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The growth of mobile technology is changing
the way your enterprise does business.
Wireless machine-to-machine (M2M)
communication offers the potential for
significant operational cost savings and new
sources of after-sale service revenues.
Verizon
M2M
Platform
Teach your machines
to talk to each other.
Then listen.
The Verizon M2M Platform solutions will
help you:
• Manage connectivity for your 2G, 3G and
4G LTE M2M devices through a self-service
portal, integrated within My Business
Account or Verizon Enterprise Center.
• Provision service, troubleshoot connectivity,
monitor and manage usage, run reports and
configure alerts to notify you of exceptions
to business as usual.
•Manage connectivity automatically from your
own solutions or enterprise applications,
with easy-to-use Web service application
programming interfaces (APIs).
Contents
This technical brief introduces the Verizon
M2M Platform through the following topics:
• The business case for M2M communications
• Connectivity management considerations
• Service provisioning integrated with
business processes
• The Verizon M2M Platform connectivity
management solution
• Automated service provisioning
and monitoring
•Verizon M2M Developer Program
The business case for M2M
communications
Wireless M2M technology enables businesses
to electronically connect enterprise
applications with remote machines, without
wires. Assets might be mobile or they might
be in fixed locations where wired connections
are unavailable, prohibited or expensive.
Machines pass data back and forth, interpret
the data and take appropriate actions
automatically. The system can alert you
when a situation arises that requires human
intervention. Automation and the ability to
manage by exception enable businesses to
service more machines with fewer resources,
yielding economies of scale that open up new
opportunities to improve the bottom line.
Operational efficiencies
Service providers, from utilities, law
enforcement and public safety to kiosk
vendors, are interested in tools to help reduce
costs, improve service and comply with
regulations.
For example, a radio-tower operator has to
maintain a flashing light on the top of each
tower. If a light burns out, the operator must
report the outage to the Federal Aviation
Administration (FAA) within 30 minutes and
restore the light within 15 days to avoid a fine
of up to $20,000. Constant human surveillance
of the light is expensive. An M2M application
can remotely monitor the status of the light,
and automatically file a report and dispatch a
technician when the light goes out. The tower
Tech Brief
operator reduces costs and automates FAA
compliance.
New revenue sources and increased
market share
Manufacturers of consumer goods, from small
appliances to heavy industrial equipment,
often struggle to maintain a relationship
with their customers after the point of sale.
Impersonal product registrations and direct
marketing campaigns are often ineffective.
Commoditization makes it too easy for
customers to switch brands or replace
consumable items with off-brand alternatives.
Service revenues for geographically dispersed
products go to local service providers who can
physically inspect the equipment.
new filters, and some find third-party
“knockoff” filters online. The company has
also noticed downward price pressure for new
installations since a popular big-box store has
started offering a similar-looking but lower-end
solution at a much lower cost.
The manufacturer addresses these challenges
by adding a valuable service offering,
supported by an M2M application, to its
products. The manufacturer equips its purifiers
with a water quality tester and a wireless
device that sends the results to a central
database. A server application automatically
emails periodic before-filter and after-filter
water quality reports to customers, and ships
new filters when they are due for replacement.
Wireless M2M applications enable
manufacturers to maintain connections with
their products and customers, differentiate
themselves from the competition and
create new revenue streams by offering
value-added services, such as hardware
maintenance and consumable replenishment,
to their product mixes.
The result is a differentiated product, new
service revenues, increased consumable sales,
an extended relationship with the customer
after the sale and a wealth of information about
product performance in the field. As a bonus,
the company can sell the before-filter water
quality measurements to local water utilities
and environmental protection agencies.
For example, an appliance company
manufactures and sells high-end water
purifiers for the home. Expensive filtration
cartridges must be replaced every six months
to two years, depending on usage. The
company reports suboptimal filter replacement
revenues because, despite reminder postcard
mailings and indicator lights on the appliance
itself, some customers forget to order
New business models
M2M technology has given rise to products
for which embedded connectivity is a core
strategy. Makers of gaming devices, electronic
readers, health and fitness monitors and other
consumer electronics have invented new
business models in which consumers pay for
content and services rather than monthly
data usage.
