Reinhard Bischoff

IoT devices, at least with focus on LoRaWAN devices, are hard or impossible to upgrade in the field. Even theoretically possible, in real world almost never. -> Key for development: robustness, reliability, recover from any state. We always look at it like a spaceship where you have no more direct access once released. Testing involves: Hardware design, electrical signals in any harsh condition (we have many customers above arctic circle, in the desert, in Amazon rainforest, at the sea, in the sewer network) Firmware - no unknown state - always recover from any state - any communication can fail, hang (interface to sensors or modem) -> recover in any state - Firmware tailored to device (non generic, low code base per device) Simplicity of design keeps error rate down. Hardware testing (after assembly, mass production, before shipping) -> no defective devices help to scale efficiently. Testing of firmware changes and formatting (payload) Side note: we design with assumption that we can never change code during lifetime of device. We have devices in the field which we never touched again since 2016. But we keep all and incrementally update the devices and maintain innovation. Focus will be put on Firmware & Software testing and strategies to maintain high quality, reliability, permanent operation in the field. Only side notes regarding all other aspects to summarize complexity for devices in the field in contrast to "data center, office located" devices/systems.