EU event on IoT
The 5th Annual Internet of Things European Summit: Shaping tomorrow’s European Internet landscape was held 3rd & 4th March 2014 in Brussels. It was organized by Forum Europe which is an independent EU policy debate specialist that organizes these kinds of events. Different aspects of IoT were discussed; impact of regulation & policy, financing, cloud computing and big data, see the complete program:
http://www.eu-ems.com/agenda.asp?event_id=210&page_id=1794
Smart cities and connected homes
My areas of interest were about applications so I focused on sessions with the theme
Realizing the benefits of The Internet of Things and its impact on Society:
Here both smart cities and the Connected Home were discussed. Despite the word “benefits” in the title it was a lot of high-level issues that were presented, typically “ visions” and presentation of different big project. To be aware of all these projects is very useful.
Panel session on Spectrum management and IoT
I also chaired a panel session on Spectrum management and IoT with a number of people with a strong background in spectrum management and/or regulation. The panelists were:
- Andreas Geiss, Acting Head of Unit, Radio Spectrum Policy, European Commission
- William Webb, CEO, Weightless SIG
- Ajit Jaokar, Founder, Futuretext
- Jussi Kähtävä, Director, Allied Spectrum Associates
- Richard Womersley, Director, Spectrum Consulting, LS telcom
The initial remarks and discussion revolved around the following issues:
- What are the expected short-term and long-term spectrum needs for IoT ?
- What frequencies provide the best options for the next generation of connected devices?
- What can be done to generate additional capacity in existing bands and how can we make better use of the spectrum that is already available?
- Is M2M a key driver for spectrum sharing?
- Is there a need for dedicated or exclusive spectrum for smart grid services, or can shared spectrum be used?
All panelists highlighted the impact of the long process of allocating and re-allocating spectrum. William Webb claimed that “ spectrum for new actors” is highly important in order “to make M2M and IoT to happen”, this cannot be handled only by the existing mobile operators using their licensed spectrum. Secondary spectrum access and spectrum sharing could be part of the solution. Richard Womersley highlighted the possibility to share spectrum curently allocated for satellite communication to epctrum with local area systems for wireless communication.
