IIC Journal of Innovation | Page 59

IIC Business Strategy and Solution Lifecycle The functional dimensions can be divided into specific areas such as assets, data and communication. In turn, each one of these areas may involve a cluster of indicators designed to produce a well-rounded profile of the system for this particular area: An "asset profile" may involve the following indicators:        Quantity of assets to handle at any given time Complexity and heterogeneity of assets Complexity of assets control (monitoring/tracking, control functions) The frequency and precision at which the assets are monitored/tracked and controlled Level of compliance/regulatory requirements for deploying asset control Maintenance/deployment costs Human training and assistance required A "data profile" may involve the following indicators:        Importance & complexity of data management Data volume generated Velocity, at any time Variety/heterogeneity The expected usage of data, streaming analytic and/or batch processing Long term storage and archival needs Level of compliance/regulatory requirements for collecting this data A “communication & connectivity profile" may involve the following indicators:      Real-time communication requirements (latency, jitter) for applications Dependency on existing networks (Internet, 3G/4G/5G) WAN level: required QoS level and bandwidth LAN level: local connectivity complexity and heterogeneity. Importance of human communication (human-to-human or machine-to-human) Determining these profiles requires qualitative and quantitative metrics. These metrics should be used for expressing system requirements and as a basis for ongoing evaluation of a deployed solution (see Section 2c: Validation and Improvement). Figure 12 illustrates the roles of metrics over the life of an IIoT solution. - 58 - December 2015