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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Does IOT need Wireless?

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Hell yeah! Don’t get me wrong, you could use CAT 5 to connect most of this stuff, but the idea is to have the equipment everywhere and talking all the time, or at least when we need to. They need to be wireless controlled for it to work properly and to be autonomous. What fun would a drone be if you needed to have a copper line connected to it. The FCC laid out their plan to sunset copper lines. I did a lot of work on them but I won’t miss them because wireless is so cool! If you like copper so much, then put that smartphone down and use a landline, if you can find one.

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So, back to IOT, (Internet of Things), they rely on wireless connections for more than convenience. This is how the machine to machine, M2M, really take off. Whether it’s to control valves for a water company or to read your electric meter or to control natural gas flow, you need to have connectivity everywhere. We just need to define what that connectivity will be. It could be the standard carrier networks, LTE really. That is going to be key for so much of this. But most of these systems will need much less bandwidth.

Small data networks, that sounds crazy, right? NOT! You see the new networks are built for larger packets, so they are so inefficient, and too expensive, for a simple command to open or close a valve. LTE and Wi-Fi seem like overkill for these applications, although they are everywhere and the most convenient to work with, especially Wi-Fi, it’s in your house and would be a great way for your smart home full of IOT devices to talk to your smartphone and the real world.

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That is why the LTE format may not be the best for IOT, although it would be everywhere so by default it may be the technology of choice.

So how will wireless IOT work?

They need something for outdoor communication like LoRa, the low-bandwidth system. There is a LoRa alliance, https://www.lora-alliance.org/ if you want to read more about what they are up to. Another good article on LoRa is at http://postscapes.com/long-range-wireless-iot-protocol-lora/ where they go into detail about how it works. What they explain is that they are planning to use the spectrum that is left behind, with smaller bandwidth. They way the Semtech chip works is that they utilize spectrum that is sub giga-hertz, like 109MHz, 433MHz, 866MHz, and 915MHz where they have smaller amounts of spectrum. They need to stay away from the license free spectrum because it might interfere.

There is another format called SigFox for outdoor communication. Again, made for very small packets of data. I found information at http://www.link-labs.com/what-is-sigfox/ if you want more information but here is what I got out of it. They are using the 915MHz spectrum (ISM band license free), using 2 types of Phase Shift Keying, PSK. This supposedly will help get the data through the noise. I am not sure what the coverage would be for something like this but I would bet its very limited. This is a low power, wide area, (LPWA) network. A good article on SigFox is here, http://www.networkworld.com/article/3029253/internet-of-things/how-sigfox-plans-to-spread-its-low-power-iot-network-across-the-u-s.html if you want to learn how they plan to deploy. I am told that they already have several deployments in the USA, although I don’t know of any personally.

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Now, for the smart home, inside a building, or the smart office, you could use Wi-Fi, ZigBee, Z-Wave, Bluetooth, or something proprietary. We all know Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, right? It’s on your smartphones and in your homes. What we don’t know if ZigBee and Z-Wave.

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What is ZigBee for IOT? Well, according to the ZigBee alliance at http://www.zigbee.org/what-is-zigbee/ it is a wireless language that is used to connect devices, which is such a generic explanation that I could use for any wireless protocol. Come on!

So I went into Wikipedia at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ZigBee where they give a much better explanation. It is line of site, LOS, and very short-range. It works in the ISM band, just like Wi-Fi, (2.4GHz in most countries but also in 915MHz in USA and Australia, 784MHz in China, 868MHz in Europe). The data rate is very small, remember I said smaller packets are all you need? This is made for very small and efficient bursts of data. They also support mesh networking. Mesh means that the devices not only connect to the hub but they can repeat the signal to each other forming a mesh. This is a great way to extend coverage if you don’t need massive bandwidth.

What is Z-Wave for IOT? Z-Wave takes ZigBee and makes some enhancements. It specifically works in the 908.42GHz range in the USA and 868.42MHz band in Europe. For a great explanation go to http://www.smarthome.com/sc-what-is-zwave-home-automation but its made for very small networks in the home. Find more at http://www.z-wave.com/ but I haven’t heard much more on this except that they have a version that will work with the Apple iWatch.

