Connectivity

Enabling the Connected World.

Challenges

The world we live in is increasingly connected, with an extensive mesh of connected machines, devices and systems estimated to grow to 50 billion in 2020. The ubiquitous access to information and data available on the Internet is giving rise to new ways for people to interact and for companies to do business and generate revenues.

The rise of intelligent systems is highly linked to this connectivity trend – enabling new smarter services, taking advantage of new data, exploring seamless ways of interacting with devices across all sectors. Examples include:

In the Automotive sector, connectivity technologies create new expectations of consumers to use their own device and data in the car, and create new demands for sophisticated IVI as well as new safety considerations in terms of driver distraction
In the Rail sector, the connectivity for passengers on-board trains (WiFi, entertainment systems), off-board with intelligent information systems, the use of intelligent logistics technologies for freight trains
In the Energy sector, the demand for wireless/over-the-air (OTA) sensing to replace traditional wired monitoring installations for improved asset management or for monitoring remote locations such as oilfields as well as for smart grid / smart metering
In the Healthcare, connectivity is enabling new types of tele-care for home-bound patients (connected patient) and also introduces new considerations around safety for the use of communications technologies for medical usage
In the Telecoms and Media sector, the increased demand for connectivity is an opportunity for telecom operators to penetrate other industries, while putting a high demand on seamless, end-to-end continuity of services across devices and machines, over private and public infrastructure, in a secure way
In the Aerospace sector, the problematic of replacing black box recording systems with real-time telemetry data from aircrafts, enabling WiFi connectivity for passengers or electronic flight bags for pilots
In the Defence sector, the use of top-end connectivity technology to bring an edge in areas such as UAVs (Unmanned Air Vehicles), advanced sensors for digital battlefield applications or cyber-security

With the diversity of usage growing every day, new challenges such as increased reliability, security, interoperability, and profitability are all emerging. These challenges need to be addressed holistically, while ensuring the best user experience and differentiation in an increasingly crowded space. This means seamless interactions even for complex functionalities, and attractive applications to ensure customer satisfaction and commercial success.

This trend for engineering connectivity has technical and business implications and Intelligent Systems / Altran focuses on ensuring all industry sectors can meet the challenges of these new technologies, and manage the complexity of the product and associated business models.ted business models.