The Department of Defense will adopt T-Mobile’s 5G network for wireless solutions in the Navy.

It will include voice, data, fixed wireless solutions, Internet of Things and mobility management solutions.

The partnership will also ensure connectivity for activities ranging from mission-critical communications to network solutions that serve military personnel.

“With a cutting-edge product portfolio, a proven track record and a clear vision for the future, we’re ready to take government innovation to the next level,” said David Bezzant, vice president of sales, T-Mobile for Government.

‘Spiral 4’ relates to the next phase of the Navy’s wireless and telecommunications partnership efforts – T-Mobile had been already part of the ‘Spiral 3 contract’, a five-year-long agreement which began in 2017, alongside Verizon Communications and AT&T.

During this time, the US Navy launched its 5G private and hybrid network solutions.

Now, telco companies Verizon, Echostar, and Wide Point are also joining T-Mobile in Spiral 4.

Protecting the internet: the threat to subsea cables

In the future, T-Mobile said government agencies may be able to leverage the telco provider’s partnership with Elon Musk-owned aerospace firm SpaceX.

This will merge its network with Starlink’s satellites with the goal of providing improved connectivity.

The post US Navy adds T-Mobile to $2.7 billion contract appeared first on TechInformed.

The new measures, now made official after the government gave businesses a year’s notice, mean that easily guessable passwords such as ‘admin’ and ‘12345’ are banned from connected devices.

The rules also dictate that manufacturers’ contact details must be accessible for consumers to report bugs and issues, and also to ensure that users are made aware of any important security updates.

Five steps to bolster IoT security

The government claims that the new laws will help prevent events such as the Mirai attack in 2016, which saw 300,000 smart products compromised due to weak security features and used to attack major internet platforms and services, leaving a chunk of the East Coast of the US without internet.

Since then, similar attacks have occurred on banks such as Lloyds and RBS, also causing disruption to customers.

According to a recent Which? investigation, a home filled with smart devices could be exposed to more than 12,000 hacking attacks in a single week, with over 2,500 password attempts on just five devices.

“Businesses have a major role to play in protecting the public by ensuring the smart products they manufacture, import, or distribute provide ongoing protection against cyber-attacks and this act will help consumers to make informed decisions,” commented the National Cyber Security Centre’s (NCSC) deputy director for economy and society, Sarah Lyons.

Cyber security professionals told TechInformed they support the regulations and were pleased to see them go live, emphasising the risk IoT devices hold: “These devices are part of our daily lives, but the fact is that many were designed with ease of use rather than security in mind, which provided an open door for cybercriminals to exploit,” says Sylvain Cortes, VP strategy at cyber security firm Hackuity.

“With the new regulations, consumer IoT devices will now have to have a vulnerability disclosure programme so that weaknesses can be properly dealt with.”

Kevin Curran, IEEE senior member and professor of cybersecurity at Ulster university added: “The Internet of Things (IoT) exposes us all to some degree of risk. Despite their perceived simplicity, these devices hold unexpected power to disrupt when left unpatched or poorly managed.”

“The widespread use of default passwords from manufacturers typically led to significant issues, with hackers increasingly exploiting this vulnerability. It’s encouraging to see growing emphasis on implementing best practices in securing IoT devices before they leave the factory.”

Advice for businesses to protect their IoT devices

Curran adds, that on top of stronger passwords, businesses must establish preventative, detective, and corrective controls through a combination of policies, standards, procedures, organisational structures, software technologies, and monitoring mechanisms.

“These measures are crucial for mitigating the risks related to the confidentiality, integrity and availability of information assets within an organisation.”

Plus, Tim Armandpour, CTO of cyber security firm PagerDuty, which deals with incident response says that while the new regulations are a positive, there is a lot of uncertainty around the ‘how, since building in capabilities to support the regulations may seem relatively nascent to the company or product implementing them.

“Organisations must keep privacy, accountability, interoperability and innovation top of mind in order to stay compliant,” Armandpour adds.

“For organisations, driving operational maturity from reactive to preventative is key. Going beyond basic security, businesses must be building the capability to enable IoT system security, reliability and scale by leveraging automation and machine-learning to minimise the cyber related risks and system downtime from any source.”

However, EV Kontsevoy, CEO and co-founder of security infrastructure firm Teleport believes the government must now build a strategy to phase out the use of passwords altogether in favour of cryptographic identity, for instance, with human error a result of 74% of breaches.

For now, though, Konstevoy said that firms need to eliminate accounts into their devices that are either not in use, or one account used by too many people as they are targets for threat actors.

“Have visibility into who has access to what in your infrastructure, and identifying and eliminating these weak access patterns, is critical defence in the face of rising identity attacks,” Konstevoy said.

The laws are coming into force as part of the Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure regime, which the UK gov claims is designed to improve the country’s resilience from cyber-attacks.

NCSC’s Sarah Lyons explained: “I encourage all businesses and consumers to read the NCSC’s point of sale leaflet, which explains how the new Product Security and Telecommunications Infrastructure (PSTI) regulation affects them and how smart devices can be used securely.”

The post Deadline for IoT devices to meet new UK security laws strikes appeared first on TechInformed.

The collaboration will see the deployment of Sateliot’s 5G IoT sensors on vultures across the continent, which, alongside other animals including lions, hyaenas, and leopards, are severely impacted by poisonings set up by poachers.

