HaLow Wi-Fi: What is it and Features of WiFi for IoT Devices

HaLow Wi-Fi is ready to meet the requirements of Internet of Things ( IoT ) devices. Thanks to this, it is ready to operate in industrial, agricultural, smart building and smart city environments.

Some positive things to note are that it does not require proprietary hubs or gateways, and it supports the latest security protocols. That means you can work with different vendors who design their devices based on that standard. We currently find a large number of IoT products on the market for our home, but each one uses a proprietary hub, and there is no interoperability between them. Thanks to HaLoW WiFi, we can connect all of them to the wireless network as if they were just another device.

Introduction to the 802.11ah standard

Before starting HaLow Wi-Fi whose standard is 802.11ah, we are going to do a brief review of the ones that we have used the most in our homes and offices. This will give us an insight into how WiFi networks have evolved. In this case we will talk about its past, present and future. Thus, we will have a global vision of how our networks have been changing.

The 802.11 standard is a family of wireless standards created by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( IEEE ). The first standard we used was 802.11b, which was ratified in 1999, the maximum transmission speed is 11 Mbps, and it works in the 2.4 GHz band. In practice, the maximum transmission speed is approximately 5, 9 Mbit / s over TCP and 7.1 Mbps over UDP. Later, in June 2003, the 802.11g standard was approved, which operates in the 2.4 GHz band and its maximum theoretical speed is 54 Mbit / s, although in real life we achieve slightly less than half, around 22Mbps.

A standard that has been with us for many years is 802.11n which was approved by the IEEE on September 11, 2009. This standard can work in both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. Its theoretical maximum speed It depends on the number of antennas and the quadratic amplitude modulation, but is capable of reaching up to 1000Mbps if using four antennas and 1024QAM.

Currently, the most widely used is the 802.11ac standard that was approved in 2014. It should be noted that it is popularly known as WiFi 5, Gigabit WiFi or WiFi 5G. This standard only works in the 5GHz band, in case of using the 2.4GHz band, we will have to use Wi-Fi 4 directly. This standard allows up to 433Mbps per data stream if we use 256QAM, but we can increase to 540Mbps per stream using 1024QAM. Today there are routers with a maximum of 4 antennas, so we can achieve up to 2167Mbps in this scenario.

Finally, the new standard Wi-Fi 6 or also known as 802.11ax can operate in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. This new standard has very important features to provide the best possible wireless performance, such as bidirectional MU-MIMO, OFDMA, energy saving functions and BSS Color, 160MHz channel width in 5GHz and many other features that we have already talked about previously in this article.

HaLow Wi-Fi: what it is and how it works

Wi-Fi HaLow bases the success of its wireless networks on operating in the sub-1 gigahertz (GHz) frequency band. Its main advantages are that it provides long-range connectivity with low power consumption. In addition, another point in its favor is that the walls do not pose a significant impediment to its operation.

The market for IoT devices is very broad, we have:

• Home appliances.
• Climate control devices.
• Video surveillance cameras.
• Factory sensors integrated into networks.

These Internet of Things devices need certain requirements so that they can function properly:

• Low consumption.
• Longer range connections.
• Better penetration through walls and obstacles.

The IEEE 802.11ah standard will provide us with connection speeds that range from 150 kilobits per second (kbps) to more than 86 megabits per second (Mbps). As for the coverage range, it can reach 1 km. For this reason we can say that this standard is the ideal one for Internet of Things devices. In addition, it also offers narrowband OFDM channels, various power saving modes, and is certified to use WPA3 encryption, so communications should be secure.

Frequency band less than 1GHz: longer range, less speed

HaLow Wi-Fi meets the needs of the IoT device community while providing the security and IP support they need. That is why Wi-Fi HaLow operates in the sub-1 GHz frequency band which allows Wi-Fi to use the devices that are further away from us without problems. For example, using this standard could allow us to place an outdoor video surveillance camera further away. It would also mean a very important change in our WiFi networks as can be seen in the following diagram.

Currently our home WiFi networks operate mainly in the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz band, as we recently explained in this article, although we will soon operate with the 6 GHz band using the latest Wi-Fi 6E standard that has already been presented.

After this, the next step we will take is with the 802.11ah standard, and we will start working in the band that is below 1 GHz.

How HaLow Wi-Fi Could Work in a Home

Wi-Fi HaLow in this case will provide us with long-range connectivity and low consumption. Which is ideal in IoT and will do so by operating below 1 GHz. Narrowband channels allow the signal to reach further with Wi-Fi HaLow than with other versions of Wi-Fi or many other IoT technologies. Here we have an image of what a Wi-Fi network could look like using this technology.

