The Canadian government has awarded $3 million (CAD) to IoT connectivity provider BehrTech, an early exponent of telegram-splitting ultra-narrowband (TS-UNB) technology, to build an industrial IoT lab at its headquarters in Toronto. Its remit is to foster collaboration and drive innovation in the Industry 4.0 sector in Canada.
The grant, from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) and the Canada Foundation for Innovation (CFI), will go on a facility that is dedicated entirely to industrial IoT sensors and networks.
BehrTech pushes its own MIOTY low-power wide-area (LPWA) technology, based on the TS-UNB standard, which is presented as a rival to cellular and non-cellular LPWA alternatives like NB-IoT and LoRaWAN.
The firm has suggested MIOTY / TS-UNB will be the principle rival to LoRaWAN for non-cellular LPWA connectivity, in a two-horse race, where LoRaWAN will remain popular in “makerish” IoT environments” and MIOTY will establish itself as the go-to technology for critical connectivity in the industrial space.
The new funding is to support collaboration between research institutions and enterprises, notably small and mid-sized firms in Canada. BehrTech will work alongside Sir Sanford Fleming College and its partners BGC Engineering, Molok, Ecoation, ioAirFlow, and AOMS.
The lab work will seek to develop compatibility between industrial IoT standards, including its MIOTY technology. It will present a “trial platform for prototypes ahead of full-scale demonstrations and deployment”, the company said.
Albert Behr, chief executive at BehrTech, said: “This grant is testimony to BehrTech’s innovation and contribution to the sensor and communication technologies market. The new equipment and infrastructure will enable us to further develop the wireless IoT sensors needed to overcome the connectivity barriers that are currently plaguing Industry 4.0.”
