A group of researchers from NeTS (Network Technologies and Strategies) have just published a study on IEEE.802.11ah, as proposal for the future of sensor networks in different environments, in IEEE Wireless Communications Magazine journal, ranking first in the Thomson Reuters Journal Citation Reports for impact factor (IF) both in areas of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications (IF 6.524).

The need to bridge the gap between traditional mobile networks and the growing demand for wireless sensor networks has motivated the design of the new IEEE 802.11ah standard: a new commitment to wireless networks, within the WiFi family and especially adapted to communication environments based on sensors.

The study analyzes the characteristics of this new standard and its performance in several application fields: agriculture and agro-smart (water saving irrigation, pest control, monitoring animals, etc.); smart metering (meter telemetry of water, gas and electricity supplies for domestic and industrial use); and industrial automation processes (production control, quality, and process customization).

The limitations which so far had prevented WiFi networks from playing an important role in communications between low energy and processing devices (for instance, sensors) will be solved after 2016, when the standard will be ratified and IEEE 802.11ah will be available to OEM's.

M2M communications will revolutionize communication networks over the next decade

Machine to Machine (M2M) communications will revolutionize communication networks over the next decade, especially in areas as diverse as telemetry and supply control (water, gas, electricity, and heating), home automation, industrial automation, eHealth, surveillance and intelligent transport systems, etc.

Some important advantages of IEEE 802.11ah over current WiFi standard in the field of M2M communications should be outlined, such as the energy saving mechanisms that lengthen the device's lifetime, a larger area of coverage by means of using sub-1GHz frequency bands and a higher number of stations connected to a single Access Point (up to 8,191), thanks to a new scheme of hierarchical organization.

In the published study, the researchers demonstrate the energy efficiency of IEEE 802.11ah both in indoor and outdoor environments, after checking how in scenarios consisted of from tens to thousands of stations, they are able to correctly transmit more than 99.4% of their traffic while remain 'asleep' over 99% of total operating time.

In the study, originated from work on various sensor networks projects for several years (SYNCSEN, OPENCITIES, COMMONS, CISNETS, CUIDATS, KROMS and ENTOMATIC), have participated Toni Adame, Albert Bel, Boris Bellalta, Jaume Barceló and Miquel Oliver, all of them researchers from Network Technologies and Strategies research group (NeTS) of the Departament de Tecnologies de la Informació i les Comunicacions (DTIC) of UPF.

Other related news:

Open Cities: technological innovation at the service of advanced cities