Currently, EWT is using the firm’s GPS-tracking technology to monitor the vultures’ behaviour and remotely detect the presence of poison sources and feeding events associated with potentially poison-laced carcasses.

The system, called ‘Eye in the Sky’ tracks over 380 vultures belonging to five different species. The GPS-equipped birds send alerts to various platforms, allowing rapid response teams to react to poisoning events.

In the past year, the system has successfully identified 15 poisoning events, allowing the teams to eliminate the poison sources and decontaminate the scenes, ultimately saving vultures’ lives in the area.

Now, with Sateliot’s 5G IoT satellites, the NGO will be able to extend coverage over more remote areas using standard terrestrial mobile connectivity without the  need for additional equipment.

This will extend its coverage over more remote areas that have limited connectivity, such as the large expanses of water and land where most of the Earth’s biodiversity is located – covering areas over 15 million square kilometres.

Sateliot is extending its free connectivity offer to other NGOs in the area to help monitor and save highly endangered species across the African landscape.

“By harnessing Sateliot’s advanced capacity allocation techniques, NGOs can tap into free satellite capacity during specific time slots and locations at no extra cost,” said CCO of Sateliot, Gianluca Redolfi.

Alison Janicke, EWT’s head of business development that the money it is saving on connectivity could now be reallocated and used on other  critical conservation work.

“Beyond the monetary savings, partnering with Sateliot will also spare us some time and effort spent on fundraising, allowing us to invest that time in on-the-ground conservation activities,” she added

Last year Sateliot revealed its efforts to help regulate the quality of drinking water in Africa, using IoT solutions from GoSpace Labs to connect to Sateliot’s 5G networks to alert of any contaminated water.

The Barcelona-based start up also has a 5G nanosatellite constellation aboard one of Musk’s SpaceX Falcon 9 series of rockets, aimed at providing cheaper connectivity for IoT devices.

The post Wildlife trust uses IoT and 5G to protect African birds and big game appeared first on TechInformed.

With the need for speed at scale, there is more room for error, globally, tons of carbon is emitted, energy consumption is at a high, and waste, and product loss increases in an effort to get the meat and poultry to the consumer.

As Canada’s largest prepared meats and poultry producer, Maple Leaf Goods is looking at digital twins to help virtualise its production lines and tackle these issues. The firm is also looking at making its operations more sustainable, eliminating waste and product loss from its supply chain.

To give you an idea of scale, one section of one of Maple Leaf Food’s plants produces about 800 million hot dogs a year, 60 million kilograms of deli meats and wieners, and hosts around 1000 employees in its 500,000 square foot facility.

The firm worked with software firm Cygnus Consulting and analytics outfit Braincube to digitally transform its huge production and create a digital twin of its heritage plant in Hannon, Canada. The process included adding IoT sensors, improving data collection, and leveraging existing data from industrial software supplier Aveva’s MES data-collection technology that it had already acquired.

At the Aveva World conference in San Francisco at the end of last year, Maple Leaf’s senior solutions architect explained what it referred to as the ‘Heritage IoT Project’ which has been three years in the making.

To digitalise, the meat manufacturer first looked at the production of its deli meat line. Typically, once the raw deli meat arrives, it is prepared, brined, stuffed for shape, cooked, chilled, sliced, and then packaged.

“If you look at where it starts in the brining area, through to the stuffing area…and into the slice halls, it was all about making consistent product,” says Blair Hembruff, chief engineer and president of Cygnus Consulting.

During the stuffing process, the meat goes through a machine and turns into ‘logs’, in which an IoT sensor vision system can measure the dimensions so that operators can adjust if necessary.

With consistent shape, the logs will cook at the same time so that they are neither undercooked and unsafe, nor overcooked and lacking in moisture, thus creating product loss.

“Through feeding this data up back up to the digital twin, it was able to come up with optimum recipes for the oven,” explained Hembruff.

Then, once it was established what temperature and time the meat should stay in the oven, it had to adapt to the rest of the production line or otherwise overcook simply in waiting, even if the oven wasn’t on.

“So we built an optimiser to make sure the ovens were scheduled in an optimal manner,” says Hembruff. Which would signal the ovens to cook the meat in time to be moved to chilling, and then slicing.

According to Hembruff, while slicing machines may not seem complicated, in large-scale productions they are rather complex with recipes based on what’s being produced in the life of the machine, and what meat will need slicing at any time, whether it be ham, chicken, or beef.

So how does the firm come up with the golden recipe for the slicing machines? In this case, Maple Leaf collects its slicing information through Aveva’s sensors and sends them up to the data analytics at Braincube, which will present a digital twin dashboard of the shop floor and show real time operations, colour-coded to present any faults or issues.

“So they know exactly when they’re running off spec,” and the Braincube will adjust how the machines work depending on the flow of production.

“It iteratively pulls data up every 10 minutes and keeps refining it,” adds Andrew Thorne, senior solutions architect at Maple Leaf Foods. “Eventually, it comes out with the perfect parameters for that day and that machine on that line”

“Once we started setting machines up this way, we got the perfect batch almost every single time,” he concludes.

