The part about 900 MHz being used will be a problem here in Australia,
Depending on your carrier (but all to some aspect) the 900 MHz band is used for 2G, 3G and 4G, and 2/3 of the networks are likely to use it as 3G 900 for quite a while.
They are different frequencies. GSM/UMTS 900 is 890 – 915 MHz for the UL and 935 – 960 MHz for the DL. The 900MHz ISM band is snugly between them in Australia at 918 - 926MHz and there's also the cordless telephone allocation at 857-865MHz that could also be used once officially repurposed.
900 Mhz is also a licensed band in europe, I believe. I think the equivalent ISM band is 860Mhz there, so I bet they will release a version for that frequency as well.
The scenario usage is very limited with the speed up to 100 Kb/s, not for your everyday person. For IoT stuffs like sensor, I think that is sufficient but I can't imagine this competing against bluetooth at all when they have very distinctive usage scenario with their respective specification.
I might consider HaLow as a complimentary to the system we have, Bluetooth and WiFi where bluetooth gives you, short range,low power and medium speed (24Mb/s) and Wifi gives you, decent range and high speed.Now we get extra range (1 km) usage scenario with 100 Kb/s and low power to utilize IoT.
Of course I don't know the exact specification of ah mode, whether it can work in tandem with the normal wifi mode so it can actually compete against bluetooth. Imagine wireless peripherals such as wireless mouse and keyboard don't need separate dongle anymore.
I think you answered your own question with your third paragraph. AH will probably be integrated into many future routers and wifi devices, right alongside A/B/G/N/AC. For devices that need more bandwidth than AH, they could use one of the other standards. Still, I think the biggest problem they face is the sheer proliferation of BT devices.
It's not really a consumerish standard although it could be in the future. The first implementations are most likely going to be utility companies looking to make the smart grid smarter. Your typical meters can connect to a customer's 802.11ah network or the power company may elect to provide BPL as backhaul and turn the power meter into an 802.11ah AP for the other meters.
By leveraging realtime information on what devices are operating inside the house (all of these devices in theory being connected to the same 802.11ah network) the electric company may be able to smooth out demand by possibly delaying appliances from operating or make the demand better match the supply curve of renewable resources. Imagine your water company calling you up and telling you that you have a leak instead of receiving a nasty bill that month or being able to tell a washing machines to delay washing because of water main flushing in the area saving you getting back some extremely dirty clothes.
Now imagine the Eco-SWAT storming your house, arresting you for using too much water or electricity. It's bad enough that ads and feds are constantly watching our cyber activity... I'm not sure I'm ready to embrace that level of connectivity.
That's true. When they announced this I figured it'd be between 1-5Mbps, not 0.1Mbps.
That truly limits its potential. A phone conversation is 64Kbps so it's good for little more than that when competing with Bluetooth, which is much faster albeit less range, so I don't see it competing with Bluetooth in the traditional sense Bluetooth is used now, but for things like device trackers (like TrakR) or pairing data devices to your phone (such as a smartwatch) HaLow is going to kill Bluetooth because of the range and IPv6 stack.
It's not for "multimedia" - you'd need a form of broadband for that. But I think of it that 100kbps is over 3000 32-bit sensor readings, or 1500 words of text, or 250 lines of code, or 80 tweets, per second. So you can still do a lot with it with a well-designed protocol.
Well theoritical is up to 100kbps without any hitch. So if we're putting some real life sense, put latency etc2, maybe lot less than that.
IMHO, it will have a lot of resistance for smartwatch pairing adoption in urban area, unless you're fine leaving your phone 1 km away. Most city people won't do that, most people I know think their phone is like their life.
I'm actually thinking this actually wants to fill what bluetooth lacks in automated market or DIY (IoT stuffs). Example in house, automated air con, lightning, etc or in agriculture, checking soil content, barn temperature, etc. If you have ever played with raspberry or arduino for stuffs like this before, the market actually really needs AH mode as a standard, a low power wireless connection that readily connect to internet as well.
Wifi ad is more of a threat to BT , in non IoT anyway. - guess now we have the first phone with ad, the LeTv Le Max Pro, it's time for some cool peripherals and accessories. For ah one point everybody forgets is the very high number of devices that can connect to a single access point, it's a very relevant feature and should be mentioned.
Haha that is a great point. The 2.4 GHz suffers from crowding and if this did ship with every router I imagine there would be a rapid increase in noise on the 900 MHz range. However, WiFi AH would work very well for me and am excited to see how it pans out.
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zeealpal - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
The part about 900 MHz being used will be a problem here in Australia,Depending on your carrier (but all to some aspect) the 900 MHz band is used for 2G, 3G and 4G, and 2/3 of the networks are likely to use it as 3G 900 for quite a while.
