The Platform In-depth

WAVE2M is more than a wireless technology: it is an emerging wireless standard for ultra-low-power long-range mesh networks. Field-tested WAVE2M technology provides machine-to-machine connections and network services for autonomous devices with extremely limited battery resources.

WAVE2M is well suited to situations where requirements include a high link budget to attain acceptable operating range in real world environments to compensate for bad propagation conditions (e.g., hard-to-reach places, signal attenuation, low power transmission, poor quality antenna). A key differentiating factor of WAVE2M technology is that it is not an application-oriented protocol, which means that the lower-level WAVE2M solution can support a variety of popular higher-level standards and proprietary protocols. With more than two million units up and running in small, medium, and large-scale wireless mesh networks around the world, WAVE2M technology is already addressing the specific characteristics and needs of today's smart sensor and long range UHF RFID environments. WAVE2M adopters are building innovative products in these categories:

Automatic meter management and remote data monitoring
Home and building automation
Industrial automation, telemetry, and traceability applications
RFID for personal tagging and track & trace systems
Security and alarms

WAVE2M Operation

WAVE2M offers worldwide operation across major license-free ISM bands, and complies with the following regulatory standards:

868 MHz (EU EN300-220) with strict duty cycle regulation
915 MHz (US FCC15-247, 15-249) ñ signal spreading mandatory
433 MHz (Asia) as straightforward extension (no duty cycle restriction)

WAVE2M data rates are programmable, from a few to a hundred kilobytes per second. Most WAVE2M applications use low data rates (typically, 19.2-38.4 kbps), with faster rates when larger amounts of data are required. The low data rate enables the use of narrowband (and highly sensitive) receivers, with a high link budget, resulting in long-range radio coverage and satisfactory operating ranges.

WAVE2M maximizes the radio link budget between devices in order to compensate for bad propagation conditions and signal attenuation indoors, and to compensate for poor antenna gain resulting from tiny footprint design and mandatory low-cost solutions. Among other things, this makes it possible to enable wireless communication in hard-to-reach devices without repeater nodes.

WAVE2M networks are not limited in size, they can range from just a few devices to several hundreds. However, time-critical applications by their very nature limit cluster size (due to TDMA management when feedback is required after a broadcast command). Nevertheless, a high number of devices can be achieved using time-shifted cluster-tree topology within remotely-monitored fixed networks. With WAVE2M, wireless monitoring can be performed from fixed access points and/or from portable or mobile devices. As a result, WAVE2M networks can be operated in many scenarios: over LANs (local area networks), via modem, through Compact Flash or SD cards in handheld terminals or PDAs, or by WAN (wide area network) GSM fixed network monitoring.

Performance

WAVE2M offers the highest possible performance over the full lifetime of a device (more than 15 years for the most critical), enabled by smart mechanisms such as: