Weightless SIG Announces Newest Company to Join its Ranks

The Weightless Special Interest Group recently announced that an industrial, scientific, and medical (ISM) spectrum vendor has joined its ranks in order to help accelerate the development of the Weightless-N open connectivity standard.

According to information concerning the announcement from Wireless Magazine, NWave Technologies is that vendor, and as of the final full week of October, it will officially be a contributor to the Weightless-N specification. NWave provides technologies for the Internet of Things that allows device connections within ISM bands below 1GHz—specifically, 868 MHz in Europe and 900 MHz in the U.S.

William Webb, CEO of the Weightless SIG, commented on the inclusion of NWave and the future of the Weightless-N standard.

"We are delighted to welcome NWave Technologies Limited to the Weightless SIG," Webb said. "NWave is a leader in IoT over ISM spectrum and the company's deep technical experience in LPWAN connectivity will make a significant contribution to the rapid development of Weightless-N.

"Bringing proven capability from an existing technology provider to the SIG and merging it with the expertise already established within the group will accelerate the development of Weightless-N as the leading global open standard for machine connectivity over license exempt spectrum," he continued.

Jonathan Wiggin, CEO of NWave Technologies added that he expects the SIG working groups to complete the standard by the early part of 2015. Weightless-N will use ultra-narrow band technology to build upon the successes that Weightless has seen with its previous work, including Weightless-W.

Weightless-W operates in the TV white space spectrum. Wireless-N will operate within frequencies much lower than that and will allow simple terminal hardware that uses the specification to launch for only about $2. It will also allow terminal devices to operate for up to 10 years on a single AA battery. The range of signals can reach five kilometers in urban areas and up to 30 kilometers in rural areas with the use of an external antenna.

As TMC has reported, there is only so much bandwidth to go around. The IoT continues to expand at an overwhelming rate, and the number of connected devices is set to triple within the next three years. Therefore, it is demanding as much bandwidth as anything else. Weightless-N, set to deploy next year, could be what the IoT market is looking for because it spares the strain on mobile networks such as 3G, 4G, and LTE and allows M2M devices to operate with very low power consumption.