© Sierra Wireless. All rights reserved.
Simplify Global IoT Deployments with Smart Connectivity. One SIM, Partner and Platform for seamless expansion.
Multi-carrier SIM options including 5G, LPWA and LTE for North American IoT Deployments.
Keep your global IoT connectivity deployments under control through AirVantage® IoT Connectivity Platform.
Simplify Global IoT Deployments with our ready-to-connect modules, gateways & routers.
Read our managed connectivity use cases and customer stories.
Purchase SIMs and Connectivity data plans directly through our eStore.
Find the Right IoT Module or Gateway that delivers best-in class capabilities for your IoT project.
Accelerate 5G deployments and streamline logistics with one global 5G IoT module that provides worldwide coverage.
Integrate 4G broadband connectivity with high performance 4G LTE Cat-7 to Cat-20 modules.
Make IoT devices smart with 4G LTE Cat-1 or Cat-4 modules with optional edge processing.
Connect IoT devices that need long battery life, extended coverage and lower BOM cost.
Industrial-grade short-range modules enable OEMs to integrate Wi-Fi and Bluetooth into their projects.
Industrial-grade GNSS modules that are ultra-compact, low-power and deliver high-performance GNSS tracking.
Rapidly add wireless connectivity with plug-and-play IoT gateways.
Develop edge application with the Legato® open source application framework.
Orchestrate IoT data and devices with the Octave™ Edge-to-Cloud solution.
Accelerate your deployment of new applications with our 5G and 4G LTE cellular routers solutions.
AirLink Services empower you to self-manage devices, access robust reporting & support packages.
Accelerate your deployment with always-on Connectivity provided by our high-performance AirLink antennas.
Learn more about how Sierra Wireless AirLink router solutions applying to each industry.
Industrial companies across sectors are leveraging IIoT solutions to transform business models.
Sierra Wireless' IoT Solutions for utilities, smart metering and pipeline management transform businesses.
Connect devices, vehicles and infrastructure everywhere in cities to reduce energy and water consumption to improve safety and quality of life.
Enable companies to manage their fleet and track vehicles, containers and other assets as they move through the supply chain.
Improve efficiency, reduce energy usage and build a better working environment by using the IoT to create smart commercial buildings.
Healthcare companies and service providers can rely on Sierra Wireless to unlock the exciting new benefits of the Internet of Medical Things.
The IoT is transforming mission-critical applications first responders need to do their jobs while improving health and safety in their communities.
Obtain the latest Analyst research reports and IoT Whitepapers by Sierra Wireless.
Download the latest eBooks to learn more from Sierra Wireless.
Watch our recent webinars highlighting analyst research and Sierra Wireless thought-leadership.
Read the latest Analyst research reports.
Read our customer stories to see how Sierra Wireless helps customers overcome their business challenges.
View our Infographics to understand complex IoT topics in a simplified visual way.
Stay up to date on IoT trends, updates, insights and solutions from industry experts and professionals on our Internet of Things Blog.
Sign up to receive Sierra Wireless' quarterly newsletter. Each issue casts a spotlight on wireless applications, innovations and product offerings.
IoT Videos from Sierra Wireless.
IoT Podcasts from Sierra Wireless.
Purchase SIMs, Data plans and other ready-to-go products through our eStore.
Purchase turnkey Asset, Cargo, Satellite and Fleet Tracking, Remote Monitoring Solution and Cellular Alarm Communicators.
A fully managed portfolio of offerings provides stress-free, cost-effective, and reliable internet management.
Are you interested in learning more about how IoT solutions can transform your business? We're happy to help.
Partnered with experts in cellular connectivity to provide sales and support in over 50 countries around the world. Connect with a trusted Sierra Wireless Partner.
Sierra Wireless simplifies the IoT, delivering you the Connectivity, Modules, and Router Solutions you need to accelerate your data-driven transformation.
Meet the Sierra Wireless leadership team. Respected professionals in their field, the Sierra Wireless leadership team has decades of M2M and IoT experience.
Sierra Wireless is continually committed to improving the social and environmental impact of our business operations.
Read our quarterly results, annual reports and upcoming investor events and presentations.
Read our press releases, stay up to date with company news and financial reports and see Sierra Wireless in the media.
We attend trade shows, conferences and major events around the globe, year round. Find out where you can meet us next!
Understand how Sierra Wireless takes an end-to-end approach to provide you with the most secure IoT cybersecurity solutions available in the market.
Partner with Sierra Wireless; We are an IoT leader across the globe with over 30 years experience.
A stable, team-centered culture that attracts and retains some of the most talented professionals. View job opportunities now.
Find contact information for Sierra Wireless, including sales, technical and customer support, global offices, investor relations and media inquiries.
Ekatra
www.ekatraiot.com
Ekatra helps organizations that utilize large numbers of high-value physical assets and struggle to protect them against theft, tampering, and disrepair. Ekatra’s proprietary solutions protect assets via smart IoT devices with specialized sensors that learn to predict and prevent disasters, accidents, theft, and damage in a unique way with Edge AI machine learning. Unlike costly, traditional security solutions that leverage personnel and video cameras, Ekatra’s Protection as a Service solutions are agent-less, connected wirelessly and detect threats in creative, new ways.
Ekatra wanted to build an Industrial IoT (IIoT) application that would detect leakage and prevent overflows on fertilizer tanks, enabling agriculture companies to minimize labor and materials costs associated with corroded tank walls and avoid hefty regulatory fines related to soil degradation and environmental damage.
By using Sierra Wireless Octave, Ekatra was able to reduce its IoT application development time by 50%.
