By Natasha Barrios
Certification and testing are essential for IoT device developers and can determine whether a product is released on time – or even at all.
However, achieving certification for an IoT device involves investing time and money to ensure devices comply with the regulations in every target country they’re sold in so they can reach the marketplace. This makes certification an unavoidable requirement for all new IoT devices.
Certification is essential for device market access. The first step is regulatory certification, whether CE (an acronym for “Conformite Europeenne”) for the European Union or FCC certification in the United States.
It also ensures compliance with industry organization demands, with examples including the Global Certification Forum (GCF) and the Wi-Fi Alliance.
This multi-layered, complex and time-consuming burden can cause product introduction delays of weeks or months, potentially delaying time to market and impacting an organization’s bottom line. While no one can escape the requirement that new devices be certified by regulators, organizations don’t have to continuously reinvent the wheel and repeatedly gain certification for components.
What is certification?
At its most basic level, the process involves certifying components such as modules and the devices being released. The goal is to ensure the safety and security of devices while confirming their interoperability across global wireless networks.
Therefore, the regulatory certification process might address radio frequency usage, electromagnetic interference and accessibility.
It’s important for device makers to understand this and to have the necessary knowledge and expertise to ensure successful certification applications. However, few IoT organizations have the time or knowledge to understand global certifications’ variations and their detailed requirements.
This includes a lack of knowledge, failure to recognize the importance of certification, and not allocating enough time to obtain approvals. IoT organizations that have not fully prepared for certification often experience delays, higher costs, and the real possibility of needing to redesign devices.
Certification requirements differ from one geographic location to another, adding additional layers of complexity and cost. While requirements in the United States differ from those in other regions, mainly the European Union and Asia, the burden of compliance falls on IoT organizations to meet the requirements of every market where they want to sell or operate their devices.
To secure certification, organizations must either invest in building certification knowledge or partner with certification agents to address challenges or reduce the certification burden by selecting pre-certified components to expedite full device certification in some markets.
Carrier certification, particularly relevant for IoT devices, involves carriers setting their own requirements developers must meet before allowing devices to connect to their networks.
Given many end-user concerns about their IoT devices, certifications are critical to assuaging them, whether real or perceived. Organizations can benefit from using modules that are already certified to simplify and speed up the overall certification process.
The key is to simplify the process.
Certification is critical yet often overlooked when taking an IoT device from concept to commercial actuality. Although it often requires substantial effort, the good news is that IoT organizations can simplify and accelerate their processes and don’t have to continuously reinvent the wheel and repeatedly gain certification for components.
Certification agents can streamline the process and eliminate the need for IoT organizations to build in-house teams of specialists. Because these agents are already familiar with the requirements a product will likely face during the process, they can help IoT service providers avoid the costs and delays typically associated with certification.
For example, a device often does not need a separate certification for modules approved by a regulator, industry body or carrier. In many cases, the certification of the module in a device is sufficient to support the device’s certification.
This has obvious benefits in streamlining the process and eliminating duplicate efforts. While it does require an investment, it is usually worth it for IoT organizations to seek out already-certified modules to help simplify and speed up the device’s overall certification process.
Choosing pre-certified modules is just one way to reduce the burden and implement an optimized strategy for obtaining certifications. This approach differs from seeking certifications directly from organizations, which can take up to six months.
For many IoT applications, a six-month delay in launching is unacceptable. It could be the deciding factor in markets where being the first to launch is crucial.
Bringing in a trusted partner who understands the nuances of the certification process and is up to date on the landscape’s most recent changes is often critical for success and ensures IoT device developers are free to focus on what they do best: keeping the world connected.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Natasha Barrios joined Quectel in 2017 and serves as Vice President of Sales, North America. Natasha began her career in IoT in 2012, and prior to joining Quectel, was the Director of Strategic Partnerships and Alliances at Pod Group (a G+D company) and worked in Product Marketing at Wyless, which was acquired by Kore Wireless. Originally from Massachusetts, Natasha graduated from the University of Virginia, began her IoT career while living in Spain, and currently lives in Newport Beach, CA.
