Shubham Sawarkar
To boost wifi IoT applications, the WiFi Alliance has certified the HaLow WiFi standard for products integrating IEEE 802.11ah technology.
Wifi HaLow uses the sub-1GHz band to provide long-range, low-power connectivity while maintaining a stable connection in challenging wifi situations. It should enable a variety of innovative, power-efficient IoT and industrial IoT use cases, as well as retail, agriculture, healthcare, smart home, and smart city markets.
HaLow provides a low-power connection for applications such as sensors, personal wearable devices, and utility meters that require long-term battery life. It supports applications such as streaming compressed video from security cameras, even in locations where the capacity to penetrate walls or other barriers in order to provide a reliable connection is critical.
HaLow delivers data at ranges exceeding one kilometer in agriculture and logistics monitoring applications where long-range is a priority. It uses existing WiFi protocols to provide many of the features that consumers have come to expect from WiFi, such as multi-vendor interoperability, robust WPA3 security, ease of setup, and seamless IP network integration.
“WiFi certified HaLow further extends wifi’s leading role in IoT to address a new range of secure and interoperable use cases that require longer range and lower power,” said Edgar Figueroa, CEO of the Wifi Alliance. “WiFi HaLow is a compelling addition to the WiFi portfolio, making the full range of WiFi capabilities an unmatched connectivity offering. There are growing opportunities to streamline connectivity in the growing IoT market, and WiFi HaLow builds on a universally trusted wifi foundation to pave the way for emerging IoT applications to benefit homes, businesses and industries.”
For a wide range of IoT applications, the WiFi Alliance has a portfolio of technologies that deliver low power, high performance, and secure WiFi. For commercial, industrial, and residential IoT applications requiring rapid data rates and low latency, such as AR, VR, home security with high-resolution video feeds, medical telemetry monitoring, and remote surgery, WiFi Certified 6 is a strong companion to WiFi HaLow.
WiFi Certified Easy Connect simplifies the process of connecting devices to WiFi networks, including numerous IoT devices with minimal user interfaces, while maintaining high-security standards.
WPA3 is supported by all WiFi Certified devices, which provides security procedures to protect sensitive data and provide robust user protections.
“WiFi HaLow devices such as security cameras and tablets are being used in industrial environments today, and we expect devices to soon make their way to smart home environments allowing consumers to take advantage of its longer range and lower power for applications such as battery-powered cameras, video baby monitors and other smart home products,” said Phil Solis, research director at IDC. “Companies have been working on WiFi HaLow chipsets for years and we expect shipments to break ten million in 2022, with adoption expanding from industrial to include smart home, smart city and retail markets.”
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