Design of Wearable Devices - IoT

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 1

Wireless Range (non- Requires
Power Proprietary or Chipset Managed
Protocols for Frequency urban Data Rate Topology Hub or Security Intended Use
Draw Open? Cost By
IoT environment) Gateway?
ZigBee 2.4GHz,
915MHz (US),
Wireless Communication for IoT
100-325 ft 250 kbps (2.4)
40kbps (915)
low Mesh Yes Open $$ ZigBee
Alliance
Encrypted Single Building

868 MHz (EU) 20kbps (868) (Comcast,

Kroger,
Samsung,
TI)
Z-Wave 915MHz (US) 100-325 ft 40kbps (915) low Mesh Yes Proprietary $$ Z-Wave Encrypted Single Building
868MHz (EU) 20kbps (868) Alliance
Bluetooth 4.0+ 2.4GHz 200 ft 25Mbps medium PAN Yes Open $ Bluetooth Encrypted Personal
Special
Interest
Group (3k
members)
Bluetooth 5 2.4GHz 800 ft 50Mbps medium PAN Yes Open $ Bluetooth Encrypted Personal
Special
Interest
Group (3k
members)
Bluetooth Low 2.4GHz 200 ft 10kB/s low PAN Yes Open $ Bluetooth Encrypted Personal
Energy (BLE) Special
Interest
Group (3k
members)
Wi-Fi 2.4GHZ/5GHz 115-230 7Gbps high Star No Open $$ IEEE Optional Single Building

Wi-Fi-ah 900MHz 3000 ft 347Mbps low Star No Open ??? IEEE ??? Single Building
(HaLow)
Thread 2.4GHz 100 ft 250kbps low Mesh Yes Open $$ Thread Encrypted Single Building
Group
(Google,
Samsung,
etc.)
DigiMesh 2.4GHz/900 ~20 miles 250 kbps (2.4) low Mesh Yes Proprietary $$$ DigiMesh Encrypted Single Building or
ECE 710 Lecture
MHz (US)/868
6 E.
40kbps (915)
Lou 2 WAN
MiWi 2.4GHz or 800 ft 250kbps low Mesh or Yes Proprietary $ MiWi Encrypted Single Building or
subGHz Star WAN
EnOcean 900Mhz (US) 30-100 ft 125kbps "Battery Mesh Yes Proprietary $$ EnOcean Encrypted Single Building
868 MHz (EU) Free"
315 MHz
6LoWPAN 2.4GHz 380 ft 250kbps low Mesh Yes Open $ IEEE Optional Single Building
Weightless (W, white-spaces, 1.2 miles (P), 3 200bps-100kbps low (N), Star Yes Open $$ Weightless Encrypted WAN
N, P) 915MHz, miles (W, N) medium (W, Special
868MHz, P) Interest
780MHz, 470 Group
MHz, 433 MHz,
169 MHz
mcThings 2.4GHz 650 ft 50kbps low Star Yes Proprietary $$$ mcThings ??? Single Building
LoRa 150MHz-1GHz up to 20 miles 50kbps low Star Kind of Open $$$ LoRa Encrypted WAN
(lots of options) Alliance
SigFox 900Mhz (US) ~20 miles 100bps low Star Yes Proprietary $$$ SigFox Encrypted WAN
868 MHz (EU)
LTE Cat-M1 1.4MHz ~20 miles 1Mbps low Star No Open ??? 3GPP, LTE- ??? WAN
M TaskForce
NarrowBand-IoT Below 1GHz ~20 miles 100kbps low Star No Open ??? 3GPP, Encrypted WAN
(Cat M2) Ericsson,
Huawei
3G and 4G 700 MHz, 800 ~20 miles 200kbps (3G) high Star No Open $$ 3GPP Encrypted WAN
Cellular (US) MHz, 850MHz, 10Mbps (4G)
1700MHz,
1900MHz,
2100MHz,
2300MHz,
2500MHz
5G Cellular 700 MHz, 800 ~ 20 miles 100-400Mbps high Star No Open $$ 3GPP, Encrypted WAN
MHz, 850MHz, Ericsson,
1700MHz, Huawei
1900MHz,
2100MHz,
2300MHz,
ECE 710 Lecture 6
2500MHz,
E. Lou 3
 Comparison

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 4

 ZigBee

It has multiple standards and one Zigbee product may not work with another.
It can only be managed by one controller.
It is already installed across the globe and are readily available to develop on.
For home-targeted products that need to be rolled out quickly.
It has the same downside as other mesh networks: many devices are required
for reliable operation, and latency is relatively high.
The upside is that it is already widely available and adopted and works well if
all of your ZigBee devices use the same standard.
It's a good choice for low-cost products targeted at the home.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 5

