Wi-Fi HaLow: Making Smart Homes Even Smarter
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By: Vahid Manian, COO, Morse Micro
With smart homes, consumers have embraced the concept of automating home functions with the convenience of an internet connection, especially in today's pandemic situation. Gone are the days of manually setting a thermostat or turning a light on and off with a mechanical timer. Now, these functions can be performed anytime, anywhere through smartphone apps or even artificial intelligence (AI) in the cloud.
In fact, according to ABI Research, "despite the global impact of the pandemic, consumer spending on smart homes increased in 2020. By 2026, the smart home market will reach $317 billion, up 5% from pre-pandemic forecasts."
In addition, a study by Parks Associates, an authoritative US research organization, found that "American households with broadband have an average of 12 connected devices, which will increase to 20 by 2025."
As smart home consumption and the number of connected devices in the home grow over the next five years, people will naturally be concerned about possible service interruptions and wireless connectivity issues between multiple devices.
Broadband connectivity services provide ample bandwidth and low latency to homes, but the wireless connection between the modem and devices has proven to be unreliable.
Disadvantages of Traditional Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi seems to be the final link that ties everything together. Manufacturers are scrambling to meet demand for connected home appliances, security systems, door locks, switches, lights, blinds, garage door openers, and virtual assistant speakers. By providing new conveniences and utility to home users while collecting analytics and expanding diagnostic capabilities, manufacturers are finding ways to offset the additional manufacturing and maintenance costs of connected devices. Consumers believe that device manufacturers have found a secure, reliable architecture to deploy and maintain their services.
However, in the different usage scenarios of these connected products, there are several common problems that plague everyone: high power consumption of traditional Wi-Fi connections, dead spots and poor coverage due to different construction techniques and building materials, crowded 2.4GHz and 5GHz operating frequencies, complex deployment/setup procedures, and security vulnerabilities that hackers can exploit.
Consumer expectations for simple, reliable, and secure connectivity have led manufacturers to cobble together a patchwork of proprietary wireless technologies that are expensive to install and maintain securely.
With no better long-term solution, manufacturers have resorted to power-hungry mobile data technologies that incur ongoing monthly fees and unpredictable data usage charges. Hackers can also exploit security holes in weakly protected authentication protocols that lack the ability to be updated OTA (over-the-air) to address new threats.
Wi-Fi HaLow: Designed for the smart home of the future
IEEE 802.11ah Wi-Fi HaLow is designed for the specific needs of IoT devices: longer range, lower power consumption, better penetration, ample bandwidth, improved network capacity, easy deployment and installation, lifecycle security, OTA (over-the-air) updates, and low bill of materials.
Figure: Wi-Fi HaLow's long range, excellent signal penetration, and low power consumption complement smart home networks
In particular, Wi-Fi HaLow offers 10 times the range, 100 times the area, and 1,000 times the capacity of traditional Wi-Fi, and HaLow access points are able to connect to more than 8,000 devices, making the technology ideal for the number of connected devices expected in smart homes.
Longer distance
Wi-Fi HaLow uses narrower channels below 1GHz, which can transmit ten times farther than traditional Wi-Fi, without the need for network extenders. This allows battery-powered cameras to be placed where they are more needed, such as outside the door or garage. Lighting systems and speakers can be controlled from a single access point (AP), whether the lights are indoors or in the garden. Providing customers with solutions up to 100 meters away without the need for additional extenders or data traffic is a huge competitive advantage.
Lower power consumption
Wi-Fi HaLow requires less power than traditional Wi-Fi to reach greater distances while providing adequate two-way data transmission. IEEE 802.11ah specifies various new sleep modes that allow devices to remain in extremely low-power states for extended periods of time, thereby conserving battery energy.
Figure: Unlike laptops or mobile phones, IoT devices have smaller batteries and are expected to last for years rather than days
Signal penetration and bandwidth
The ability of Wi-Fi-HaLow signals to penetrate buildings will reduce customer complaints and product returns, which are issues faced by ordinary Wi-Fi products. The lower frequencies used by Wi-Fi HaLow can penetrate various building materials better than Wi-Fi using 2.4GHz and 5GHz, while using less power.
Wi-Fi HaLow uses OFDM modulation to correct for reflections and multipath environments. Equipment manufacturers can ensure a stable connection between HaLow and AP (access point), whether their products are placed indoors or outdoors, in basements or attics. This eliminates the complexity and cost of providing proprietary hubs or bridge devices to consumers around the world.
Similar to traditional Wi-Fi, Wi-Fi HaLow can also automatically adjust bandwidth based on signal integrity and distance from the AP.
These predefined modulation and coding scheme (MCS) levels support bandwidths from 150Kbps to 40Mbps for single-stream, single-antenna (1x1) products, using channel widths varying between 1, 2, 4, and 8MHz, and supporting up to 80Mbps using optional 16MHz wide channels. The most appropriate MCS rate is automatically selected to ensure fast data transmission.
This is important because faster data transfers use less battery power and the less time a device has to use the airwaves, making way for other devices.
Stay connected securely
Security takes top priority as part of the IEEE 802.11 enterprise-level security standard. Wi-Fi HaLow uses the latest WPA3 security protocol, as well as encrypted information and unique ID technology for secure boot. High data rates allow for secure wireless firmware upgrades, and support for UDP and TCP/IP protocols. Native IP support means no bridge or gateway is required.
Figure: Wi-Fi HaLow benefits from the most advanced enterprise-level WPA3 security protocol standard
Ability to handle multiple connected devices
A single Wi-Fi HaLow AP can cover up to 8,191 devices. That should be enough for every light bulb, door lock, curtain, speaker, display, thermostat, hot water boiler, refrigerator, smoke detector, switch, solar panel, camera, car charger, and every future smart home device imaginable.
A typical home Wi-Fi router can only support a few dozen devices. If Wi-Fi HaLow is deployed to each home by a broadband service provider, Wi-Fi HaLow APs can become a platform to generate additional revenue by providing subscriptions for "security and public facility management equipment and services" to one or more households in a community.
HaLow is a star network topology, so it doesn't suffer from the capacity issues of mesh networks, where the radio spectrum becomes congested by sending the same information repeatedly.
Traditional Wi-Fi's network congestion, range limitations, and high power consumption, as well as the limited number of devices that can connect to a single wireless access point, are no longer suitable for the connected world of smart devices. This limitation hinders new IoT-centric business models that are emerging in smart homes and other industries, which require greater capacity, wider coverage, and longer uptime while minimizing deployment costs and time, all of which are highly desirable features of Wi-Fi HaLow.
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