The Next Generation Wireless Network

Contributed article by Cees Links, Founder & Chief Executive Officer of GreenPeak   www.greenpeak.com

Many people are just now becoming aware of the tremendous waste of energy in our environment, and the tremendous opportunities that exist, and are emerging for conserving that energy.

For businesses, temperature can be lowered when employees are not using a meeting room. Lights can be automatically switched off when no one is in a room.

With the help of sensor networks, consumers and plant managers can better identify wasteful energy use and institute automated procedures (like switching off lights and lowering temperature) that facilitate the design of smarter, more efficient homes, buildings and industrial plants.

Until now, wires and cables have limited the widespread adoption of sensor networks by making them difficult and expensive to install and maintain. Wireless alternatives have emerged that simplify installation and reduce cost. But high power consumption and the corresponding need for regular battery replacement has made these wireless networks difficult and costly to maintain.

The strength of wireless networks can only be fully achieved when the wiring for BOTH the data communication and power supply is eliminated. On top of that, a true battery-free vision not only eliminates power and network cables, but alo elimaites or greatly reduces the need for maintenance. How many hours are wasted recharging and replacing batteries?

To combat this problem and facilitate the widespread deployment of wireless sensor networks, GreenPeak has developed an ultra-low-power communication technology that utilizes energy harvested from the environment. Their communication devices are ready to interface with energy harvested from the environment - such as light, motion or vibration - to provide power to the systems.

The on-board power management circuits will monitor the state of the energy harvesters and take appropriate actions to optimize the available energy. This allows the sensor devices to operate in a battery-free environment in a reliable way.

Energy harvesting not only reduces the maintenance effort, it also provides an effective answer for the need for green appliances: appliances that do not present a liability to the environment. An additional positive effect of driving wireless sensor applications on energy harvested sources is that they are increasingly deployed in more and more in applications as a key enabler to increase the level of environmental friendliness of the application, something that would not have been possible through a wired communication network.

Market experts cite two major requirements for widespread OEM adoption of wireless sense and control products in a wide range of applications: ease of use and reliability.

The configuration of extended low-power sensor networks can be facilitated by the using the low-power mesh technology, which enables wireless devices to build a reliable and efficient communication chain. Each wireless sensor and actuator device in the network, utilizing the integrated mesh software, can act as a repeater for other wireless devices, thereby enabling the network to span larger distances.

The mesh communication technique allows site-wide wireless coverage throughout a facility without the need for dedicated base stations or routers.

To facilitate the installation, the wireless communication technology should also provide for a self-organizing network which is self-forming and self-healing. Once a sensor node is powered, it should automatically link to the wireless network. This ‘plug and play’ approach will enable every technician to execute a 100% correct installation without the need to understand technical aspects of setting up a wireless network. This can result in a 15% lower labor cost for lower wage workers.

The mesh network technology is also self-healing and allows nodes to automatically find alternative communication routes when the signal quality decreases or when the infrastructure or building changes.

Ultra low power wireless sensor networks can help “to build a smarter world”.

Quickly and inevitably, wireless sensor networks and applications will have an enormous impact on our daily lives and ultra low power wireless sensor networks can help “to build a smarter world”. The communications platforms with advanced sensing interfacing capability will enables us to better control our lives, homes and environment. In a connected world, people can live in a more comfortable and safer environment with less energy waste.

Cees Links is a pioneer of the wireless data industry, a visionary leader bringing the world of mobile computing and continuous networking together. Under his responsibility, the first wireless LANs were developed which ultimately became a house-hold technology integrated into the PCs and notebooks we are all familiar with. He also pioneered the development of Wi-Fi access points, home networking routers and hotspot base stations, all widely used today.

Cees was involved in the establishment of the IEEE 802.11 standardization committee and the Wi-Fi Alliance. He was also instrumental in helping to establish the IEEE 802.15 standardization committee that became the basis for the ZigBee sense and control networking technology and standard.