This document provides an overview of a SIGFOX event held in Madrid on November 25th, 2015. It introduces the presenters and provides details about SIGFOX, including that it has invented a radio communication protocol and operates a global network. It discusses SIGFOX's core concepts like energy efficiency, long range, and low bandwidth communication. Examples of use cases like smart cities and predictive maintenance are also mentioned. The document concludes with a demonstration of connecting an RFID reader to SIGFOX and instructions for getting started with the SmartEverything prototyping board.

1. #6 Madrid — 25.11.2015

2. Program
• Slides
• Demo(s)
• Workshop
• Fun

3. Us
Nicolas Lesconnec
Developer & Maker Evangelist
Anthony Charbonnier
Startup Relations Manager
Jon Regueiro
Support Engineer

4. ABOUT SIGFOX

5. About SIGFOX
• SIGFOX has invented a radiocommunication
protocol
• SIGFOX is operating a global network
• SIGFOX does not sell hardware components
• SIGFOX does not build connected solutions

6. New possibilities
• Direct Internet connection.
• No battery drain. Years of autonomy.
• Detect. Send. Receive.
• No configuration

7. In a nutshell
• Power on
• Send a message
• It’s picked up by n of our base stations
• Instantly forwarded to your own server
• That’s it

8. Complexity
• AT$SF=0123456789
• No pairing or configuration of any kind
• HTTP request to your server

9. Proof

10. Why SIGFOX
• Hub-based technologies are not compatible with
independent devices
• Need for a protocol designed for the IoT, and
not one tweaked to address it.

11. Core concepts
• Energy efficiency
• Very Long Range
• Out of the box connectivity
• Outdoor + Indoor
• Two-way communication
• Low bandwidth, small messages
• Ultra Narrow Band

12. Energy efficiency
• Tx : ~25/30 mA for a few seconds
• 99.x% of the time, device is silent
• Idle consumption is key
• Idle : a few µA

13. Very Long Range
• Countryside : Tens of kms
• Cities : A few kms
• Direct line of sight : wow !

14. Out of the box
• Network is serving the devices, not the other
way round
• Device simply sends a frame, message is
detected by n base stations
• Message is validated / deduplicated by our
backend

15. Outdoor + indoor
• 868MHz has good propagation properties
• Radio waves are not magic
• Consider ~20dB of attenuation indoor, and
~30dB for light underground or tricky buildings

16. Two-way communication
• Send updates to your device(s)
• Default behaviour: wake up, send, back to sleep
• No passive Rx mode
• Device can receive a message upon request
• Every communication is instigated by the device

17. Low bandwidth
• 100 bits / s
• 12 bytes per message

18. 12 bytes !?
• Yes. Seriously. 12 bytes.
• This is the available payload.
• You can put a lot of info in 96 bits
• 2^96 is a 30ish-digit number.
• 8 billions of billions of billions of possible values

19. Payload examples
• Full GPS Coordinates : 6 bytes
• Temperature : 2 bytes
• State reporting : 1 byte
• Hearbeat, update request : 0 byte

20. How frequently ?
• 140 times a day

21. 140 times / day
• Not a technology limit
• Compliant with the European regulation: 1% duty
cycle

22. Money
• Most pricey subscription: €14/year
• A couple of devices, 140 messages/day
• The higher volume, the lower the price
• The lower number of messages, the lower the price
• Down to €1/year for large volumes & a couple of
messages/day
• Startup plan : €8/year, as if already 30k devices.

23. Security

24. Security
• Each device is identified by a unique ID on the
network
• Each message is signed
• Servers managed by ourselves, in 2 french
datacenters.
• Security is never finished, permanent effort.

25. Signature
• Each message is accompanied by an hashed
signature, made from :
• the device id
• the device PK (unknown to the user)
• the payload
• internal increment

26. Signature
• Replayed messages
• Altered messages
• Spoofed messages

27. Encryption
• By default, the payload is not encrypted
• Encryption cost a lot of energy
• No « one size fits all » solution.
• Up to you to use the encryption most suited to
your case

28. Radio properties
• Great resistance to interferors
• Very difficult to jam
• Interception is hard
• UNB
• Unpredictable frequency

29. Radio properties

30. Ultra Narrow Band

31. Ultra Narrow Band
• The SIGFOX protocol relies on the Ultra Narrow
Band technology
• A message : ~100Hz wide
• Each base station watch a 200KHz part of the
spectrum
• Hard part: detect message without knowledge
of the precise frequency or schedule

32. Ultra Narrow Band
• Why Ultra Narrow Band ?
• Easy analogy : cars vs motorbikes

33. Quiet Base station

34. Undesired signals

35. Message received

36. Frequency used
• SIGFOX uses unlicensed sub-GHz bands :
• 868MHz in Europe
• 902MHz in the US

37. Unlicensed != unregulated
• SIGFOX complies with both ETSI (Europe) &
FCC (US) regulations
• ETSI : 1% duty cycle
• FCC : duration of emission

38. Coverage

39. Global network
• Roaming is included in the basic subscription
• Your device can switch from one country to
another without additional charges.

