Siemens foresees great opportunities from the Internet of Things. The value of the IoT lies in connecting the real world with the virtual world of data. Digitalization technologies offer new business models here.

In an Internet of Things, billions of things have an Internet address and are linked to the Internet. They can therefore transmit data to the cloud that can then be accessed and managed.

This scenario will become a reality thanks to increasingly miniaturized computers affordable sensors, ubiquitous net-working, and the increasing availability of “smart” devices in many areas. Associated applications will range from net-worked vehicles to fitness-tracker armbands and from smart homes to smart farming.

Siemens is very successful in combining hardware with software – including automation solutions in production, rail management, traffic management, and decentralized energy supply systems.

These are complex systems that require supervision and management – systems with components from both the real and digital worlds that often involve critical infrastructures. Customers in such areas have very high expectations for safety, reliability, durability, and protection of their data. And they want to enrich their existing equipment with the advantages of digitalization without jeopardizing their existing systems.

That’s why Siemens has further detailed and expanded the concept of the Internet of Things for industrial applications – reflecting the context of a future Industrie 4.0. We call this approach the Web of Systems. In the context of the Web of Systems, devices and machines such as those produced by Siemens, as well as their interactions in systems, are at the center of a digitally-networked industrial landscape.

The Web of Systems is one of the cornerstones of Siemens’ digitalization strategy. Technologically, it is already feasible. Its full potential will be realized in a step-by-step process in connection with the implementation of new business models.

Siemens researchers are developing the technical elements of the Web of Systems. Siemens will be incorporating these app-capable components into its products and solutions. One conceivable possibility is an expandable software ecosystem to control and optimize complex systems, both new and existing ones, into which customers and suppliers can both be incorporated.

Thanks to embedded processing, units within the Web of Systems manage their own data and make their own deci-sions locally rather than transmitting data to the Cloud to be processed by unknown entities. As a result, knowledge associated with the data and its context, including the intellectual property of customers, remains in the system.

Web of Systems An industrial concept for the Internet of Things

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Devices need not be connected to the open Internet in order to profit from the Web of Systems. They can communi-cate with one another, understand each other and can, to a large extent, organize themselves. This will add up to several advantages in terms of enhanced flexibility, robustness and system integration:

The actual condition of a system and its parts will be captured and evaluated in detail at any given time. That offers potential for savings through predictive maintenance, and vast opportunities for optimization. In view of this, the Web of Systems is a complement to the new Sinalytics data analytics platform.

Using modern technologies from the world of the Internet and the Web enables systems to be implemented, inte-grated and commissioned faster and at lower cost.

The intelligence in the system can be distributed as needed between real components and the virtual world of the Cloud. That yields improvements in fail-safeness and in protecting customers’ process data.

Device updates covering new functions and system software updates become simpler, very much along the same lines as for apps on a smartphone.

This goes also for retrofitting the installed base with smart networked devices since today most systems have a lesser level of networking.

All of this opens up new business opportunities for Siemens and its customers in every industry – whether in energy utilities, traffic control, buildings, manufacturing and the process industry – because the approach is transferable.

Siemens is already using Web of Systems technologies in many projects. Examples include:

Charging systems for electric buses that are in service in Hamburg, Göteborg and Stockholm. Here, all components, including the electronics inside buses, fast charging stations and pantographs, communicate via the Web and coor-dinate the recharging process.

The optimization of water supply networks with a smart sensor network that helps detect leaks and minimize ener-gy consumption in pumps. A major emphasis here is on integrating the existing distributed control system.

New, intelligent distribution transformers as part of a Smart Grid, as already realized in Vienna, Austria’s Seestadt Aspern urban development project.