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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Wireless Sensors, IPv6, and Rural Medical Services

Rural areas. A picture of peace. But. When it comes to medical services, at times a picture of scarce resources, of limited access to advance services, a disturbing picture. Yes, of course, there are medical facilities, but often with limited staffing, and lacking staff with specialty training.

All this impacts the ability to get medical data from the service and medical information from the patient, be it from home, from work, or even in a medical facility.

One mitigating factor for the last ten or so years has been Wireless Sensors and networks that transmit sensor data.

This short blog highlights some of the ongoing work in wireless sensor data capturing, and the impact IPv6 will have on electronic health monitoring.

Wireless Communication

There is rapid development in the fields of wireless communication, smart sensors, and the automatic diagnosis and treatment of patients.  Two bottlenecks, or speed bumps, are now slowing down progress.

First, passive AND active collections of physiological AND environmental data of remote patients must be recorded to be able to make medical recommendations to a remote patient.

Second, the available networks just flat out can not handle all the data required. Think of several simultaneously taken studies via remote x-rays on remote patients, or two, three patients that are on their way via EMT, and add ten, twelve sensors, and add observations about light, temperature, humidity, dust, fumes, spillages, and you get the picture.

Sensors in a Wireless Network

Many years ago, starting with the  Proceedings of ICOMeS 2012 Page 12, a picture emerged that saw a patient wear a monitor that would record among other data particles, pressure, noise level, audio, video, carbon dioxide level, oxygen level, blood pressure, enzymes, etc. And all this in real time, discrete and noninvasive. These sensors provide non-invasive measurements, scalability, always-on, ease of deployment, plug-n-play capability.

The real challenge is network capabilities.  The current network protocol, namely IPv4, can't be used. Full Stop.

IPv6 to the rescue

The emerging, new Internet Protocol, IPv6, CAN. IPv6 provides a foundation for these concerns of data overload with its features such as large address space, built-in security, ease of encryption, address autoconfiguration, mobility, extensibility, etc.

IPv6 addresses the challenge that will affect Sensor Network performance and safety. IPv6 will make wearable health monitoring systems a cloud-based service for use in telemedicine.

IETF  [1 and 2] has recommended for years the implementation of  IPv6 to make networks interoperable.

The Future

Some wearable physiological monitoring sensors have been developed and implemented to measure and monitor heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, respiration rate, blood oxygen, blood sugar level, electrocardiography (ECG), and electroencephalography (EEG). These sensors are miniaturized and capable of wireless transmission of sensed data. ALL need to have IPv6 implemented.

Patient monitoring will additionally benefit from sensor networks with global routable large pools of IP addresses, ensuring end to end communication with each sensor from anywhere at any time. This is easily achievable with IPv6 due to its large address space and address self-configuration.

• This short note is based on several Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Mobile e-Health, and a Webinar by IOSC, England, on 2/17/17

[1] P. Shaltis, A. Reisner, and H. Asada. Wearable, Cuff-less PPG-based Blood Pressure Monitor with Novel Height Sensor. 2006; pp. 908-911.

[2] Y. M. Chi, and G. Cauwenberghs, Wireless Non-contact EEG/ECG Electrodes for Body Sensor Networks, in Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on Body Sensor Networks, Singapore, Singapore, pp. 297-301. doi:10.1109/BSN.2010.52

  

 

Why is IPv6 better? One Surprising Reason!

IPv6 the new Internet Protocol we all use as we Google something, or read a website,  has all these advanced new technical attributes, carries larger messages, and is more secure. Any list of attributes that the new Internet Protocol (IPv6) has over the old Internet Protocol (IPv4) will include:

1. Ability to pick an address from thin air (SLAAC)
2. Ability to change addresses frequently (Privacy Addressing)
3. Ability to belong to many networks simultaneously, with a unique address on each.
4. Ability to easily combine multi-enterprise networks without readdressing.

I will spend a few minutes on point 3, "Ability to belong to many Networks."

Using IPv4 based networks, allows for one connection to be active. So, if we are on a computer that connects to two networks, say a company network, and a public network (like our email), we constantly have to sign off from one network and sign on to the other network.

 

IPv6, the new Internet Network protocol, allows for many, many networks to be 'open' on your computer, or mobile phone, at the same time. Great! So what?

  

The Arab Spring, Only possible because of IPv6.

I just finished reading  "Shaping South East Europe's Security Community for the Twenty-First Century" by S. Cross, published by Springer., 224 pages. 

