Vodafone launches smart platform for legacy water assets

Vodafone has created a platform that aggregates data from water companies’ legacy monitoring systems and assets in a single place to analyse and improve network monitoring.

The single data management platform, called Raptor, integrates previously siloed old and new sensors in one system.

Danny Kelly, head of innovation at Vodafone UK, explained the platform allows data to be viewed in a single place and brings legacy assets into a smart network.

Vodafone acquired South African company IoT.nxt, which developed the technology, to translate siloed information and data stacks into one language.

Kelly said the internet of things (IoT) platform is device and technology agnostic so companies can make piecemeal upgrades while using existing assets so there is no need to “rip and replace”.

“That means we can join together devices, sensors, gateways and different components,” he said. “The Raptor platform essentially allows us to translate data loggers and smart meters together and talk in a common language. From there we began to look at specific industry challenges – one for water is the amount of legacy hardware from meters and data loggers.”

Kelly said this has inhibited progress in the sector because networks and technologies are rapidly changing, but the need remain to prolong the life of legacy investments made over the past 30 years.

“They’re effectively locked into these, but we’ve got a great technology that can liberate companies to make new choices to around hardware manufacturers or the way in which they innovate,” Kelly said.

Raptor presents the information in real time and user analytics, AI and alerts can then be configured on top of the aggregated data.

The technology is applicable to other industries – including elite sports. The British and Irish Lions in South Africa have been using the platform to monitor players’ performance through mouthguards, chest and wrist monitors to provide data to coaches as in-play and post-game stats.

“It’s exactly the same technology and is a first of its kind in the sports industry. We capture information to let coaches make real-time decisions based on player performance and reactions. That’s the same for the water industry – aggregating information in separate IT stacks to make network decisions in real-time,” he said.

“Whatever the industry the idea is the same of being able to make important decisions in real time. Applying historical data to real time to begin to understand the challenges in the network over time is when you start to get very smart about patterns over time – this is getting to predictive analytics,” Kelly added.

Although there are currently no live trials in the UK, Vodafone is preparing to open a demo centre in Newbury, Berkshire. Kelly explained separate siloed stacks of technology including water meters have been set up for visitors to see how the platform presents them in a single screen when it opens in October.

“We have the infrastructure, hardware, network capability and now we have a team of around 300 software developers to bring value to this proposition with bespoke analytics,” he said.

Kelly added he believes innovation in this space will move rapidly now with 5G: “It’s an exciting place to start to see other technologies for managing networks and bringing efficiencies.”

Other innovations he said are set to shake up industries, including utilities, include mixed reality and video analytics to help revolutionise network management.

“There are lots of areas we see where technologies can hang off of 5G to be deployed in this industry, but there is a lot of work to be done to reach that stage. Removing the barriers of legacy assets is a huge step in the right direction.”