The deli line project is actually just one of eight cases in the ‘Heritage IoT Project’, and, according to the firm, it has been responsible for increasing gross profit up by 10 to 12%,  by reducing waste such as large end piece losses on the logs; reducing overcooked logs in the ovens; improving slice parameters to minimise loss and energy consumption.

The post Maple Leaf Foods beefs up its meat production with digital twins appeared first on TechInformed.

“At the forefront of the mobile industry’s evolution in 2024 is the dramatic reduction in the cost of entry for Mobile Virtual Network Operators (MVNOs). Basically, any brand that wants to be a telecom or a “neo telecom” can now do it more easily. The landscape is undergoing significant changes, powered by advances in Business Support Systems (BSS), favourable wholesale rates, and streamlined regulations. Network sharing arrangements and white-label solutions are enabling MVNOs to operate at a fraction of the historical costs, creating a fertile ground for new entrants, and eSIMs will accelerate this further.

These transformative factors are converging to set the stage for an unprecedented explosion of MVNO brands. We predict that 2024 will see a slew of brands offering SIM-only deals as an extension of their existing product lines, enabled by the drastically reduced cost structures and the flexibility offered by eSIM technology. Imagine one of your current subscriptions adding mobile to their service as a loyalty mechanic…”

Kelvin Chaffer, CEO, Lifecycle Software

“The fibre rollout in the UK is slowing down with funding drying up or builds being completed in certain areas. We are therefore expecting to see fewer fibre engineers over time as they transfer into areas such as mobile or EVs.

The government is in the early phases of trying to make telecoms careers more visible, particularly to younger people, service leavers, and those with disabilities, so we are hoping this will make an impact on skills shortage next year.”

Louis Parratt, principal network consultant at Hamilton Barnes,

Consolidation of vendors/systems

“The telecommunications sector, driven by the continued rollout of 5G, will witness the consolidation of vendors. This consolidation will not only scale up operations but also introduce new complexities, such as the need to grow infrastructure to match the current scale of rollout. The sector will also continue to tackle the restraints of manual processes and inefficient systems that hinder agility in managing operational complexity. This barrier not only stifles growth and profitability but also requires significant time and investment to achieve optimal field performance. Recognising this, 2024 will see a growing focus on replacing legacy systems and increasing automation, aiming to streamline operations and enhance overall efficiency.”

Rob Gilbert, MD, Totalmobile

“There will be a clear dichotomy between CSPs that thrive and those that simply survive.

The outlook for CSPs in 2024 is harsh. Most are in pure survival mode, heavily indebted and mired by high-interest rates, retiring legacy networks and systems, and pursuing cost-cutting at all levels. In 2024, there will be a stark bifurcation of the industry. It will become very clear which CSPs are in trouble and which are deviating from the pack towards a stronger financial position.

Around 70% of CSPs lack strategic direction and are failing to change. Despite promised telco to tech-co transformations and 5G opportunities, the majority of CSPs will continue to measure themselves against insufficient KPIs like ARPU statistics. They will continue their ‘tried and tested’ focus on saturated consumer markets. The industry lacks the deep strategy, planning, and willingness to execute while considering all the possible opportunities that stand before them. It’s analogous to the airline industry, where price differentials are at play due to the limited opportunities to innovate on consumer products.

In contrast, the remaining 30% will have their heads above the water, steered by the right ownership structure, realistic expectations around dividend levels and a supportive shareholder community. They’ll also execute B2B opportunities appropriately, daring to build vertical businesses with ecosystem models at the heart of delivering innovation and solving challenges for customers, particularly in B2B.”

Angus Ward, CEO, Beyond Now

2. Satellite communications

“The emergence of LEO Satellites could also change the landscape in the coming years. This technology can offer a similar, if not better, service than 5G. Whilst Satellite ISPs are currently charging substantial fees for their services, this could significantly reduce over time, resulting in increasing numbers of consumers choosing them over Mobile Network Operators as their provider of choice.”

Louis Parratt, principal network consultant, Hamilton Barnes

“This past year, we’ve seen the hype around 5G begin to fade as businesses realise that it’s not all that useful for consumers and does not warrant the hefty technology deployment price tag. Next year, we’ll see a pivot towards Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites instead. Particularly for businesses operating a hybrid working model, LEO satellite networks can push the limits of ‘working from anywhere’. I expect to see this technology begin to be rolled out and adopted into carrier’s portfolios. In the same vein, we’ll also see an uptick in adoption of Security Service Edge (SSE), which allows for the management of applications and their usage across all employees and lets them work securely anywhere there is an internet connection.”

Sander Barens, CPO, Expereo

3. B2B focus

“In 2024, B2B will finally become core to CSP strategies. To date, a slavish focus on mass consumer markets has stifled CSP success. While the latest round of global CSP revenue reports demonstrates that B2B growth is outperforming B2C, TM Forum’s latest annual telco revenue growth report revealed that B2B revenues are growing faster than B2C: 5.6% versus 1.6%.

CSPs will experience a penny drop moment, driven in part by greater pressure to carve a path to growth while innovating faster and investing more quickly. Realisation will hit that opportunities to create value for customers are too limited in B2C. And 5G for consumers will not be enough. If necessity is the mother of invention, then pressure is the mother of reinvention.

