The document discusses how the low-bandwidth SIGFOX technology allows autonomous devices to connect to the Internet using little data. It explains that SIGFOX uses radio communication with energy-efficient transmissions of up to 12 bytes per message. Examples are given of how location, sensor readings and other data can be encoded into very short binary messages to enable many Internet of Things use cases with battery-powered devices. Developers are encouraged to attend SIGFOX Maker Tour events to learn how to use the technology and prototype connected solutions.

2. Back to binary !
How the low bandwith SIGFOX technology can allow
truly autonomous devices to connect to the Internet
Over The Air 2015

3. Me
• Web development background, started in 2000
• Web dev turned D.CTO at lequipe.fr, french
leading sports website
• Worked 4 yrs in a startup, focused on multi-
device apps, then on connected solutions only
• Dev & Maker Evangelist @SIGFOX since 6
months

5. Why SIGFOX ?
• Existing technologies were not adapted to the
IoT world to come
• Mobile networks evolution has been focused on
increasing bandwidth
• Many (most ?) IoT devices will only exchange a
few informations every now and then

6. Sigfox Basics
• A radio communication protocol, dedicated to
the IoT
• A global operated network
• Low Power Wide Area
• Main focus : energy efficiency

7. Sigfox Basics
• Indoor & outdoor use
• Two-way communication. From & to the device
• Up to 140 messages per day
• Compliant with ETSI & FCC regulations

8. Out-of-the-box
• No configuration needed
• No pairing
• No ever-changing hub credentials to set

9. Energy efficiency
• ~25mA in emission, during a few seconds
• No registration on the network, no negotiation :
power on, send, power off is the default behaviour
• 99% of the time, so-called connected objects are
not connected !
• Idle consumption : a few µA

10. Low bandwidth
• Emission rates
• Europe: 25mW / 100 bits/s
• US : 100mW / 600 bits/s
• 12 bytes / message

11. 12 bytes !?

12. 12 bytes is
• 12 ASCII characters
• Hello World barely fits

13. Forget bad habitudes
• Bandwidth is not that free
• No overhead needed
• No need to be human eye friendly

14. Meaningful bits only
• No overhead or descriptions
• No oversize data types, tailor to your needs
• Don’t use a 2-byte integer when range of
possible values fits in 8 or 12 bits
• Beware of longs, floats, ..

15. Do you really need
the value ?
• Delta maybe enough
• Scenario from a pre established list

16. GPS example

17. St John’s Church, Hoxton
• Latitude: 51° 31’ 48,4608 N
• Longitude: 0° 5’ 8,6424 W

18. XML
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<position>
<latitude>
<degrees>51</degrees>
<minutes>31</minutes>
<seconds>48,4608</seconds>
<hemisphere>North</hemisphere>
</latitude>
<longitude>
<degrees>0</degrees>
<minutes>5</minutes>
<seconds>8,6424</seconds>
<hemisphere>West</hemisphere>
</longitude>
</position>

19. XML, honestly
<?xml version="1.0"?>
<pos>
<lat>51°31’48,4608N</lat>
<lng>0°5’8,4624W</lng>
</pos>
Still 94 bytes

20. JSON + schema.org
{
"latitude":"51°31’48,4608N",
"longitude": "0°5’8,4624W"
}
70 bytes

21. JSON
{
"lat":"51°31’48,4608N",
"lng": "0°5’8,4624W"
}
59 bytes, better
{
"lat":51.5301278,
"lng": -0.0857343
}
43 bytes !

22. Down to binary
• North/South : 1 bit
• East/West : 1 bit
• Latitude: 21 bits
• Longitude: 24 bits

23. Shenanigans ?
• True range of possible values ?
• Clever algorithms (available online ;))

24. What is it good for ?

25. Absolutely everything ?
• NO
• Independent devices
• Not that talkative

26. Independant ?
• Battery-operated
• Direct internet connection
• No maintenance

27. Sexy Kickstarter Projects
Boring IoT
Useful

28. Current use cases
• Existing solutions in various sectors
• Metering & Utilities
• Security
• Tracking
• Agriculture
• Public services

29. Water metering
Fire hydrants

30. Public equipment

31. Call to action
• A button & nothing else, to
trigger any pre-determined
action
• « Mommy, I’m home ! »
• « Get me a cab »
• Repeat last order, concierge,
customer support…

32. Agriculture
• Environment monitoring: soil moisture,
temperature, sun exposure, ..
• Herd geolocalisation
• Livestock health monitoring

33. DIY Projects
• Recent projects
• Connected wine cellar
• Cat bowl scale
• Garden hydrometry
• …

34. When, where & how ?

35. When
NOW

36. Where - Europe
• Live Nationwide coverage
• France, Netherlands, Spain
• UK: ~10 cities currently
• Rollout in progress
• Belgium, Czech Rep, Denmark, Luxembourg, Portugal
• A couple of nice announcements to be made in the
coming weeks :)

37. Where - US
• Live coverage
• San Francisco
• New York
• Late 2015/Early 2016
• Atlanta
• Chicago
• Los Angeles
• Austin - Dallas - Houston

38. Where - spot coverages
• Various cities covered in Europe, Asia & Latin America
• Bogota
• Dublin
• Milan
• Munich
• Santiago
• Seoul
• Warsaw

39. How
• SIGFOX is not a silicon vendor
• Standard transceivers & SoC from various
enablers : Atmel, SiLabs, Texas Instruments,
Axsem, Atim..
• Certified modules (radio + µC) from Telecom
Design, Telit, Adeunis

40. Dev Kits
• Dev kits available for Arduino, Raspberry Pi
• Compatible with any platform able to use a serial
communication

41. Send a message
• Modules are controlled through AT commands
• Send frame : AT$SF=[hex byte][hex byte][hex
byte]..
• That’s it !

42. Example
• I need to send the following
• A: a 2 byte-integer : 16 bits
• B: a 0-32 value : 6 bits
• C: a state, within 4 possibilities : 2 bits

43. Example
• My values
• A: 17568 —> 0100010010100000
• B: 17 —> 010001
• C : state #3 —> 10
• Frame : 01000100 10100000 01000110
• AT$SF=44 A0 46

44. Data handling
• Yours
• 3 ways to access them
• Web interface
• REST API (pull)
• HTTPS Callbacks (push)

45. Quick Demo
« It worked perfectly an hour ago »

46. Quick Demo
RFID demo live server is here :
http://bit.ly/ota-rfid-demo
(+ links to source code)

47. Try by yourself ?
• We just launched a « Maker Tour », half-day
events around our technology.
• Get to know how to use SIGFOX, get a dev kit,
start prototyping, and come home with new
hardware & new projects ideas :)
• Details & registration : makers.sigfox.com/tour

48. Nicolas Lesconnec
Developer & Maker Evangelist
nicolas.lesconnec@sigfox.com
http://makers.sigfox.com
Twitter: @nlesconnec
Github: @nicolsc