Wireless Short Distance Low Consumption Radio: Comparative Analysis, Applications and Markets

PracTel Inc, July 2007

This report addresses a group of telecommunications standards related to supporting short distance wireless communications and providing a very long battery life. Such communication is a requirement for various applications, including military and commercial:

-UGS networks. These networks contain numerous ground sensors, often deployed in the mesh topology, and supported by radios for the time of their functioning. These sensors collect environmental and other information and deliver to the main node.

-Public Safety Communications

-Home Environment.

The report analyses radio technologies used to support these applications. It emphasizes the importance of these radios low power consumption – they have to work unattended for months and even years.

We identified:

-UWB
-ZigBee
-Bluetooth
-Wibree
-NFC.

The report provides a detailed marketing and technical analysis for each technology in this group. The goal was:

-To identify major strong and weak sides for each technology
-To analyze their major features
-To analyze their major applications
-To analyze the industries defining their major players.

The most developed technology is Bluetooth with a huge market; it is lately consumed Wibree, which was originally designed to cover BT applications that require extremely low consumption.

ZigBee, which can only support lower speeds of transmission (than BT), seems already the established technology for mesh topologies and industrial automation, can also support a radio node self-efficiency at least for months.

In our opinion, UWB is the most promising and effective technique in the group of discussed radios. It supports:

-NLOS communications
-Covered communications
-Speeds from several Kb/s to Gb/sec
-Extremely low power consumption allowing low-speed communication node to be self-efficient for years
-Combination of effective communications with radar that can detect objects location with extreme accuracy.

Unfortunately, at the present time, UWB still faces standardization uncertainty; we believe (and ours believe is supported by recent developments in the U.S. and oversees) that UWB soon overcome its problems.

Finally, NFC seems also has a bright future for specific applications that require to start communications at short distances (fracture of meter).

The report is aimed to a wide audience of technical and management staff that works in the design and implementation of related networks and applications.

Research Methodology

Considerable research was done using the Internet. Information from various Web sites was studied and analyzed. Evaluation of publicly available marketing and technical publications was conducted. Telephone conversations and interviews were held with industry analysts, technical experts and executives. In addition to these interviews and primary research, secondary sources were used to develop a more complete mosaic of the market landscape, including industry and trade publications, conferences and seminars.

The overriding objective throughout the work has been to provide valid and relevant information. This has led to a continual review and update of the information content.

Target Audience

This report is important to a wide population of researches, technical and sales staff involved in the developing of wireless services and products. It is recommended for both service providers and vendors that are working with related technologies. The report also helps to understand issues associated with relationship between WPAN communications and other technologies.

1.0 Introduction

1.1 General

1.2 Scope

1.3 Research Methodology

1.4 Target Audience 3

2.0 UWB: Technology and Market Specifics

2.1 General

2.1.2 History

2.1.3 Obstacles

2.2 Definition

2.2.1 Rates

2.3 Spectrum Allocation

2.3.1 Choices

2.4 Major Features

2.4.1 Communications Features

2.5 Standards and Regulations

2.5.1 Multiband OFDM

2.5.2 DS-UWB

2.5.3 Standards Bodies

2.5.4 Groups

2.5.4.1 Forces

2.5.5 FCC and ETSI

2.5.6 ECMA International

2.5.7 Ofcom and Others

2.5.8 Comparison

2.5.8.1 Impulse Radio– Pulse Link, Time Domain

2.5.8.2 DS-CDMA – Motorola and other

2.5.8.3 Multi-Band OFDM– MBOA

2.6 Applications

2.6.1 General

2.6.2 Home Security-UGS

2.6.3 Phones

2.6.4 RFID

2.6.5 Communications

2.6.6 WPAN

2.6.7 Imaging systems

2.6.8 Vehicular radar systems

2.6.9 Ranging

2.6.10 Public Safety

2.7 WSN-UGS and UWB

2.7.1 General

2.7.2 Details

2.7.2.1 WSN-UGS

2.7.2.2 Requirements

2.7.2.3 UWB Role

2.7.2.3.1 UWB-structured WSN-UGS

2.7.2.3.2 Features

2.8 Issues

2.9 Applications Summary

2.10 UWB Market

2.10.1 General

2.10.1.1 Major Segments

2.10.2 Forecast

2.10.3 Notes on Market for UWB WSN-UGS

2.11 Industry: UWB

Aether Wire & Location (localization devices)

Alereon (chipsets)

Artimi (chipsets)

BBN (radio, first responders)

Camero (radar, equipment for first responders)

decaWave (chipsets)

Focus Enhancement (chipsets)

Freescale (chipsets, systems)

General Atomics (chipsets)

Multispectral (RFID and others)

