Crowdsourcing a public internetof things infrastructure.

@thingsMcr

www.thethingsnetwork.org

Part of an evolving movement

forum.thethingsnetwork.org

LoRaWAN

Long

Range

Wide

Area

Network

www.oldpicsarchive.com

Network architecture

The equipment

People focussed

For everyone

Why this is important

An open network allows people to develop ideas and services more freely

Distributed ownership makes a more robust system

Encourages innovation through play and experimentation

Greater Manchester has multiple and diverse communities and businesses.

An environment that supports innovation forbusiness and communities alike

@thingsMcr

Why hasn’t this happened before?

Cost - equipment has traditionally been expensive

Connectivity has been restricted

Installation was complex and needed negotiation

Networks were often closed and bespoke

Power usage was generally too high

Range of network signal was small

@thingsMcr

What it doesn’t do

Not good for data heavy applications

Not really good for continuous streaming of data

Can’t handle location - yet

@thingsMcr

Underlying data handling not quite there

Traditional IoT network

Smart parking in the Northern Quarter using 2.4/5GHz

Red dots are gateways

Gateway 0

Gateway 0

Range1.5-3km urban14km line of sight

Range1.5-3km urban14km line of sight

Potential to cover Greater Manchester with 30 Gateways

Covering rural, suburban and urban

Open Network

For everyone

Anyone can join

Making IoT people focussed

Through design

Through designRe-Thingifying the Smart City

Through designSharing knowledge openly

Uses of things

Building a business on open

• Infrastructure costs are dispersed• Distribution creates resilience and redundancy• Cost of access is limited to the hardware*• Long battery life allows for lower maintenance• Greater range means less infrastructure needed• Greater range means easier deployment• Low cost devices - becoming lower• Secure and encrypted• Scaling costs are simplified• No vendor lock-in - based on open protocol• Software stack is open source• Faster knowledge generation

Things Manifesto

The Things Network is an open source, free initiative with the following properties:• It connects sensors and actuators, called "Things", with transceivers called "Things Gateways" to servers

called "Things Access".• The first connection is "Over The Air", the second is "Over The Net". The distributed implementation of

these concepts is called "The Things Network".• Anyone shall be free to set up "Things" and connect to "Things Gateways" that may or may not be their

own.• Anyone shall be free to set up "Things Gateways" and connect to "Things Access" that may or may not be

their own. Their "Things Gateways" will give access to all "Things" in a netneutral manner, limited by the maximum available capacity alone.

• Anyone shall be free to set up "Things Access" and allow anonymous connections from the Internet. Their "Things Access" will give access to all "Things Gateways" in a net neutral manner, limited by the maximum available capacity alone. Furthermore their "Things Access" will allow connection of other "Things Access" servers for the distribution of data.

• The "Over The Air" and "Over The Net" networks shall be protocol agnostic, as long as these protocols are not proprietary, open source and free of rights.

• Anyone who perpetrates a "Things Access" or a "Things Gateway" will do so free of charge for all connecting devices and servers.

• Anyone making use of the network is allowed to do so for any reason or cause, possibly limited by local law, fully at own risk and realizing that services are provided "as is" and may be terminated for any reason at any moment. The use may be open for anybody, limited to customers, commercial, not-for-profit, or in any other fashion. "The Things Network" providers will not pose restrictions upon its users.

Join us.

@thingsMcr