For example, an electronic reader (e-reader)
manufacturer sells a unit to a consumer. The
consumer turns on the e-reader and uses
an on-device application to register with the
“bookstore.” He can then use the on-device
application to begin purchasing and loading
books. The consumer has no need to activate
his e-reader or purchase an individual service
plan with Verizon. He just buys books.
Behind the scenes, the manufacturer has a
contract and a bulk service plan with Verizon.
The manufacturer’s M2M application activates
the e-reader’s wireless communication device
automatically when the consumer registers
the unit. Subsequent book purchases are
accomplished over the Verizon Wireless
network. Rather than passing a monthly
wireless service charge directly to the
consumer, the manufacturer figures the cost of
the service plan into the book prices.
Connectivity management
considerations
Businesses across varied industry segments,
such as remote healthcare, industrial
equipment, utilities, law enforcement,
environmental monitoring, consumer
appliances and others, are developing
M2M applications that are specific to the
business models and assets they support.
Essential and common to every wireless M2M
implementation, however, are the wireless
communications devices and the network
that deliver machine data from the asset
to the enterprise application server. M2M
Tech Brief
application managers across industries share
similar considerations for managing wireless
connectivity.
Self-service provisioning and monitoring
When business operations rely on data
exchanged with remote assets, connectivity
management becomes mission-critical.
M2M application administrators need to take
devices in and out of service according to
business need; ensure devices are connecting
and transmitting data properly; and monitor
the costs of remote data acquisition. To
efficiently manage large numbers of devices,
M2M administrators require tools that support
management by exception and automation.
Factory
•Manufacturing
•Activates device for test
•Tests units
•Suspends service after tests
•Packages units
•Ships to distribution center
To accomplish these tasks, M2M application
administrators need:
• 24/7 self-service access to activate and
suspend devices, and adjust service plans
• Real-time connection status
• Near real-time usage data
• Threshold monitoring
• Proactive notification of provisioning events,
threshold violations and
abnormal disconnects
• On-demand reports
• The ability to detect an overly chatty device
and automatically suspend it
• The ability to detect devices that fail to
deliver data as expected
•The ability to identify and manage devices
Warehouse
•Receives units
•Stores units until sale
Point of sale
•Picks from warehouse
•Resumes service
(Just In Time)
by properties other than phone number or
electronic serial number (ESN), such as IP
address, location, name or other applicationspecific attribute
Service provisioning integrated
with business processes
Manufacturing, distribution and customer
service processes for M2M devices often
include service provisioning tasks. For
example, you might activate service when
testing units during manufacturing, suspend
service when assigning units to warehouse
inventory locations and then resume service
when selling or fielding a unit, as depicted in
the diagram below. fig. 1
Customer service
•Monitors usage
and connectivity
•Adjusts rate plan as needed
•Suspends overly
chatty devices
fig. 1
Tech Brief
Once you have deployed a unit, you can
support business processes such as
maintenance, customer service management
and field service management with further
provisioning tasks. For example, you can:
• Suspend service when a customer doesn’t
pay a bill.
• Change the ESN when a unit is replaced by
return merchandise authorization (RMA).
• Suspend service when a field service
technician assigns a unit to a repair depot.
• Create a trouble ticket and dispatch a
technician when a unit does not report in.
•Detect a rogue device before it causes an
overage, and automatically suspend it.
Automated connectivity management tasks
Many M2M application managers must
provision, monitor and control significant
volumes of devices. To manage these volumes
effectively and efficiently, managers need the
ability to execute connectivity management
tasks automatically, without human
intervention, from within their other
enterprise systems.
