DigiKey-emag-IoT-Vol-2

Wireless connectivity allows designers to turn dumb products into smart, integrated elements of the Internet of Things (IoT) that can send data to the Cloud for artificial intelligence (AI)-based analysis while allowing devices to receive over-the-air (OTA) instructions, firmware updates, and security enhancements. But adding a wireless link to a product is not trivial. Before the design phase can even start, designers need to choose a wireless protocol, which can be daunting. For example, several wireless standards operate in the popular, license-free 2.4GHz spectrum. Each one of these standards represents a trade-off in terms of range, throughput, and power consumption. Selecting the best one for a given application requires careful evaluation of its requirements against a protocol’s characteristics. Then, even with highly integrated modern transceivers, designing the radio frequency (RF) circuit is a challenge for many design teams, leading to cost and schedule overruns. Moreover, an RF product will need to be certified for operation, which in itself can be an involved, complex, and time- consuming process. One solution is to base the design on a certified module that uses a multiprotocol system-on- chip (SoC). This eliminates the complexity of RF design with

discrete components and allows for flexibility in the choice of wireless protocol. This module approach presents designers with a drop- in wireless solution, making it much easier to integrate wireless connectivity into products and pass certification. This article considers the benefits of wireless connectivity, looks at the strengths of some key 2.4GHz wireless protocols, briefly analyses hardware design issues, and introduces a suitable RF module from Würth Elektronik. The article also discusses the certification process required to satisfy global regulations, considers application software development, and introduces a software development kit (SDK) to help designers get started with the module. The advantages of multiprotocol transceivers No single short-range wireless sector dominates because each makes trade-offs to satisfy their target applications. For example, greater range and/or throughput comes at the cost of increased power consumption. Other important factors to consider are interference immunity, mesh networking capability, and Internet protocol (IP) interoperability. Of the various established short- range wireless technologies, there are three clear leaders: Bluetooth Low Energy (Bluetooth LE), Zigbee, and Thread. They

share some similarities due to a shared DNA from the IEEE 802.15.4 specification. That specification describes physical (PHY) and media access control (MAC) layers for low data rate wireless personal area networks (WPANs). The technologies generally operate at 2.4GHz, although there are some sub-GHz variants of Zigbee. Bluetooth LE is suited to IoT applications such as smart home sensors where data transmission rates are modest and occur infrequently (Figure 1). Bluetooth LE’s interoperability with the Bluetooth chips hosted by most smartphones is also a big advantage for consumer- oriented applications such as wearables. Key downsides to the technology are the requirement for an expensive and power-hungry gateway to connect to the Cloud and clunky mesh networking capabilities. Zigbee is also a good choice for low power and low throughput applications in industrial automation, commercial, and the home. Its throughput is lower than Bluetooth LE, while its range and

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