Posted on Friday, May 28th, 2010 at 1:28 pm
The newly released study, “WTRS Low Power Embedded WiFi Emerging Technology Report”, reviews and analyzes the existing and proposed applications for Low Power Embedded WiFi components. “The market for wireless sensor network technologies remains quite fragmented with a combination of open and proprietary approaches used to address a variety of applications,” according to Kirsten West, PhD, principal analyst with WTRS. “Of these, low power embedded WiFi is perhaps the most interesting due to the adaptation of existing WiFi protocols building on the installed base of WiFi networks that can be used as a connecting infrastructure for low power embedded WiFi installations.” There are significant benefits to the use of Low Power Embedded WiFi in wireless sensor networks. The first of these is the obvious connectivity within existing WiFi networks in a given application space. In the current economic environment, Low Power Embedded WiFis reuse of existing WiFi infrastructures offers a key cost savings over installation of other WSNs based on 802.15.4 or ZigBee. Additionally, the built-in Internet Protocol connectivity enables much easier network deployment and management as well as the use of more well known development and management tools. Proposed applications for Low Power Embedded WiFi sensor networks include Healthcare, Industrial, Building Automation, Smart Grid Utilities, Residential, Transportation, and even potentially consumer electronics remote control products.
