Open-source compression codecs enable satellite IoT to operate efficiently at one-tenth the cost
ALEC (Adaptive Lazy Evolution Compression) is an innovative compression codec designed specifically for IoT sensor data, now available in both open-source and commercial licenses. This Swiss technology can reduce data transmission volume by up to 90%, directly reducing bandwidth costs for connected devices worldwide and extending battery life.
The Problem: Billions of Sensors, Terabytes of Data
The Internet of Things (IoT) is experiencing explosive growth. By 2030, more than 30 billion connected devices will be continuously transmitting data. For companies, keeping up with the challenges of iot and sensor clusters—whether in agriculture, manufacturing, logistics, or energy—transmission costs are becoming a major obstacle to innovation.
ALEC founder David Martin explains:
“Traditional compression solutions (such as gzip) are designed for files, not for IoT streams. When you use gzip to compress a 24-byte message, it actually bloats. ALEC was built from the ground up for message-by-message compression.”
Solution: Context-Evolution-Based Adaptive Compression
ALEC introduces three key innovations:
- Delayed Compression: The encoder and decoder send their encoding decisions first, allowing the receiver to prepare before the data arrives. This type of strategy fits especially well for iot systems operating in remote locations.
- Context Evolution: The encoder and decoder share a dictionary that continuously improves over time, learning patterns specific to each sensor.
- Priming System: Each message is categorized according to priority from P1 (urgent) to P5 (routine), ensuring that security alerts are not delayed by routine data.
Real-world Application Cases
- Agriculture: Soil sensor compression up to 83%, extending battery life from 6 months to over 3 years.
- Manufacturing: Vibration monitoring compression up to 97%, allowing deployment of 2000 sensors without network upgrades.
- Satellite IoT: Transmission cost per message reduced from $0.10 to $0.01, making global asset tracking economically feasible and revolutionizing the ways iot devices can be used in off-grid locations.
Key Focus: Satellite IoT, a rapidly growing market
ALEC technology is particularly well-suited for the satellite IoT market, where the cost per transmitted byte is 100 to 1000 times that of cellular networks. With the emergence of new low Earth orbit (LEO) constellations such as Astrocast, Swarm (SpaceX), and Kinéis, millions of sensors will soon be able to communicate anywhere on Earth, provided transmission costs can be controlled. Harnessing iot for satellite communication helps address this challenge.
“Without efficient compression technology, satellite IoT remains a niche market limited to critical applications,” said David Martin. “ALEC technology reduces the cost of global asset tracking by 10 times, thus popularizing satellite IoT applications.” In summary, adopting iot hardware and compression solutions now means organizations are prepared for the next wave of connected innovation.