Guess that means no WiFi HaLow at all (in Aus?)
zeealpal - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
Or would it just operate in the standard WiFi bands instead?doggface - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
Yeah. I was thinking that too. Not compliant for Aus.TalezMB - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
They are different frequencies. GSM/UMTS 900 is 890 – 915 MHz for the UL and 935 – 960 MHz for the DL. The 900MHz ISM band is snugly between them in Australia at 918 - 926MHz and there's also the cordless telephone allocation at 857-865MHz that could also be used once officially repurposed.extide - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
900 Mhz is also a licensed band in europe, I believe. I think the equivalent ISM band is 860Mhz there, so I bet they will release a version for that frequency as well.WorldWithoutMadness - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
The scenario usage is very limited with the speed up to 100 Kb/s, not for your everyday person.For IoT stuffs like sensor, I think that is sufficient but I can't imagine this competing against bluetooth at all when they have very distinctive usage scenario with their respective specification.
I might consider HaLow as a complimentary to the system we have, Bluetooth and WiFi where bluetooth gives you, short range,low power and medium speed (24Mb/s) and Wifi gives you, decent range and high speed.Now we get extra range (1 km) usage scenario with 100 Kb/s and low power to utilize IoT.
Of course I don't know the exact specification of ah mode, whether it can work in tandem with the normal wifi mode so it can actually compete against bluetooth. Imagine wireless peripherals such as wireless mouse and keyboard don't need separate dongle anymore.
nathanddrews - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
I think you answered your own question with your third paragraph. AH will probably be integrated into many future routers and wifi devices, right alongside A/B/G/N/AC. For devices that need more bandwidth than AH, they could use one of the other standards. Still, I think the biggest problem they face is the sheer proliferation of BT devices.TalezMB - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
It's not really a consumerish standard although it could be in the future. The first implementations are most likely going to be utility companies looking to make the smart grid smarter. Your typical meters can connect to a customer's 802.11ah network or the power company may elect to provide BPL as backhaul and turn the power meter into an 802.11ah AP for the other meters.By leveraging realtime information on what devices are operating inside the house (all of these devices in theory being connected to the same 802.11ah network) the electric company may be able to smooth out demand by possibly delaying appliances from operating or make the demand better match the supply curve of renewable resources. Imagine your water company calling you up and telling you that you have a leak instead of receiving a nasty bill that month or being able to tell a washing machines to delay washing because of water main flushing in the area saving you getting back some extremely dirty clothes.
nathanddrews - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
Now imagine the Eco-SWAT storming your house, arresting you for using too much water or electricity. It's bad enough that ads and feds are constantly watching our cyber activity... I'm not sure I'm ready to embrace that level of connectivity.#foilhat
nathanddrews - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
Hopefully that came across as a joke... I don't actually believe that will happen.Samus - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
That's true. When they announced this I figured it'd be between 1-5Mbps, not 0.1Mbps.That truly limits its potential. A phone conversation is 64Kbps so it's good for little more than that when competing with Bluetooth, which is much faster albeit less range, so I don't see it competing with Bluetooth in the traditional sense Bluetooth is used now, but for things like device trackers (like TrakR) or pairing data devices to your phone (such as a smartwatch) HaLow is going to kill Bluetooth because of the range and IPv6 stack.
stephenbrooks - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
It's not for "multimedia" - you'd need a form of broadband for that. But I think of it that 100kbps is over 3000 32-bit sensor readings, or 1500 words of text, or 250 lines of code, or 80 tweets, per second. So you can still do a lot with it with a well-designed protocol.WorldWithoutMadness - Thursday, January 7, 2016 - link
Well theoritical is up to 100kbps without any hitch.So if we're putting some real life sense, put latency etc2, maybe lot less than that.
IMHO, it will have a lot of resistance for smartwatch pairing adoption in urban area, unless you're fine leaving your phone 1 km away. Most city people won't do that, most people I know think their phone is like their life.
I'm actually thinking this actually wants to fill what bluetooth lacks in automated market or DIY (IoT stuffs). Example in house, automated air con, lightning, etc or in agriculture, checking soil content, barn temperature, etc. If you have ever played with raspberry or arduino for stuffs like this before, the market actually really needs AH mode as a standard, a low power wireless connection that readily connect to internet as well.
jjj - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
Wifi ad is more of a threat to BT , in non IoT anyway. - guess now we have the first phone with ad, the LeTv Le Max Pro, it's time for some cool peripherals and accessories.For ah one point everybody forgets is the very high number of devices that can connect to a single access point, it's a very relevant feature and should be mentioned.
Gunbuster - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
Should be fun seeing a device pull up a mile long SSID list of every router within 1 kilometer of your location...Something like:
400 Uverse and Comcast.
100 Country or top 40 song titles
50 businesses
25 like BigD69
15 like smokeupwifi420
1andrew - Saturday, January 9, 2016 - link
Haha that is a great point. The 2.4 GHz suffers from crowding and if this did ship with every router I imagine there would be a rapid increase in noise on the 900 MHz range. However, WiFi AH would work very well for me and am excited to see how it pans out.vinob - Wednesday, January 6, 2016 - link
what about India?edimer - Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - link
This is very fast and is very nice router.Here is one interesting way for Power consumption getting DOWN:https://youtu.be/YmgSnZm6YQY
But his speed not target. :-)