That shift in mindset will be coupled with collaboration between CSPs going mainstream. That will look like a connected ecosystem of telecoms, industry and technology partners that promotes and facilitates collaboration and co-innovation to address global B2B market opportunities. Smart CSPs will look for ways to de-risk investment and accelerate and optimise the commercialisation and go-to-market of B2B solutions. This new model that centres on a coalescence of ideas will see a global CSP network tap into insights and best practices and grow the reach of proven solutions by opening up new market opportunities and global sales channels.”

Angus Ward, CEO, Beyond Now

“The rise of B2B2X offerings with an enterprise focus marks a significant shift in the telecommunications industry. Companies are now extending their services to other businesses (B2B), creating a network of services that serve both business and end customers (B2X). This collaboration and service extension model is intended to facilitate innovation and create new revenue streams. Whilst 5G private networks will definitely be a core capability required by many enterprises, there is a growing trend for partnerships offering cloud security solutions, a renewed interest in collaborative communications platforms with a CPaaS offering and IoT being the top services dominating product portfolios.  By providing tailored, enterprise-focused solutions, telecom companies foster a more symbiotic relationship with businesses, driving efficiency and productivity.”

Hitesh Morar, chief product officer, Tecnotree

“At present, there are very few 5G business networks deployed, and many are still in a trial phase. It is likely that a very small percentage of businesses will need a 5G network. However, if 5G does become more commonplace, it is extremely secure. Like 4G, strong security is designed into the standard, yet there have been no significant security breaches on 5G networks. The security risks will arise outside the 5G network, for example, where it breaks into the business IT network. Going into 2024, the key issue won’t be 5G security but whether a 5G business network is, in fact, necessary. Most businesses will find that the benefits 5G brings are insufficient to justify the additional costs and complexities involved.”

Dr William Webb, IEEE fellow, CTO, Access Partnership

4.  IoT

IoT ecosystems will boost P5G and Edge adoption.

“The combination of IoT, Private 5G, and edge computing will enable organisations to gain real-time insights and make better decisions. With enterprises accelerating digitisation efforts, more connectivity and even more devices are needed as enterprises continue to digitise their physical environments.

The edge will significantly grow in importance as enterprises need data to feed analytics platforms powered by AI/ML. Increased automation due to labour shortages, computer vision, and digital twins will be key use cases driving the need for robust edge capabilities.

To go further, organisations need outside help, with 8 in 10 expecting their dependency on third-party edge services to grow over the next two years.”

Devin Yaung, SVP, Group Enterprise IoT Products and Services, NTT Ltd.

The growth of the Internet of Things (IoT) continues to redefine the telecommunications landscape. With 5G and edge computing, we expect to see a surge in IoT applications in 2024. IoT’s potential to interconnect devices, from smart homes to industrial machinery, is creating vast opportunities. With AI taking centre stage in driving intelligence in many processes and decision-making, we expect an unprecedented surge in this area. IoT enables real-time data collection, streamlining of operations, predictive maintenance, and enhanced customer experiences.

From Hitesh Morar, chief product officer, Tecnotree

Plentiful IoT devices coupled with AI blur the lines between real and virtual.

“Many different analysts predict different numbers in terms of the number of new IoT devices that will be deployed in 2024, but common across all of them is that they predict numbers in the billions.

Using the most conservative estimates, it’s safe to say that at least 5 billion new IoT devices will be deployed, connected, managed, and producing data. Some of what makes this possible is due to true wireless devices and their impact on data (edge computing), but there’s another aspect as well.

This enables an unprecedented ability to ingest data about the real world through many sensors and by combining data from multiple types of sensors. And this is where AI comes into the picture. AI as a technology is very well suited to look at and make sense of the complex web of data being spun by a range of data types coming at us in real-time.”

Bjorn Andersson, senior director, Global Digital Innovation Marketing and Strategy, Hitachi Vantara

“2024 will see a greater transition to smart factories, with increased integration of AI, 5G, Internet of Things (IoT), data analytics, and cloud computing. This will bring cost savings, product quality, safety and sustainability benefits.

2023 was a record year for 3D printer installations, according to our 3D Printing Trend Report, and the market is set to benefit from the efficiency, speed, and accessibility that AI will bring. Prototyping is still the top application for 3D printing. Still, we see increased production of end-use parts, especially with metal additive manufacturing (AM), meaning it will continue to grow as a fully-fledged manufacturing method.

This will be enhanced with the application of AI – detecting and correcting errors before they occur will save time and increase safety. Specific programs like ChatGPT simplify the design process by enabling voice commands rather than always requiring coding to program geometrical complexities in a design.”

Bjoern Klaas, vice president and managing director of Protolabs Europe

“Ambient IoT — where anything and everything can be connected to the cloud through tiny, postage-stamp-size, battery-free microcomputers — will transform physical business or retail operations from a “scan it” culture to a “sense it” culture. Instead of staff manually checking the status of stock, assets, and equipment, they can log into cloud-based interfaces for immediate visibility of an entire organisation and its supply chain. Bring in AI’s predictive and modelling functionality, and these passive sensing capabilities can be leveraged to automate logistics processes while allowing businesses and retailers to respond rapidly to demand signals for better service levels, higher sales, and less waste.”

