New Wi-Fi standard HaLow challenges ZigBee and Z-Wave

New Wi-Fi standard HaLow challenges ZigBee and Z-Wave

Applicable to low-power transmission standards of Iot devices, including Bluetooth, ZigBee, Z-Wave, and Thread. Due to the rapid growth of the low-power wireless network communication market, common Wi-Fi standards for home and public hotspots are also released to compete for market cakes.

According to the rethinkresearch website, the Wi-Fi Alliance has recently released a new generation of the Wi-Fi standard HaLow. Its Low-Power feature is designed for IoT, it is expected that the product verification phase will not be completed until 2018. However, Wi-Fi-related products often appear on the market before the standard verification procedures, and Interoperability is also relatively stable. It is expected that HaLow-related products will also be available before 2018.

At present, the Wi-Fi router modules on the market are about every 1 ~ It takes about 9 years to complete replacement of old equipment after being upgraded once by a carrier in two years. However, when the Wi-Fi standard HaLow is officially launched, it is expected that millions of devices will be automatically upgraded to support HaLow. This feature will be the driving force for Wi-Fi to enter the IoT market.

HaLow will not only be used in smart home devices, but also in the IOT or other machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, including intelligent vehicles, remote medical care monitoring, smart cities, and retail, industrial, and agricultural applications.

Compared with other low-power protocols, HaLow has many advantages, such as network security, IP connection, and network stability (robustness ). HaLow can establish solid connections under weak signals without Repeater or multiple access points (APS ). In addition, Wi-Fi has been established in the consumer market for a long time. This advantage is beyond the reach of other IoT technology standards.

At present, the outside world is still not sure how high the bandwidth of HaLow will be, but the Wi-Fi Alliance estimates that it will be at least 150 Kbps and 18 Mbps at the best condition, a z-Wave with a bandwidth of about kbps and a bandwidth of up to MHz ~ GHz band, with a bandwidth of about 20 ~ Kbps of ZigBee.

Besides the disadvantage of low bandwidth, ZigBee and Z-Wave have relatively low elasticity at the time of configuration, which is also a major defect. Like ZigBee, it cannot perform frequency hop. Therefore, you must pay special attention when deploying the network to prevent interference. This also makes ZigBee less suitable for Iot or M2M applications with unstable RF environments. HaLow supports intensive networks that connect hundreds of devices to one access point. It is suitable for outdoor Iot deployment or home applications.

Bluetooth has been designed for high-speed transmission and short-range communication, so its performance can reach 24 Mbps, not far from HaLow. However, the biggest disadvantage of standard Bluetooth is the communication distance, and its signal coverage usually does not exceed 10 meters. Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), designed for Iot needs, lowers power and extends signal transmission distance to meet Iot needs. However, in fact, the transmission distance of low-power Bluetooth is still difficult to exceed 60 meters, so it is likely to be surpassed by Wi-Fi HaLow.

At last, HaLow has a long-established Wi-Fi camp's advantage in connecting IP addresses and networks. ZigBee and Thread, in order to improve competitiveness, work together to launch a verification plan, combined with product IP network support, build the Common Application software of ZigBee and the Group IP network of Thread into a product ecosystem that can operate on each other.

The arrival of HaLow is expected to lead to the convergence of more agreements to survive in the market. In addition, the data network industry is also keen on HaLow tiger vision because the Wi-Fi camp has fallen below 1 GHz to compete with the band, and as LTE-Unlicensed enters the 5 GHz band used by Wi-Fi, in addition, LTE will soon provide Iot low-power edition products, and the competition between the two will increase in the future.