[Info-vax] VMS and the Internet of Things (IoT)

[Jan-Erik Soderholm]

Den 2016-09-12 kl. 19:54, skrev Chris:
> On 09/11/16 10:16, Simon Clubley wrote:
>
> <snip>
>
>>
>> So that's my take on the IoT. What's yours and where do you see a
>> possible place for VMS within the IoT world ?
>>
>> Simon.
>>
>
> There's a lot of hype around this, a classic case being the front
> page of the Oxford Times (Oxford, Uk) this week, which describes
> a 3000 house "Futuristic City", with driverless cars and
> "intelligent buildings". Then goes on to say how the buildings will
> be "connected digitally", whatever that means. Pure hype to try to
> sell a "follow the money" project for business, as usual, using a
> few tech buzzwords to make it sound glamorous and futuristic.
>
> A More concrete example is of course, the smart metering project
> that's being rolled out across the uk. We do embedded systems
> here, so it's of interest to me in terms of the technology used. All
> the docs are available online, but from the spec, looks like vast
> overkill just to gather gas / electricity meter readings.
>
> In every home, the system will consist of a wireless network,
> using an encrypted proprietary protocol, gas and
> electricity meter collection interfaces, a user interface
> box with lcd display to allow monitoring of usage etc.
> Finally, a router communicating via a variety of wired and
> wireless protocols to a central server. Fwics, a company has
> been set up specifically to provide the server facilities. If
> I were paranoid, I might think so much infrastructure overkill
> was a bit creepy, but whatever :-).

We have had "smart" electricy meters for well over 10 years (Sweden).

It was only a switch of the meter itself. The remote reading is
done through signaling using a carrier over the power line itself.

I think there are also models using the cellular network directly.
Still only a meter switch (payed by the power company, of course,
since they save a lot on people (not) doing the readings).

In no case is there any requirement on home networks or even an
internet connection from the home.

What you describe sounds really weird...

The benefits is that you can login to the power company and get
nice statistics and graphs of your electricity use.

Jan-Erik.

> Of course, depending on the
> available network bandwidth, one could see all kinds of future
> uses, such as home security, appliance monitoring and even
> (gasp) government snooping of residents. Once the
> infrastructure is in place, no doubt they will find all kinds of
> uses for it in the future. As most homes already have high speed
> internet connectivity, one can only ask if the task could have
> been done at far less cost and duplication of effort.
>
> As for VMS, I see no roll at all. It's too expensive, functionally
> deficient in many areas and arcane in it's user interface. If VSI
> are really serious about making it mainstream, it must have all
> mainstream computing facilities that everyone else in the industry
> takes for granted these days. I really would like to see a
> resurgence and the opportunity to use it again, but seems like
> there's along way to go...
>
> Chris
>
>
>