LONDON–(BUSINESS WIRE)– The University of St Andrews Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU) is developing smart telemetry tags using Narrow Band-IoT (NB-IoT) technology to track and monitor the movement of harbour seals and research their population decline. NB-IoT is a Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) technology that was standardised by the GSMA’s Mobile IoT Initiative and will play a fundamental role in the emerging ‘Internet of the Seas’ by capturing underwater data that will help to monitor climate change.

The new sensors being developed by SMRU will be harmlessly attached to the seals in order to log detailed data on the animals’ behaviour, such as location and dive depth, as well as temperature, salinity and, eventually, underwater sound. Low power devices and networks in licensed spectrum vastly improve wildlife tracking by enabling more efficient tracking tags that are smaller and less intrusive.

SMRU expects to trial the new NB-IoT enabled marine tags later this year. In 2016, it successfully gathered information for analysis from harbour seals in Orkney, Scotland, using machine-to-machine (M2M) technology. Mobile IoT networks have the potential to deliver improvements in mobile coverage and the built-in device modules offer battery life superior to devices reliant on conventional cellular technologies.

“The GSMA is supporting the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals by exploring how mobile technology can be utilised to capture vital information to support wildlife conservation projects around the world, as well as protect the oceans, seas and the species living in them,” commented Alex Sinclair, Chief Technology Officer, GSMA. “The intersection between Mobile IoT technologies and global conservation projects such as this is exciting, timely and powerful and will play a fundamental role in helping to achieve healthy and productive oceans.”

The Internet of the Seas

NB-IoT technology can also be used to support the Global Ocean Observing System (GOOS), a UNESCO programme that coordinates global ocean data from different governance bodies. NB-IoT can help monitor climate change by means of low energy sensors and data relay channels that capture information on the temperature and salinity of the oceans. Combined and standardised with data from other sea monitoring systems, such NB-IoT-derived data will help provide scientists and oceanographers with accurate information on the world’s oceans. Tagging animals with smart tags also helps scientists to use their mobility and diving skills to explore both distant and deep parts of oceans.

“NB-IoT technology is the future of our research and allows us to springboard from the success of our previous work using M2M technology and capture far more detailed data in a much more efficient way,” said Dr Bernie McConnell, Sea Mammal Research Unit, University of St Andrews. “Many species, both marine and aquatic, are under threat. NB-IoT is ideally suited to be a global carrier of animal information that will provide vital data needed to inform and benefit wildlife conservation worldwide.”

SMRU was approached by the Scottish Government to investigate why seals on the east coast of Scotland and the Northern Isles were in serious decline with a 70 per cent reduction over the last ten years. The natural habitat of animals around the world is being impacted by climate change that is disrupting food chains and biodiversity. The research is ongoing but the possible reasons for the decline could be food limitation, disease, aggression from grey seals, predation by killer whales, and poisoning from harmful algal blooms. A crucial element will be in discovering where the threatened seals feed at sea.

The GSMA Mobile IoT Initiative

LPWA networks are a high-growth area of the IoT designed for M2M applications that have low data rates, require long battery lives and operate unattended for long periods of time, often in remote locations. They will be used for a wide variety of applications such as industrial asset tracking, safety monitoring, water and gas metering, smart grids, city parking, vending machines and city lighting. The GSMA’s Mobile IoT Initiative is designed to accelerate the commercial availability of LPWA solutions in licensed spectrum. These licensed standards allow operators to optimise their existing mobile network infrastructure through an upgrade to LTE-M for LTE networks, while NB-IoT can use both 2G and 4G spectrum. It is currently backed by 30 of the world’s leading mobile operators, OEMs, chipset, module and infrastructure companies. The GSMA Mobile IoT initiative is supporting the industry with multiple global pilots with full commercial solutions expected in market later this year.

Mobile IoT at Mobile World Congress 2017

At Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, the GSMA’s Connected Living Programme will host the ‘GSMA Global Mobile IoT Summit’ with leading industry experts on Sunday, 26 February from 13:00 – 17:30. The session will explore how the industry is working together to realise the full potential of Mobile IoT. There will also be a separate session, ‘Mobile IoT (LPWA) – Open for Business’, on Wednesday, 1 March from 13:30 – 15:30 that will provide an opportunity to learn about the latest commercial rollouts, launches and pilots. There will also be number of demonstrations of LPWA technology at the GSMA Innovation City located in Hall 4 in Fira Gran Via. For more information or please visit www.gsma.com/connectedliving/event/mobile-world-congress-2017/ or download the Connected Living IoT Guide to MWC 2017:

http://www.gsma.com/connectedliving/iot-guide-mwc17/. For more information on the GSMA Mobile IoT Initiative go to: www.gsma.com/connectedliving/mobile-iot-initiative/

Get Involved at Mobile World Congress 2017

For more information on Mobile World Congress 2017, including how to attend, exhibit or sponsor, visit www.mobileworldcongress.com. Follow developments and updates on Mobile World Congress on Twitter @GSMA using #MWC17, on our LinkedIn Mobile World Congress page www.linkedin.com/company/gsma-mobile-world-congress or on Facebook athttps://www.facebook.com/mobileworldcongress/. For additional information on GSMA social channels, visit www.mobileworldcongress.com/about/contact/social-media/.

About the GSMA

The GSMA represents the interests of mobile operators worldwide, uniting nearly 800 operators with almost 300 companies in the broader mobile ecosystem, including handset and device makers, software companies, equipment providers and internet companies, as well as organisations in adjacent industry sectors. The GSMA also produces industry-leading events such as Mobile World Congress, Mobile World Congress Shanghai, Mobile World Congress Americas and the Mobile 360 Series of conferences.

For more information, please visit the GSMA corporate website at www.gsma.com. Follow the GSMA on Twitter: @GSMA.

About the Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU)

SMRU ( http://www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk/ @_SMRU_) is a component of the School of Biology within the University of St Andrews, Scotland. Its staff and students carry out a range of fundamental and applied studies into the biology, ecology, physiology and behaviour of marine mammals throughout the world. Its core is funded by the Natural Environment Research Council ( http://www.nerc.ac.uk/)

With over 40 staff and students, SMRU represents a formidable concentration of expertise and talent in the field of marine mammalogy and, more generally, in marine ecology. In recognition of the world-leading role played by our researchers in furthering our understanding and protection of the oceans, SMRU was awarded the Queen’s Anniversary Prize in 2011.

SMRU’s Instrumentation Group (SMRU-IG) ( http://www.smru.st-andrews.ac.uk/Instrumentation/Overview/) designs and builds a range of electronic devices for attachment to animals that collect, compress and transmit data. These devices are used both by the SMRU and a wide range of international customers and colleagues. SMRU-IG is a research group funded by the sale of electronic tags. It has an annual turnover of about £1m.

About St Andrews University

Founded in the 15th century, St Andrews is Scotland’s first university and the third oldest in the English speaking world. Teaching began in the community of St Andrews on the east coast of Scotland in 1410 and the University was formally constituted by the issue of Papal Bull in 1413.

The university is now one of Europe’s most research intensive seats of learning – over a quarter of its turnover comes from research grants and contracts. It is one of the top rated universities in Europe for research, teaching quality and student satisfaction and is consistently ranked among the UK’s top five in leading independent league tables produced by The Sunday Times and The Times, The Guardian and The Complete University Guide.

For University Press Office contact details, use telephone 01334 462530 or email  proffice@st-andrews.ac.uk

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