Cisco and azeti join forces to connect an “Internet of Towers”

azeti’s SonarWise, the Remote Site Management Software, is now formally on the global price list of Cisco Systems. This partnership means azeti software can be downloaded on Cisco’s IoT gateways and routers, and there are three important benefits for the telecommunications tower industry. First, by enabling “intelligence @ the edge”, 95% less remote site monitoring and management traffic is sent back to the NOC, freeing up capacity that can be sold to customers. This means more minutes and megabytes with the same telecoms assets. Second, the combination of azeti SonarWise and the Cisco Energy Management suite enables tower owners to conduct deep, granular energy consumption analysis and optimisation. Third, managers can predict maintenance needs and efficiently deploy support resources before incurring costly downtime.

TowerXchange: Please reintroduce azeti Networks for readers not familiar with your company.

azeti was founded in 2006. From those early days we were dedicated to the monitoring and management of remote assets, focusing on the telecom tower, WAN hubs and utility substation market. We used to deliver our solution the same way other vendors in the market do – on proprietary hardware. We found that this approach limited the awareness of our solution in the market, and meant our resources focused on digital and hardware aspects of the solution.

In 2014 we made a distinct choice to focus our resources on being the world’s best embedded software provider to global IoT (Internet of Things) gateways like Intel and Cisco. We now combine our remote site management software excellence with their global systems integrator network, IoT-ready hardware, extensive experience and reputation for network computing excellence.

TowerXchange: How does azeti’s partnership with Cisco enable “intelligence @ the edge”? And why is this important in the context of managing remote cell sites?

The big deal about “intelligence @ the edge” is that it enables data to be analysed and processed locally – like at the remote cell tower or manned site – reducing the amount of preprocessed data sent back to the NOC by 95%. By only sending the important data back to the NOC, the really important alarms don’t disappear in “white noise”.

Think about how much data can be generated at a remote site from both legacy assets like HVACs and generators, but also all the modern IP driven assets such as video cameras and smart meters. Why tell the NOC every minute that a door to the remote site is still shut, when it is only opened a few times over the course of the year? Our software is able to filter out the irrelevant data, freeing up bandwidth for the sale of minutes and megabytes to clients. That’s a double win for management because it ensures visibility and control, while delivering more top line business value from the same infrastructure.

On top of this, azeti SonarWise interfaces with market leading platforms like Jasper to enable dynamic update of the bandwidth plan depending on the actual situation. For example, somebody enters a remote site and the motion detection sensors recognise this. Then azeti is able to activate the video cameras and to upgrade the bandwidth for live video streaming via the Jasper platform.

“Intelligence @ the edge” also provides protection against communications interruptions as data is stored locally until the network is restored and the data can be returned to the NOC.

With this comprehensive solution we believe we are the best at providing our clients a whole range of business benefits that really add up, like:

• Visibility into the energy consumption of specific assets

• Multi-tenant energy management

• Integration of Cisco’s surveillance tools including cameras, motion detectors and even “exotic sensors” like gun shot detection

• Improved access control management (using chipcards, SMS PIN codes or phones)

• Improved control and visibility of re-fuelling processes and re-fuelling contractor performance

• Visibility of fuel or equipment theft or vandalism

• Verification that aircraft warning lights are functioning

• Fine granulated battery management

TowerXchange: Tell us more about the granular detail of visibility and control you are able to provide into battery management.

We recently undertook a hands-on study of battery management for a client of ours.

The managers found that while batteries at remote sites looked ‘ok’, when grid power went down often those batteries collapsed or did not last as long as expected. They wanted to know down to the minute the remaining battery capacity in case of a grid failure.

We configured an automated process that completely changed the game, and runs directly on the Cisco gateway in the cell site.  While quite complex, the basic idea is that every couple of months the solution will briefly take the tower off the grid, and monitor the behavior of batteries until discharged to a critical status of battery, based on which we can predict the remaining lifetime to the minute based on the real energy consumption of the battery. We also have a mathematical model to predict declining performance as the cells age, but we recommend that the client recalibrate every six months – we do this all remotely and fully automatically.

The azeti Cloud middleware (developed over many years in conjunction with researchers at the University of Berlin) sends the collected data to the NOC, the azeti control center and to the Cisco Energy Management tool via MQTT, the most modern standard for IoT messaging. The azeti Cloud can run on customers’ premises or on Cisco Cloud infrastructure.

TowerXchange: How does the integration of SonarWise and Cisco EnergyWise enhance dashboards and reporting?

By pre-integrating the Cisco Energy Management Suite into the overall solution we help our customers get an easy-to-deploy solution that can measure and manage the energy use of all the connected IT and non-IP devices across their entire network. This enables historical and actual data analysis, and granular predictions. For example, based on energy usage analysis our clients can predict that an air conditioning unit has a filter problem. Or by comparing the performance of site A and site B we can tell that the air conditioning system in site A has run out of cooling fluid as it’s running more less 24/7.

Cisco Energy Management can compare energy consumption site by site, or from one O&M contractor to the next, for efficiency purposes. We can analyse different configurations of towers, and we can compare the energy consumption of different tenants, enabling towercos to add value to their services by recommending which of their tenants’ equipment is more efficien