Wireless devices
Security and reliability
Secure and reliable data delivery is missioncritical for businesses that depend on machine
data. While the M2M Platform supports both
public and private networks, M2M applications
often require private IP addresses because
the security risks of data interception and
tampering presented by the public Internet
are too high. A public IP address for a wireless
device poses the additional risk that hackers
could send data to the device, causing usage
and unpreventable overages.
Additionally, because machine data is valuable,
application administrators need on-demand
access to device connectivity information and
management features to keep the data flowing,
24 hours a day, every day.
The Verizon M2M Platform
connectivity management solution
The Verizon M2M Platform includes a
connectivity management solution for 2G, 3G
and 4G LTE devices that are certified on Verizon
Wireless Private Network. Specialized features
to provision service and monitor and control the
connectivity and usage of M2M devices include:
Verizon M2M Platform
• 24/7 access to activate and suspend
devices, and adjust service plans
• Real-time monitoring of connectivity, activity
and status from the system level down to the
individual device
• Real-time monitoring and control of data
usage and costs
• Device naming, grouping and tracking by
custom properties
• Configurable notification of provisioning
events, maximum and minimum threshold
violations, abnormal disconnects,
unauthorized equipment relocations and more
• On-demand reports
• Ability to detect an overly chatty device and
either suspend it or change its service plan
•Ability to detect devices that fail to deliver data
You can access these features from the
M2M Management Center portal, integrated
within the familiar My Business Account and
Verizon Enterprise Center portals. Alternatively
you can integrate these same features with
enterprise applications using standards-based
SOAP/XML Web service APIs.
M2M Management Center
Are all of my devices connecting properly?
Are any devices using too much data?
When is usage the heaviest?
Have all my activations completed?
How many devices are on a particular service plan?
fig. 2
Tech Brief
The M2M Management Center
self-service portal
After logging in to the My Business Account
or Verizon Enterprise Center Web portal, you
can click on Machine to Machine to access
M2M-specific connectivity management
functions, including connectivity status, data
usage monitoring, Dashboard charts, device
lists, reports and alerts. Use near realtime device usage data to choose service
plans, suspend rogue devices, troubleshoot
connectivity and more. fig. 2
User-configurable Dashboard
The Dashboard gives M2M device managers
an at-a-glance view of all their devices or
specific groups of devices. You can select
the summary reports you want to see and the
types of charts that work best for you. You can
view devices by provisioning status, service
plan, connection status, data usage, SMS
usage and alarm status. Choose to display
data in a pie chart, bar chart or table.
Filtering Dashboard charts by device group
enables you to compare charts for different
sets of devices side by side. Drill-down
capabilities from most charts allow you to see
the details behind the statistics. fig. 3
Device List
Use the Device List tab in the M2M
Management Center to examine and monitor
current information about your M2M devices.
Here you can search, sort and group by
Verizon device identifiers, IP address,
provisioning status, service plan, connectivity
status and more. In addition to the default
search fields, you can define up to five custom
fields. These searchable fields could represent
names, regions, business units, device
types or any other information that helps
you identify, categorize and sort devices.
Customize your view of the Device List by
adding fields and ordering them as you
wish. Display up to 500 devices on a page
and export lists to spreadsheets for further
analysis or to create a basic import file to
update device attributes. fig. 4
fig. 3
Tech Brief
The M2M Management Center provides
several on-demand reports. Some reports
are useful for determining what is normal for
your application and devices; other reports
are useful for drilling down on details and
troubleshooting. You can view and filter report
results online; create and save custom views
of any report; plus print reports and export
results to external spreadsheets.
Data Usage Trending Chart
The Data Usage Trending Chart shows data
usage patterns over time for one or more
devices or device groups. fig. 5
Aggregated Device Usage Report
The Aggregated Device Usage Report sums
daily data and SMS usage within a specified
date range for each device. Use this report
to track overall usage to date against target
usage for an individual device.
