Great article about WiFi usage for IoT

[username0475]

https://www.cepro.com/article/wi-fi_as_home_automation_standard_ces_2019

 

[thiggins]

It'll be all IoT fun and games until people have to start replacing batteries every 3 months. They don't even like replacing smoke detector batteries once a year...

 

[sfx2000]

It'll be all IoT fun and games until people have to start replacing batteries every 3 months. They don't even like replacing smoke detector batteries once a year...

WiFi might be sexy at CES, but BTLE is where there is a lot of independent development happening on the silicon layer for IOT.

This is driven in part by SmartPhone's where BT/BTLE is part of the chipset...

 

[thiggins]

WiFi might be sexy at CES, but BTLE is where there is a lot of independent development happening on the silicon layer for IOT.

This is driven in part by SmartPhone's where BT/BTLE is part of the chipset...

And a BTLE radio is part of mesh systems for easier onboarding.

 

[sfx2000]

BTLE radio is part of mesh systems for easier onboarding.

Yep... but we don't hear so much about that...

 

[System Error Message]

It'll be all IoT fun and games until people have to start replacing batteries every 3 months. They don't even like replacing smoke detector batteries once a year...

POE FTW!
Or even powerline.

 

[umarmung]

Not sure why this article makes it sound like the technologies are all mutually exclusive, or that there is any direct need for client devices to cram all this tech and more.

The IoT hub technologies are local, already provide multiple benefits including control, scaling, lower power and they are relatively flexible. They too can and almost always do connect to the Internet. They have also been highly successful already, e.g. the Philips Hue system and compatible Zigbee lighting devices, which are often also compatible with Alexa, Siri and the like.

It sounds more like the high end scene is now leveraging their expertise and market presence by introducing additional product lines that support WiFi directly and some may be reaching out to be compatible with the big IoT cloud providers wherever an Internet connection is available. Many (most?) of the WiFi products are likely to be just introductory products to their broader product offerings.

Finally, there's no particular reason why IoT hubs could not also support WiFi or vice versa based on existing IoT standards. Maybe we'll start seeing high-powered WiFi routers with IoT technologies, e.g. Zigbee controller support, thus consolidating hubs wherever possible ...

 

[sfx2000]

While BTLE has been getting a huge amount of love from the product development folks at the OEM's, there is the 802.11ah spec, which was 802.11 intended for IoT applications..

https://www.wi-fi.org/discover-wi-fi/wi-fi-halow

The major silicon players (QCA, Broadcom, Marvell, MediaTek, Realtek) have put most of their WiFi resources into 11ac Wave2 and more recently 11ax, so any 11ah development resources would be a challenge, similar to what we saw with 11ad (keep in mind that QCA acquired a third party rather that develop in house for first gen chips on 11ad).

There has been some development in the 11ah space - Morse Micro and Palma Ceia are a couple of companies working on silicon... but chips alone do not create an ecosystem.

11ah is interesting, but I'm wondering if the IOT bus has already moved on...

BTLE has economy of scale, and is cutting a wide swath in that space with all the major WiFi players on board, along with specialist companies like Espressif and Nordic Semi...

SBC's like Pi3/PiZero W have BTLE already, and useful for hobbyists to tinker with, and as @thiggins mentioned above, many of the more recent Mesh systems have BTLE, along with many of the current smartphones.