The Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) has announced that Wi-Fi HaLow is ready for smart home and commercial IoT deployments across a range of verticals and use cases. Wi-Fi HaLow is designed for long-range and low-power connectivity and is based on the 802.11ah standard.
The WBA has released a white paper that provides an overview of the features, expected use cases, and markets for Wi-Fi HaLow. The benefits of Wi-Fi HaLow include extended ranges, improved penetration capabilities, extended battery life, enhanced device density, heightened peak throughput, minimized end-to-end delay, a higher level of security, ease of installation and management, and elevated data throughput in IoT scenarios. Wi-Fi HaLow can deliver up to 78 Mbps capacity over short distances, and up to 150Kbps is achievable at up to 1km. WiFi HaLow is expected to become a compelling alternative to LoRaWAN, Zigbee, Bluetooth Low Energy, and even narrowband-IoT (NB-IoT).
WBA is now planning to test 802.11ah Wi-Fi HaLow solutions in real-world use cases with contributing industry members. These include Smart Home, Smart City, Building Automation, Smart Retail, Industrial IoT, and Agriculture Technology. The WBA white paper on Wi-Fi HaLow can be downloaded here.
The Wi-Fi HaLow release follows right on the heels of Wi-Fi 7’s launch in January. One major difference between the two protocols is that Wi-Fi 7 operates on the familiar 2.4GHz, 5.0GHz, and 6.0GHz frequencies, while Wi-Fi HaLow operates below 1 GHz.
More information on Wi-Fi 7 is available here.
Image: Wireless Broadband Alliance
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