WSN Buzz
Fresh updates on wireless networks standards and new technologies
Archive for April, 2009
April 30, 2009 at 6:07 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
A group of utility industry leaders representing utilities and manufacturers formed the U-SNAP Alliance to create a low cost connector standard to enable consumer products to communicate with any vendor’s smart meter.
“This is the equivalent of USB for consumer products,” said Barry Haaser of the U-SNAP Alliance. “This important industry standard allows utilities to continue smart meter deployments, while enabling a new generation of products to connect to smart meters by simply inserting a U-SNAP card into the product.”
“The U-SNAP standard will free manufacturers from having to create derivatives of standard products in order to support the various communication protocols used in utility smart meter deployments,” said Jon Rappaport of Sensus Metering Systems. “The standard will allow utilities to select the smart meter that best fits its metering requirements and also have confidence that that same meter, with a code download, can meet its future needs. Consumers will be able to purchase a new generation of energy aware products that can react automatically to changes in electricity prices and availability, allowing them to use energy more efficiently.”
The U-SNAP Alliance is accepting members interested in developing or supporting the U-SNAP standard.
Website here.
April 29, 2009 at 6:47 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
The recently ratified Bluetooth 3.0 specification not only ups the wireless interface’s speed to 25 Mbits per second. The spec also defines a new function called Unicast Connectionless Data (UCD), putting it in direct competition with RF4CE, the wireless remote control specification that merged last month with the Zigbee Alliance efforts to replace infrared remote controls.
While the rival interfaces were originally designed for different applications, TV makers will have to choose between them.
Bluetooth was considered too power hungry and its latency too high for remote controls, burning through a set of batteries in three months and delaying a second or more before registering a button push. However, the new UCD functionality in the 3.0 spec extends battery life to about four years and lowers Bluetooth’s latency to milliseconds.
UCD “allows you to keep Bluetooth in sleep mode most of the time, to conserve battery life. Then when a key is pressed on the remote, rather than set up a formal Bluetooth connection with all the handshaking associated with establishing a connection, it just sends the data about the key over to the host and goes back to sleep–which is why its called connectionless,” said Steve McIntyre, senior product line manager for wireless personal area networking products at Broadcom.
Using Bluetooth 3.0 also enables additional capabilities for high-end TVs not possible with RF4CE, proponents claims, such as hi-fi audio transmissions, network access to download TV schedules for display on the remote, push-picture for automatically uploading digital camera pictures to a TV and integration with Wi-Fi for transmitting high-bandwidth audio and video using a peer-to-peer connection controlled by Bluetooth commands.
More here.
April 27, 2009 at 7:32 pm · Filed under 6LowPAN, ZigBee
The ZigBee Alliance, a global ecosystem of companies creating standardized wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications, today announced it will incorporate global IT standards from the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) into its specification portfolio of low-power wireless networking standards. This move will expand the growing portfolio of successful ZigBee specifications and should further advance the rapid growth of Smart Grid applications that have widely adopted the proven ZigBee Smart Energy public application profile.
By incorporating IETF standards, ZigBee Smart Energy products will enhance their application capabilities with native IP support, allowing seamless integration of Internet connectivity into each product. ZigBee members will also benefit from the knowledge and experience contained in IETF standards for large scale network addressability, security and IT integration, further building on existing expertise from developing the world’s leading technologies in the area of reliable, low-cost wireless sensor and control networks.
Through cooperative efforts with IETF, ZigBee members will create additional innovative solutions for wireless sensor and control networks as part of the new specification. Internet connectivity is currently provided by existing ZigBee specifications; however, the addition of native IP support will offer tighter integration from wireless devices all the way to large scale utility IT networks. The resulting specification will further broaden ZigBee’s suite of low-power wireless network solutions to meet the diversified needs of companies in the home, automation, healthcare, commercial building automation, telecommunications and consumer markets.