As you can see there are many technologies to roll out the IOT format. I don’t really know if there is a clear winner but I think it depends on the need. The wireless backhaul will come down to a chip they add to the device based on need, coverage, and cost. I could see someone using all of the technologies in a device to get the coverage they need, like maybe utility meters. That would make sense because it would be a one-time up front cost. However, for the in home stuff, cheap is what they need. I seriously don’t see people putting in a new network in their homes if they don’t have to but many companies will say you need a “hub” which will be the special format switch that their devices will, in theory, talk to the Wi-Fi in their homes. I already see it but it looks like they want to sell more devices in the home. So maybe high-end stuff will need the hub. I could see the hub as another line of defense in security, where if someone hacks your Wi-Fi and/or cable router then they would need to get by another device to get to your thermostat or light switches.

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However, for an outdoor network I could see a dedicated network taking off for several reasons, cost reliability, and security. It costs money to pay the carrier a fee every month when you have a small low data device on it when you could put one of the cheaper hotspots in a space to connect your devices. Again, it really comes down to cost and reliability. Many will say they want security, but how secure can they really be?

A few more articles that may interest you:

http://pages.silabs.com/rs/silabs/images/Wireless-Connectivity-for-IoT.pdf?mkt_tok=3RkMMJWWfF9wsRoguKjNZKXonjHpfsX86%2B4rWKK3lMI%2F0ER3fOvrPUfGjI4DSsJkI%2BSLDwEYGJlv6SgFTLPBMbNsz7gOXBg%3D

http://postscapes.com/internet-of-things-protocols/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LPWAN

http://www.semtech.com/wireless-rf/internet-of-things/

https://www.micrium.com/iot/devices/

http://www.networkcomputing.com/internet-things/10-leaders-internet-things-infrastructure/1612927605

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/

So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

What will 5G networks look like?

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Here is what I see, the carriers are pretty stubborn to keep the LTE systems in place, they really don’t want to do another network build for another 10 years. Do expect them to improve LTE, which does stand for Long Term Evolution, for another 10 years or so. Luckily they found ways to improve the data rates through aggregation and the FCC is releasing more spectrum. This is great for the carriers who dominate spectrum ownership. Why wouldn’t they when it costs BILLIONs just to attain spectrum. I don’t see many small guys doing much with high bandwidth. Luckily, low-bandwidth is starting to grow, and it really will be part of 5 g.
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We have all been hearing about 5G but let’s look at what’s going on. It is not going to be a new transport format for the carriers. I would look at it as an add-on of smaller networks. This gives us a new look at the HetNet, a term we just don’t see enough but it really is the foundation for the networks as we see them today.

I believe that there will be more networks coming out. The FCC is releasing very high spectrum for 5G and Verizon is testing this. The question is how will people attain this spectrum, what will it cost, and so on. Not an issue right now but Verizon did set a standard which they would like to see approved. I give them a lot of credit for doing real testing and setting real standards for something that may happen before 2020, the original date we thought we would see it.

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This is where IOT and 5G should merge, they should be working together as a system. However, the IOT may not be the heavy bandwidth hitter we thought it would be. Instead it will be like it always was for Machine to Machine, M2M. Think of SCADA systems. SCADA, Supervisory Data Control and Data Acquisition. Utilities have been using them for years, only they called them SCADA. Now with the new low-bandwidth networks coming out they may be able to start using new services if they are secure enough. They really seem to like the 3.5GHz WiMAX systems because they owned them, but WiMAX didn’t work as well as they had hoped. So not they are looking for a new way to handle these low-bandwidth needs. This is technically IOT, but wouldn’t it be 5G?

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The 5G network will be faster and build out in smaller networks. The 5G network will still utilize much of the 4G network, but mostly as a means to connect. LTE will continue to get faster and grown. Most of what you hear about is the high bandwidth usage, like virtual reality and the cars that will drive for us. This is all part of it but the network needs to be built out properly and reliably. Latency has to be very low, so the cloud will matter. How? This is what NFV, network function virtualization, and SDN, Software-Defined Networking, come into play. The process needs to be taken to the edge, as close to the user as possible to lower the latency.