Device Usage Report
The Device Usage Report provides a
breakdown by day of the amount of estimated
(unrated) data transported to and from one or
more devices, within a specified date range.
You might use this report to identify normal
usage patterns by examining daily usage
over the course of weeks, months and years.
A good understanding of normal behavior is
imperative for configuring the system to alert
you when conditions are not normal.
fig. 4
Tech Brief
Rated Usage Report
The Rated Usage Report provides unbilled
usage per device for the current billing cycle.
Connected Session History Report
The Connected Session History Report
summarizes the duration, begin and end
times and data usage of individual connection
sessions for one or more devices over a
specified data range. You can use this report to
monitor a device’s normal connectivity patterns
over time. As with normal usage patterns, once
you understand normal connectivity patterns,
you can configure the system to alert you when
conditions are not normal.
Connection History Report
The Connection History Report details each
connected session start and stop event for
one or more devices over a specified date
range. The report includes session start and
stop times, data usage measured at each
stop event and the technology type (2G, 3G
or 4G LTE) for the beginning and end of each
session. This report is especially useful for
troubleshooting connectivity issues by drilling
down on data session details.
fig. 5
Transaction History Report
The Transaction History Report lists
provisioning actions (activate, suspend,
resume, deactivate) applied to a selected
device(s) within a specified date range.
Notifications
The M2M Management Center provides
fig. 6
Tech Brief
a configurable, rules-based notification
capability to inform you, by email or SMS, when
important events occur that might require
human intervention. Events include device
provisioning status or attribute changes and
violations of your defined thresholds, such
as usage limits within a time period. You can
define notification rules by choosing events,
conditions, devices or device groups and
alert recipients, including field personnel and
others who do not have access to the M2M
Management Center. Alert recipients with
access to the portal can log their responses
online, and managers can view the status
of each alert as well as the status of alerts
system-wide.
The notification feature enables M2M
administrators to manage by exception. For
example, the system can alert you when a
device is about to exceed the usage allowed
by its service plan or when a device’s base
station identity (BSID) changes, indicating a
possibly unauthorized relocation of an asset.
Rather than actively monitoring large volumes
of devices, you can identify and focus on failing
devices or out-of-plan situations.
Wireless devices
Searchable, sortable audit trails
To provide complete traceability and
accountability for application administrators,
the M2M Management Center maintains
searchable and sortable audit trails. A master
log tracks all system events and every
action that each user takes while using the
portal. A notification log tracks alerts and
acknowledgements. fig. 6
Manage service efficiently.
• Automated service suspension of rogue
devices or devices relocated without
authorization
• Automated service plan changes from
factory testing to field
• Management by exception: threshold
monitoring and alert notifications
•Device group provisioning transactions
M2M Management Center benefits
Administer effectively and securely.
• User permissions and account-level security
•Detailed audit trail of user activity and
system events
Monitor device connectivity quickly
and easily.
• Graphical Dashboard that provides quick
overview of system-wide status
• Criteria-filtered device lists, plus the ability to
drill down for usage estimates, connectivity
status and history, IP address, provisioning
state and history, customer-defined
attributes and more
• Near real-time connectivity status and
usage information
• Customizable reports to facilitate effective
management of device connectivity, usage
and costs
•Custom properties for identifying, searching,
sorting and tracking devices
Verizon M2M Platform
Automated service provisioning
and monitoring
You can further improve operational
efficiency by automating high-volume service
provisioning, monitoring and control of wireless
M2M devices. The Verizon M2M Platform
includes Wireless Network Services APIs
that allow you to integrate M2M connectivity
management tasks with your enterprise
software systems, such as enterprise resource
planning (ERP), supply chain management
and customer service management. Wireless
Enterprise
Wireless Network Services APIs
• Activate, suspend, resume or de-activate services.
• Change service plans.
• Get device usage, connection history and status.
