Can Halow promote WiFi to become the first choice for smart home connection?

Can Halow promote WiFi to become the first choice for smart home connection?

In January 4, 2015, the Wi-Fi Alliance released a new low-power WiFi technology HaLow, which claims to be perfect for smart homes. Halow uses a 900 MHz frequency band. Compared with the previous 2.4G and 5GWiFi, Halow features lower power consumption, stronger wall-crossing capabilities, and longer coverage distance. This technology greatly expands the application scenarios of WiFi, covering applications with high power consumption requirements from portable wearable products to smart home, IOV, smart city, and industrial facilities. Does this mean that the Strategy in WiFi Smart Home layout is to use Halow to transmit control signals and other small data information, while the big data for transmitting audio and video is 5G WiFi.

Whether Halow can help WiFi become the first choice for smart home connection, from two aspects.

First, technically, whether it can solve the pain points of home wireless connection:

1. Communication between devices of different communication systems

In the Chinese market, Zigbee, WiFi, and 433M are all competing for the "Empty power" of Smart Home control. Of course, these three wireless technologies are currently the most widely mentioned and controversial, we will not mention the standards defined by various companies in the 2.4G or 433M frequency band. The numerous connection standards not only increase the convenience of Smart Home control, but also increase the difficulty for interconnection between devices and gateways. To enable the interconnection of various devices in the home, Qualcomm has released its Allseen platform and HiLink connection protocol. These companies are working with partners to build a Smart Home ecosystem. Which of the following technologies or platforms can be used to win a ticket on the Smart Home battlefield.

 

2. fast transmission of big data streams and stable transmission of high-frequency trace data

The reason why WiFi can play a unique role in the wireless transmission of audio and video in the consumer field is that its bandwidth meets the needs of big data transmission, and its layout has been completed before the popularization of audio and video applications. The early development of WiFi technology was mainly aimed at mobile office applications for laptops. It was not expected that the explosion of consumer products such as smartphones and tablets would bring a huge boost to it. Fast transmission of big data is no problem for WiFi, which has been verified in the consumer market. In small data transmission, it is reported that Halow is not suitable for fast data transmission. For example, it is not suitable for Browsing webpages, but it is more suitable for high-frequency micro-data transmission. What is the actual situation? Okay, to be verified.

3. device power consumption and endurance Problems

Because the addition of communication functions will bring additional energy consumption to household appliances and other devices, for power-powered devices, especially foreign household appliances, it is important to minimize power consumption to meet national energy consumption standards. At the same time, the power consumption requirements for built-in battery powered devices are more demanding. Halow makes up for the short board of the existing WiFi technology with high power consumption and short distance (which is also the main reason for its restriction in home control), making WiFi a wireless standard that can also transmit Low Power micro data. However, the low power consumption performance of Zigbee, BLE, Enocean and other communication protocols is also significant. To what extent can Halow's low power consumption be achieved, there is no specific data yet.

Secondly, from the point of time, can devices integrated with HaLow become popular before the outbreak of smart home?

If WiFi devices in different frequencies need to communicate with each other, the routing products in the network center must be integrated with WiFi modules compatible with 2.4G, 5G, and M. From the development of 5G WiFi, it takes about two or three years to extend the Protocol to product popularity. Therefore, the popularization time of products compatible with the three frequencies should be similar or less than the above time. First, we will not consider the increasing costs and technical difficulties. From the perspective of time, if the launch of such products is just before the outbreak of Smart Home, the success of the WiFi ecosystem may be more assured. However, if the smart home market has exceeded in this period, in addition, a platform is compatible with all mainstream wireless methods (such as Zigbee, BLE, and WiFi) through routers/gateways and other products on the upper layer. If the problem arises, Halow can be a "chicken fault.

In fact, it does not matter which wireless protocol or transmission method is used in the smart home. Good experience and high security and stability are the key to impressing users. Although the development of smart home has been around for more than 20 years, this concept does not exist for many domestic consumers. to popularize Smart Home, the public must accept this concept, and can be used, used, and used. This is the main thing. If you want to have a good experience and use a good value, you can have a good experience. If you want to have a good experience, the "conversation" (Communication) between people and things, things and things must be convenient and smooth. Who can do this well, who will have a place.