Smart Farming, and IoT

For as long as there is the US, there is the Agriculture as an important part of our economy in the US. Agriculture is fast becoming a "High Tech" industry. Farmers need to increase the yields from farming dramatically. Some estimates for our world population have us double in size of people on earth. Double.

Fresh Water

One driver to farm productivity is water. A lot of water. Most estimates tell us that over 70% of all fresh water used is for farming.

Smart Farming

The smart farm now actively measure the moisture levels continuously at a different depth, and at many points. Measurements are reported to smart irrigation systems. One company found that freshwater consumption can be cut by as much as 30%, depending on the crop. Not only do we save water, but it turns out, that by NOT overwatering, crop yield increases in some cases by 7%.
And. The same IoT probes can also measure pH levels, and other soil chemicals; assessing the health of the ground. The farmer can now decide with actual data what fertilization is needed where.
Smart Farms, low-cost IoT decision systems; getting data about ambient temperature, humidity, improve crop yield, improve plant economics, reduce unneeded irrigation, reduce unneeded fertilization.

What is next?

The next steps will see smart vineyards, smart aquaculture systems.
You want to know more, and get names of companies involved, just drop me a note. Full Disclosure: I am not associated or connected to any of the companies.

How Much Does a Transition to IPv6 Cost?

The secret is that in most cases, it will already be available, and in other cases, the cost will be not that high; with a possible payback in performance gains. Think 'dusting' off old equipment, cleaning up of network infrastructure, and possible the elimination of 'dead' network lines, access, passwords, e.t.c.

End User

Today's operating systems, like Mac OS X, Windows, and Linux, all have IPv6 incorporate. IPv6 embedded functionalities will kick in (automatically) whenever an IPv6 message lands in their environment.

Enterprise Users

Of course, every business network is different. Strategies employed to transition over to IPv6 differ.
Funding and budget requirements to plan out see fixed costs dropping. Many vendors, Network Hardware, Server Hardware, Operating Systems as well as application software, reducing prices year over year, and embed the great majorities of IPv6 capabilities "at no cost."

I have seen more than once that a client was totally surprised that ALL needed IPv6 capabilities were already present in the routers, switches, firewalls, load-sharing equipment, as well as server operating systems they had upgraded to in the last few years. NO ADDITIONAL COSTS.

Often, a majority of funding resources is needed to support operational cost, one-time training cost, upgrade of management databases, and documentation updates.
And even that, after some discussion, became part of a better ROI for the network at hand.

I never heard about IPv5, what gives?

I am looking for IPv5. Where is it?

Gone hiding. IPv5 was developed in the late 1970'th. It never left the 'experimental' stage. At one time or another, IPv5 was also called 'Internet Streaming Protocol,' or ST, or ST/IPv5; yes, you guessed it correctly, it was supposed to handle all these new streaming sound and streaming video messages. ST never got off the ground.
But, 10-15 years later on, her and there, an improved protocol ST2, or ST+ was implemented by vendors like IBM, NeXT, Apple, Sun. Each implementation was a bit different, and again, it died.

Fast forward to 1994. IPng, IP next generation, started to emerge. Since the "5" was taken, used or not, the new protocol became IPv6.

About Me

A big thank for visiting my blog. I am semi-retired, with about 100 things to do every day, like router settings, network down, re-writing yet another C++ into C#, learning the finer points of programming Androids, wrestling with a Raspberry Model, running a VERY small business, texting my Grandchildren.

BTW, ever tried to calm down a 10-year old that is throwing a temper-tantrum via texting? Don't!

I spent many years in the corporate world, electrical engineering, computers, networking; moved up the ranks, lead teams, and loved it all.

I have decided to reboot all the excitement, and develop software and hardware for the Mobile Phones, and by extension, for the IoT world.

My first interest is the medical field, but I am also dabbling in the manufacturing field.

So, enough about myself. How are you doing? Please look around, read the posts, let me know if you agree, disagree, have suggestions, have recommendations. 

Things I Like

 

Books:

The World of Mathematics  by James R. Newman, Mathematician

                                            yes, all four volumes; in honor of Carolyn, my lost wife, who now

                                            smiles from heaven as I thumb through one of them, wondering.

 

Boundaries                         by Dr. Henry Cloud & Dr. John Townsend.

