New Tech Europe | Jan 2017 | Digital Edition

IoT Special Edition

it for different products for different standards. For example, a dedicated 802.11ah implementation will be half the size and power consumption of a

full 802.11n WiFi design, and can still be used alongside a Bluetooth block, for example. Taking this configurable route is the way to achieve lower

power, says Imagination. Higher up the application stack there are other consortia looking to build low power smart energy networks for IoT. Weightless is an open standard that operates in a range of bands including the unlicensed sub GHz band to provide a low power implementation. With silicon designed by Neul (Acquired by Huawei) in Cambridge, Weightless is now testing out IoT applications in Milton Keynes. The Open Interconnect Consortium is another competing group that is also aiming to provide a low power protocol for IoT starting with the home. This group includes Atmel, Cisco, Dell, Intel and its Wind River subsidiary, as well as Samsung who is also in the Thread Group. The OIC is aiming to create a common communications framework based on industry standard technologies to connect and manage IoT devices. The open source layer is intended to be

Figure 2: Thread network architecture (Courtesy of the Thread Group)

Figure 3: Enigma Whisper Bluetooth Smart and low power Wi-Fi (Courtesy of Imagination Technologies)

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