2015/1/15 18:54:57
Source: Web
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The Internet of
Things on display at this week’sInternational CES in Las
Vegas is dominated by sensors and devices that all use Bluetooth Smart or
Bluetooth LE to interconnect. But don’t count out WiFi. “Even though WiFi is a
mature technology we are by no means resting on our laurels—there’s a lot of
innovation activity,” said Kevin Robinson, Director of Program Marketing at
Wi-Fi Alliance, a consortium of 650 member companies worldwide.
“WiFi in general
is going to play a strong role in the ultimate success of the Internet of
Things,” Robinson told Forbes.com. “Clearly as a technology we’re already
ubiquitous in the home. When you look at the types of devices that people are
going to interact with the things, you’re looking at things like their tablets
their smartphones which all universally adopt WiFi connectivity technology.”
To ride the IoT
wave, Wifi Alliance is looking to new technologies, Robinson said. In addition
to more than 20 innovation projects currently under way, he cited one, the
IEEE’s 802.11ah, a radio specification that uses sub 1 GHz license-exempt bands
to extend the range of Wi-Fi networks, provides lower energy consumption, and
allows for the creation of large ad hoc groups of stations to share the signal.
He predicted wide 802.11ah adoption for IoT.
WiFi shipments
are very healthy, he said, and expected to pass the 10 billion mark sometime in
January 2015. At the end of 2014, 9.98 billion WiFi devices had been sold
worldwide and roughly 4.5 billion WiFi products remain in use today, according
to the alliance. As for future growth, Robinson cited ABI Research which
expects WiFi to enjoy double-digit growth rates for the next five years.
In anticipation
of this boom, WiFi Alliance released a new Wi-Fi Certified
Product Finder tool that makes it easier for a consumer and IT
admins to find thousands of devices that have already gone through the organization’s
interoperability certification program. Since 2000, 2300 products have been
certified, and the organization is on track to certify up to 5,000 more, in new
categories such as automotive, smart home, and wearables, by the end of this
year. “That’s relevant for IoT where you have more and more players and you
don’t have single companies representing every device category,” Robinson said.
WiFi Certified
is designed, he said, so that users have a good experience when they go out and
purchase a smartphone from Apple or Samsung, bring it home and want it to work
with a router or a television set from another manufacturer. Robinson added
there are now WiFi certified crockpots, WiFi thermostats, and a great many
WiFi-enabled things within smart homes today. Compatible products bear a WiFi
Certified logo so that consumers can make better decisions on their own.
In addition to
certifying products, WiFi Alliance also announced Wifi Aware, a discovery
protocol that determine whether there are other WiFi users of interest nearby
and ask if they’d like to have a real time chat. “Wifi Aware is for real time
spontaneous connections while walking around a particular venue,” Robinson
said.
“If you expand
IoT beyond the home and think of devices I may encounter when I’m in a hotel
walking by a business center that has printers that offer print services or
maybe kiosks at an airport or something like that, then WiFi Aware is
absolutely within IoT from that perspective,” he said.
WiFi Aware
won’t, however, be available until late in 2015.
One reoccurring
criticism of WiFi in IoT devices is the greater battery and resource use.
Robinson countered by saying that WiFi Aware, even with its always on or
ambient discovery services enabled, is still very power efficient.
“What we’re
finding is [WiFi Aware] devices are synchronizing their discovery windows,” he
said. “Think of it like a heartbeat or a pulse within a venue or area. All
these devices synchronize on that same pulse for the discovery, allowing them
to sleep longer in-between those discovery cycles. That makes the scanning and
service discovery process far more efficient.”
If that sounds
like Bluetooth, it is. However, Robinson said that WiFi enjoys much greater
bandwidth. For example, once a WiFi Aware discovery has been made, a connection
established, the user can upgrade to full a WiFi connection “that gives you a
high-performing connection for transferring a very large movie or very large
image at a venue,” Robinson said, pointing out that existing technology such as
WiFi Direct can create secure device to device connections from smartphones for
sharing a picture.
“With IoT and
consumer electronics users aren’t security aware, or thinking about security–it
is not front and center in the user’s mind,” Robinson said. “So it is incumbent
on the industry to help WiFi user make those right decisions. In example of
WiFi Direct, every one of those connections is protected with WPA2. User
doesn’t have to do anything.”
(Credit: Web)