Stephen Statler, CMO, Wiliot

“The new standard for remote SIM provisioning (RSP), SGP.32, will shake up the IoT industry in 2024. SGP.32 will shift the control of network profile downloads away from networks into devices, simplifying the interconnection arrangements that connectivity providers must manage with mobile network operators (MNOs). Companies planning IoT deployments, particularly those designed to be multi-regional, will reap the benefits of the new standard supported by their cellular connectivity provider.

Those benefits include minimising total cost of ownership because devices can be reprogrammed to pick up local networks at local rates. That could be soon after devices are deployed, or years into their lifetime when new commercial options or new operators enter the market. By minimising the required number of SKUs, companies can simplify production and distribution to save on logistics, manufacturing, and inventory costs.

SGP.32, together with RSP, which enables OTA SIM programming, will help with the scalability of international IoT programmes. Companies that deploy IoT devices to be in place for an extended time, that manufacture in one country and export to many others, or those with devices that transmit high data volumes in more than one country will benefit massively. Network profile switching will help future-proof deployments for these and other IoT installations.”

Paul Bullock, chief product officer, Wireless Logic

5. Cloud and 6G

IMS deployments in MNO networks will finally be cloud native

“In 2024, we expect to see additional production network deployments of CNFs for specific applications. While CNF implementations have been deployed for several years for OSS/BSS applications, we foresee this being expanded to core network functions that enable or enhance the services that CSP sell. From our perspective, a leading cloud-native implementation will be the IMS core solution required to provide 4G and 5G voice services. We also expect to see cloud-native deployments of analytics applications to complement cloud-native IMS deployments, specifically to provide visibility and actionable insights into Voice over LTE (4G) and Voice over New Radio (5G) services. On a related note, while we expect most of these cloud-native IMS core deployments will be on MNO private clouds, it is quite likely there will be some MNOs who will decide to deploy their IMS core applications on a public cloud.”

By Dan Teichman, director of solutions marketing, Ribbon Communications

The road to 6G

“5G is far from reaching its full potential, so any talk of 6G in the coming year(s) for the Telco industry is very premature. Frankly, many 5G networks are 4G with a fresh coat of paint— the backend remains largely unchanged. There are offerings to automate the backend more, taking us more towards true 5G, but I don’t believe Telcos will invest at scale without a compelling path to monetisation. So far, customers aren’t willing to pay much extra just for a bit more bandwidth.

Until the industry properly delivers on the 5G vision and unlocks greater monetisation potential, 6G will remain a distant dream. In 2024, telcos need to focus on learning to walk before they can run. Delivering the advanced capabilities 5G enables for customers and businesses should be the priority over chasing the next shiny object. There’s still so much value to be realised from 5G if we make the effort to execute on it fully.”

Christian Bucholdt, AVP Engineering,  Persistent Systems

The post 2024 Informed: Telecoms and IoT predictions appeared first on TechInformed.

The sustainability, cost and logistical benefits seem obvious, but how does this work in practice?

At Bentley’s 2023 Year in Infrastructure and Going Digital Awards in Singapore TechInformed spoke to two of the finalists from design and engineering firm Arcadis in the Enterprise Engineering category.

Chris Conroy, digital and information management lead for Arcadis Railway Business in Scotland and Santosh Kumar Chitti, an Arcadis principal engineer both saw an opportunity take a digital approach to the design and planning work for improvements at Carstairs Junction in Scotland.

The Rail Systems Alliance Scotland is a group comprising of Network Rail and contractors Babcock and Arcadis which, in 2019, won a 10-year track and rail system framework contract to deliver track renewals and enhancements in Scotland.

As part of this work, Arcadis was charged with designing the electrification system to increase junction speeds from 40 to 110 miles per hour, providing capacity for high-speed services to Edinburgh and Glasgow, while reducing carbon emissions by 20% to 30%.

With ten different disciplines involved in the design, Arcadis saw that workflows for the review and clash detection process would not meet the project challenges, so it decided to create a digital twin to co-ordinate the designs.

While Network Rail specified the use of Bentley System’s multidisciplinary design software ProjectWise for collaboration, Arcadis decided to use the US vendor’s iTwin platform to speed up the decision-making process.

Using Bentley several applications, Arcadis developed a 3D federated model, facilitating coordinated modeling and web-based virtual design reviews.

“We primarily used iTwin to lead the conversation with the client, who wouldn’t normally have access to the BIM model, so we used the iTwin to make the models accessible,” Conroy explained.

Conroy added that this set up made it much easier to collaborate with the eight design houses involved in the Carstairs project, which were situated in cities across the world in different time zones, including some of Arcadis’s own personnel in India.

This method improved data exchange by 80%, according to Arcadis, while the team identified and resolved 15,000 clashes during the design phase and reduced design time by 35%.

Conroy also claims that the use of a digital twin cuts down on the number site visits: although he is based in Scotland and shares an office with the contractors, he claims he only visited the site once, “and that was because I was giving a presentation at a local primary school, so I decided to visit the station and take photos while I was there”

Likewise, Chitti has only paid one visit to Carstairs, for a construction check, “and only because I happened to be visiting the UK,” he says.

“If it’s a greenfield site it doesn’t help to visit it at all; if it’s a brownfield site then 80% of the site knowledge we can get from digital files and topographical survey,” he adds.

According to Conroy, using reality mesh and photogrammetry has transformed the way the industry now interacts with digital models.