 Z-Wave

It is less fractured than ZigBee and probably has a better market share of Home
Depot/Best Buy products in the U.S.
It uses a lower frequency than US ZigBee, which means it should have better range
and less power draw.
Unfortunately, Z-Wave chips are generally more expensive because they are only
made by one manufacturer.
It is mesh, so many devices are required for reliable operation and latency is
relatively high.
Despite these shortcomings, Z-Wave is widely adopted and reliable if setup correctly.
It's a good choice for products targeted at the home.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 6

 Bluetooth 4.0+

It is tempting to use for IoT products because it is built into every smartphone
already.
It can have high data rates and low power consumption.
The downside of Bluetooth for IoT is the PAN model.
It's challenging to have multiple devices on the network.
There is generally a limit of 8 devices.
It is a good choice for products that can be managed from just a smartphone.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 7

 Bluetooth 5.0

The latest Bluetooth standard should have 4x the range and 2x the data rate
of Bluetooth 4.0+.
It uses the PAN network model so it shares many of the same challenges as
Bluetooth 4.0+.
If you're going to start building a Bluetooth product, you should include the
latest standard Bluetooth chip which is shipping in all smartphones now

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 8

 Bluetooth Low Energy

BLE is essentially Bluetooth except it goes into sleep mode after connecting for a
few mS.
The low power consumption means the BLE is a better protocol for IoT, except it
still uses the very limited PAN network topology.
There is an upcoming BLE Mesh standard which SHOULD fix the issues of the
PAN network model.
If it does, BLE will be a very powerful IoT communication protocol.
BLE is already a great technology choice for wearable products.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 9

 Bluetooth 5.2

Major change is a new feature called Isochronous Channels (ISOC).

It lays the foundation for the implementation of LE Audio in BLE devices, supporting
Bluetooth 5.2 or later.
3 new features:
a) Isochronous Channels (ISOC) – primary for LE Audio
b) LE Power control (LEPC) – based on the RSSI to estimate distance and then
determine the transmit power
c) Enhanced Attribute Protocol (EATT) – upgraded version of the original ATT

If you look up the definition of the word “Isochronous”, you’ll find that it means
“occurring at the same time”. In the context of BLE, it means supporting (1) data
transmissions that are time-sensitive and (2) synchronized rendering of
these data streams across multiple receivers.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 10

 Wi-Fi

It is readily available in most commercial buildings and homes.

This is a massive advantage for IoT products targeting those markets.
Because of the pre-existing Wi-Fi networks, Wi-Fi products do not require a
hub that's separate from the router.
They don't need unreliable mesh networks to extend range either.
They have instant access to the cloud.
The downside of Wi-Fi is that it can be difficult for the consumer to get it
connected to their router and it has a very high power draw.
It is a great technology choice for standalone products targeted at the home
or business.
It can be used for battery-powered products if power is managed
appropriately.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 11

 Wi-Fi-ah
(HaLow)
It requires a special Wi-Fi router that's available on the market now but
not installed in most homes.
HaLow devices will have instant internet access like traditional Wi-Fi
devices assuming the router is HaLow compatible.
HaLow has better wall penetration and range than Wi-Fi because it
uses the lower 900MHz frequency band.
This also means lower power draw for battery operated devices.
If all routers start shipping with HaLow built in, this will be a very strong
wireless protocol for homes and commercial buildings.
Watch the adoption rate of HaLow, and plan your development
accordingly.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 12

 Thread

It is backed by Google, so you know there are some excellent engineers behind
it.
It's built on the 6LoWPAN stack which uses the same 802.15.4 radio as ZigBee
and could become a dominant player in the Home Automation space.
It's seems to be built so that Nest becomes the ZigBee-like hub of the house.
Nest uses it's Wi-Fi connection to get low-power thread devices online.
It's a great idea in theory but has yet to become widely adopted.
There's discussion of building Thread compatibility with ZigBee devices. Thread
is a great technology for home-targeted products that target customers who
already have a Nest.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 13

 DigiMesh

It is essentially modified ZigBee focused on long range point to point

communication.
It looks like a good technology, but nobody has actually built products on it.
This may be because the cost per chip is very high.
For products targeted at large commercial buildings without per-device cost
constraints, DigiMesh is a good choice.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 14

 MiWi

It is similar to DigiMesh in that it's a modified and proprietary form of

ZigBee.
It requires less power, lower memory, and is good for very low-cost
products and systems.
It's not widely adopted yet but could be good for products that will
require a custom hub anyway.
MiWi also has low memory constraints, which makes it a good
choice for products that have to have a very low per-unit BOM cost.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 15

 EnOcean

Battery-free operation promises a long device life.

