Cellemetry Data Services
Cellemetry Data Services, abbreviated Cellemetry and stylized Cellemetry, was a cellular-telephony-based Internet of things network introduced commercially in 1996. Cellemetry was designed to operate over the existing cellular network, allowing it to be rapidly deployed. History. Cellemetry was invented by Peter Roach, Scott Laster, and Ed Comer in 1994 while working for BellSouth. BellSouth partnered with Numerex to offer Cellemetry and Numerex eventually acquired the rights to Cellemetry data service. Numerex was eventually acquired by Sierra Wireless. The Cellemetry network was decommissioned when the cellular network transitioned from analog to digital cellular. Sierra Wireless still  uses the Cellemetry name, with a different technology. Products and technology. Cellemetry operated by sending messages over the signalling channel of the analog cellular network. It used a non-dialable telephone number as the device identifier and inserted a device generated data message in place of the phone serial number. The Cellemetry device would then send out a registration message to the home cellular system. The Cellemetry message would then transverse the SS7) signaling network along with normal traffic. When the message arrived at the home cellular system, a specialized server would act as the home location register (HLR) and  would take the message off of the cellular network and send it to the intended application or application service provider. For an outbound message, the Cellemetry server would receive a message from an application or service provider, and then send a 'ring' signal to the device as if it was ringing a normal cellular telephone. The inbound channel (device to the network) channel was much more robust than the outbound channel (network to device). Outbound messages were generally restricted to trigger messages that caused a large number of devices to perform an action, report status, or other similar action. For  example, an outbound messages might cause a set of vending machines to report their inventory level, change pricing, etc. Later versions of Cellemetry used other signaling messages such as USSD messages as the outbound messaging mechanism. Cellemetry had a number of advantages that led to its widespread adoption worldwide. As the analog cellular network was phased out, the analog Cellemetry devices were eventually discontinued or transitioned to the GSM network using an different technology. Legacy. Cellemetry was used for monitoring and control of: