Releasing the value of IoT

Vertical sensor-to-cloud IoT solutions are able to get you started with collecting and visualizing data quickly, but this is where the problems start. IoT solutions creates value when you actually do something with the sensor-data and as vertical IoT solutions are incompatible, you end up with expensive custom integration projects. In fact, Metcalfe's law (see below) states that the value of a network is only released when all the IoT devices can communicate directly, this is what Z-Mesh has been designed for.

Improved sustainability

The rapid digitization often leads to technologies in the value chain being updated or exchanged. By standardizing at the networking layer, data-producers and data-consumers, like sensors and analytics systems, becomes interoperable, which enables interchangeability. In fact, you can re-use or re-purpose your exsisting Bluetooth, Zigbee and LoRaWAN devices to run Z-Mesh, with a software update.

Why not IP?

The Internet protocol is successful because it is royalty-free networking layer standard that allows direct communication using the same naming-scheme like sensor.your-domain.org. However, it is a bad fit for IoT as it does not support offline devices, lacks support for mobile data-producers, is too complex for constrained devices and is a host-centric networking architecture in which data exchanged in channels.

Z-Mesh is an Information-Centric Networking (ICN) architecture where devices communicate via name-based data. The object of encryption is the data, not the channel. This makes Z-Mesh able to support one-to-many event-driven communication, offline devices, mobile data-producers and constrained devices.

Privacy

In Host based communication models, like LoRaWAN and IP, the sensor-data is tunneled in an encrypted channel to it's destination. If the sensor-data is to be forwarded to multiple destinations, or just cached for lator retrieval, then the sensor-data resides on the forwarding device unencrypted. Obviously this is a huge security risk. Digital twins are forwarding/caching devices and sensor data resides unencrypted inside, ready for intruders to take a copy.

With Z-Mesh, being an ICN architecture, the sensor-data itself is encrypted and has a name attached to it. This allows any device to ask for sensor-data with that name or to forward or cache the sensor-data. Only devices with the encryption key can decrypt and use the data. With Z-Mesh, data is always transmitted and stored in encrypted form, this provides the data-producer full control over who can use the data.

Metcalfe's law

The value of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of connected compatible communicating devices
-- Bob Metcalfe (opens new window)

Two telephones can make only one connection, five can make 10 connections, and twelve can make 66 connections:

This is why the IP protocol has been so successful and what Z-Mesh is for IoT communication.