Figure 2.
Millions of miles of pipeline are wrapped around the earth. By connecting people, machines, and industrial big data,
customers are able to make better, faster decisions (photo courtesy of GE Oil & Gas).
increased computing power, the control of multiple devices
migrated to central systems allowing for computer networking
automation, a critical capability that boosted many industries,
including the energy sector.
The critical elements were in place for the next Internet
revolution: the machine-to-machine (M2M) connectivity. Here
again, the concept is not new. In 1971, Theodore G. Paraskevakos
successfully tested a communication device made of two
machines that were able to transmit and read their caller
identification numbers without any human intervention.
2
As
basic as it sounds today, it paved the way for device-to-device
data processing and visual display screens in telephones, which
later gave way to the development of smart phones. Devices
were able to connect and transfer data to other devices that
could process information and react based on their embedded
software. Today, M2M connectivity enables a range of new
capabilities, from smart homes that automatically adjust
the temperature using weather information and its owner’s
location, to smart electric grids that continually monitor
performance and self adjust to optimise uptime across the
whole network.”
In 2010 approximately 12.5 billion devices were connected
to the Internet. Ranging from a smart light bulb in a smart
home, a smart watch on an athletes wrist or a jet engine on an
aircraft, the number of connected devices is estimated to grow
to 25 billion by 2015 and 50 billion by 2020.
3
Industrial internet and big data in the pipeline
industry
The term Industrial Internet describes a category inside the
IoT that refers to the integration of complex machines (or
assets) with sensors and software, aimed to improve and
optimise industrial outcomes. This term was coined by GE in
2012 with the publication of a white paper
4
outlining the shift
from reactive to predictive capabilities based on the existence
of three main factors: smart devices, advance analytics and
connected people.
The concept of big data recently became popular to
describe the growing amount of bytes of information that are
now available as a result of the increased number of connected
measurement devices and sensors feeding the Industrial
Figure 1.
Pipeline Management, a GE Predictivity™ software
solution powered by Predix™ for safer, more efficient oil and
gas pipeline operations (photo courtesy of GE Oil & Gas).
76
World Pipelines
/
JANUARY 2015