“This activity creates a win-win for everyone by combining the strengths of the ZigBee Smart Energy standard with the ubiquity of Internet standards and confirms that smart meter deployments currently underway will have a seamless path for continuous upgrades including Internet connectivity,” said Paul De Martini, vice president at Southern California Edison. “ZigBee Smart Energy solutions are playing a key role in our Smart Grid enabled programs that will provide our customers with choice and promote long term sustainability.” An Edison International company, Southern California Edison is the largest electric utility in the state of California, serving a population of more than 13 million via 4.8 million customer accounts.
Press release available here.
April 27, 2009 at 7:18 pm · Filed under rf4ce
Daintree Networks, Inc. announced today it has shipped the first commercially available analysis solution for the new ZigBee RF4CE network protocol. Daintree’s Sensor Network Analyzer (SNA) has been enhanced to include full decode and security support for ZigBee RF4CE. The SNA family of products comprise the industry’s most comprehensive solution for both the development and deployment of IEEE 802.15.4′ and ZigBee’ systems.
ZigBee RF4CE (Radio Frequency for Consumer Electronics) is the result of a recent agreement between the ZigBee Alliance and the RF4CE Consortium and has been designed to be deployed in a wide range of remotely-controlled audio/visual consumer electronics products, such as TVs and set-top boxes. Some of the benefits of ZigBee RF4CE include richer communication and increased reliability, enhanced features and flexibility, interoperability, and no line-of-sight barrier.
We’ve been working closely with Freescale Semiconductor, OKI and Texas Instruments over recent months to add RF4CE decode support to the SNA, said Lisa Ardern, Daintree Networks Director of Customer Support. We can see a lot of great applications for this new protocol, and we’re excited to be playing our part in helping to bring a new generation of RF control products to market.
More here.
April 23, 2009 at 5:53 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Unilever, IBM and other companies said they are constantly investigating green technologies that would help them conserve energy or sell products to customers who embrace efficiencies.
Unilever, which makes food as well as personal and household cleaning products, is interested in smart grid technologies, but not because it wants to enter the information technology market. The company is keenly interested in how consumers use water and other resources at home, said Phil Giesler, director of innovation and corporate ventures at Unilever. That was why Unilever invested in EnergyHub (via Physic Ventures), Giesler said. New York City-based EnergyHub has developed devices for monitoring and adjusting energy use at home.
More here.
April 21, 2009 at 10:51 am · Filed under ZigBee
Vesternet have launched what they are describing as the worlds first dedicated ZigBee eCommerce store. With a huge range of ZigBee equipped products plus their own newly developed Zigbox Ethernet gateway and Zigbytes web-based user interface, the site is sure to be of interest to home automators.
“Vesternet today officially launches the worlds first dedicated ZigBee eCommerce store – selling development tools, components, certified products and a platform for management of ZigBee devices.
Vesternet has developed two core products: Zigbox – a compact ZigBee Ethernet gateway plus Zigbytes – a web-based user interface. Together they form the backbone of any network: Zigbox gathers sensor data… & Zigbytes presents it online.
Users then purchase and plug-in multi-vendor ZigBee sensors to build up their own unique solution. These could be power sockets, thermostats, door/window, smoke detectors and more.
The result is that end-users have 24/7 web based access to their ZigBee devices, and as new certified products are released from the many ZigBee partners, these will easily plug into and extend the existing network.
Initially the Vesternet platform will focus on Smart Energy and Home Automation. But later versions will support new ZigBee profiles such as RF4CE, Building Automation and Healthcare.
Aside from the end-user Vesternet platform – also available are individual components & tools for installers, developers, re-sellers & utilities. Vesternet ship worldwide from US & EU locations. To browse the ZigBee shop and interactive home & office tools for the design of a customised network, visit www.vesternet.com ”
eCommerce store at www.vesternet.com.
April 17, 2009 at 6:31 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Apple seems to be laying the groundwork to introduce high-capacity, low-power 802.11n Wi-Fi to the iPod Touch, and presumably to its 3G-enabled companion, the iPhone.