According to this scheme, with the 5 GHz band we would obtain a coverage range of 27 meters. In this case, it would be to obtain the highest connection speeds while sacrificing coverage area. Generally it would be for use inside the house or very close to it. Then would come the 2.4 GHz band, for intermediate distances of up to 54 meters. In this case it would be to use it around the house or in a nearby outdoor garage.

Finally, we would have the network that operates below 1 GHz, which would work at a frequency of 900 MHz. This WiFi would have a coverage area of 88 meters. We could use it to place an outdoor video surveillance camera, activate or deactivate the lighting or even open or close a door using an electronic lock. In agricultural work you could work as shown in the following image:

In the main house we will place the main access point that would cover the entire property using different bands. On the left we would have the farm field in which we could control the automatic irrigation and give our tractor access to the Internet. On the right we would have our animals located with a collar or chip and a water tank that we could control to give the animals water. In the most remote areas we could control our devices using the network below 1 GHz.

Why Wi-Fi HaLow is ideal for working with IoT devices

The IoT market involves having to work with devices of many types. For this reason, solutions must be found to work with:

• Smart Watches.
• Home appliances.
• Climate control devices.
• Remote sensors and systems for industrial and agricultural environments

The first requirement it meets is low power consumption . Many devices are powered by a coin-sized battery and wireless connection. The technology must offer low consumption and high energy efficiency options. The second section offered by HaLow Wi-Fi is long range and robustness , thanks to the fact that it works in the sub-1 GHz radio frequency spectrum with narrow band channels, it achieves a coverage area of 1 km. Another point in its favor is that also penetrates better through building materials such as walls than 2.4 GHz

Then you also have IP network capability to implement effective IoT solutions. Sensor networks and devices may need to connect to the cloud for software updates and other IoT application management functions. Wi-Fi HaLow stands out in this section compared to other IoT technology options, because it provides more connectivity with native IP support, no proprietary gateways are needed. That is what also differentiates it from many other technological alternatives.

It also delivers by providing adequate data rates to satisfy many IoT applications. Some devices need to process a small capacity of data packets occasionally. However, we have others that need constant data flow and monitoring. Thanks to a connection speed that ranges from 150 kbps to up to 86.7 Mbps, it is valid for both situations.

To conclude with this section, Wi-Fi HaLow also complies with the latest generation security protocols , including WPA3 encryption. Thus, our connections are kept secure and we can work if we want with reliable platforms in the cloud.

Requirements related to an easy and safe installation

Therefore, ensuring that IoT devices and environments are secure is a difficult task, and each available IoT technology has its own approach to security. As we have already mentioned before, it uses WPA3 and Wi-Fi Enhanced OpenTM , the highest level of security developed for the latest generation of Wi-Fi networks.

Device installation and onboarding could also take advantage of Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Easy Connect . As a result, we introduce standardized mechanisms to simplify the provisioning and configuration of Wi-Fi devices. Wi-Fi Easy Connect incorporates strong encryption using public key cryptography to ensure that networks remain secure as new devices are added. This will allow us to connect the devices easily and safely.

Also interoperability with a wide variety of device types from multiple vendors is important in an Internet of Things environment. In this sense, the Wi-Fi tradition is continued, which guarantees that it can work with multiple suppliers or manufacturers. Thus, the fact that HaLow Wi-Fi is a standards-based technology means that it has a high potential for seamless interoperability. Being based on specific standards that must be met, it makes all devices work correctly.

Among the devices that could use HaLow Wi-Fi are those that work in the 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz and potentially the 6 GHz Wi-Fi bands.

Advantages of HaLow Wi-Fi over other technologies

Here you have a comparative graph of transfer rate and distance of various technologies used in IoT.

In terms of range, data rate and battery life operating in the spectrum of less than 1 GHz and narrow band channels, it makes the HaLow Wi-Fi range significantly higher than other technologies. In this way, it is capable of monitoring low data rate agricultural sensor networks over a distance greater than one kilometer. Also, thanks to their power saving modes, Wi-Fi sensors can last for years on a single battery charge. So we could use smart doors, locks and electronic tags on supermarket shelves.

As for the HaLow Wi-Fi deployment costs, they include AP and client devices, plus IT resources to set up a network. There would be no recurring fees for using customer-owned network resources. With HaLow Wi-Fi, existing infrastructure networks can easily be added without adversely affecting other Wi-Fi frequency technologies.

This is a graph that Wifi Hallow compares with other technologies:

Finally, it should be noted Wi-Fi HaLow offers many possibilities and we will be able to use it in fields as diverse as industrial automation, agriculture, the home and its automation, in logistics and transport and in the development of smart cities.