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So the 5G network will bring the network out to the end-user. With the higher spectrum it will be a very small network. The wireless will not be the only factor; the servers will need to be as close to the edge as possible

  • The 5G will have a fast wireless format.
  • It may also a server close to the edge. It will need to keep latency as low as possible.
  • The networking and routing will need to be very nimble and change very quickly.
  • Low latency will be the key.
  • Hi throughput will matter for some apps.
  • Low throughput will need low latency.

https://youtu.be/XFjmrzw-9EM

 

Here is some food for thought. I put these very simple drawings together hoping it may show you how the network could look.

5G Network

5G extended

So let me know what you think, email wade4wireless@gmail.com when you think of something to say!

Be smart, be safe, and pay attention!

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Do you know what to put in your SOW, the details needed to get paid for milestones or job completion? Would it hold up in claims court? Would you rather plan up front instead of fighting for it after the job is done?

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Wade4Wireless BlogCast

Steve Yapsuga Talks Wireless Integration

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I met Steve at the NEDAS show and got to know him afterwards. He is an easy guy to talk to about wireless, we all love wireless. The groups he works with are really something. They are all there to help inform you, the wireless worker, about the wireless industry. DAS, Small Cells, and all things wireless. Your knowledge is growing well beyond what travels through the airwaves, now you have to know networking as well as the hardware and antennas to get it out there. Steve goes into how he saw the evolution of the networks go from having coverage to having bandwidth connectivity.

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Steve is a founding board member of NEDAS, the Northeast DAS and Small Cells Association. They just had a conference that I went to, links here and here, that cover DAS and Small Cell issues and solutions. I am a big fan of NEDAS because you have a group of people that cover real world problems for DAS and Small Cell integrators. The system integrators are doing all that they can to install and implement these systems cost effectively and efficiently. That is no easy task when you have so many obstacles like permitting and aesthetics.

Steve is also a board member of the MD DC Wireless Association, MDDCWA. This wireless group gets together to keep the wireless leaders in the MD DC area stay informed. Pretty impressive.

He is also a founding member of Dense Networks, a group that is covering the consolidation of wireless, big data, and broadband. This group is helping the wireless industry understand the convergence of all the data formats into one seamless network. This is where you learn all that you can about where broadband is headed. Very impressive.

He is a smart guy, over 15 years of experience in distribution and emerging technologies, over 10 years at Tessco, and an Executive MBA degree from Loyola.

In this interview he tells us not only about the evolution of the wireless business but where it seems to be heading. Steve forming Dense Networks shows us how the convergence of Big Data & Analytics with Mobile Internet and the Internet of Things along with using the cloud will change the way we do business. Not only that but in wireless integration the system integrator will need to think differently about how to design and build the networks. The HetNet is going to be taken very seriously moving forward.

Wireless innovation is something that we often talk about but we don’t always worry about because most system integrators are worried about the immediate need for systems. They are trying to put together something that can be used right now. Technology is changing rapidly but we need to make the systems that are out there today work and be reliable. This is not easy task. While we want to focus on what’s next, we need to make today’s technology work the best we can for today’s customer. We also have to make plans to expand and improve for the future. It all becomes b=part of the formula. Steve is pretty good at explaining this.

Get the Wireless Deployment Handbook today!The Wireless Deployment Handbook eBook that covers professional carrier end to end deployment of LTE small cells, CRAN, and DAS showing you the proper way to plan for deployment then execute.

This is a long interview, almost 50 minutes, so make some time to learn what makes the industry move forward with this innovator.

Tower Safety for all your safety training!I would like to thank Steve for taking the time on a Saturday morning to talk to me. Once again, it shows his commitment to the wireless industry when this is the only opening for an interview. Most wireless innovators know it takes a deep commitment to not only be innovative, but to inspire the rest of us to learn and become better at this craft. Thank you Steve.