ATLANTA, Feb. 15, 2017 /CNW/ -- IBM (NYSE: IBM) and
The Weather Company, an IBM Business, today introduced new Mesh
Network Alerts technology that provides a mobile method of
communicating with underserved populations in developing countries
to notify of potential severe weather events or disasters -- even
in areas with limited Internet connection, or cellular networks are
disrupted due to an outage.
Developed by IBM researchers, the breakthrough mesh technology
will be available soon via The Weather Channel app in emerging
markets. The app will use peer-to-peer connections within the mesh
network to send alerts to individuals via their smartphone devices.
The mesh network technology links other nearby phones to extend the
signal to help keep citizens connected and informed, and in the
most severe conditions, might even help save a life.
Mesh Network Alerts technology is particularly crucial in
emerging markets, as well as in developed countries where cellular
networks are congested, connectivity is intermittent and data
access is often limited. As a result, the ability to alert and
inform people during emergency situations is unreliable, which can
have dire consequences.
"The combination of the innovative Mesh Network Alerts and
global reach of The Weather Channel mobile app can help deliver a
new level of emergency awareness to underserved populations," said
Bijan Davari, IBM Fellow and vice
president, next generation computing systems and technology, IBM
Research. "We're proud to be able to quickly offer a critical and
potentially lifesaving capability to hundreds of millions of people
around the world."
The new Mesh Network Alerts will be available first as an update
coming soon to The Weather Channel App for Android devices in
emerging markets across Asia,
Latin America and Africa. This app, available now in the Google
Play Store, was researched, designed and recently launched
specifically for emerging markets. It's optimized for low bandwidth
environments, but offers the same high-quality user experience and
needed weather information, maps and alerts from The Weather
Channel.
"IBM once again shows its leadership in edge computing
capabilities, and this next important milestone will help bring the
value of edge compute to life. Mesh Network Alerts extend the
ability to receive a potentially lifesaving alert to a global
audience, even with limited connectivity," said Cameron Clayton, general manager and CEO of The
Weather Company. "With IBM collaboration, investment and research,
we can now reach users in previously underserved areas and better
deliver the information they need."
How it works: The power of a peer-to-peer community
Peer-to-peer networking has boundless potential for communities
and across industries. As part of The Weather Channel app, it can
help notify a mother in India
before forecasted thunderstorms approach where her children play,
or it can inform a small business owner in Peru of incoming heavy rainfall before
preparing inventory. The team behind the app is actively working
with national meteorological services around the world to help
broadcast government-issued severe weather alerts even if a
country's existing infrastructure has been affected.
Usually, a government-issued message is broadcast via cell tower
to all devices within its range. When that network goes down,
however, so does the ability to send alerts. Peer-to-peer
technology converts mobile devices into links within the mesh
network, allowing devices to "talk" directly to each other without
using cell tower infrastructure. Each smartphone becomes a node
that stores the message and passes it to the next nearest device,
creating a daisy chain to reach more devices and remove the need
for a cellular network. While other mesh networks use hotspotting,
IBM and The Weather Company chose not to turn devices into
individual access points to avoid excessive battery drain.
Mesh Network Alerts work entirely within the app, using devices
connected to Bluetooth or WiFi to communicate with other
smartphones nearby that are not connected via data or to a cell
network. It works off the grid in remote areas, large crowds or
disaster zones, but scale is crucial. Mobile or Internet signals
slow down or stop when more users overload the network, but mesh
networks actually improve with more people. At these times, a
larger amount of smartphones helps the mesh network move a message
along. Individual devices become part of the solution.
Other companies are experimenting with drones or balloons to
expand connectivity, but IBM offers a solution using devices
already in market on a network already at scale.
The Weather Channel App for Android - a New App for Emerging
Markets
Peer-to-peer technology is more effective with large numbers,
such as could be available on The Weather Channel App, the world's
most downloaded weather app. This new version of the app is now
available on Android, the dominant platform for emerging markets,
and has replaced The Weather Channel App for Android flagship app
in the Play Store within 42 countries.
Data is precious to users in emerging markets, and a large app
can be prohibitively expensive to download. To help customers make
decisions and stay safe through all types of weather, this app
provides industry-leading weather data, forecasts, and
notifications, but at a significantly reduced size. While other
publishers create lighter apps by watering down app content, The
Weather Channel focused on design choices to slim down its app,
proving a lighter app does not mean less value to users.
To understand customers in emerging markets, the team met with
local users for in-depth research. Top concerns that surfaced
globally include app performance on lower-end smartphones,
unreliable or low-speed connections, and expensive data plans. To
help solve these problems, The Weather Channel has created an app
that uses less data, downloads easily, and loads quickly.
At only 3.2 MB, the app can store weather data offline for up to
24 hours and offers user-selected options of whether to update on
WiFi, cellular or on request. These changes result in high
performance on 2G and 3G connections, launching in seconds on 2G!
With reduced file size and bandwidth usage, many of the innovations
piloted in this app are planned to make their way into The Weather
Channel App for Android flagship later this year as well.
Walking the Walk on Global Growth
Since purchasing The Weather Company in 2016, IBM has invested
to advance Weather's efforts to reach and help keep safe every
mobile user on the planet. For example last year, the weather.com
site expanded availability to 62 languages, 178 countries and
across data availability (4G, 3G and 2G). The Weather Channel also
launched global weather forecast notifications on mobile web to
provide severe weather information in areas around the world with
limited access to real-time notifications.
The Weather Company weather platform provides information in
almost every country and for 2.2 billion locations worldwide. By
combining its massive scale, accuracy in weather and location data,
and unique alerting capabilities, The Weather Company can help
consumers protect themselves when they need it most. By
expanding globally, The Weather Company will be able to provide the
most actionable weather data to every user, despite location,
device, connection or data plan, so citizens everywhere can stay
safe and prepared in the face of weather.
For more information on Mesh Network Alerts and The Weather
Channel App, visit www.weather.com/meshnetworkalerts. For more
information about IBM's IoT Research, please
visit: http://ibm.biz/iot-research.
The Weather Company, an IBM Business
The Weather Company, an IBM Business, is the world's largest
private weather enterprise, helping people make informed decisions
–and take action –in the face of weather. The company offers the
most accurate, personalized and actionable weather data and
insights to millions of consumers and thousands of businesses via
Weather's API, its business solutions division, and its own digital
products from The Weather Channel (weather.com) and Weather
Underground (wunderground.com).
Weather's portfolio includes the fourth most-downloaded app and
a top weather app on all major mobile platforms globally; the
world's largest network of personal weather stations; a top-20 U.S.
website; the seventh most data-rich site in the world; one of the
world's largest IoT data platforms; and industry-leading business
solutions.
Weather Means Business™. The world's biggest brands in aviation,
energy, insurance, media, and government rely on The Weather
Company for data, technology platforms and services to help improve
decision-making and respond to weather's impact on business. For
more, visit www.theweathercompany.com.
Melissa Medori
The Weather Company, an IBM Business
melissa.medori@weather.com
770-226-2191
Chris Andrews
IBM Research
candrews@us.ibm.com
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SOURCE IBM Corporation