M2M gets ready for a trillion sensors
Rick Nelson, Chief Editor -- Test & Measurement World, 6/1/2007
The Internet has revolutionized personal and business communications, and TCP/IP and other communications protocols stand ready to do the same for embedded computers, which increasingly are communicating with other computers and myriad sensors over machine-to-machine (M2M) links.
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The PPM-GX, a PC/104-Plus compatible single-board computer, sports an Ethernet controller, four UARTs, and two USB ports. Courtesy of WinSystems. |
The paper “Communicating Machines Are Triggering an Embedded Revolution,” which Burckle coauthored with Steve Pazol, president of nPhase, provides details on the emerging M2M market and on the variety of communications-link choices designers have. The authors differentiate M2M from more traditional industrial-control networks like SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) that impose restrictive, real-time requirements. M2M networks, they write, impose no such restrictions because they don't control processes; they “simply gather and pass along data to a central server.” Because M2M networks don't depend on time-critical data and are therefore tolerant of network delays, the authors write, M2M-connected devices can be distributed across a wide area.
See the complete paper, which provides additional information on how to choose from among the various wired and wireless communications options for your M2M networks.
