RIIoT™ (Radiocrafts Industrial Internet of Things) is an RF network designed to be very easy to implement and to meet the sensor and actuator connectivity requirements for the Industrial IoT. The RF protocol is the IEEE802.15.4 g/e standard that supports both 868 MHz and 915 MHz for global applications. RIIoT™ includes an Intelligent C-programmable I/O (i:zi), which makes it possible to directly interface to any sensor or actuator and supports mist computing. RIIoT™ does not require any license or subscription fee.

The RIIoT™ system consists of the following parts:

• The RIIoT™ Net Controller
• The SPR module, the RIIoT™ leaf node module
• The GPR module, The RIIoT™ gateway module
• The RIIoT gateway dongle, an option to an embedded GPR module for easier implementation
• The RIIoT™ development tools

RIIoT™ is designed to interface directly to Cloud applications via JSON objects on a socket in the gateway. An example of how to connect to a Cloud application can be found in our Application note, AN028: Connecting Many Sensors to the Cloud in IIoT – RIIoT to Cloud Setup, where Radiocrafts shows you how to connect RIIoT™ to Thingsboard, an open source Cloud platform.

The RIIoT™ Net Controller, the Linux middleware that integrates in a gateway and makes it easy to both manage the RF network and route data to user gateway applications or to the Cloud.

The RIIoT™ Net controller provides a socket interface for user applications, making RIIoT™ compatible with any platform and user application written in any language. Data from RIIoT™ networks are forwarded to user applications as JSON objects that are easily parsed and forwarded to the Cloud.

RIIoT™ RF is based on the IEEE802.15.4g/e standard which is a robust long-range network sufficient for most industrial applications.

Radiocrafts has measured the range of RIIoT™, the details are available in our application note – AN027: RIIoT™ Range – Basics and Measurements Results.

The range is summarized in the table below.

RIIoT™ networks support a high node count per gateway driven by the short transmit pulse time and the Listen Before Talk (LBT) feature on MAC level. The risk of interference between simultaneously sending nodes is small with short Tx pulses.

Radiocrafts has done tests with RIIoT™ using 28 nodes sending data randomly every 4 seconds to one gateway. We achieved amazing results having 99.83% good packets received. To be fully compliant to the 2.8% rule, we need to reduce the update rate to sending every 5 seconds, that will also decrease the packet loss slightly.

Frequent Readings/Updates are possible due to the short pulse length in IEEE802.15.4 e/g. This ensures that many messages can be sent during the space of an hour, without violating the maximum duty cycle requirements that are imposed by radio regulations. The RIIoT™ message length (45ms in long range mode) is less than 3% of a LoRaWAN long range message or a Sigfox message.

Long pulse length is a major concern when frequent readings are required in a multi node network, as packet collisions will soon be a problem when the pulse length is long and the node count increases.

RIIoT™ is an excellent network for near real time control applications. RIIoT™ is based on the  IEEE 802.15.4 g/e which is a symmetrical wireless communication protocol. The RIIoT™ implementation as a star network means that the delays in the network are short, in the range of 10ms, and predictable. This is ideal for near real time control applications such as manufacturing, environmental control, asset tracking, alarm systems and many more.

Your product will be future-proofed by RIIoT™’s over-the-air updates. OTA updates are possible because of RIIoT™’s two-way communication channel and the module’s internal flash memory.

You can upgrade your RIIoT™ nodes in the field with new sensor/actuator interfaces, new mist computing algorithms, and updated security patches. You can also keep the underlying RF system firmware current using RIIoT™ Over-the-Air updates.

RIIoT™ supports very low power applications. Coin cell or Energy harvesting solutions for the leaf nodes can easily be supported for most sensor/controller applications. The most important technologies behind the very low power consumption are:

• Very low sleep current, 0.7µA with crystal based sleep timer running
• Very short transmit pulses, 4.5mS in 50kbps mode / 45mS in 5kbps mode
• A solution that supports long time intervals between updates and sleep, RIIoT™ has no mandatory background communication and includes transmit intervals that are very flexible to manage, see the ICI section for more details. 

The benefits of low power is that it enables wireless solutions (batteries or energy harvesting) and reduces the systems costs (small batteries, no super caps, and it supports low cost energy harvesting)

Radiocrafts performed a test where we ran RIIoT on Solar Energy. You can read about this in the application note, AN031: Running RIIoT on Solar Energy

AES128-CCM encryption

RIIoT™ secures data in-flight using AES128-CCM, an encryption scheme that offers confidentiality, integrity, and authenticity assurances. AES128-CCM offers protection against eavesdropping, modification, replay, and impersonations.

Unique Key per Link

A unique AES key is established between each node and the coordinator using Elliptic Curve Diffie-Hellman (ECDH). So even if one node is compromised, data from the rest of the network is still secured.

End-to-end security

RIIoT™ users can also opt-in for end-to-end security to encrypt data all the way from the end node to the user cloud application. With end-to-end security, data is protected from eavesdropping or modification even in the gateway that is responsible for routing.

Whitelisted nodes

RIIoT™ users can also use a “whitelist” so only approved nodes are accepted into the network. A whitelist requires a verification of the node’s security credentials prior to it joining the RIIoT™ network.

The Intelligent C-programmable I/O (ICI) that is included in the SPR node, comes with APIs to read and write to the local interfaces, including UART, I2C, SPI, GPIO and ADC. The ICI is programmable in high level C. ICI allows the user to integrate to any sensor or actuator or any combination of sensors and actuators directly to the SPR node without any external MCU.

The IEEE802.15.4.e/g supports symmetrical communication which means that messages can be sent at full speed both uplink and downlink. Good bi-directional communication is critical for any control application and also for making firmware Over the Air updates (OTA).

The Leaf Nodes

The leaf nodes are built using the SPR Module. The SPR module is a fully integrated module that only requires power and an antenna. The SPR module will interface directly to any sensor/controller and will easily build into a battery operated sensor box together with the sensor/controllers needed by the system’s designer.

Click here for more details on the SPR module.

The RIIoT™ Gateway

The RIIoT™ gateway is based on the GPR Module and the RIIoT™ Net Controller. The GPR module will accept RIIoT™ RF and transform this to serial data in the gateway or vice versa. This serial data will be accessed by the RIIoT™ Net Controller that will make the data available in JSON format inside the gateway, or JSON data coming in will be transformed to serial data for the GPR module.

The RIIoT™ Net Controller requires a Linux platform that can be found in many commercially available gateways. Please see a selection of options here.

The GPR module can either be integrated in the gateway by the customer or, alternatively, the customer can use the RIIoT gateway dongle that includes a GPR module and can connect to a gateway via USB.

Click here for more details on the GPR module 

Click here for more details on the RIIoT Gateway dongle.

The RIIoT SPR SDK

The user will program the SPR modules using the RIIoT SPR SDK to create a flash image for download to the module.

Click here for more details on the RIIoT SPR SDK.

The RIIoT™ Gateway Software Package

The package includes tools and firmware to set-up a RIIoT™ network through the GPR module. The package provides the ability for the user to set up key network parameters to optimize for a specific network’s requirement.

Click here for more details on the RIIoT™ Gateway Software Package.

The RIIoT™ Development Kit

The development kit includes all the hardware needed to start running a small RIIoT™ network from a PC. This allows the customer to test the network capabilities with minimum development resources needed. This is ideal for a first performance test in a customer environment. 

Click here for more details on the RIIoT™ Development kit.  

RIIoT™ Application Notes

Application Notes to help you setup your RIIoT™ Network. 

For more details on the RIIoT™ Parts and Tools click here.