WSN Buzz
Fresh updates on wireless networks standards and new technologies
Archive for June, 2010
June 30, 2010 at 4:33 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Part 1 of an excerpt from the book “Interconnecting Smart Objects with IP: The Next Internet” offers an overview of web services and how they can enable smart objects to be efficiently integrated into existing IT and enterprise business systems.
“Thus far, we have discussed the use of the IP architecture as the means by which smart objects are connected. We have discussed how the IP architecture is built, how IP works with message routing, and how IPv6 fits the requirements for smart objects exceptionally well. But we have not yet discussed how these technologies are used to create smart object systems, and how smart objects can be integrated into existing IT systems. In this chapter, we take a look at web services – a technology by which smart objects can be efficiently integrated into existing IT and enterprise business systems.”
More here.
June 24, 2010 at 7:14 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
While the debate continues about what network standards are best to run smart grids, here’s a wireless tech that you don’t often hear about: white space, the spectrum vacated by the switch from analog televisions to digital. Today Google and startup Spectrum Bridge are announcing that they have created the first ever smart grid deployment over white space, working with the utility Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative & Telecommunications in the tiny county of Plumas-Sierra in Northern California.
The big idea behind the untapped white space is that now that analog TV channel operators have moved to digital, very valuable, spectrum — nationwide and free to use because it is unlicensed (not owned by any company but guided by rules) — has been unleashed. Several years ago Google launched a campaign called Free The Airwaves in an effort to draw attention to the idea of using white space for wireless consumer broadband services.
More here.
June 24, 2010 at 7:13 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Imagine a small chip you could plug into any device in your home that would enable it to communicate with your web-based electricity and device management dashboard. Or it could be trained to simply turn the device off at times of day when electricity was particularly expensive.
Such is the vision of the USNAP consortium, a group of companies including GE and Google that seeks to create a standard for the meter-to-device in-home monitoring stage of the promised smart grid. (“Enabling the device ecosystem for the smart grid,” is the group’s tagline.) USNAP released this week a proposed 2.0 standard spec for small modules that can be connected to devices to render them individually instrumented – measurable and manipulable as sources of discrete data. Where there is plug-and-play data, there is a platform for online innovation.
More here.
June 20, 2010 at 10:08 am · Filed under Uncategorized
The HomePlug® Powerline Alliance, the driving force for global powerline network technology, today announced the approval and publication of the HomePlug Green PHY (HomePlug GP) specification for Smart Grid applications. HomePlug GP is a low power, highly reliable, cost-optimized powerline networking specification targeting Smart Grid connectivity for home energy management to devices such as HVAC, smart meters, appliances and plug-in electric hybrid vehicles.
More here.
June 20, 2010 at 10:07 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Zurich, Switzerland – November 2, 2010, in conjunction with ACM SenSys 2010
Following the success of the past edition of the workshop, BuildSys 2010 focuses on the intersection between WSNs and energy in buildings by merging experts in the WSN domain and experts in the Building/Energy community in order to identify innovative solutions to pursue the broad goal of energy-reduction.
More information here.
Important Dates
Submission deadline: 30 July 2010
Notification of acceptance: 7 September 2010
Camera Ready Due: 25 September 2010
Workshop date: 2 November 2010
June 14, 2010 at 9:34 am · Filed under Uncategorized
The ZigBee® Alliance and the SunSpec Alliance today announced an agreement to collaborate on defining standards for renewable energy and microgrid management using the ZigBee Smart Energy™ version 2.0 standard. The ZigBee Alliance is a global ecosystem of companies creating wireless solutions for use in energy management, commercial and consumer applications, and the SunSpec Alliance was formed to accelerate the growth of the renewable energy industry through standardization of monitoring and management interfaces for energy system components.
More here.
June 14, 2010 at 9:33 am · Filed under Uncategorized
Arch Rock Corporation has introduced the Primer Pack, the first wireless sensor network that can be accessed and operated as part of the IT infrastructure, allowing enterprises to use standard Internet management tools to gain visibility and control of individual sensor nodes.
More here.
June 12, 2010 at 11:01 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Interconnecting Smart Objects with IP is the first book to take a holistic approach to the revolutionary area of Internet Protocol-based smart objects. The authors have worked very hard to write a book that both covers a broad area (architecture, technology, applications) and with a significant depth (routing protocols, software implementation) with the aim to write a comprehensive guide both for newcomers and experienced engineers and developers in the area of IP-based smart objects/wireless sensor networks/the Internet of things. They are very proud to have the foreword written by no one else than Vint Cerf himself.
Table of contents: http://www.thenextinternet.org/p/table-of-contents.html
Excerpts from all chapters are available here: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/book/9780123751652
Amazon.com link: http://www.amazon.com/Interconnecting-Smart-Objects-IP-Internet/dp/0123751659/ref=sr_1_1
June 3, 2010 at 5:51 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Yogi Berra’s famous quote “It’s like deja vu all over again” is one of my favorites and as an industry analyst, I think of this quote often. Being a third party observer of market dynamics and people dynamics, I have noticed when there is an intersection between two major technology / business areas, there is often a cultural difference that is often overlooked and can lead to misunderstandings and impede meaningful progress.
One example that comes to mind is when the computing and communications world collided and merged. In the late 1990s, it was the “Bellheads” from the telco side versus the “Netheads” from the IT side. The Bellhead’s world view was very conservative: make sure the network was rock solid, they thought about ensuring the 99.999 percent uptime was preserved, services could be managed, provisioned and billed, and that no changes would be introduced without rigorous and lengthy testing. Needless to say, new features and services were introduced at a glacial pace. The Netheads, while not insensitive to reliability and manageability, considered adding features, functions and services to be paramount. To be fair, these are sweeping generalizations and do not speak to any individual but to group dynamics instead. I bring this cultural difference not to be critical, but to be instructive to the smart grid space.
I have noticed a similar dynamic in smart grid. This time it is the Netheads versus the power generation / transmission people. Netheads (which includes me) see the world through a network / software filter that revolves around Internet connectivity and all the technologies and standards it encompasses. We think about databases, cloud computing, networking protocols and standards, and are concerned with issues like the transition from IPv4 to IPv6 or how broadband build out will be a factor in smart grid deployment.
More here.
June 3, 2010 at 5:42 pm · Filed under Uncategorized
Ember announced it will give attendees of ConnectivityWeek 2010 a preview of the new Internet Protocol (IP)-based low-power, wireless networking product it is currently developing.
The company will demo a smart energy application with Ember-enabled products incorporating standards being developed by the IETF such as 6LoWPAN, ROLL and CORE. The demo includes a Windows 7 PC running IPv6, a standard web browser, Ethernet connectivity to an Ember-enabled router and an IP-enabled IEEE 802.15.4 network. The IEEE 802.15.4 network is running completely standards-based versions of IPv6, 6LoWPAN, RPL, TCP and HTTP. It’s a significant step in Ember’s plans to deliver native IP support for smart energy devices later this year.
More here.
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