It's a very interesting technology.
It can be prototyped with a raspberry pi which lowers development costs.
It is a good technology choice for products targeted at the commercial
building that should have low maintenance costs.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 16

 6LoWPAN

6LoWPAN (Low-Power Wireless Personal Area Networks) is a promising

alternative to other mesh network technologies. Because it's based on Internet
Protocol version 6 (IPV6) addressing, it's relatively simple for 6LoWPAN
devices to communicate with other IoT networks by building a bridge.
For example, a 6LoWPAN to Wi-Fi bridge is simpler to produce and to operate
than a Zigbee hub.
In theory, the 6LoWPAN devices would have almost direct access to the Wi-Fi
devices.
6LoWPAN is another standard that's great in specific applications.
Recommend for products targeted at the home or commercial buildings that
need to communicate with other products or systems.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 17

 Weightless (W, N, P)

Weightless-W was rejected by the FCC and other governing bodies,

but N and P look like solid WAN technologies.
Weightless is a SIG with tons of members and competing in the
LPWAN space.
Weightless N is one-way communication which is very limiting.
Weightless-P looks like a great LPWAN technology, but it hasn't been
deployed yet.
With royalty free deployment, Weightless-P and Weightless-N look
like good technologies for LPWAN products.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 18

 mcThings

mcThings is great for deploying a custom set of sensors in a few

buildings.
The cost per unit is high, but the technology is very power efficient and
requires little maintenance.
You can easily expand a mcThings network with bridges, and battery life
for basic sensors can be up to 10 years.
It is recommended for sensor-based products targeting a few businesses
buildings.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 19

 LoRa

LoRaWAN is an alliance focused on creating a low-power wide-area network

(LPWAN) technology for IoT devices.
LoRa uses spread-spectrum technology that lets the LoRa chip decide the best
spectrum to use for data rates, interference, and battery life.
It's strongly adopted and deployed, with multiple vendors selling proven LoRa
hardware.
Because it's relatively inexpensive to cover a new area with LoRa, it's a good
technology choice for LPWAN IoT products that need to be placed in areas
without cell service.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 20

 SigFox

The original player in the LPWAN space, SigFox had the vision to see
LPWAN coming and has already deployed their network over most of
Europe.
It is a proprietary technology, so your price per chip is relatively high.
It has great coverage right now, but they are threatened by the onset of
LTE Cat M1 and NB-IoT.
It is a good choice for LPWAN products that need to be deployed in
Europe right now.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 21

 LTE Cat-M1
LTE M1 is not available yet, but it's a very exciting LPWAN technology.
M1 should be deployable on existing LTE networks without hardware upgrades.
That means the Verizon and AT&T could cover most of the US with LTE M1 with
just a software upgrade (and both have announced plans to do just that).
M1 has a high data rate, but devices are capable of sleeping to reduce power.
No power consumption information is available yet, but watch this technology
closely.
It's a major threat to LoRa and SigFox, which require the installation of new
radio towers to deploy coverage.
It could be a very good choice for products that target massive areas like
nations, states, or cities.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 22

 NarrowBand-IoT (Cat M2)

NB-IoT is similar to LTE Cat M1, except it is GSM-based.

NB-IoT till do better globally (where LTE networks are not prevalent) and
well on T-Mobile & Sprint in the US.
All these IoT technologies sleep but NB-IoT also uses less power than the
competitors when the radio is on due to a relatively simple waveform.
NB-IOT should also have a cheaper chip than it's LTE-M1 counterpart.
Not officially rolled out yet, but it's being tested in a few areas and should be
watched closely.
It could be a good choice for products that target massive areas like
nations, states, or cities.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 23

 3G and 4G Cellular (US)

Cellular technology is not designed for IoT, but it's already rolled out across
most of the globe.
For IoT devices that do not require battery power and need to be launched
immediately, cellular is a good choice.
For IoT products that can wait to launch, it's worth waiting to see who comes
out on top in the cellular LPWAN war.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 24

 5G Cellular

5G is widely believed to be smarter, faster and more efficient than 4G.

It promises mobile data speeds that far outstrip the fastest home broadband
network currently available to consumers.
With speeds of up to 100 gigabits per second, 5G is set to be as much as
100 times faster than 4G.
Low latency is a key differentiator between 4G and 5G.
Reduced latency means that you’d be able to use your mobile device
connection as a replacement for your cable modem and Wi-Fi. Additionally,
you’d be able to download and upload files quickly and easily, without having to
worry about the network or phone suddenly crashing. You’d also be able to
watch a 4K video almost straight away without having to experience any
buffering time.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 25

 Mesh

A mesh network (or simply meshnet) is

a local network topology in which the
infrastructure nodes (i.e. bridges, switches,
and other infrastructure devices) connect
directly, dynamically and non-hierarchically
to as many other nodes as possible and
cooperate with one another to efficiently
route data from/to clients.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 26

 PAN

A personal area network (PAN) is

a computer network for interconnecting
devices centered on an individual person's
workspace.
A PAN provides data transmission among
devices such as computers, smartphones,
tablets and personal digital assistants.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 27

 Star Topology

A star topology is a topology for a

Local Area Network (LAN) in which all
nodes are individually connected to a
central connection point, like a hub or
a switch.
A star takes more cable than e.g. a
bus, but the benefit is that if a cable
fails, only one node will be brought
down.

ECE 710 Lecture 6 E. Lou 28