What is Mioty?

IoT Technology

Mioty Technology: A Comprehensive Introduction

Mioty is a wireless communication solution specifically developed for the Internet of Things (IoT). It is based on an innovative approach to data transmission, providing reliable, energy-efficient, and scalable communication for applications in areas such as smart cities, industrial automation, agriculture, and more. Mioty technology stands out from other Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs) due to its robust signal propagation, high efficiency, and low energy consumption. These characteristics make it particularly suitable for environments where a large number of sensors and devices need to communicate simultaneously.

Technological Background of Mioty

Mioty is based on a transmission method called "Telegram Splitting": it is standardised as TS-UNB in ETSI TS 103 357 and uses Telegram Splitting Multiple Access (TSMA). This technique divides each message into small packets, which are transmitted across different frequencies and time slots. This reduces the likelihood of collisions with other messages and increases resistance to interference. Even if some packets are lost or disturbed, the message can be reconstructed at the receiver. This makes Mioty particularly robust against interference in environments with heavy radio traffic.

Good to know: how Telegram Splitting worksInstead of sending one long radio telegram, Mioty spreads many small packets over different frequencies and time slots. Collisions with other messages become unlikely, and lost or disturbed packets do not destroy the message: the receiver puts it back together from the remaining ones.

Mioty technology complies with the ETSI standard (European Telecommunications Standards Institute) and offers many advantages over conventional LPWAN technologies like LoRa or Sigfox:

• Long Range: Mioty can achieve ranges of up to 15 km in rural areas and several kilometers in urban environments.
• Scalability: A single Mioty network can support millions of devices, which is crucial for building large-scale IoT networks.
• Low Energy Consumption: Mioty devices can operate for several years on a single battery, making it particularly advantageous for battery-powered sensors.
• High Reliability: Thanks to the Telegram Splitting technology and robust error correction mechanisms, Mioty is highly resistant to interference.

Within a Mioty network, there are several key components that are essential for its operation: the Base Station, the Application Center, the Service Center, and the Blueprints. These components are closely integrated and ensure that the system operates efficiently and reliably.

The Mioty Base Station

The Base Station is the heart of every Mioty network. It acts as the receiver for data transmitted by the sensors and is responsible for forwarding this data to the central system in a structured and understandable form. The Base Station provides the necessary infrastructure for communication between the end devices and the central platform, where the data is processed.

Key features of the Base Station include:

• High Reception Capacity: The Mioty Base Station can receive data from thousands of devices simultaneously, as the data packets sent via Telegram Splitting can be processed independently.
• Robustness: It is resistant to interference from other wireless systems, as it can reconstruct received packets even when parts of them are lost or damaged.
• Scalability: In large IoT networks, a single Base Station can cover a vast number of devices over a wide geographical area. This reduces the need for additional hardware infrastructure.

The Base Station forwards the received telegrams over the BSSCI interface to the Service Center, which passes the data on to the Application Center, where it is further processed and presented in a usable form.

The Mioty Application Center

The Application Center is the central hub for data processing and visualization in a Mioty network. It collects, processes, and prepares the data received from the Service Center in a usable format for applications or end users. It ensures that the collected sensor data is available at the right time and place.

Functions of the Application Center include:

• Data Aggregation: It collects data from various sensors and devices connected to the network and aggregates it.
• Processing and Analysis: After aggregation, the data can be analyzed, filtered, and processed to generate key information such as alerts, condition monitoring, or trends.
• API Interfaces: The Application Center provides APIs to integrate the processed data into external systems or applications, such as IoT dashboards, analytics platforms, or other systems.

The flexibility of the Application Center allows Mioty technology to be used in a wide variety of use cases, from smart cities to industrial IoT applications.

The Mioty Service Center

The Service Center is responsible for the operation, management, and maintenance of the entire Mioty network. It handles tasks such as network monitoring, device management, and security.

Key functions of the Service Center include:

• Network Management: The Service Center monitors the status of the entire Mioty network, including the Base Stations and end devices. It detects and resolves potential issues, such as connection interruptions or interference.
• Device Management: New sensors and devices can easily be registered, monitored, and managed in the network. The Service Center enables firmware updates to be transmitted to the devices and ensures that all devices function properly.
• Security Management: To ensure network security, the Service Center provides authentication and encryption mechanisms for communication between devices and the Base Station. This prevents unauthorized access and protects sensitive data.

Plan security with the Service CenterAuthentication and key management are not an add-on, they are part of the Service Center, while the payload stays encrypted end to end from the sensor to the Application Center; the Base Station only forwards the telegrams. Whoever operates the network keeps unauthorized access out and protects sensitive data at the same place where devices, firmware updates and network status are managed.

Thus, the Service Center is an essential component that ensures the smooth and secure operation of the Mioty network.

Mioty Blueprints

Blueprints are machine-readable descriptions (JSON) of a sensor's payload. They tell the Application Center how each field of a received telegram has to be decoded, so that a temperature value or a meter reading arrives in the platform as a readable figure instead of raw bytes.

Key aspects of the Blueprints include:

• Standardization: A Blueprint follows the format defined by the mioty alliance, so a payload description written once works with every mioty-compliant Application Center, whether in smart cities, agriculture, industry, or utilities.
• Reusability: The mioty Blueprint Registry publishes existing specifications. Manufacturers and integrators can publish, discover and reuse them instead of writing their own decoders for every sensor type.
• Implementation Support: For companies looking to implement Mioty, Blueprints shorten the integration of new sensor types and minimize decoding errors.

By utilizing Mioty Blueprints, companies can save time and resources by reusing proven payload descriptions across projects.

Summary

Conclusion

Mioty technology is a promising solution for the needs of modern IoT. With its robust Telegram Splitting technique, high scalability, and efficiency, it offers significant advantages over traditional LPWAN technologies. The core components (End Points, Base Station, Service Center and Application Center, supported by Blueprints for payload decoding) each play a crucial role in ensuring the smooth operation of a Mioty network. Together, they provide a comprehensive, reliable, and secure platform for a wide variety of IoT applications. As the world becomes increasingly connected and the demand for high-performance IoT networks grows, Mioty will play a key role in the future development of the IoT.

LUPUS Cloud

Mioty-Solutions from LUPUS

For Mioty deployments LUPUS relies on the AVA2 gateway from its partner WEPTECH elektronik. The AVA2 is a bidirectional, low-cost gateway with the European mioty profiles (868 MHz).

The mioty gateway AVA2 is easy to install. It can be connected to the internet via the local network and offers a web interface that gives an overview of the mioty traffic. For meter data from wireless M-Bus or OMS devices, LUPUS additionally uses the SWAN2 gateway from WEPTECH.

The AVA2 combines Base Station, Application Center and Service Center and can forward all data via MQTT to the LUPUS Cloud, where they are assigned to a location, managed and visualised:

LUPUS Expert Tip: settle the roles before you plan the hardwareA Mioty network divides its work over clearly separated roles. The Base Station receives the sensor data and hands it on to the central platform in a structured form, the Service Center takes care of operation, monitoring, device management, firmware updates and security, and the Application Center aggregates and analyses the data and passes it to other systems through its APIs. The Blueprints describe how each sensor's payload is decoded in the Application Center. Whoever settles these roles first knows which interfaces the project really needs and where the sensor data ends up.

About the author

Matthias Wolff

Managing Partner, LUPUS-Electronics GmbH

Matthias Wolff is co-founder and managing partner of LUPUS-Electronics GmbH in Landau, Germany. The family business, founded in 2004, develops alarm, video and fire protection systems. At trade fairs such as FeuerTrutz he represents LUPUS on connected fire protection.

LinkedIn profile →