Parco (RFID-Health Care)

Pulse~ Link (chipsets)

Staccato (chipsets)

TES Electronic Solution

TriQuint (chipsets – homeland security applications)

Time Domain (chipsets-fusion of communications & radar)

Tzero (chipsets)

Ubisense (RFID-tracking)

Wisair (chipsets)

WiQuest (chipsets)

3.0 ZigBee

3.1 General

3.2 Technology

3.2.1 Major Features

3.2.2 Device Types

3.2.3 Protocol Stack

3.2.3.1 Physical and MAC layers – IEEE802.15.4

3.2.3.1.1 Frame

3.2.3.2 Upper Layers

3.2.3.2.1 Interoperability

3.2.3.2.2 Security

3.2.4 Platform Considerations

3.2.4.1 Battery Life

3.2.5 ZigBee Technology Benefits and Limitations

3.3 Standardization Process

3.3.1 ZigBee Alliance

3.3.1.1 Objectives

3.3.2 802.15.4- ZigBee Basis

3.3.2.1 IEEE 802.15.4 Radio

3.3.2.2 Application Specifics

3.4 Applications

3.4.1 General

3.4.2 Home

3.4.2.1 PC

3.4.3 Manufacturing

3.4.4 WSN-UGS and ZigBee

3.4.4.1 ZigBee Role

3.5. Market

3.5.1 Expectations

3.5.2 Segments

3.5.3 Forecast

3.6 Industry

Airbee (Software)

Amber (RF Systems)

Atmel (Chipsets)

Chipcon –TI (Chipsets)

Cirronet (Modules)

Crossbow (WSN, motes)

Duolog (Transceivers)

Eazix (Modules)

Ember (Chipsets)

Falcom (Modules)

Helicomm (Modules)

Jennic (Chipsets-Modules)

Freescale (Chipsets)

Luxoft Labs (Integration)

M&R Lawugger GmbH (Software)

Maxstream (WSN Modules)

Moteiv (Modules, SW)

Nanotron (Chipsets)

Oki (Chipsets)

Renesas (Platforms)

Silicon Laboratories (Chipsets, Modules)

Synapse

Telegesis (Integrator)

Ubiwave (Mesh Network)

Uniband (Chipsets)

ZMD (Chipsets)

4.0 IEEE 802.15.1 (Bluetooth-BT)

4.1 BT Protocol Stack

4.1.1 Transport layer

4.1.1.1 Radio Layer

4.1.1.2 Baseband and Link Manager Layers

4.1.1.2.1 Power Consumption

4.1.2 Middleware Layer

4.1.3 Bluetooth Security

4.1.4 Highlights

4.1.4.1 The Standard:

4.1.4.2 The Technology:

4.1.4.2.1 Sniffing Mode

4.1.5 Standards Update-Further Consumption Reduction

4.1.6 Profiles

4.1.7 Industry

5.0 NFC-Near-Field Communications

5.1 General

5.2 NFC Forum

5.3 Trials

5.4 Standardization Process

5.4.1 Highlights

5.5 Protocol

5.6 Applications

5.7 NFC: Wi-Fi and Bluetooth-NFC Place

5.8 NFC Issues

5.9 Market

5.10 Industry

Artimi

FreeLinc

Innovision

Nokia

Sirit

Venyon

ViVOTech

6.0 WiBree

6.1 General

6.2 Protocol

6.2.1 Properties

6.3 Wibree – Under BT Umbrella

7.0 Conclusions

Figure 1: UWB Spectrum

Figure 2: WSN-UGS Node

Figure 3: WSN-UGS and UBW

Figure 4: Market Estimate: UWB Circuitry ($B)

Figure 5: Market Estimate: Multiband OFDM UWB Circuitry ($B)

Figure 6: Market Estimate: DS UWB Circuitry ($B)

Figure 7: Estimate of UWB Market – Communications Applications ($B)

Figure 8: WSN-UGS Market Developing: Worldwide ($M)

Figure 9: ZigBee Protocol Stack

Figure 10: Estimate: ZigBee Chipsets Market Worlwide ($M)

Figure 11: ZigBee Market Segmentation (2006)

Figure 12: ZigBee Market Segmentation (2010)

Figure 13: Bluetooth Protocol Stack

Figure 14: Piconets Illustration

Figure 15: Estimate –BT Market (Unit Shipped in Million)

Figure 16: Estimate –BT Market ($B)

Figure 17: BT Market Geographical Segmentation

Table 1: Comparison: DS-UWB and MB-OFDM

Table 2: FCC Emission Limits

Table 3: UWB Applications: Summary

Table 4: UWB Market Segments

Table 5: ZigBee Parameters

Table 6: Bluetooth Profiles

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