BMD-100-A-R

White Paper A Rigado Best Practices Guide De-risking IoT Wireless Design Leveraging certified modules and rapid iteration White Paper De-risking IoT wireless design by leveraging certified modules and rapid iteration Foreword en we partner wit a new IoT client at igado t e first uestion we ask is at will make t is product uni ue in t e marketplace It s unlikely to be t e radio but too many companies underestimate t e time and e ort re uired to build a robust wireless in rastructure be ore t ey even start t e c allenging process o developing t eir uni ue category-killing product T is paper covers two key strategies or IoT wireless design leveraging pre-certified modules to reduce risk and time to market and planning or continued iteration via remote updates ow power IoT wireless design is c allenging because t e very concept o w ere a connected product begins and ends gets stretc ed across ardware firmware local mes and device operations up in t e cloud dd in IoT s constraints around si e unit cost mass distribution and power consumption and it s clear t at or a success ul product every aspect o t e wireless design must be care ully considered and optimi ed aving success ully deployed undreds o wireless pro ects across consumer commercial and industrial markets we are appy to s are our perspectives on ow to get products to market as uickly as possible wit ma imum e ibility or t e uture and minimum risk to bot sc edule and budget Who should read this paper and why 2 CEO ead t is paper to learn about t e business opportunities o remote updates allowing planned iteration and ow to get to market uickly w ile minimi ing risk to your company roduct Manager ead t is paper to understand t e risk actors o wireless design and ow to design or product roll-outs t at scale massively wit minimal risk ou will also learn ow t inking o connectivity as a plat orm or a amily o devices can c ange your I calculus and ow best to evaluate i and w en to migrate rom modules to c ip-down designs Design Engineer ead t is paper or specific best practices on ow to avoid t e most common mistakes w en designing robust in rastructure or over-t e-air updates White Paper De-risking IoT wireless design by leveraging certified modules and rapid iteration Designing for iteration ne o t e biggest advantages o IoT is t e ability to update configurations or add new unctionality a ter t e device as le t t e actory but you ave to do some work up ront or e ample a well designed bootloader enables iterative updates but re uires a robust process or managing t ose updates in t e field ou also need to mitigate t e risks o re uent iteration by minimi ing downtime and designing ail-sa es against bricking t e device during updates A Smart Bootloader ll wireless o s will come wit some stock Device irmware pdate D unctionality but adding a couple o eatures to your bootloader will cut your update risk actors by inally end-to-end encryption protects you rom bot t e t o I and malicious code being inserted onto your devices In t is case end-to-end means encrypting t e update package all t e way rom a system you totally control to t e IoT device itsel Don t rely on t e luetoot connection s de ault encryption instead you s ould s are t e keys at t e point o manu acture via a ardwire connection at t e actory T is ensures t at even i t e connection is compromised no rogue firmware can be loaded on t e device PROTIP SOFTWARE • econd you s ould always include a double bu er T is allows you to veri y updates be ore t ey re loaded e sure t at t e bu er is large enoug s ould be su cient FIRMWARE • SMART BOOTLOADER irst t e bootloader D s ould e ist outside o t e main application firmware T is ensures t at t e device can start up regardless o t e condition o t e application firmware RADIO • Figure 1. Smart Bootloader ake sure your bootloader is independent o your firmware To save time and minimi e t e risk o uman error any ongoing update management process s ould be as automated as possible so make sure you ave a robust and well-documented I Unique Key Encryption: Only the paranoid survive I someone as p ysical access to a device and t ey are determined enoug you s ould assume t e device can be acked o t e uestion to answer is ow e posed am I i someone acks one device igado uses -bit encryption to secure t e trans er o firmware images to our modules but we also employ device-specific encryption keys to reduce t e t reat o a single success ul ack turning into a ma or irai botnet-level catastrop e T is re uires some e tra development work up ront or use a module t at as secure bootloader already integrated but wit your companys entire reputation at stake plus t e potential e pense o a recall t e risk-reward calculation skews ig ly in avor o playing it sa e 3 White Paper De-risking IoT wireless design by leveraging certified modules and rapid iteration Managing updates at scale To update t e devices in t e field you will need a central device operations application t at is in communication wit eac device T is cloud application will probably ave ot er unctionality e g processing data rom device sensors or issuing instructions to t e device but we re ocusing ere on update management T e first re uirement o t e device operations app is to identi y and group devices our device operations system needs to track w ic uni ue devices ave w at eatures enabled and ideally w ere t ey are deployed e g to