"Where are we heading with Wireless Communication?" Malvern Festival of Innovation 2013

7th November 2013 2© ASH Wireless Electronics 2013

Where are we heading with

Wireless Communication?


Malvern Festival of InnovationSteve Braithwaite

Where are we heading with Wireless Communication?

47th November 2013 © ASH Wireless Electronics 2013

Bringing wireless expertise and innovation to the world’s industries


ASH Wireless We’re an electronics design consultancy

In our 13th year

Operate over a wide sector Transport

Sensing

Avionics

Scientific

Specialising in low-power wireless Usually with lots of embedded software

Close contacts at the University of Southampton

7th November 2013 6

Consumer

Energy Networks

Oil and Gas

Mining

© ASH Wireless Electronics 2013

Outline Where have we come from?

What’s happening now?

What are the trends?

Where are the limitations?

Where can we go?


Where have we come from? 1970s

Almost everything wired – phone, computers(!) Radio (as it was called then) was used by military, space, telecomms carriers, amateur, radio control,

CB (remember?) Low-power, short-range wireless limited to such as garage door-openers. DSSS modem costs $300k in

today’s money.

1980s ISM band deregulation – free for use without license Cellular radio starts to appear– from Yuppie Bricks to Razr flipphones GPS navigation, early wireless internet

1990s Wireless internet starts to be deployed, mobile phones commonplace Bluetooth standard begins drafting

2000s Wireless internet widespread, >1Bn mobile phones ISM band comms commonplace, wireless sensors deployed, Bluetooth widely used for simple tasks

(e.g. handsfree)

2012: DSSS modem costs $1


What is possible? ASH, James Bond and Batman

Clients arrive with interesting expectations!

What is improving, what isn’t?


Trends and Physics Up:

Miniaturisation 10um to 10nm in 45 years:

1 million x denser Ics

Interconnectivity, web, cloud

Affordability: 100,000 x in 40 years?

Device convergence Smartphones

Device performance/cost 60GHz RF devices, 1Gb/s data rates

Rising Battery density approx x3 in 40 years…

Static Radio range

Battery life of handheld devices...

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_device_fabrication


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semiconductor_device_fabrication

Limits on Range – not much to improve on

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TkN

ERPGGL

PG

PGL

bTRTdB

RR

TT

0

)(

The link loss equation:

The larger the link loss, The greater the range

0, if we need omnidirectional

antennasLimited by regulations

Design choiceHigher bit rate,

shorter range

Approx 10dBmore complexitylowers to about

0dB, no lessFundamental

constant

Limit of 290K, Normally ≈1000


Standards and the Market Standards can drive market acceptance

Multiple sources

Good fundamental design

Created by: Government (e.g GSM)

Industry collaboration (e.g. Bluetooth, Zigbee)

Academic-Industry debate (e.g. Wireless networking – 802.11 xxx, 802.15.4)

Successful? If it meets the true need

Many do – 802.11 (WiFi), Bluetooth, and watch Bluetooth Smart

Some don’t – Zigbee is not a do-everything wireless sensor standard

Huge boost if it ends up in a Smartphone – now 50% of ‘phones’ sold...


The Low Power Wireless Standards Universe

Institution and Industry Sponsored (IEEE) The WiFi alliance – 802.11 a to ad, and incrementing

802.15.4, physical layer, carrying Zigbee, IP6LoPAN, Wireless Hart

Industry Groups (now also as IEEE standard) Bluetooth: regular (now at v4, high bit rates coming), and Smart (was Low Power)

Bluetooth Smart – designed to convey small data and state. No streaming. Efficient battery life.

Sponsored Standards EnOcean – for energy-harvested power sources – very energy transmissions

IQRF – Sub-GHz Meshed networking

Ultra-wide band for tracking

Proprietary protocols Many, designed to be ‘lighter’ than the standards, lower cost, or niche performance

DIY Plenty of ISM-band devices and modules to craft special designs


Limitations of Standards Push to include many features:

Standards growth

Stack size growth

Often not a good fit to some requirements Energy-harvesting systems – require cut-down and specific protocols

Finger-piezo-powered light switches

Battery–based relaying networks, optimised for sensor data collection

So other standards emerge Sometimes based around original proprietary protocols


The iPhone phenomenon Smartphones are a hugely attractive user platform

Already paid for handset Updateable software Integrated sensors and comms, powerful processing and user interface We can concentrate on remote device design

But A slave to the smartphone designers

Operating system Radio performance

Many, many variations – iOS, Android, Windows

Apple have a large market share 13.4%, October 2013 Biggest single device share (Samsung have overall biggest share) So iPhone is often the first platform

Bluetooth Smart does not require special Apple hardware on the target to operate (standard BT does) But beware – Bluetooth is a poor cousin when it comes to smartphone real-estate. Priority is given to

Phone and WiFi, results in poorer than possible range.


Range and Location The desire:

I can detect a device, how far away is it?

With triangulation, where is it?

Easy option Signal strength can be used

Hugely variable, especially with people present and omnidirectional antennas (multipthfading)

Harder option Time-of-flight measurement. Measure round-trip time of a probing signal-request pair

c is approx. 1ns/foot. (Big number-slightly smaller number)/2 = flight time

Multipath is a key problem. Introduces large bias unless very large bandwidths are used

IEEE802.15.4 has ranging extensions, few devices available, but coming.

Most promising Use beacons and signal strength, and navigate by dead-reckoning

Google-mapping of WiFi Aps, plus MEMS accelerometers and compasses


So, where are we heading? Count on:

Increased performance in wearable devices and processing power

Lower costs of radio parts, when embedded in systems on a chip

Addition of sensors, increasing processing power

Smaller device sizes

Lower shut-down currents - use power scheduling wisely

Higher bit rates available, at the expense of range

Increased interconnection and collaboration with other devices and the Net

Do not expect: Significant improvement in tx power/sensitivity/bit rate/range – we are near the limits

(regulatory and fundamental)

Battery capacity to get greater fast, use it smarter

Can my smartphone bring in the washing? Of course, from the other side of the world if you want ....

7 November 2013 17© ASH Wireless Electronics 2013

Some interesting links BBC news from 2002 on the collapse of proprietary technology :

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2175804.stm

Commentary on Claude Shannon’s channel capacity limit: http://connectedplanetonline.com/mag/telecom_shannons_specter/

7 November 2013 18© ASH Wireless Electronics 2013

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/2175804.stm

http://connectedplanetonline.com/mag/telecom_shannons_specter/

"Where are we heading with Wireless Communication?" Malvern Festival of Innovation 2013

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Transcript of "Where are we heading with Wireless Communication?" Malvern Festival of Innovation 2013