IoT devices and systems for high value, high volume infrastructure applications 

Infrastructure fails too often.

Technology that promised to bring us prosperity, security and a better life has brought along a lot of problems that need to be fixed. 

The Internet of Things could be a solution, if implemented correctly. Or it could just make things a lot worse, if implemented in an insecure or unreliable way.

and the problem keeps getting worse every day.

Example: On January 29th 2022, yet another bridge collapsed. This was one of three thousand dangerously  defective bridges in Pennsylvania. 

Strategic monitoring and management of conditions of infrastructure is essential if we are to reverse this dangerous and expensive trend. 

And not just for bridges! This problem is pervasive. For example, the electric grid continues to be hacked by bad actors, and this hackery has actually become a vector of terrorism and war.

Transmission Line Towers are one type of vulnerable infrastructure whose condition should be monitored in order to assure efficient and reliable operation of power grids. Some utilities routinely monitor parameters like stress within struts of the towers. Such monitoring can give early warning of deterioration that could otherwise lead to sudden collapse and interruption of service.

Siloxit takes a holistic view.

A challenge is that most of the IoT and other electronic systems designed for condition monitoring and maintenance were designed for short lifetimes, and their design did not adequately consider lifecycle  requirements.

Measure

sensors
monitor
conditions

Communicate

robust
wireless
network

Manage

edge intelligence
low lifecycle cost

Secure

absolute trust
self-provisioning
zero touch

We think it is essential to integrate Measure / Communicate / Manage / Secure capabilities whose longevity matches the lifetime of the pertinent infrastructure elements. The good news is that many things in the Built World have become sufficiently reliable to provide service lifetimes of many decades. 

Issues with legacy security schemes

Root Vulnerabilities

  • Primitive root-of-trust
  • Secrets management
  • Passwords
  • Anonymous parties
  • Protocol weaknesses
  • Anonymous systems
  • Physical credentials
  • Databases of senstive information
  • Grey certification authorities

Security is generally counted as a ‘must-have’ capability.

 But many of security schemes traditionally employed are actually quite vulnerable. Siloxit actually delivers robust security that our customers can rely upon. And we do so using zero-touch techniques that greatly reduce cost while ensuring this uniquely high level of security

Inspiration

 Thirty years ago, some of us worked for Mike Markkula. when he first conceived of what we now call secure IoT.  The technology wasn’t quite ready for Mike’s vision.  But it is now!

“If you put one thousand intelligent, distributed nodes inside a building, and you add up all their computing power and memory,” Markkula said, “you end up living inside the equivalent of a very powerful central computer. But it would be impossible for a single computer to do as many things at once as this network could do.”

Mike Markkula, ca. 1983

Ting Vet Module, 2022

Ting Vet = ‚The Thing Knows‛, in Norwegian, is a secure autonomous IoT device that monitors operating conditions of the grid and other infrastructure.

Energy Harvester (1) extracts power from ambient sourcesuch as magnetic field (5).

Sensor (2) monitors condition by measuring parameters.

Communication link (3) sends and receives information using antenna (0).

Security and control block (4) ensure safe operation.

The system appears to be simple, but it is not.

The big challenges:
(i)Security, with little or no human intervention
(ii)Reliable long term operation (decades!)in hostile environments (tropics to tundra)
(iii)Management of transitions
(iv)Operation at extremely low power levels

Forever Battery, 2021