Over time, however, the fertilizer can breach the PVC liner’s membrane and start leaking into the narrow space between the PVC liner and the tank wall. Likewise, fertilizer can also fall into the same narrow space if the tank overflows during refilling. If the leak or overflow isn’t addressed in a timely fashion, prolonged contact with the fertilizer will damage the tank’s walls. In such cases, materials and labor costs for repair and clean-up can go up to $100,000.
Even costlier are regulatory penalties for soil degradation. If the fertilizer leaks out of the tank altogether and continues seeping into the soil unchecked, regulatory fines to the tune of millions of dollars can be imposed for environmental damages.
In the past, measures undertaken to check fertilizer tanks for leaks and spills have proven to be too labor-intensive and time-consuming – typically, personnel collect samples from the tank’s drainpipe (the pipe draining water condensate from the narrow area between the PVC liner and the interior walls of the fertilizer tank) and send them to the laboratory where they are tested for fertilizer presence.
By leveraging a combination of sensors and the IIoT, Ekatra decided to build a remote monitoring application that would provide real-time alerts on leaks, spills and prevent overflows by remotely locking the tank’s intake valve during refilling.
We are not an IoT gateway company. I did not want to spend time and money on building the underlying IIoT infrastructure for the application. Out of all the 30 vendors we evaluated, Octave was the only solution that took care of the entire edge-to-cloud infrastructure, allowing us to confine our focus to building the business application.
Alexey Klimenko,
Founder and CTO, Ekatra
There are up to four sensors on every tank; one is located in the drainpipe; the other three sensors are located in the valve boxes, which enclose each and every pipe going in and out of the tank.
The first sensor collects data on nitrogen, temperature, pressure and drain liquid level. Ekatra wanted to build a remote monitoring application that could use this data to detect fertilizer in the drainpipe and instantly alert tank owners, operators and service companies to address the leaks.
Secondly, the remote monitoring application could also prevent fertilizer spillage on the outer walls of the tank. In cases where the pipe or seal from the truck to the fertilizer tank is ruptured, the enclosing valve boxes become flooded with the leaking fertilizer. In such cases, fertilizer presence detected by the three sensors located in the valve boxes can instantly alert the relevant parties, who can then take corrective action to minimize spillage on the tank’s outer walls.
Finally, if the tank overflows with fertilizer during a refill, the remote monitoring application could automatically shut down the tank’s intake valves, effectively cutting off the supply of liquid fertilizer to the tank.
Ekatra decided to build the remote monitoring application using Sierra Wireless Octave, the all-in-one edge-to-cloud solution for connecting industrial assets.
Our engineers took just two days to get comfortable with Octave. Within a couple of weeks, they were writing production level code.
Alexey Klimenko,
Founder and CTO, Ekatra
According to Ekatra’s Founder and CTO Alexey Klimenko, “We are not an IoT gateway company. I did not want to spend time and money on building the underlying IIoT infrastructure for the application. Out of all the 30 vendors we evaluated, Octave was the only solution that took care of the entire edge-to-cloud infrastructure, allowing us to confine our focus to building the business application.”
As an all-in-one solution, Octave offered Ekatra a wide range of capabilities and benefits under one solution:
Ekatra chose Modbus as the standard industrial protocol for their sensors. Octave (which not only supports Modbus, but also CANopen and other popular industrial protocols) can pull data from virtually any type of industrial asset. It was therefore ideally positioned to connect to fertilizer tanks.
Ekatra looked at dozens of other vendors for the project, but their products fell short of providing an end-to-end solution. “With a lot of vendors, you might get great IIoT hardware, but you still need to spend a lot of time to make the solution work for you,” says Klimenko.
As an all-in-one solution, Octave comes integrated with edge devices, device management, cellular connectivity, cloud APIs, allowing organizations to bypass the time and investment required in device and carrier certification, and other complex integration processes.
It took just three months for Ekatra to bring their IIoT application to market. Without Octave, it would have taken six months, according to Klimenko.
“When we connected the device and turned it on, that was the moment of truth – I was able to login, write a quick application to see how it works. Our engineers took just two days to get comfortable and within a couple of weeks, they were writing production level code.”
According to Klimenko, “There are a lot of industrial IoT products out there, but they
only pass data to the cloud. We wanted devices that had edge intelligence.”
Indeed, edge intelligence plays an instrumental role in Ekatra’s remote monitoring application. For instance, Octave’s intelligent edge is critical in ensuring that the fertilizer does not overflow during a refill. “Often, when a truck is pumping the fertilizer into the tank, the trunk operator does not shut down the pump on time.
In these cases, gallons of fertilizer can spill into the area between the PVC liner and the tank’s interior walls. When this goes undetected, the accumulation of fertilizer can severely damage the tank,” says Klimenko. To avert this, Ekatra has configured the logic on Octave’s intelligent edge to automatically shut down the tank’s intake valves, cutting off the flow of fertilizer from the truck.
Further, Octave allows Ekatra to make instant changes to its edge processing logic as business requirements change. “Recently, we got a call from one of our customers. They asked us to change how overfill protection works. They had a special model of tanks – so that’s why the change was necessary. Couple of hours later, our junior engineers pushed the updates for those particular set of devices; the customer is now happy,” says Klimenko
Unlike standard cellular plans, Octave’s connectivity pricing model is more flexible and better aligned with the needs of companies like Ekatra. Standard cellular plans are built around megabyte consumption, which can make it hard to predict cellular costs. With Octave, pricing isn’t based around megabytes – rather, customers pay based on the number of messages that they want transmitted to the cloud
Ekatra
NAM
Industrial Asset Management
Other
Octave™
All-in-one Edge-to-Cloud Solution
© Sierra Wireless. All rights reserved.