Orange Business Services is accelerating the internet of things in enterprises with IoT Connect Anywhere, its low power wide area network (LPWA) connectivity offering based on LoRa open standard technology. IoT Connect Anywhere provides on-premise connectivity suitable for a range of applications, including energy and fluid management, on-site tracking, geo-fencing, waste control, environmental metering, lighting and parking monitoring in smart cities.
IoT Connect Anywhere provides customers with scalable end-to-end connectivity between devices and a data management platform. It is affordable as it does not require any major hardware investment. It relies on the Orange Business Services’ Datavenue IoT and analytics platform, which is designed to collect, analyze and turn raw data into actionable insights. Orange can also provide consulting and integration expertise to further guarantee a project’s success.
Orange is now running IoT Connect Anywhere for a US-based multinational oil and gas company across its widespread campus for mobile asset tracking and asset management. With underground tunneling, mobile assets are tracked via a LoRa-enabled GPS tracker using a private LoRaWAN when outside the tunnel system. By integrating the solution into the existing operational platform, continuous tracking and geo-fence alerting is now possible.
Orange Business Services, the B2B branch of the Orange Group is focused on supporting the digital transformation of multinational enterprises and French SMEs across five continents. Orange Business Services is not only an infrastructure operator, but also a technology integrator and a value-added service provider. It offers companies digital solutions that help foster collaboration within their teams (collaborative workspaces and mobile workspaces), better serve their customers (enriched customer relations and business innovation), and support their projects (enriched connectivity, flexible IT and cyberdefense).
The integrated technologies that Orange Business Services offer range from software defined networks (SDN/NFV), big data and IoT, to cloud computing, unified communications and collaboration, as well as cybersecurity.
LoRa is a low cost, highly power-efficient network technology, which is capable of transmitting data over a large area wirelessly, making it suitable for rugged locations, dense urban environments or multiple industrial campuses. It consumes approximately 15 times less energy than a cellular network, and is extremely flexible and easy to deploy, requiring only small gateways fitted with antennas.
LoRa also includes encryption to make sure the network is fully secured. In addition to the security mechanisms in the LoRaWAN protocol, IoT Connect Anywhere includes secure transport between the gateway and the network and data delivery over HTTPS. This means all communications between the browser and the website are encrypted.
“To achieve its full potential, IoT requires flexible deployment and secure, seamless connectivity,”explains Olivier Ondet, senior vice president, IoT and Analytics, Orange Business Services. “As part of the Group’s strategy, IoT Connect Anywhere satisfies these requirements by removing the complexity of connecting IoT devices. It provides our customers with end-to-end connectivity, covering every step of their data journey.”
