Frequently Asked Questions

We pride ourselves as the best in the market to help our customers keeping IT and monitoring solutions in control. Why is it that we are bold enough to state that? This question is often asked - Well, it is basically because we care! Our focus is not driven by the need to uphold a project where earnings are in focus, no we focus on a satisfied customer and NEVER leave the project in an unfinished state, no matter the cost. Furthermore, we make sure that we are always updated on the latest trends in the market, analyze and read updates from the pharma industry, and always try to have a sound approach to make the work we do transparent and structured in a way that makes sense! It is not just paper for no reason, we work towards a solution that is easy to understand, and we believe that if a complex requirement is easy to explain to the layman, then that is the optimal understanding of what is required!

If you claim that you are producing in a controlled environment, you need a strategy that supports your claim. This strategy is based on data, and data needs to be well documented and traceable at any time. So, our approach is cutting edge and supports the newest trends in the market. We risk base all our approaches and have an in-house viable solution for storing data and documentation.

The possibilities are endless, your imagination will probably come shortly before the list is emptied! We have decided to limit our usage and focus area to industrial usage for large-scale solutions, so we use it to simplify the technology and complexity of monitoring solutions used in the pharmaceutical industry, the transport sector, and the food industry. In the list below we have listed areas of use, of what our business uses it for: - Environmental monitoring in facilities. - Transport of temperature and humidity sensitive materials, by ground or by air.

The protocol we use when installing a new system or components from the OceaSoft range is all based on LoRa. The long-range network uses a low frequency (868MHz) and operates below the noise floor. The low frequency protects it from noise and therefore is unaffected by the problems that users experience on "normal" wireless connections (e.g. connecting laptops to a wireless network, 2.4 or 5 GHz). This in turn means that in any environment where people experience poor coverage, LoRa is still working without ANY interruptions. Furthermore, all connected components are monitored and report offline if under any circumstance they are not able to connect to the end receiving IT system. The algorithm that handles transmitted and received data is ensuring that all packages are intact and received.

LoRaWAN is the protocol and network architecture for the network. This protocol ensures low battery usage, handles the capacity of the network, the security of the transmitted/received data, quality of service, and uses the "Chirp Spread Spectrum" that encodes data in "chirps". There is nothing new in this communication protocol, it has been used in the military and space industry for many years, because of its security, range, and battery conserving advantages. LoRa on the other hand is the technology build into components that communicate via LoRaWAN, and modulates data into segments and transmit them as electronic waves. We do not distinguish between them and realize that any customer we are in contact with does not need to understand the difference as it is far more user-friendly to just use the term "LoRa" in a broader sense.

Yes, it is! but... There is always a but, and in this case, it is a statement that bases itself on the "line of sight" (LoS). There have been many LoRa fans around the world that have challenged how long they could send/receive a package on LoRa. The record at this time is an amazing >700 km. Yes, you read it right more than 700.000 m! This then ties back to LoS, as this was achieved by sending receiver and sender up in hot air balloons to avoid interference from buildings, and most importantly, the curvature of the earth. The claimed 10 km, is by all means also affected by buildings and even the earth’s curvature, try googling "The Fresnel Zone" to get information about the influence of the curvature of mother earth! However, we do not calculate with this range, and no user will have LoS. So, how do we ensure connectivity quality? Well, we investigate the area and structure of the network gateways that offer the LoRa-network. By knowing the scale of a project and monitoring area, we can ensure to always have redundant connectivity. This means that all components will have at least two routes from the component to the receiving end node (e.g. OceaView). It has automatic failover, so if a gateway goes offline, all nodes can communicate on the alternate route, and all gateways are monitored so a system alarm is immediately sent to notify administrators if a gateway is down.

This claim relies on the configuration in each component, the more you log in it, the more battery it consumes. For Oceasoft Cobalt X2's there is a display on the component and the more you look at it, the more battery it consumes. Therefore, 10 years is probably very optimistic, but it is possible. So why claim it? Well, it emphasizes the strength of the technology and gives users an idea of the possibilities in their setup. We have investigated what to expect, and we claim that approximately 2 years is a reasonable assumption. This is based on handling critical data and monitoring areas that have critical productions areas. In such areas, it is required to have sensors calibrated a minimum every year, and in that timeslot, we always change over the batteries in the X2's and in a safe way dispose of the used batteries! Furthermore, there is surveillance on the battery level build in, and alarming is set up when a critical level is reached.

Security is an important aspect for any wireless technology and this is then added with the concern of handling critical data from production areas where data is vital information only for internal parties to view! LoRaWAN has two layers of security: ​ Layer 1: The network itself, the authenticity of each node is secured with shortly key exchange, this key exchange is AES encrypted. ​ Layer 2: The application is protected by IT security using encryption defined by the domain that houses the servers running the application. ​ Security Fact: Added security is by the fact that it is a low frequency, low power Chirp Spread Spectrum signal, this is by far the most difficult communication to detect and intercept. The packages sent across the network is consisting of chips, and only the protected algorithm can be put back together, so IF a package was intercepted it would be completely unusable, and unreadable to the interceptor. Furthermore, the intercepted part of the package will be requested again from the receiving end node, to be able to put the chips back together to construct a complete package!

The LoRa alliance defines the core of the communication protocol and offers all vendors this information to implement in a self-made LoRa network. Unlike other technologies, such as NB-IOT or SigFox, LoRa has a truly open protocol. Companies can establish their own private LoRa network, by using LoRa gateways connected to their own Local Area Network, this is a one-off investment and is open for anyone to install and use. There are no monthly costs for this usage, so once you have established your infrastructure and established your network, anyone can service this and expand it as usage grows. ​ We use a gateway from MultiTech, a very reliable gateway at a low cost! This is firmware upgraded to a completely protected configuration that is connected to the OceaView main station.

In short, IoT is the "Internet of Things", and iIoT is the "industrial Internet of Things". We only work with iIoT and construct our setup in a way that ensures security and reliability. The way it is implemented is optimized on a stable and reliable network, and we test connectivity before releasing Cobalt X2's in the facility, thereby also document a dual-layer connection between Oceaview and Cobalt X2's.