Internet of Things.

The domestic economy must become innovative — this is the goal proclaimed by the country's leadership for the next ten years. To solve this problem, as it turns out, not only (and not even so much!) new technologies are needed, but also the business need to use them. How innovative technologies can be effectively used by business is clearly seen in the example of the activities of the Russian company MeshNetics, which exports innovations.

To control the heating of the industrial premises with a total area of ​​3600 sq. m., a boiler with a fuel oil furnace, nine fans with heaters and one air recirculation control device are used. The heating system is controlled by the wireless building heating control system Link2Web, developed by the Swedish company BFM AB. The building owner saves 37% of the cost of fuel oil and electric heating of premises per year. The source of savings are sensors that respond in real time to the ambient temperature and the air temperature in individual parts of the building.

Link2Web was developed by the Swedes based on the universal MeshNetics technology. This technology is designed to connect technical devices of various purposes into a network to ensure their coordinated operation. Both the technology itself and the company that developed it are Russian.

The CEO of MeshNetics, Vasily Suvorov, talks about the essence of what the company MeshNetics does: “We are used to the fact that a phone can be integrated with a computer, a car, etc., but other things cannot, that they work autonomously. Well, this is wrong.” MeshNetics technology allows devices that have microcontrollers and various sensors to unite into networks. It turns out to be a kind of “Internet for things,” the possibilities of utilitarian use of which are limited only by the imagination of the designer, engineer, technologist, or simply the inhabitant of a home equipped with technology capable of “negotiating” with each other.

The idea, by the way, has been in the air for a long time. Back in 2000, HP Labs employees predicted that the Internet would one day become a medium that would allow the objects of the real, not virtual, world to function together. For example, traffic lights and car traffic, or irrigation systems and constantly changing weather conditions. Each thing (or, strictly speaking, object) would then have something like its own email address.

A primitive idea of ​​what MeshNetics does is given by the technologies of «smart home», which are simply a set of household devices controlled by a computer. But this is not even a special case, but rather an illustration of what is being discussed. In reality, the «Internet of Things» has a place everywhere where there are devices with sensors and controllers. That is, everywhere where technical systems are needed that have feedback with each other and with the world around them.

At the end of 2006, a new participant appeared at the «Electronics» exhibition in Germany — an unknown Russian company MeshNetics, which also brought new developments with it. More than 600 participants showed interest in them, some of whom later signed contracts. Three years later, MeshNetics managed to take its share of the world market of technologies that unite things into a single whole.

In order to connect different devices, Vasily Suvorov's team took the ZigBee wireless data transfer protocol as a basis and created a certain physical infrastructure with built-in software on its basis. Thanks to this software, any device equipped with a sensor and transmitter is able to exchange information with other devices and form a flexible, resilient network. For example, one that will allow finding a bypass route for data transfer in the event of a breakdown of one of the devices.

Here's a simple example. The number of free parking spaces is determined by special radar sensors installed above the parking spaces. Displays with information about free spaces are hung at the entrances to the parking complex. Information about free spaces is sent to the server. There, on the server, all processes occurring in the parking lot are analyzed. Initially, such systems were designed for wired connections of devices, but this is too expensive a solution for a large parking lot. Instead, each sensor is equipped with a microprocessor, a radio transmitting chip and MeshNetics software. Power is from batteries, which last for years of operation. No wires. It turns out cheap and effective.

Parking is a typical mass service system, to use the terminology adopted in the theory of operations research. The methods of managing such systems are well studied. The main thing is information about the system's operation, arriving in real time. It is much more efficient to organize its receipt and use than to build new parking lots.

An alliance of almost 300 companies, including Motorola, Samsung, Philips, Mitsubishi, is working on technologies using the ZigBee standard. It would seem impossible for an unknown Russian company to compete here: Russia is not the birthplace of innovative chips.

However, we know how to program these chips. Other ZigBee module manufacturers use software from chipset manufacturers, and MeshNetics debugs its own, which ensures maximum use of the ZigBee module capabilities, taking into account the needs of a specific client. For example, it takes into account the distance at which devices exchange data, which simply extends the life of the battery.

The second is the quality of service. Mr. Suvorov claims that the technical support of MeshNetics clients is the best on the market. They say that most players came from the business of industrial process automation or from the market of technical systems for modern buildings, while MeshNetics came from a world where the standards of quality of information and software systems rule the roost. It is possible that this is true. Previously, Vasily Suvorov headed the work of Luxoft Labs, where, in particular, he helped Luxoft's main client — Boeing predict the behavior of the aircraft's technical systems.

That MeshNetics is really able to compete is evident from its financial results. In 2007, the company's turnover approached $1 million for the first time. By the end of 2008, it is expected to reach $3-4 million. The company is expected to break even in 2010, when its turnover approaches $30 million (with a market growth rate of 200% per year, it will reach $100 million by that time).

According to Vasily Suvorov, 7.5 million chipsets supporting ZigBee were sold in the world in 2007. ZigBee modules (they already contain all the necessary components for integration into technical systems, including a radio controller) occupy about half of this market (40-60%). In pieces, this is about 3 million, and MeshNetics' share is small — tens of thousands. But the company is growing faster than the market, by 300% per year. When the market volume reaches 100 million chipsets per year, its extensive growth will slow down. Then MeshNetics intends to use some know-how prepared for future use.

Currently, the marginality of the ZigBee module is not very high. This is not a final product, but only a product for embedding in final products. Applications developed for networks that integrate «smart things» are more promising. One of them is «Smart Energy», designed for power systems. Some US states have adopted laws requiring companies selling energy to have a feedback channel with the consumer: basic monitoring of the air temperature at the facility supplied with energy can reduce energy consumption by more than a third. In the company mentioned at the beginning of the article, the heating control system based on ZigBee modules — ZigBit from MeshNetics allows you to measure the temperature in the premises in real time and collect data on energy consumption. All these actions optimize the management of energy consumption, which ultimately significantly increases the efficiency of managing this resource. The building's heating control system cost the customer $45,000, but paid for itself in less than two years.

MeshNetics' entry into the market cost several million dollars. The source of funding is the venture fund Oradell Capital, which is also the 100% owner of MeshNetics. The low entry price is explained by the fact that the company started in Russia. However, in its historical homeland, it is present only nominally.

Vasily Suvorov explains this by the fact that Russia has very poor conditions for doing electronics. «Problems with customs legislation, sales channels, distribution mechanisms, implementation systems, integration,» he lists with a sigh. This is precisely why it is easier for Russian innovative businesses to develop in the West. MeshNetics' territory of presence is the entire world, including New Zealand, Australia, Africa and Japan. Central and Western Europe accounts for the largest number of sales — 60% of the company's total turnover. 30% — the USA, 10% — other countries.

In fact, MeshNetics itself is ready to cross the border and pay taxes outside of Russia. The head office and development are located in Moscow. 80% of the chips are manufactured in Germany, where MeshNetics rents the capacity of a chip manufacturing plant. The cost price of a device varies greatly depending on the quantity. For very large batches of hundreds of thousands of devices, it is approximately $ 10 per unit.

Sales are also going abroad. MeshNetics has offices in Germany and the USA. They are responsible for product development and customer support. By the end of the year, production facilities will be launched in the USA. This is logical: this is where most of MeshNetics' competitors do business, and the market in which the company operates is also there. «Our goal is to turn an idea into money,» says Vasily Suvorov. «Where there is more talent, where it is more productive, you can earn money safely.»

Well, that's understandable. An innovative economy is an economy in which innovations are in demand. And it turns out that we have a lot of Kulibins, but ideas are not in demand.