Starting on page 50, the author lays out how the Arab Spring, starting in 2011, would not have been possible with a simple IPv4 network. Facebook, Twitter, and other social networks could avoid government discovery, and shutdowns, because these large companies had adapted to IPv6. It is that simple. Hostile governments engaged in all kinds of cyber attacks and Facebook was up. Always.  Facebook users could dare to be online, and no government could reach their ID.

 

Yes, of course, it is possible that governments can unleash extremely nasty surveillance on their citizens.

 

That is where organizations, such as ISOC, fight the fight for an open Internet, for all.

But, with the address restrictions of IPv4, that is not possible. The government will control the IPv4 space, but can't control the IPv6 space.

IPv6 Command Line Utility - Netsh.exe

All IPv6 connections have been set up. Router checked, switches checked; and nothing. No traffic.

Well, all Windows OS's since Windows 2003 have a utility, namely Netsh.exe,  that will help you drill down on a suspected IPv6 problem.

You run Netsh.exe from the command prompt, or interactively from a Netsh prompt. Of course, you can create a script file too. Search for "netsh overview" in Windows Help and Support. 

Netsh interface ipv6

IPv6 was designed to be self-configuring. In those cases where the role of the computer needs special connectivity, you need to set additional IPv6 parameters. This command will get you started. All common configurations for address and routes are discovered through router discovery. If your computer / server acts as a router, you need to set all addresses manually through this command.

Everyday commands that lets you configure an IPv6 connection include:

Netsh interface ipv6 show interface	displays the list of IPv6 interfaces
Netsh interface ipv6 show address	displays the list of IPv6 addresses for each interface
Netsh interface ipv6 show routes	displays the list of IPv6 routes in the IPv6 routing table. To see all the IPv6 routes, use the Netsh interface ipv6 show routes level = verbose command.
Netsh interface ipv6 show neighbors	displays the contents of the neighbor cache
Netsh interface ipv6 show destinationcache	displays the contents of the destination cache
Netsh interface ipv6 6to4	display the configuration of the 6to4 component on either a 6to4 host or a 6to4 router
Netsh interface ipv6 isatap	used to configure PortProxy behavior or to display its configuration
Netsh interface portproxy	used to configure PortProxy behavior or to display its configuration

 

Pinging, from the Far Side

I finally have the courage, and publish my first Blog. 

Let the first story be serious and fun. Let me talk in my first Blog about seriously heavy pinging; but not from a Controller to a Host and back; but from the Far, Far Away Universe to us. Let's talk about FRB, Fast Radio Bursts.

It seems that billions of years ago, a controller, say a DEC PDP 11 (no, no, that's only 30 years ago), sent a large bright burst of radio waves into its surrounding space. Could that have been the first Trace-route in history? And the radio waves traveled past galaxies, star clusters, avoided black holes, and, PING, arrived in 2012 at this monster of the radio telescope in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.

OMG, 16 more flashes, I mean PINGS, in 2015. Ok, now the controller is sending with a -t.  And we get nine more PINGS (radio flashes) in 2016 (August and September).  With this many PINGS, we now know who is doing this, a dwarf galaxy, about 3 billion light-years from Earth. These pings have not the usual 32 bytes of payload, but just a few milliseconds of enormous energy packed in what is now called FRB's (fast radio bursts).

Astronomers and network guys, sorry, network engineers, look at know objects, like stars, black holes, planets, routers, switches, and such objects. With PINGS, you just sit there and see what happen after a ping is pinging. This whole what, when, where, why is unraveling in real-time in front of us.

Fast radio bursts? Hmm. Did I not hear about something like that before.

Indeed, it's called Gamma-ray bursts. Remember, in 1960; US government satellites were hanging low, looking for the high-energy indications of Soviet nuclear tests. And yes, 16 bursts of gamma rays showed up, but no nuclear test. Say what? Ops, the antenna in the wrong direction, these gamma rays came from space. Ah, let's see if this is just an accident. Let's see if we get other PINGS, on a different network; I mean different universe. So, astronomers all over started to watch the skies. And some astronomers in Australia produced a set of PINGS; I mean similar radio bursts. Darned, a week later it was found that they had accidentally left their microwave door open while cooking something. True story! How do you call those pings? PONGS? PING PONG.

So, who is pinging us, a single desktop (no problem), or a whole bunch of highjacked servers (big problem) and should we close that port, avoiding a PING OF DEATH attack? Precisely from where do these 2012 FRB's, as well as 17 others, come.

Casey Law of the University of California, Berkeley, in 2015 and 2016, who led a software project and data-taking developments, and with the help of an optical telescope called Gemini North, found the source to be a galaxy, around 3 billion light-years distant. Not some space invaders, or some hackers in some far away country.

Problem solved. As I said many times if you need to unravel a big mystery in the Universe, a big mystery in the network room, just PING.