How to adapt to and embrace the IOT wave in the Wi-Fi Industry

How to adapt to and embrace the IOT wave in the Wi-Fi Industry

Bkjia.com quick translation] the Wi-Fi industry has long been committed to making Wi-Fi technology the preferred wireless transmission option in the IOT field. Despite the lack of two key features in the face of this emerging market, there are still many very solid reasons for wireless networks to become a priority. First of all, Wi-Fi is the most IP-friendly solution among all wireless technologies, and supports high-frequency transmission and the entire chip industry to promote the development trend of mass production and low cost. If the new Wi-Fi solution for Iot can continue to maintain the current MAC and PHY design and adopt the device access management interface that people are familiar, therefore, it is absolutely attractive to IOT developers.

 

To some extent, we can define Iot as a device that lacks central processing capabilities, usually uses battery power, and is connected over a wide network to implement "Cloud" data reporting and control command receiving. However, in the IOT field, Wi-Fi currently cannot meet two requirements: wide coverage and extremely low energy consumption. Compared with Iot wireless transmission technology solutions such as Zigbee, Z-wave, and Bluetooth Low Power (BLE), Wi-Fi sensors can only run for several months rather than years when using battery drives; at present, efforts to manufacture extremely low-power Chips Based on 802.11b/a/n/ac specifications have hardly achieved any commercial success. In addition, A single Wi-Fi access point cannot provide reliable signal coverage in the modern home environment or even in commercial buildings-this is mainly caused by multilayer structures, high-thickness walls, basement environments, and other Wi-Fi- the impact of Fi signal broadcast obstacles. If buyers cannot achieve stable Wi-Fi coverage in their own buildings or home environments, we certainly cannot claim it as a complete Iot solution.

However, there are already four initiatives to make up for these shortcomings. All progress has been implemented in a standard replacement manner, and some of them have existed for several years. However, it is worth noting that the Wi-Fi industry has made a series of successes in the process of developing technical agreements based on standards and releasing actual products on this basis for many years.

The first Wi-Fi initiative is "extended" 802.11ah. It can significantly improve the coverage of low frequency 900 MHz band and narrow frequency 1 MHz RF channel. Changes in narrow channels and transmission protocols reduce the power consumption requirements of Wi-Fi chips. For example, we have the ability to double the coverage of 802.11n (2.4 GHz): 150 kbps (single data stream) transmission valid range is more than 40 meters, dual-stream chips with high complexity can reach a coverage radius of more than 80 meters under dual-Mbps conditions. In addition, although the 900 MHz band is only available in the United States without permission, it is not widely supported across the world, but its better transmission characteristics (over 2.4 GHz or 5 GHz band) it is very important to increase coverage.

These solutions seem very attractive, but in addition to the frequency band, the time span is another big problem to be solved. Although 802.11ah has become an IEEE standard, however, it still takes some time for the Wi-Fi Association to complete the development and testing of industry standards. The entire process needs to be carefully considered and filled with frustrating twists and turns, however, we have not yet found a better way to formulate regulations. However, when the technical standards are finalized, the market demand may have changed. However, most mainstream Iot application solutions in the Wi-Fi industry currently support Zigbee (which uses multi-hop mechanisms to compensate for the defects of the Short jump mechanism) and BLE with low power consumption to an astonishing level.

At the same time, another initiative named "Connected Home" proposed a suitable solution to make up for the inability to publish 802.11ah within a short period of time and backward compatibility. In this solution, you will install an intermediate proxy server in the home environment and ensure it is connected to the current Wi-Fi access point, the server is responsible for responding to all the end-point devices connected to it-and allowing such devices to sleep after being idle for a long time. This method establishes a short-path low-power system. Connected Home does not really expand its coverage, but it does give Home Wi-Fi Internet of Things a feasible direction, while ensuring that existing access points do not have to be replaced.

Another solution recently submitted to IEEE proposes to expand the wireless network connection to ensure that it can provide functions similar to Zigbee indoors and increase the signal coverage radius. Although only for the 2.4 GHz band, its collaboration with existing Wi-Fi is better than 802.11ah. The increase in coverage radius originates from narrow RF channels and lower rates-rather than lower frequencies. It should be able to act exactly as a low-speed attaching mechanism beyond the existing chip design, which can help chip and module design vendors to easily complete Iot support tasks, the specific idea is the same as adding a new 2.4 GHz High-Speed Wi-Fi chip to an access point device.

At the same time, we should not forget the ultra-high frequency band, and its transmission capability is even stronger than the 900 MHz scheme. It will establish a "blank space" in the spectrum sharing mechanism ", here, the Wi-Fi access point is reconfigured to use a 450 to 700 MHz TV Signal Band to discover and occupy unused frequencies in the current environment. Iot is not the main benefit of this technology, but it is very suitable for wide area network sensors and network control devices.

Sometimes we forget that the great success of Wi-Fi is inseparable from a single type of Application Scenario-Internet connection for mobile phones, tablets, and even PC devices. This scenario provides a wealth of development space for technologies that are rarely used, such as Wi-Fi. In contrast, Iot also has the opportunity to become one of the new development opportunities for short moment and medium moment wireless technologies, the entire industry has recently begun to build enough technical achievements for Zigbee and BLE as an alternative.

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