“There are things in the reality mesh model that might not be picked up in an on-site survey of what you might find in UK along railway lines, such as pieces of equipment that construction teams discard. Photogrammetry picks that up,” he explains.

Conroy maintains that the digital twin application also enabled the project design to continue during Covid despite lockdowns.

Some of the digital models created with other Bentley tools included a scan from within the driver’s cab that were also used to help familiarise drivers with the new train layout and to test whether they could read signs and signals while travelling at the new train speeds.

Arcadis calculated that going digital saved £50 million in costs with project delivery 14 days ahead of schedule.

Twin transformation

According to Conroy, persuading some stakeholders of the benefits of digital collaboration on Carstairs was initially a challenge.

He recalls: “When I started work with the alliance one of the lead contractors said to me “great that you can do all that digital stuff Chris, but if we can’t fix it with a hammer and a saw then we’re not interested.”

However, over a five-year period, the digital lead resolved to change their minds.

“We’ve been slowly chipping away, and the person who initially resisted, who I share an office with, has become one of the biggest advocates for using the iTwin,” he says.

“He could see the value of the spatially coordinated models and how it resolved issues that would have cost time and effort to address during the construction,” he adds.

Arcadis’ competitors also recognised the benefits: after hearing about the Carstairs project, rival design and construction firm Atkins approached the company to help adopt the technology to work on another major infrastructure project, the £116m Levenmouth Rail Link.

“Our knowledge was recognised by a competitor who then came to us for help to adopt this technology, but I don’t see iTwin as a tool that gives you a competitive advantage –  it’s a tool that helps you work in collaboration with other companies because if we all collaborate, we can all help Network Rail really move forward with this,” says Conroy.

Ownership

But is Network Rail moving forward? A recurring theme that came up during the Bentley event in Singapore was that of digital ownership: When many digital stakeholders are involved, who owns the digital twin and who is responsible for its upkeep once the project has finished?

According to Arcadis, in this instance, Network Rail owns all the assets created, but, as Conroy acknowledges, right now there are few people who know what to do with them.

Arcadis is creating the data that it thinks Network Rail wants because the client is unable at this stage to tell the contractors what they need. It’s something that’s going to require more collaboration and education moving forward, Conroy admits.

“We are working very closely with Network Rail’s digital information team in Scotland and this summer they had their first conference on digital and information management.

“Lots of us came together from across the supply chain Acon, Atkins, WSP – we were all in the room challenging what Network Rail needs to do. The client wants to do this four times a year and give feedback on the changes it makes in the supply chain.

Some digital transformation projects involve taking incremental steps and choosing smaller projects to trial new technologies, but with bigger firms and larger infrastructure projects, this approach is harder to take, and there’s nowhere to hide if things go wrong.

Clearly, Carstairs was the right project start digital twin implementation, but what advice does Conroy have for other design firms thinking of taking the plunge?

“I would say crack on and use the tools in every project you can. Get yourself familiar with them and learn. One thing we have talked about Arcadis over the last four to five years is try something new, if it doesn’t work then move on and try something else. Fail fast and try something different.”

The post Journey of discovery: Network Rail’s digital twin for Carstairs appeared first on TechInformed.

Tēnaka, a social business that works to restore and protect marine ecosystems worldwide, is to use Orange Business’s automated data sets, from collection to visualisation, and leverage its AI-based data analytics to help restore a marine protected area of the Coral Triangle in Malaysia.

Its restoration helps protect and preserve critically important and endangered wildlife while supporting the economic independence of coastal communities in terms of food security and employment linked to tourism and fisheries.

At the moment, to collect data on its restoration, marine biologists need to dive into the areas and go through a visual identification and quantification of wildlife – including butterfly fish and parrotfish, invertebrates such as giant clams and sea urchins, and mega-fauna such as sharks, turtles, and rays.

Once back on land, the marine biologists will manually load the data into Tēnaka’s Science portal.

Now with the help of a Yucca lab marine research station which is composed of an underwater monitoring device with waterproof 360° cameras, and a solar-powered floating buoy, Orange Business software will capture images, and deliver them directly to scientists ashore, allowing researchers 24/7 access to the data.

Once the images are taken, they are sent to the cloud (via a local 4G mobile network and an Orange Business SIM card), and Orange Business’s AI algorithm analyses the images, automatically recognising and quantifying the various species in the reefs, taking away the manual processes.

“Regenerating the ocean is the best solution we have to mitigate the climate and biodiversity crisis,” comments Anne-Sophie Roux, founder of Tēnaka. “By leveraging technology, Orange Business brings critical expertise for us to scale our operations and reach a global impact.”

Orange’s future is ‘collaborative and iterative not generational’ says CITO

“We wanted to be part of the solution for an environmental challenge. Our employees worldwide support Tēnaka for its inspiring initiative in preserving and rehabilitating coral ecosystems – and one where our technology and digital services can really make a difference to create a positive impact,” added Kristof Symons, CEO international, Orange Business.

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Taiwan produces 60% of the world’s semiconductors, used in everything from mobile phones to electric cars. The sector makes up 15% of the country’s economy. It also means that, politically, what happens in this small nation — with a population of around 23 million — can have global ramifications.

Like in many other countries, 2024 will see Taiwan hold major elections that could determine the future of the island and, subsequently, the future of the global tech market. Though Saturday’s election is unlikely to trigger an immediate shift in the supply of microchips, it could see long-term investment in the island change focus.

