Creating innovative solutions in machine to machine communication

Q3's global sourcing model gives the maximum benefit to customers in terms of cost savings, improved quality, access to highly talented professionals, flexibility of operations and reduced time to market.

Company Profile

Client has a long history of being slanted towards providing embedded solutions for the most complex needs of the modern world. Their innovative and futuristic solutions are focused on providing better ways for machines to connect with other machines, for achieving higher levels of automation and simpler lives. Their belief lies in combining modern microelectronics with proven software development technologies to open new vistas in automation that are destined to lead people to a truly automated world.

Business Situation

Client is a global leader who enjoys trust of several high profile customers for providing them embedded solutions for controlling remote machines. Client's visions and promises of futuristic solutions to worldwide users requires it to integrate common appliances, ultra-modern electronic devices, microcontrollers and integrating circuits in networked architecture for exchanging information. Resilient and cost effective communications are essential to communicate with remote devices through a host of networks like, internet, wireless and LAN/ WAN for a truly global and widely acceptable networked integration of remote devices.

Client needed to develop secure yet easily available methods for exchanging data across machines and household appliances. The required solution must be able to provide users with secure environment to connect with machines and transmitting commands anywhere at anytime. Common scenarios when users can transmit commands are: while working in office, while traveling in cars, vacationing on a beach, traveling on business trips or any other possible situations. Measured or objective assessment of client's business situation, giving all aspects their comparative importance is illustrated below:

Technical Solutions

Solution for Machine-to-Machine communications was required in evolving a line of thought, general principle or an intelligence into a concrete reality. From the invention of the transistor to the present day, the buzzword has always been the same: Embedding. In other words, more complexity and enhanced functionalities are embedded with every new release of electronic boards and Integrated Circuits (ICs). It was required that the machines would be able to establish a network connection (wired or wireless, depending on the type of embedding) and become "visible" from a central monitoring system operated by the manufacturer itself, by one of its customers, by maintenance or by a service provider. Such Machine-to-Machine (M2M) communications required exchanging information like machine commands and other complex signals with the help of proposed software solution.

Software solution needed to be developed by using modern software development technology that is scalable to integrate most of today's as well as future machines. The software must be capable to process electronic signals and could be integrated with circuits and other semiconductor boards. Therefore, total solution was to be evolved by joining software modules, electronic circuits, networks and devices in a logical cyclic loop as depicted in Figure 2.

Solution

Q3 Technologies' experts and technical managers immediately understood the requirements and constituted a dedicated team of software architects, designers, developers and integrators. The team designed and successfully tested a prototype of a solution whose development was closely watched by the client. Q3 Technologies developed an exemplary solution by focusing on following elements of software development:

• Using .NET technology to develop software modules and impart robustness in their integration.
• Using Web services to exchange meta-data information across machines and platforms.
• Using XML-Data processing including XML-Parsing based on XSD(XML Schema Design) using .NET technology extensively to provide independency of devices and hardware and therefore developing universal solution.
• Using SOAP protocol to transmit machine commands as interoperable objects and to implement Remote Procedure Calls over internet.
• Using advanced standards like WS-Trust, WS-Security, WS-MetaDataExchnage and many more standards to develop fail-safe and resilient communication and data-exchange architecture.

Q3 Technologies performed following steps for solution's usage in real world:

• Configured the powerful middleware, so that it is now able to exchange information with the devices that are part of users’ remote control infrastructure.
• Built an intuitive web interface, selecting among hundreds of different graphic templates, those that better suit users' business.
  * Delivered an "on-demand" hosted service from client's datacenter and made it vailable via internet browser to any end-users' PCs.
• Another milestone in developing such an ultra-modern solution is testing, which Q3 Technologies have always done par excellence. To test the solution, Q3 Technologies applied following techniques and methodologies:
• Constituted a testing team that fully understood solution's technical aspect and worked closely in cohesion with development team and client.
• Developed programs that simulated original machines to perform preliminary tests prior to testing with real machines.

Benefits

• Client was immensely satisfied with initial prototypes and entrusted Q3 Technologies to develop complete solution in different timelines.
• Q3 Technologies always delivered solution's modules much before scheduled timelines.
• Client satisfaction with the solution was driving force for awarding Q3 Technologies with complete responsibilities to scale-up as solution for integration many more machines and customizing for more possible scenarios.
• Client entrusted Q3 Technologies with responsibilities to provide complete customersupport customized configuration of middleware, on-demand services and many more associated tasks for years to come.
• Q3 Technologies achieved its goal to provide high quality solutions and become partner in client's growth.
• The developed solution enjoys immense trust and popularity among end-users which continues to increase manifold.