InPlay Hu Hao: Ultra-low power wireless technology has great potential in the trillion-dollar IoT market

In recent years, with the popularization of the Internet of Things, the number of connections and the amount of data generated by the Internet of Things will explode, which puts higher requirements on the connection and computing capabilities of the Internet of Things terminals. Faced with the massive demand for Internet of Things terminals, communication SoC (System on Chip) can effectively improve and optimize the Internet of Things terminals in terms of performance, cost, power consumption, reliability, life cycle, and scenario adaptation. Therefore, communication SoC will be the inevitable choice for Internet of Things terminals.

From the application perspective, low cost, low power consumption, and low latency are the requirements for communication technology in most industries. Compared with other communication chip technologies, Bluetooth technology has been continuously upgraded and updated, and has made breakthroughs in important technical indicators such as wireless transmission rate, transmission distance, and power consumption, and has become the optimal solution for short-distance communication.

On May 19, Hu Hao, Marketing Director of Shanghai Chengqun Microelectronics Co., Ltd., was a guest speaker at the 45th "Jiwei Open Class" of Jiwei.com, and delivered a wonderful speech entitled "Ultra-low power consumption, wireless technology has great potential in the trillion-dollar IoT market." Hu Hao pointed out that Bluetooth low energy (BLE) is currently the best solution for short-distance communication, and ultra-low power wireless technology has great potential in the trillion-dollar IoT market.

The Internet of Things needs to transfer the collected data from the sensor layer to the core network layer, and finally realize intelligent solutions at the application layer. At present, the core network layer still uses the traditional method, and the data backhaul adopts the core network architecture of the traditional fixed network + cellular mobile network. However, the communication technology of the sensor layer is flourishing, and there have been great breakthroughs in the two major camps of short-range access and low-power wide area network (LPWAN). The former mainly includes Bluetooth low energy (BLE), Zigbee, Wifi, Thread and Zwave; the latter includes NB-IoT and LTE-M, which are dominated by the world's leading operators.

Wireless networks include wide area networks and local area networks. Wireless networks include protocols and standards such as occupied frequency bands, power consumption, latency, and transmission distance. Depending on these differences, related chips and technologies will be generated.

Low cost, low power consumption, and low latency are the requirements for communication technology in most industries. Among them, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is currently the optimal solution for short-distance communication.

At present, the shipment volume of BLE chips alone has reached more than 1 billion per year, which is the sum of the shipment volume of other short-distance communication chips. Moreover, the compound growth rate of BLE chips in 2019-2023 will remain above 23%, reaching more than 1.63 billion. In the next few years, the net increase of Bluetooth devices will be 2-4 units per year, and the corresponding chip market size will be at least tens of billions. In contrast, the ZigBee Alliance has not yet formed a scale market since its establishment in 2002. By August 2018, the cumulative shipment volume reached 500 million.

From the comparison between Bluetooth and ZigBee, we can see that the development of Bluetooth is more in line with the market demand of the Internet of Things and is developing rapidly.

NanoBeacon: Pursuing extreme power consumption and simple use

As Bluetooth developed rapidly, InPlay seized the market demand and quickly launched differentiated products that met the market demand.

It is understood that the team is composed of a group of veterans in the semiconductor industry and has very rich practical and successful experience in designing innovative mixed-signal/RF wireless communication SoCs.

Orange Group Microelectronics' SoCs bring value to customers through advanced functions, low power consumption and reliability, driving new developments in the fields of industrial Internet of Things, smart home, gaming accessories and medical health.

At present, the four members of the InPlay BLE family are IN612L, IN610L, IN610 and IN100. As a representative of them, the NanoBeacon wireless communication technology of the IN100 Bluetooth chip is the world's first single-chip solution for programming-free ultra-low-power Bluetooth 5 wireless sensors, which fully reflects the product features of InPlay BLE such as low voltage, low power consumption, high number of nodes, and advanced performance (using ARM M4F as CPU).

"Ultra-low power consumption is a major feature that has been integrated into Orange Group's genes." Hu Hao emphasized that one of the main features of products developed by Orange Group is low power consumption.

Specifically, the performance of NanoBeacon is mainly reflected in the following aspects: support for Bluetooth protocol, information can be received by mobile phones or other Bluetooth devices; low power consumption, average current uA level, standby current nA level, battery power supply measured in years; ultra-wide operating voltage, support 1.1-3.6v operating voltage, and 1.5v/3.0v different battery power supply; long distance (adjustable), can adapt to different distance requirements in different scenarios.

Based on the results of the comparative test, Hu Hao believes that "NanoBeacon, which pursues extreme power consumption and simple use, has reached the current industry-leading level. NanoBeacon may be the Beacon with the lowest power consumption on the market."

It is worth mentioning that NanoBeacon's "simple" concept is also reflected in the programming-free Bluetooth chip. NanoBeacon technology eliminates the trouble of embedded software programming. It will become a bridge between wireless embedded design and advanced software system APIs, allowing any software developer to easily access Bluetooth beacon technology and build various wireless IoT applications around it.

In addition, in terms of security, NanoBeacon has enhanced Beacon security options: the identifier information is unique and related to its unique ID; the payload will be encrypted and only those with the key can decrypt the message; the in-air advertising package is dynamically changed periodically to avoid beacon cloning or replay attacks; once the private key stored in the beacon is leaked for any reason, the corresponding beacon can be removed and exited from the authentication server.

NanoBeacon's outstanding product features also pave the way for its wide application. "The data collected by the sensor needs to be transmitted through wired or wireless means. All sensors are partners of NanoBeacon." Hu Hao said that this is the stage for NanoBeacon to show its prowess - the field of smart wireless sensors.

In addition to smart wireless sensors, there is also great potential in the logistics and asset management market. In the modern logistics system, the demand for communication chips is ubiquitous, for example: using Bluetooth chip technology to identify and obtain item location information; using wireless sensor networks to establish smart logistics gateways to monitor item flow information; establishing a big data analysis system; using sensor networks to monitor theft or natural disasters to protect asset safety.

As costs decrease and performance improve in the logistics and asset management markets, new applications for Bluetooth technology are emerging, namely the combination of asset management and AoA Bluetooth positioning technology.

In addition, NanoBeacon can also be used to send ID, alarm, connect analog sensors, digital sensors, timer switch sensors and MCU modems, etc.

From the perspective of industry development, the fragmentation of the Internet of Things and the understanding of more and more industries, it can be seen that BLE chips will develop towards lower power consumption, lower cost, longer distance, lower latency, and more links.