Machine-to-Machine Communication Increasing

A universally applicable service concept based on M2M (Machine-to-Machine) communication is currently being developed by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland for producing new M2M services.

The aim is that M2M Internet and M2M services can be used as easily and smoothly as possible. The project is focusing in particular on the services provided to users from fixed or mobile embedded systems. There is currently a great amount of interest in e.g. location-based services and personal navigation, which will offer consumers services based on their preferences.

There is currently no universally applicable M2M service infrastructure available that would allow interoperation between devices and their enabled applications in wired and wireless systems regardless of the supplier. Today, information technology applications usually operate as separate M2M solutions that are unaware of each other. As a result, several business opportunities remain unexploited as the services provided by the devices cannot be placed on the Internet.

The three-year Usenet project of Eureka/ITEA2 develops concepts for solving the above interoperability problems. “The aim is to generate a universally applicable M2M solution that will enable the interoperation of sophisticated M2M applications through heterogeneous wired and wireless IP communication networks,” says Project Coordinator Johanna Kallio, a researcher at VTT.

The project's starting point is M2M technologies and service systems already in use in different fields of application. It generates new types of M2M scenarios, value networks, requirements and Ubicom architectures, which are first evaluated through testing environments under laboratory conditions with scenarios and application areas selected separately. The outcome will be a generic Usenet M2M solution and a host of new innovative, implemented M2M service scenarios.

Made up of 18 partners, the international Eureka/ITEA2 Usenet Consortium has received some 14.9 million euros of funding for its M2M research,which focuses on enabling ubiquitous M2M service networks. The project Consortium led by the VTT includes industrial, SME and research partners from Finland, Belgium, France and Spain. The Finnish project is part of the Ubicom Programme of the Finnish Funding Agency for Technology and Innovation (Tekes).

“The Usenet project will produce pan-European information on the technical requirements for different types of embedded systems. A plan for commercial exploitation will also be drawn up, which can be applied both in Finland and abroad,” says Pirkko Saarikivi, Managing Director of Foreca Consulting Ltd. Foreca Consulting specialised in weather research and product development. Its role in the project is to examine opportunities for applying embedded information technology to different types of weather services. The emphasis is on road traffic, building technology and leisure-time applications.