roll out updates at o -peak ours time one by time one w ic makes eature management a lot easier Tags can elp manage ardware variations too making it easier to deploy di erent versions o an update to support di erent ardware wit out aving to add serial number-level logic into your updates inally aving granular command o device selection enables staggered roll-outs w ic dramatically reduces t e risk o catastrop ic update ailure staggered roll-out updates a small percentage o devices first waits or an acknowledgment t at t e update went well and t en rolls out t e update in larger and larger co orts eac time c ecking or a eartbeat be ore proceeding to t e ne t co ort y adding support or device tags in bot your firmware design and your cloud app you can assign specific devices to one or more groups Minimize your risk with differential updates and roll-back failsafe onsumers regularly complain about automated updates interrupting t eir use o t eir digital devices In industrial applications you can actually measure t e cost o downtime due to updates In eit er case downtime translates to dissatis action t t e ot er end o t e rustration spectrum t ere is t e possibility o a bad update totally bricking t e device Di erential updating also results in a better customer e perience as downtime during update can decrease rom minutes to seconds T is can really add up or devices w ere updates are pus ed re uently especially at t e beginning o t e product li ecycle w ere t e owner is evaluating t e total cost o owners ip o t e device w ic includes t e rustration actor versus its value igado as developed a uni ue solution or minimi ing t e si e and time o over-t e-air T updating t roug t e use o di erential updating di erential update contains only t e c anged parts o t e firmware not t e entire image ood update design includes building in ailsa es dd logic to your bootloader D to do a c ecksum on t e update and veri y it transmitted success ully be ore you write over t e firmware image T en move a copy o t e original firmware into t e bu er w ile t e device reboots I t e new firmware ails to boot success ully t en ave t e bootloader swap out t e firmware images and roll-back to t e earlier version t at was working T ere are di erent degrees o di erential you mig t only update at t e library level or wit t e rig t firmware in t e bootloader you can di down to a single line o code t igado we o ten reduce t e update si e by or more w en we use di erential updates at s more smaller update packages means less data w ic also means less power re uired or transmitting updates ou will need to add logic so you dont get caug t in an update and roll-back loop and make sure t e bootloader reports back to t e device management application wit details about t e ailed update t t at point your operations so tware can send instructions to try again or alert you to fi t e issue and start again wit a new version DEVICES GATEWAY DEVICE OPERATIONS DEVICES GATEWAY Figure 2. Managing updates our Device perations cloud app communicates wit and manages devices via a gateway 4 White Paper De-risking IoT wireless design by leveraging certified modules and rapid iteration Getting to market faster & planning for scale I time to market is important to your product s success t en leveraging a pre-certified module s ould be your de ault strategy ile pre-certified modules carry a slig tly ig er per-unit price t an a custom designed wireless or c ipdown solution t ey typically save ar more in design certification costs or new products good rule o t umb is to leverage t e speed and implementation advantages o module solutions until you e ceed units and t en evaluate migrating to a custom c ip-down solution T is section will look at t e time savings o leveraging a module solution and t e advantages o designing your connectivity solution as a plat orm or all uture members o t e product amily De-Risking Part 1: Testing the product value proposal De-Risking Part 2: Minimizing regulatory risk & certification costs very product manager s goal is to bring t eir product to market as uickly as possible at t e lowest possible cost so t ey can test t eir market assumptions and see i t ey truly ave a winner en you design your own radio you are considered an intentional radiator by t e and as suc must comply wit T ese re uirements ave undreds o tests w ic can take mont s and cost tens o t ousands o dollars at s more c anging t e antenna ground plane firmware board layout or even t e casing can all trigger re-certification etting t ese all per ect t e first time is unlikely so i you decide to do it yoursel t en you s ould actor in at least two rounds o certification be ore going to market at scale ireless modules o ten allow you to bring connectivity to a product or less t an al t e cost o designing your own wireless solution so you can evaluate t e product s potential be ore laying out a uge investment in wireless engineering e pertise and global certifications it so muc engineering work completed in advance you get to market aster giving you more time to iterate based on customer eedback and first mover advantage over your competitors Design Module In contrast leveraging a pre-certified radio module makes you an unintentional radiator w ic as a muc easier certification ou also ave t e benefit o a market-tested design w ere any re-designs and re-certifications will be t e responsibility o t e module