Thingstream, based in Bournemouth UK, claims to be able to provide IoT connectivity in 190 countries using the MQTT protocol over the networks of 600 mobile network operator partners.
The company says it has been operating in relative stealth mode to date but has had an impressive first half of the year, with a number of new customers now integrating its IoT technology and it is scaling up of operations across the globe.
Thingstream “leverages the low power messaging capability already built into existing global GSM networks utilising MQTT-SN via USSD, making it secure (no IP address) and providing predictable low costs.”
USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) is a real time messaging protocol for GSM cellular netorks. Messages can up to 182 alphanumeric characters long and two-way exchange of data is possible.
Thingstream’s website indicates that it has partnerships with operators in both Australia and New Zealand, but these are only on 2G networks – which are being closed down – and 3G. It has not identified the operators.
The company says its technology is being adopted across a number of verticals: asset tracking, logistics/supply chain, facilities management, energy and environmental monitoring.
It is building a global network of partners delivering Thingstream enabled products and solutions to their respective verticals. Named partners are Pathfindr (UK, asset management) HAL Robotics (IN, supply chain monitoring); device manufacturers Eurotech, Suntech, Telic an “a growing number of systems integration partners globally including most recently First Technology Group who have launched an end to end IoT proposition in the South African market.
“Thingstream’s ability to simplify IoT connectivity, provide global coverage and provide predictable pricing models has proved incredibly popular with a number of companies looking to maximise the opportunities that IoT presents,” the company says.
What is MQTT?
According to Wikipedia MQTT (Message Queuing Telemetry Transport) is an ISO standard (ISO/IEC PRF 20922) publish-subscribe-based messaging protocol. It works on top of the TCP/IP protocol and is designed for connections with remote locations where a “small code footprint” is required or the network bandwidth is limited.
MQTT-SN is a variation of the main protocol aimed at embedded devices on non-TCP/IP networks, such as ZigBee.
Wikipedia adds: “The specification does not specify the meaning of ‘small code footprint’ or the meaning of ‘limited network bandwidth’. Thus, the protocol’s availability for use depends on the context.”
Andy Stanford-Clark of IBM and Arlen Nipper of Cirrus Link authored the first version of the protocol in 1999, and in 2013, IBM submitted MQTT v3.1 to the OASIS specification body with a charter that ensured only minor changes to the specification could be accepted.
MQTT has its own representative body mqtt.org whose web site notes: “[MQTT] is a publish/subscribe, extremely simple and lightweight messaging protocol, designed for constrained devices and low-bandwidth, high-latency or unreliable networks.
“The design principles are to minimise network bandwidth and device resource requirements whilst also attempting to ensure reliability and some degree of assurance of delivery. These principles also turn out to make the protocol ideal of the emerging ‘machine-to-machine’ (M2M) or ‘Internet of Things’ world of connected devices, and for mobile applications where bandwidth and battery power are at a premium.”
