FUTURE TECHNOLOGY
10 meters . A common wireless PAN is a smartphone connected over Bluetooth to handful of accessories . Wireless PAN devices usually have low radio transmission power and run over small batteries .
Local Area Networks are either wired or wireless or a combination of both . Wireless LANs usually cover a range up to 100 meters . An example is the home Wi-Fi network providing Internet access to personal computers , smartphones , TVs and household IoT devices .
Neighborhood Area Networks are usually wireless enabled and can reach around 25 km . They use high power levels but transfer relatively low data blocks . An example of Neighborhood Area Network is a smart grid wireless network used to transfer data from home utility meters to the utility company using a selected frequency .
Wide Area Networks are spread across a very large area and can be as big as the world like the Internet .
Interoperability standards One of the biggest challenges across IoT devices , sensors , networks and applications is the ability to understand and to communicate with each other . This is also called interoperability . A number of institutions , alliances , and forums have taken the lead in moving related industries forward in a cohesive manner .
The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers has contributed to the IEEE 802 . x family of standards . 802.3 is the Ethernet specification used for wired computer networks ; 802.11 is the specification for wireless LAN ; 802.15.4 is the specification for the PAN standard used in ZigBee , 6LoWPAN .
The Internet Engineering Task Force is an open standards organisation that is responsible for the Internet Protocol standards . In the past , its request for comments have been responsible for improvement of IPv4 protocol , TCP protocol , and HTTP / 1.1 protocol .
Recently significant movements are taking place around wireless technologies including Wi-Fi Alliance , Bluetooth Special
One of the biggest challenges across IoT devices , sensors , networks and applications is the ability to understand and to communicate with each other
Interest Group and ZigBee Alliance . All three provide member companies , services like interoperability test plan and rights to wear their brand logos .
Wireless protocols However , some of the most innovative changes are taking place with wireless networking protocols . They can be classified based on the following operating characteristics :
• Size of data transfer blocks
• Range of connectivity
• Power requirements
• Networking topology
Bluetooth Low Energy , Bluetooth Smart Bluetooth is a short-range communications technology , which has become important in
computing and consumer products . It will be the key for wearable products connecting to Internet of Things via smartphones in most cases . However , for IoT applications it is Bluetooth Low-Energy or Bluetooth Smart , which is more important since its power consumption is lower than Bluetooth .
Unlike Bluetooth , Bluetooth Smart cannot be used for file transfers and its data packet size is smaller . Industry forecasts expect 90 % of Bluetooth-enabled smartphones to be also Bluetooth Smart ready by 2018 .
• Frequency : 2.4GHz
• Range : less than 150m
• Data Rates : 1Mbps
Zigbee ZigBee and its various industrial profiles are based on IEEE802.15.4 protocol , which is an industry-standard wireless networking technology . It is meant for applications requiring limited data transfers at low transfer rates within 100m range , typically in a home or building . It has advantages in complex systems requiring low-power operation , high levels of security , high scalability , high node counts and can support wireless control and sensor networks in IoT applications .
• Frequency : 2.4GHz
• Range : less than 100m
• Data Rates : 250kbps
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