vendor Implementation Evaluate & Select Wireless Module ertification Non-Intentional ertification for End Product aunc Launch Quickly! VS Chip Down Evaluate & Select Wireless SoC Antenna Designs Custom Wireless Firmware Custom Wireless Software Board Designs Performance & Compliance Testing Custom Updating Tools TYPICALLY MULTIPLE CERTIFICATION TESTS & DESIGN ITERATIONS REQUIRED Figure 3. Timeline of two engineering teams Modules reduce risk, cost & time to market. Submit For Intentional Radiator ertification TYPICALLY ADDS 4-6 MONTHS TO LAUNCH White Paper De-risking IoT wireless design by leveraging certified modules and rapid iteration Connectivity as a platform iven t e cost and comple ity o designing a wireless connectivity solution it makes sense to reuse your designs as o ten as possible en we re talking wit our clients we strongly recommend t ey t ink o connectivity as a plat orm or an entire amily o products rat er t an as a one-o design e ercise or a single device it a plat orm in place new product amily members can get to market wit near- ero engineering time or connectivity aring parts across a amily also makes it easier to buy in bulk w ic reduces cost and inventory management always a concern w en scaling Making the move from module to custom design odules incorporate t e tools you need or ast iteration but t ey re typically a bit more e pensive so at some point you may need to make a decision about i and w en to move rom modules to a c ip-down design rom an engineering perspective t e process is ust a part swap you can use t e same o in your custom design t at t e module uses and you can probably license any firmware or libraries t at t e module provider included ut as t e designer o a radio transmitter you will now need a di erent type o certification and by stripping out e tra eatures in avor o a bare-bones design you may be limiting your options to add new eatures in t e uture PROTIP en looking at connectivity as a plat orm taking steps to uture proo t at plat orm is o ten a wise investment or e ample you may want to select a dual mode wireless o t at supports bot luetoot and T read even i only one will be used initially ou will also want to ensure you ave ade uate memory sensors and I or uture apps inally you s ould consider w ere you ll be selling as eac country as its own certification re uirements t igado our modules are all I and apan certified and and ustralia ew ealand compliant valuating t e move rom odule to ip Down re e pected savings cost o design test certification ou s ould also consider engineering opportunity cost ay a c ipdown design saves per unit sold but it will take mont s o engineering time to get t ere ould you generate more revenue i t e team used t at time to work on new innovations t at leverage your company s uni ue skill set ltimately migrating to a custom c ip-down design may be t e rig t move once a device reac es volumes o or more T at s also a transition t at your module provider s ould be able to acilitate ake sure your module provider as a well documented process to migrate your firmware and app code to a custom design or e ample will t ey license any proprietary firmware to your custom design Production Volume v2.0 v1.0 Use a module to get first version to market faster. Save on design and certifiication costs and focus on unique value-added features Reuse wireless platform to quickly expand product line and iterate products in the field as needed v3.0 After product reaches high volume, leverage module provider team to migrate to chip-down design to reduce BOM cost across family Time Figure 4. Getting to market & when to scale: ook at sales volume to decide i and w en to move to a custom wireless design 6 White Paper De-risking IoT wireless design by leveraging certified modules and rapid iteration Summary: Wireless design is challenging, but best practices help IoT revolutioni ed product design wit t e ability to update devices remotely opening t e door to a design p ilosop y o planned iteration and ongoing revenue models wit mont ly subscriptions It’s all about your product’s unique value-add. s long as you design wit security in mind rom device firmware to cloud operations and you invest resources in robust over-t e-air updates your products can continue to evolve long a ter t ey ve le t t e actory generating new revenue streams and delig ting users or years s engineers ourselves we recommend you consider a module-based design or look at partnering wit a wireless design ouse It allows your team to ocus on w at makes your product uni ue minimi es risk and dramatically decreases time to market To take a closer look at t e most likely risk actors acing your wireless pro ect contact us at in o rigado com About the author Justin Rigling, Co-Founder and Chief Technology Officer, Rigado s T at igado ustin as designed literally undreds o wireless modules or every application imaginable rom bike computers to eavy industry to gol course watering sensors rior to co- ounding igado in ustin was a design engineer at armin International e speciali es in low-power wireless systems and olds a in lectrical ngineering rom IT ustin is invited to speak regularly at industry events and e is a member o t e luetoot pecial Interest roup t miles e also set t e uinness book world record alongside igado co- ounder en orrado or t e world s longest wi-fi connection 7 I D orporation ll rig ts reserved www rigado com