developers have the opportunity to ‘up sell’ as-and-when new upgrades become available. Such app stores potentially offer the ability to monetise IoT and to provide regular updates in terms of features and functionality.
Already, Lime Microsystems has announced plans to launch a programmable app store for the LimeSDR in 2017.
Maarten Ectors is Vice President IoT at Canonical
