IoT World 2019 News: The 6 Biggest Announcements

CRN breaks down the six biggest IoT announcements at the IoT World 2019 conference, which included Verizon's expansion of its NB-IoT network, new security features from Mocana to protect large IoT deployments and a new mini-asset tracking solution.

Expanded IoT Networks, New Security Features, New Solutions

The IoT World 2019 conference was flush with new announcements around network expansions, new security features and all-around new solutions for the Internet of Things market.

IoT World started on Monday and continued through Thursday at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, Calif., where thousands of IoT practitioners and industry executives converged.

The biggest announcements at IoT World included Verizon announcing an expansion of its Narrowband IoT network, Mocana adding new security capabilities for smart cities and large IoT deployments, and a partnership between Kudeslki Group and CoreKinect to enable asset tracking for small objects.

What follows is a breakdown of the six biggest announcements at IoT World, which includes all the details you need to know to stay on top of the latest innovations in the IoT market.

Verizon Launches Nationwide NB-IoT Network

Verizon announced that its Narrowband IoT network, also known as NB-IoT, is now available across the United States, covering 92 percent of the country's population.

NB-IoT, which can handle IP and non-IP data traffic, is designed for devices with low-power and low-throughput requirements that don't need to be mobile, such as alarm panels, environmental sensors and industrial appliances. This means such devices can use lower cost chipsets.

Supported use cases included smart cities, asset tracking, utilities and environmental tracking.

The Basking Ridge, N.J.-based company said its NB-IoT Standard Price Plan offers 50 kilobytes of data with a $1 monthly access fee per device, though the data allowance can be shared with other NB-IoT devices on the same price plan and account.

Verizon is working with IoT module manufacturers Telit, SIM-COM and Quectel on connectivity modules that support Verizon's NB-IoT network, which are in the final stages of testing.

Mocana Adds New Security Feature For Smart Cities, Massive IoT

Internet of Things security startup Mocana announced new capabilities for its TrustPoint on-device security solutions that helps protect smart cities and massive IoT deployments against cyber attacks.

The San Francisco-based company said the new device admission control solution gives TrustPoint-enabled devices with low memory and processing capabilities certificate-based authentication and network filtering to defend against network-based cyberattacks.

With certificate-based authentication, Mocana validates the identity of the TrustPoint-enabled device before it's allowed to communicate with the rest of the network — which the company said is more secure than network access methods like Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol.

For network filtering, TrustPoint-enabled devices can filter network traffic using a rules-based approach based on IP address, port number, source and destination MAC address, network interface type and domain. These rules can be set using Mocana's TrustCenter device security management platform.

Losant IoT Platform Can Now Analyze Historical Data

Internet of Things startup Losant announced new batch processing and analytics capabilities that allows its enterprise IoT platform to take advantage of both real-time and historical data.

The new capabilities are made possible by Losant Notebooks, which integrates the Jupyter Notebooks open-source web application into Losant's platform, giving users the ability to use batch analytics on historical data sets to create new insights and support new applications.

"We’ve delivered this capability in the most elegant way possible by fully integrating Notebook into our platform rather than simply offering it as a service," Brandon Cannaday, chief product officer at Losant, said in a statement. "This means our customers don’t have to compromise simplicity and speed-to-market to analyze and manage historical data in their IoT applications."

Losant Notebooks can take in a variety of data, including device data, table data or custom data from external URLs. That data is then automatically queried and downloaded into the Losant platform, where results can be displayed in a variety of ways, including image files and CSV data sets.

Kudelski Group Partners With CoreKinect For Securely Tracking Small Assets

The Kudelski Group announced that it has partnered with CoreKinect, a provider of custom Internet of Things solutions, to create a secure asset tracking solution that is small enough to fit inside a pill bottle.

The joint solution incorporates The Kudelski Group's Discrete Secure Element — a standalone security system-on-a-chip that contains a hardware root of trust and IoT security client — with CoreKinect's miniature tracking and sensing hardware solutions.

The companies said use cases include tracking the delivery of individual pill bottles to ensure their authenticity or including the sensors in food packaging to monitor temperature or quality.

"Tracking-based technologies are revolutionizing businesses across many industries," Ali Kozlica, executive chairman of CoreKinect, said in a statement. "Our technology gives companies insights that drive business efficiencies and new business models, but for those solutions to be sustainable long term they must be protected from intrusion, tampering and sabotage."

OptConnect Enables IoT Managed Services With Smart Embedded Modem

Managed wireless services provider OptConnect announced the launch of a smart embedded modem for Internet of Things applications that enables companies to offer "Connectivity-as-a-Service."

The Kaysville, Utah-based company said its LTE Category 4 smart embedded modem is meant for companies across a wide range of verticals, including retail, energy, agriculture and healthcare, who need to accelerate the launch of their solutions.

The smart embedded mode, along with OptConnect's fully managed services, allows companies to avoid the trial and error, slow development time and higher costs typically associated with solutions that require cellular wireless connectivity, according to OptConnect.

“Building on our vast experience in managed service wireless connectivity for markets such as ATMs, digital signage, kiosks and more, OptConnect is entering the IoT space with a fully managed wireless service right out of the box, making it easy for customers to quickly and cost-effectively scale their IoT deployments and improve their time to revenue," Chris Baird, president and CEO of OptConnect, said.

Former Lantronix Execs Launch New IoT Data Management Solutions

Machinechat, a new Internet of Things startup founded by former Lantronix executives, launched a new IoT data management solution called JEFI IoT Data Manager.

The founder and CEO of Machinechat is Sanjeev Datla, who was previously CTO of Lantronix, a publicly traded provider of data access and management solutions of IoT. The company's chief marketing officer is E.E. Wang Lukowski, who was previously director of corporate marketing at Lantronix.

JEDI IoT Data Manager is the "industry's first network-integrated data management software," according to the San Jose, Calif.-based company. The solution uses software-defined networking principles to enable IoT data management intelligence in existing network routers, gateways and access point, allowing IT networking OEMs to expand into new markets and customer segments.

"With JEDI IoT Data Manager, Machinechat enables both existing and new networking equipment to become IoT aware – allowing IoT solution architects to focus on configuring versus coding, and enabling IoT networks to achieve automated machine data integration and management in minutes, not months," Datla said in a statement.

With JEDI IoT Data Manager, IoT solution architects can accelerate the development and deployment of IoT projects without the need to change existing hardware or develop new software. The software has a point-and-click interface for easily directing the right sensor and machine data to applications.

Other features include integration support for Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services IoT platforms and the aggregation of multiple sensors and machines into a "virtual gateway."