The change would be a huge jump in performance for users of both devices, which now use a Wi-Fi chip that supports 802.11b/g, with a throughput of less than 25Mbps on the 2.4GHz band. But the change would almost certainly mean having to buy a new Touch or iPhone with the 11n chip, and some observers say Apple also needs to upgrade the CPU to enable both handhelds to fully exploit 11n performance.
More here.
April 16, 2009 at 5:46 pm · Filed under IPSO, ZigBee
Echelon Corporation announced today that it has joined the IP for Smart Objects (IPSO) Alliance and the Zigbee Alliance– two leading technology trade organizations based on the IEEE 802.15.4 wireless standard. Echelon will be a Promoter member of the IPSO Alliance and a Participant member of the Zigbee Alliance. Echelon brings to these groups its two decades of experience in building interoperable LonWorks® control networks and an extensive ecosystem of leading controls companies, many of which have been integrating wireless technologies with LonWorks based control networks since their inception.
The LonWorks platform – an open, global ISO/IEC standard for building control and an ANSI standard for control networking – is already widely adopted in mature automation markets such as commercial building control as well as emerging energy infrastructure markets such as smart metering (AMI) and smart street lighting. Joining the IPSO and Zigbee Alliances can simplify the integration of devices using these wireless technologies into LonWorks based control systems in home and utility applications.
Control networks using either power line or twisted pair signaling are reliable, proven, and cost-effective. Wireless technology can play an important role in control networks, enabling isolated or mobile devices to participate as extensions to the network. Providers of LonWorks based control and automation systems have a long history of working with partners to integrate wireless technologies into overall control networks, from RFID tags communicating with twisted-pair connected sensors in infant protection systems in hospitals to self-powered wireless sensors in building automation systems.
Press release available here.
April 15, 2009 at 5:59 pm · Filed under 6LowPAN
Arch Rock Corporation has introduced a wireless energy monitoring system that gives facilities managers real-time visibility into electric power consumption, letting them pinpoint – down to individual rooms and circuits – where they can save money, boost efficiency and gear usage patterns to accommodate utilities’ demand-response and other incentive programs.
Arch Rock’s Energy Optimizer addresses the key economic concerns associated with power usage in such facilities as data centers, office buildings and industrial facilities: finding ways to cut energy costs and get accurate data on “green” and sustainability policies; measuring and verifying energy spending to avoid demand-ratchet rates and penalty-incurring peak-time usage; and demonstrating usage reduction to comply with regulatory mandates (e.g., EISA 2007, EPAct 2005) and building standards (e.g., EnergyStar, LEED).
Energy Optimizer combines Arch Rock’s PhyNet™ IP-based enterprise-class wireless sensor network (WSN) technology, specialized circuit-mountable energy sensors, and a web-based Energy Visibility Portal. Data gathered by the sensors appears on the portal in the form of actionable reports revealing far more detail than a monthly utility bill: users can see exactly when and where a building is consuming energy, identify energy gluttons, find usage spikes and compare current usage against past baselines.
Because PhyNet is IP-based, like the Internet, data from the sensor nodes can be sent directly to other nodes or IP-based client devices (e.g., desktop, laptop or handheld computers) over virtually any type of network (e.g., Wi-Fi, Ethernet, IEEE 802.15.4 low-power radio).
More here.
April 14, 2009 at 2:21 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
On April 21, the group overseeing the Bluetooth specification will launch a version that can use an available 802.11 Wi-Fi radio for the wireless connection. A 3.0 Bluetooth stack would be able to switch from the standard low-power, short-range Bluetooth radio to an 802.11a/b/g radio. With 11g and 11a now far more common, that would mean throughput in the 20Mbit/sec.-24Mbit/sec. range in either the 2.4-GHz or 5-GHz bands, compared to a maximum today of up to 3Mbit/sec. in 2.4 GHz for Bluetooth 2.1 with Enhanced Data Rate.
More here.
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