One of the major issues stems from Taiwan’s complicated history with China. Beijing views Taiwan as a province and has made clear its aspiration to unify the island with the rest of China — with the use of force a real possibility. Should Taiwan come under China’s sway, its position as the chipmaker for the economic West will come under threat.

Here, we break down everything you need to know about the Taiwanese election.

Who is on the ballot?

The people of Taiwan are heading to the polls in what is being described as the closest election since the nation became a democracy in 1996. Polls will open at 8 am and close eight hours later, with results expected the same evening. About 19.5 million people are eligible to vote, and turnout is usually high — in 2020, almost 75% of the population cast a ballot.

Taiwan’s president, Tsai Ing-wen, has reached the end of her term limit and is stepping down. Looking to replace her is the current vice president, Lai Ching-te. She is also a member of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), which casts itself as the pro-independence party.

Ching-te is running against Hou Yu-ih from the more conservative Kuomintang (KMT). He openly advocates for a closer relationship with Beijing, though he has said he opposes annexation.

The KMT previously ruled Taiwan under an authoritarian dictatorship for decades after fleeing the Chinese civil war.

The DPP was originally expected to hold onto power, but polls have narrowed.

Why does it matter?

You can find a microchip in just about anything these days. From your phone to your car and even your fridge, semiconductors play a vital role in our lives. The world produces more than a trillion chips a year; a modern car has anywhere between 1,500 to 3,000 chips.

The semiconductor market size was valued at US$527.88bn in 2021 and is projected to grow from $573.44bn in 2022 to $1.38tn in 2029, according to a Fortune Business Insight study.

Given the importance of chips to the tech sector and the vital role tech is playing in modern economies, any disruption by the Taiwan election could cause serious delays and do major damage to global trade. This was highlighted in the chip shortage that followed the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic.

Disruption to supply lines saw a worldwide chip shortage that impacted more than 169 industries, with delays of up to 20 weeks on some products.

One major contributing factor was the presence of COVID-19 in Taiwan itself. At the same time, the island also faced its worst drought in more than half a century in 2021, compounding delays and highlighting Taiwan’s importance to global supply.

Disinformation

Recent elections worldwide, such as the US elections of 2016 and 2020, have seen increased use of social media platforms such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter). But this has also led to an increase in misinformation and fake pictures and videos.

Taiwan is also facing its own misinformation controversies. One of the major social platforms used in the country, PTT, is used by more than 1.5 million people in Taiwan, but several untrue stories have gone viral on the platform in recent months, according to NPR.

Taiwan’s political establishment has pointed fingers at China, claiming Beijing operatives are generating negative stories to sway the election.

“Those kinds of remarks were actually created, generated from the other side of the Taiwan Strait to create division or distrust between Taiwan and India,” Taiwan’s foreign minister, Joseph Wu, said of a fake story about Indian workers during a December news conference.

Beijing has long denied accusations of interfering in Taiwan’s democratic process. But a report from analysts DoubleThink Lab said it had found credible evidence linking several disinformation posts and pro-Chinese propaganda on social media platforms to IP addresses in the mainland.

In November, Meta accused China of stepping up efforts to manipulate people in other countries on social media, becoming the third most common source of foreign influence operations behind Russia and Iran.

Potential outcomes

According to the Economist, on the day before polling booths open, Lai Ching-te is leading with an average of 36% of the votes to Hou Yu-ih’s 31%, placing the DPP as favourites to retain power.

One of the biggest uncertainties is how China will react to the results of the Taiwan election. If the DPP retain Taipei, then it is expected the ruling party will continue to grow the country’s relationship with the West, while relations with Beijing will remain frosty.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has left US politicians jittery over Taiwan, with Washington concerned that Chinese President Xi Jinping may make military moves in the region. Beijing has weaponised military drills, economic coercion, cognitive warfare, and diplomatic isolation in efforts to subdue the country.

If the KMT win on Saturday, Yu-ih will have to balance his pledge to be friendlier to China with the will of a people who are far more suspicious of it than when the KMT last governed. Should the DPP win, a hostile reaction from China is all but guaranteed, the only question is what form it will take.

Either way, the threat of disruption to the supply of microchips looms over the election, But, according to a BBC report on the country, people in Taiwan resent the idea of moving production away from the island.

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While Santa’s operations have remained traditional thus far, the folks at Digital Catapult thought that with toy production, gift wrapping, delegation, delivery, and many employees under his festive umbrella to manage, the big man may benefit from Industry 4.0 tools this year.

In a bid to assist, the UK’s tech innovation agency – which turned ten last month – decided to collaborate with a handful of IoT start-ups to explore how Santa might take his processes online to create efficiencies and save time.

Industrial IoT firm Pathfindr showcased its ultra-wideband radio technology, which could “revolutionise” the way Santa’s elves find and manage presents in the warehouse by adding tracking and monitoring sensors to the gifts, “eliminating the need for extensive searching and ultimately saving valuable time.”

Navigation app Waymap, meanwhile, suggested its solution, which guides both indoors and outdoors, would help Santa address challenges in manoeuvring through diverse geographical areas with no signal required, “ensuring a more accurate and efficient delivery process.”