40. Current - Nationwide
• France
• Netherlands
• Spain
• UK

41. Current - cities
• Bogota
• Dublin
• Milan
• Munich
• Santiago
• San Francisco
• …

42. Rollout in progress
• Belgium
• Denmark
• Italy
• Luxembourg
• Portugal
• USA

43. USA
• Currently: San Francisco
• Early 2016 : 10 majors cities, including Atlanta,
Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles
• And we’re just starting :)

45. Hello World

46. Hello World
• Send a dummy message
• Check it on the SIGFOX website
• Forward it through the callback mechanism
• Store message in a database
• Display list of recorded events

47. Use cases

48. IoT != Connected gadgets
Sexy Stuff
BORING
BUT USEFUL
IOT

49. Good use cases
• Not that talkative devices : small messages
every now and then
• Independent devices

50. Metering & utilities

51. Smart City

52. Ifttt-like
• Press the button, send an
empty frame & trigger any pre
determined action
• « Mom I’m home ! »
• « Get me a taxi»
• Replay last order, ~Amazon Dash

53. More
• Assisted .. and Predictive Maintenance
• Logistics : GPS Tracking
• Security
• Healthcare, stay-at-home people

54. DIY Projects
• Connected wine cellar. Because french.
• Connected cat food dispenser. Because cats.
• Kitchen garden: temperature, moisture, …
• GPS Tracking of anything

55. You ?
• You can build a PoC very quickly
• Lot of funny stuff to make
• And lot of $$$ to make too ;)
• KISS, dumb device means:
• Cheap
• Less prone to failure

56. Hardware

57. Hardware SIGFOX
• SIGFOX is not a hardware vendor
• Many established partners offer SIGFOX-ready
chips: Atmel, TI, Silicon Labs, Axsem, Atim, …
• Most Sub-GHz radio transceivers are
compatible, it’s just about a software upgrade.

58. Prototyping
• Arduino : Snootlab, SmartEverything
• Raspberry Pi : Yadom
• Can be bought one unit a time
• Get started within minutes
• Not for industrial use

59. Modules
• Easy to work with : AT commands
• Price range from ~10 to 20€
• Evaluation boards available from
manufacturers : Adeunis, Telecom Design,
Telit, ..

60. SoC, transceivers
• Texas Instruments, Atmel, SiLabs, Axsem, ..
• Cheap, a few $
• More complex to work with if not familiar
• Certification needed if you don’t stick to the
provided ref design.

61. Antenna
• Critical when doing radio
• 868MHz -> best case is 17cm (lambda/2)
• Helicoidal, patch, … antennas possible.

62. Cloud

63. Get your data
• Part of the standard service.
• 3 ways
• View - website
• Pull - HTTP API
• Push - HTTP Callback

64. Common use case :
push callbacks
• Get notified each time of your devices send a
message
• Can trigger whatever you want : alarm,
notification, data processing, …
• Example here: http://github.com/nicolsc/sigfox-
callback-demo

65. Set up a callback

66. Downlink
• Message sent to a device can be
• Automatic with a pre configuration
• Sent from your own server

67. Downlink auto
• Simply set what message you want to send back
• Hardcoded
• Time, Station ID, .. for sync purposes

68. Downlink callback
• Same mechanism than the uplink callback
• Set up an URL
• An when called, send your 8-byte frame within
the response body

70. Real demo

71. Connected RFID reader
• Standard 125KHz RFID reader & tags
• Once a tag is detected, send its ID through
SIGFOX
• Update a live dashboard
• Do something else :)

73. Resources
• https://github.com/ameltech/
• + Checkout github.com/nicolsc/sigfox-* for some
demos & sample codes

74. First steps with the
SmartEverything

75. Register
• http://backend.sigfox.com/activate
• Click SmartEverything
• Enter the device id of your board + the provided PAC
number
• Check http://10.0.0.118:1234/
• Operator : select SIGFOX_Spain
• Enter your personal info

76. Getting started
• Plug the SmartEverything board using a micro USB cable
• Plug the antenna ;)
• Check that it’s recognised by your computer
• $ ls /dev/tty.*
• Windows
• Launch Powershell
• > [System.IO.Ports.SerialPort]::getportnames()

77. Arduino setup
• Install the Arduino Zero core
• Tools > Boards > Board Manager
• Install the ASME core
• Tools > Boards > Manager (Again !), filter on type=Partner
• Choose the SmartEverything Board Type
• Tools > Boards
• Install the libs associated to each sensor (... and to the SIGFOX module)
• Sketch > Include Library > Manage Libraries ; Filter on
Type=Partner ; install each library

78. 1st Arduino Sketch
• Open the Arduino IDE
• Select Board Type > Arduino Zero
• Select the correct port
• File > Examples > SmartEverything > VL6180X >
AmbientLight
• Upload
• The blue LED on the board should blink

79. Hello World
• File > Examples > SmartEverything > Sigfox >
DataModeEU
• Upload

80. Check message
• http://backend.sigfox.com
• Navigate to the « device » menu
• Click on the device ID
• « Devices messages »

81. Set up a callback

82. Don’t have a server ?
• https://github.com/nicolsc/sigfox-callback-demo
• Git clone & push to your server
• Or simply click « Deploy to Heroku »

86. Downlink

87. How does it work ?
• The Module send the frame, then sleep for 20s
• Then it enters Rx mode
• Waits 20s for a response
• Quits Rx mode & goes to deep sleep

88. Request a downlink
• Use the AT$SF command, with an additional
parameters
• AT$SF = [hex byte]*, 2, 1

89. Set up the downlink

90. Handle the response
• When entering Rx mode, the module will display
• +RX BEGIN
• Received frame will be displayed as
• +RX=[hex byte] [hex byte]…
• When leaving Rx mode, it will display
• +RX END

91. Handle the response
• Detect an input line starting with +RX= & parse it
as a series of hex bytes
• If no downlink message has been sent, you’ll
have no +RX= line, just the BEGIN & END flags

92. Sample input/output
AT$SF=55 50 4c 49 4e 4b, 2, 1
OK
+RX BEGIN
+RX=44 4f 57 4e 4c 49 4e 4b
+RX END

93. Contribute

94. Share
• Please share what you’ll make with SIGFOX
• Hackster.io, instructables, github … your move.
• Q&A
• http://sigfox.cloud.answerhub.com/
• Keep in touch :
• nicolas.lesconnec@sigfox.com
• twitter: @nlesconnec