                                           Recommended by a Friend. You know who you are :-)

God of The Big Bang          by Leslie Wickman, Ph.D

Android Programming         by J. F. DiMarzio 
with Android Studio     

Against All Enemies            by Tom Clancy, with Peter Telep    (BB-61,  go USS Iowa)

 

Movies:

1.  E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982)
2. Taxi Driver (1976)
3. Casablanca (1942)
4. Godfather (1972)
5. Boyhood (2014)

Cars:

1. Triumph Spitfire (1962 - 1982)       I had one, in Germany, Carolyn had one, in the USA.
2. Ford Thunderbird (1955 - 1957)     Dreaming of  this car since High School.
3. Chevrolet Corvette (1953 - 1962)    "first" American car with full-blown fuel injection
4. Porsche Carrera (2004 - 2007)        V10 racing engine, manual, no stability control, my car.
5. Lamborghini (1990 - 2001)              complete impractical, but WILD SPEED. Yeah.
6. BMW M1 (1978 - 1981)                     First of the M-cars, mid-engine, a car for the racing track
7. Ferrari F40 (1987 - 1992)                  First car to cross 200mph

Yes, there are many more. But space. And yes, I will upgrade this list with some more unbelievable cars that I love.

 

How do I get my network on IPv6?

The other day, I received an email, about all these IPv6 issues, and it turns out, the sender just wanted to ask "How do I get on IPv6" in a SOHO (Single Office, Home Office) environment?

 Keeping it simple, two answers:

   1st, check that your equipment can handle IPv6,
   2nd, ask your Internet Service Provider (the (ISP).

 Background

The good news is that most Operating systems support IPv6 (anything on the market after 2004). Most mobile Operating systems, this since 2011, support IPv6 as well.

 Most network devices now support IPv6, with some earlier 'consumer' devices not, Again, anything you bought after 2004 will support IPv6.

 Installing IPv6

For a typical small installation, two steps are required:

 1. Verify / Reinstall IPv6 on a computer:

1. Windows: The basic way to reach IPv6 details will be to engage "Start" --> "Settings" --> "Control" --> "Network" --> "Connection" --> "Property" and you will se an option to check / reinstall IPv6
2. Apple: IPv6 installed by default since OS X (version 10.2), Jaguar.
3. Linux: IPv6 installed since kernel 2.4x by default.

2. Setting up an Internet facing router:
2.1 Automatically, if you have access to the Internet-facing router:

We take advantage of a process called "autoconfiguration." All  CISCO and Juniper routers (about 90% of SOHO's have them) has autoconfiguration set as a default.

1. Turn all computers 'inside' the SOHO off
2. Start Router configuration, and set for each interface this command ipv6 nd prefix-advertisement <ipv6-prefix/ipv6-prefix-length>
3. Re-start your computers, and each one will now 'listening' to the router advertising IPv6 addresses.

2.2 Manually, in Case you do not have access to the Interface facing router:

1. Now you have to go to every computer in the SOHO world, and do the following:

• on a command line, type >netsh interface ipv6 set interface
• and you will see some different commands that will help you to define the IPv6 role you need for the computer at hand

Just post a question,  and I will surely answer within a few hours.

 

What About IPv6

IPv6, Internet Protocol, version 6. So, what? Network Innovations are coming very slowly.  The last game-changing innovations include network security, cloud computing, and the Internet of Things (IoT).
There is one Game Changer that seems to get no respect; no Press Coverage. I am talking about moving from today's IP structure to tomorrow's IP structure. Moving from IPv4 and its limited address space to IPv6 with its huge address space.

Yes, cloud computing, network security, IoT all started with IPv4 as a backbone. And that is all that will happen if we don't embrace IPv6. IPv4 invented 25 or more years ago, was designed for the world where mobile phones were just that, phones - a world without video streaming, or online shopping, and no online banking. Email meant AOL.

What is required is a new Internet Protocol, a new IP, that will support all these new technologies in our house, our car, in education, in manufacturing, in the transport field, in the medical field, and some benefits we haven't even thought of yet.  This network supports 50 billion devices in phase 1.
 
IPv6, designed for an environment that includes the cloud, social, mobile, IoT, pervasive security, and millions of small sensors and network agents all over.
 
Unlike IPv4, the old IP, where the hardware Vendor (think CISCO) is at the center of it all, the new IP, IPv6, has the customer at its center. IT security is a part of the protocol, and not an add-on like in IPv4. Provisioning is automatic. IPv6 can, and is, deployed across software silos, be there sensors, or data. IPv6 is inherently self-learning. IPv6 is incredibly cost effective.

We now see large organizations, like Google, Facebook, and Amazon, operating under IPv6. And day by day they are announcing new network-based features, for pennies, or free. Read the paper about Google's emergence from old to new [http://conferences.sigcomm.org/sigcomm/2015/pdf/papers/p183.pdf ] and be amazed at how Google was able to do more and more, using fewer and fewer resources - because they embraced IPv6 very early.

Will a full deployment of IPv6 upset the markets? Of course. But who will benefit? You and me, the consumer.  Those companies that are NOW implementing IPv6 will benefit greatly. Careers will be made. Laggards will be left behind. Remember the mainframe, and Cobol, and the swift career changer when client-servers and the C language came along.
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