Also pitching to Santa and his elves was Sensor IT, which stretched the proposition slightly by focussing on the 24/7 comfort and wellbeing of the North Pole dwellers all year round, by implementing digital technology to monitor and improve living standards in their homes.

Other IoT technologies Digital Catapult would pitch to help Santa include monitoring sensors on his iconic sleigh to help diagnose issues and guarantee it is in optimal shape for the big night, carbon footprint monitors throughout the toy production process to ensure it is employing sustainable practices, and wearable devices to take care of the health and safety of the elves.

“This thoughtful approach demonstrates a commitment to the welfare of Santa’s hardworking team, contributing to a healthier and happier workforce during the holiday season, and encouraging them to spread some holiday cheer elsewhere,” Digital Catapult wrote in its blog.

Ramona Marfievici, principal engineer for IoT technology at Digital Catapult, added that while the agency usually helps businesses to solve problems with tech innovation, “we realised that with a large workforce, increased demand and operational challenges, Santa could also benefit from emerging IoT technologies, leading to a more seamless and efficient Christmas this year.”

Featured image credited to DALL-E 3

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With aid from satellite firm ICEYE, the Icelandic Met Office was able to predict the eruption using Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology and warn nearby residents.

SAR technology beams radar waves to Earth’s surface, capturing data much more in-depth than the typical satellite light cameras. Through monitoring ground deformation, the Icelandic Met Office can determine and illustrate the accumulation of magma underground, determine its elevation, and help predict the eruption.

During the research earlier this month, ICEYE’s CEO, Rafal Modrzewski was able to conclude from the SAR data received that this volcano was “probably going to erupt.”

How ICEYE arrives at the forefront

But it’s not just volcanic eruptions that SAR technology can assist with. In early June this year, residents of Ukrainian villages Kherson and Mykolaiv woke up to find many of their homes, shops, and farmland submerged under water.

In another tale that highlights the devastation of the Russia-Ukraine War, the flooding came because of the collapse of a major dam that held a reservoir of 18 cubic km of water.

The reservoir provided communities and agriculture around the Dnipro River and offered cooling water to the nearby nuclear power station.

Both sides blamed each other, Ukraine accused Russian forces of blowing up the dam and the hydroelectric power station, which is in an area Moscow has controlled for over a year, and Russia blamed Ukrainian bombardment in the area.

Nevertheless, citizens were suffering the consequences, while 230 square miles sat underwater, causing a threat to their drinking water, decimating miles of crops, and 14 now reportedly killed, emergency action remained problematic amid a war.

With Ukraine a no-fly zone, how could relevant support inspect the destruction?

Orbiting the earth, ICEYE satellites contacted the area and with the Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) technology and were able to capture not only images of the visible extent, but the depth of the water too.

“Not only could we see how many houses have really been flooded, but we can discern which ones of them were flooded severely, versus the ones where just the basement is flooded,” explained Modrzewski.

Communicating this data to the relevant aid, within a day the emergency services could then properly distribute support to those affected most severely by the disaster and were continuously given up-to-date data from the hovering satellites.

SAR technology

The Finnish satellite firm, ICEYE, claims to be the first on-site when there is a natural disaster, collecting data more extensive and detailed than the average satellite camera can see.

Founded in 2014, the firm is in Series D funding, having raised $304 million in financing to date, and launched the first of its satellite 32 satellites in 2018: “Which was actually the first time someone has every taken a radar image with a satellite,” says Modrzewski.

With over 500 employees, the design and building of the satellites happen in-house, and are launched all around the world.

Its use cases include maritime safety and oil spill detection, defence and intelligence, infrastructure monitoring, mining and energy, humanitarian relief, and climate change monitoring.

Technology-wise, the SAR satellites radar waves can penetrate obstacles such as clouds, smoke, sandstorms, volcanic ash — even in the dead of night — and successfully collect high-resolution images of what is on the ground up to 50cm.

Typically, if one wants to acquire a satellite image of an area it will take up to a day to collect, but since ICEYE deploys a constellation of satellites for one area, the response time is on average about one to two hours.

The satellites can also dwell over a target to simply add colours (usually black and white with this technology), record a short video, or in the case of an emergency or research, collect extensive data, explains Modrzewski.

They can be bought like a car, although after some vetting processes to ensure safety, or customers can request images of their target from ICEYE themselves.

“Most of our support is for the Ukrainian military in the conflict against Russia,” tells Modrzewski, “and we’ve ultimately ended up selling one of our satellites to the Ukrainian Ministry of Defence.”

Other customers include the United States Federal Emergency Management Administration, to provide them with data on wildfires and floods.

Within 24 hours of a flood peak, ICEYE’s satellites provide building-level flood measurements, and its ‘Flood Early Warning’ product offers forecasts of what damage is predictable due to a flood with a combination of its SAR technology, machine learning, and data sources — which can also be used for other hazards such as wildfires, too.

During the wildfires in Hawaii in August, for instance, ICEYE’s satellites were able to determine the number of damaged homes and communicate it to the emergency service.

“We were able to go down to a single building level to determine whether that house actually suffered damage or not before anybody managed to get on site,” says Modrzewski.

With its ability, to “dwell” over a target, Modrzewski claims that the satellites allow users to not only to see the first situation, but track it over time, allowing the recipient to deal with a continuous line of real-time information.

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