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Our Quarterly Newsletter Highlighting
The M2M Industry's Issues & Innovations.

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Summary

This bulletin is provided to help keep IT Professionals informed about upcoming technologies directly related to M2M communications, including new network technologies, firmware upgrades and security information.

Hardware/Firmware Changes

Custom Development Capabilities

Some hardware manufacturers are now allowing integrators to apply custom coding and programs to the modems allowing for an even higher level of functionality for a better solution specific to project requirements. This obviously isn’t necessary with every deployment but allows DH Solutions to be a little creative to meet the project requirements in some deployments.

BlueTree/Sixnet Transition

Sixnet has modified an existing firmware that increases functionality, reliability and overall performance. This relates directly to the BT-5600 and BT-6600 modems, now dubbed SN-5600 and SN-6600. This firmware cannot be updated remotely and is somewhat technical to perform, however DH Solutions will begin implementing this firmware prior to shipment of new devices. The new firmware allows many new features; including a robust firewall, IPsec and SSL tunneling, VLAN support and an access control list – to list a few. More importantly however, this updates allows for batch management of the devices in Sixnet’s GMU platform. For more information on the functionality and features of the GMU platform please give DHWS a call, DH Solutions can also assist in updating current Bluetree modems to the new firmware as well.

Best Practices

Wi-Fi Encryption

There are a handful of ruggedized modems that have the capability to act as a Wi-Fi hotspot. With any Wi-Fi communication it is always recommended to use some type of encryption to ensure the data between the devices is not compromised and to help prevent unauthorized access to your network. If you have ruggedized cellular modems deployed with Wi-Fi enabled on the devices; please be sure to configure them with encryption and give DH Solutions a call if you have any questions.

Industry Updates

Carrier Information

As some of you may have heard by now, Verizon has been busy advertising their new LTE technologies claimed to be 4G. In the M2M industry this is not immediately relevant, however LTE enabled chipsets will be the future in M2M communication for various applications and is currently on the roadmap. Recently, Sierra Wireless launched a new LTE enabled chipset, the first step to integrating LTE into ruggedized cellular modems.

While 3G based speeds have usually sufficed for most applications in regards to bandwidth capabilities, once the LTE rollout is complete it will also allow for not only much higher bandwidth but also broader coverage than the 3G counterparts.

M2M Worm Update

There have now been reports that the source code for the Stuxnet worm may be out in the wild. While it is hard to say whether this is the case or not; one thing is certain – strong security practices are important even when dealing with M2M communications. As previously mentioned, the Stuxnet worm was the first known worm to target M2M devices. It has not been discovered who was responsible for the worm but experts claim there were nearly 30 developers involved in creating it. There is plenty of speculation on the web relating to the primary purpose and target this worm was developed for but in the end let’s agree to implement optimal security practices.

For additional assistance, please contact the DH Solutions Support Team at 877.524.0430, or by email at support@digitalhwysolutions.com.