With both momentum and demand for a more connected world growing, the Wi-Fi Alliance have announced the introduction of a new standard for wireless internet: Wi-Fi HaLow.
Due for certification in 2018, HaLow will have a greater range, less power consumption and many of the benefits consumers currently receive from Wi-Fi.
Wi-Fi HaLow will operate on frequency bands below one gigahertz, and will eventually be the standard designation for products incorporating IEEE 802.11ah technology. The frequency’s greater range will pave the way for many more IoT connected devices in and around the home, and the lower power levels required will be beneficial to both industries and consumers, while increasing the performance of the connected sensors, wearables and appliances.
Despite a shift onto a lower frequency, Wi-Fi HaLow will come the most important features of the current system, including multi-vendor interoperability, strong government-grade security, and easy setup. This, combined with a range expected to be more than twice as great as current Wi-Fi technology, could well be the catalyst for the emergence of increasingly smarter and more integrated homes, offices and marketplaces. Wi-Fi HaLow is expected to have the ability to connect thousands of devices to a single access point, so a dense deployment of devices will be no problem at all.
Edgar Figueroa, president and CEO of Wi-Fi Alliance, said that “Wi-Fi HaLow is well-suited to meet the unique needs of the Smart Home, Smart City and industrial markets because of its ability to operate using very low power, penetrate through walls and operate at significantly longer ranges than Wi-Fi today. Wi-Fi HaLow expands the unmatched versatility of Wi-Fi to enable applications from small, battery-operated wearable devices to large-scale industrial facility deployments – and everything in between.”
The unprecedented range, efficiency and capacity of this new wireless standard is fantastic news for consumers and developers alike, and 2018 can’t come soon enough for those eager to see the IoT reach its full potential.