• Group devices and assign custom properties.
fig. 7
Tech Brief
Network Services APIs are standardscompliant SOAP/XML Web service requests
that travel over the HTTP Secure (HTTPS)
protocol. fig. 7
Wireless Network Services APIs for
connectivity management include:
Session Service
Your host application server establishes
sessions with the Verizon M2M Platform
server by invoking the Session Services
Login and Logout.
Carrier Service
Use Carrier Service APIs to activate, suspend,
resume and deactivate lines of service; swap
out hardware identifiers; or update service
plans for M2M devices on the Verizon Wireless
network. You can also assign custom field
values to track devices by name or other
information pertinent to your business.
Callback Registration Service
Simple Web-service API requests such
as Login and Get Device List receive an
immediate, synchronous response containing
some requested data or a confirmation of
success or failure. For more complex service
requests that require significant processing
time, such as provisioning service for a
device or changing a device’s service plan,
the M2M Platform middleware replies first
with a synchronous response that simply
acknowledges the request and allows your
application to continue processing. Later, if
you have subscribed to the callback service,
the M2M Platform sends an asynchronous
callback message to report the results of the
request. The M2M Platform can generate
callbacks when you execute provisioning
actions using My Business Account or Verizon
Enterprise Center, when promotional service
plans expire, when suspended service is due
to automatically resume and when a device
confirms receipt of an SMS message.
Device Service
Manage lists of M2M devices, put new devices
into service and monitor connectivity and
provisioning status using Device Service APIs,
such as Get Device List, Add Devices, Get
Device Connection History, Get Device Usage
History, Get Rated Device Usage and Get
Device Information.
Account Service
Manage M2M Platform passwords and service
plans with Account Service APIs. Silver-,
Member- and Limited-tier Verizon Partner
Program (VPP) members can also retrieve
customer leads and subsequently activate
devices for them using Carrier Service.
Device Group Service
Establish and maintain groups of devices with
Device Group Service APIs, so you can perform
operations on multiple devices at once.
Cross-platform integration
Wireless Network Services APIs are standardscompliant and portable across computing
platforms, hardware protocols and transport
protocols, thus protecting the enterprise’s
investment in application development as
technologies change and improve.
Benefits of Wireless Network Services APIs
• High-level and easy to use.
• Enable automatic service provisioning
to reduce manual actions and
increase efficiency.
• Provide application portability and scalability.
•Secure.
Verizon M2M Developer Program
The Verizon M2M Developer Program Web
site offers a one-stop shop for enterprises
interested in integrating connectivity
management with their back-office
applications or with new M2M applications.
The program includes:
• Software development kit (SDK)
• Test account
• Online Knowledge Center with help pages
and tutorials
•Community forum
There is no fee for the developer environment
or SDK.
Getting started
To get started with Wireless Network
Services, register on the Verizon
M2M Developer Program Web site at
m2mdeveloper.verizon.com to access the
community forum and the Knowledge Center.
Once registered, you can submit requests to
access the SDK and a test account. fig. 8
Tech Brief
fig. 8
Tech Brief
Online Knowledge Center
The Verizon M2M Developer Program includes
access to an online Knowledge Center where
you can find tutorials, API reference details,
troubleshooting help and more. fig. 9
Conclusion
M2M communication represents a burgeoning
technological frontier in the wireless network
space. The M2M Platform is a robust, secure
and scalable option that can help companies
realize operational efficiencies, generate
new revenue streams and increase market
share by supporting new and expanded
business models.
The M2M Platform offers several products
and services to the customer implementing
an M2M solution, including the following
capabilities:
• Connect any Verizon Wireless Private
Network–certified device to an M2M
application.
• Use the M2M Management Center portal for
self-service connectivity management.
• Use Wireless Network Services APIs in
M2M solutions and enterprise applications
to automate service provisioning and
connectivity management.
fig. 9
Learn more.
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SB01821015
To learn more contact your Verizon Wireless
business specialist or visit us at
verizonwireless.com/contactrep