Hans Mulder, associate director for research at Intel, says wireless chatter among sensors and machines “will be pervasive in 20 years.”
“The range of potential market applications is a function of how many beers you’ve had,” adds Tom Reidel, co-founder and senior vice president for business development at Millennial Net, in a New York Times article today.
Venture capitalists are getting behind start-up sensor networking companies like Millennial Net, Crossbow Technology and Ember, explains The Times.
Smart-dust proponents envision such sensors being used to monitor forests for fire, warn soldiers of dangerous substances on the battlefield and alert border guards to activity in remote areas.No one has yet come close to making components small enough for smart-dust systems. But a concept known as mesh networking has reduced the power requirements, at least theoretically, to the point where researchers expect to produce, within the next few years, networks of sensor nodes the size of postage stamps powered by coin-size lithium batteries.
In such networks, sensors would need only enough power to communicate with their neighbors. Messages would be passed along to a more powerful control station or central computer.
All this has whetted the interest of investors looking for the next big thing in technology. A market research firm in San Diego, ON World, estimated that wireless sensor networks generated less than $150 million in sales last year but will top $7 billion by 2010.
Smart Convergence, Sensors Magazine, Technology Review and Business Week say wireless sensors will slash the costs of collecting, analyzing and acting on data.
The IEEE last year approved the 802.15.4 low-rate standard for a simple, short-range wireless network whose radio components could run several years on a single battery. The ZigBee Alliance, a combination of HomeRF Lite and the 802.15.4 operates over 16 channels with data transmission rates of up to 250kbps at a range of up to 30 meters.
ZigBee’s technology is slower than 802.11b and Bluetooth, but it consumes significantly less power. It can connect up to 64,000 nodes on one network. The alliance anticipates finalizing a standard by year-end for an industry specification that will run on the 802.15.4 radio chips.
Over the next 12 months, wireless trials will move to limited deployments, in areas like environmental monitoring and meter reading, say industry observers. But the chips are arriving. Freescale Semiconductor announced two low-power, 2.45-GHz integrated radios-one for proprietary applications, the other with a full Zigbee protocol and network stack,IEEE 802.15.4 compliance and support for star and mesh topologies.
| COMPANY | TECHNOLOGY | APPLICATIONS |
| Crossbow Technology (San Jose, CA) |
Modular motes with interchangeable sensors | Environmental monitoring, security |
| Digital Sun (San Jose, CA) |
Soil-monitoring networks for smart sprinklers | Landscaping, horticulture |
| Dust (Berkeley, CA) |
Four-square-millimeter motes | Inventory tracking, surveillance |
| Ember (Boston, MA) |
Self-organizing nodes and software | Building and factory automation, defense |
| Intel (Santa Clara, CA) |
Modular motes with interchangeable sensors | Monitoring of farm, wildlife, and manufacturing sites |
| Millennial Net (Cambridge, MA) |
Dime-size, low-power nodes and software | Building automation, meter reading, supply chain management |
| Motorola Florida Research Lab (Plantation, FL) |
Self-configuring communication networks for monitoring and sensing | Agriculture, disaster relief, and asset tracking |
| Senera (Waltham, MA) |
Networked sensors of vibration, corrosion, and stress | Safety monitoring of bridges, tunnels, and roads |
| Sensicast Systems (Needham, MA) |
Mesh-networking software for sensors | Museum security, landscaping, horticulture |
| Sensoria (San Diego, CA) |
High-performance nodes and software | Defense networks, automotive and health-care systems |
| Xsilogy (San Diego, CA) |
Radios, sensors, and networking software | Industrial and equipment monitoring, heating and ventilation |
The Oregonian has today’s Wildfire Report. After Mulder gets the Earth networked, in about 20 years, we’ll contact ET.
Related Daily Wireless articles include Zigbee Gets Real, Showdown at .15, Hot Shoe, Slow Mesh Heats Up,Sensor Nets, Meshing at Intel, Oceanographic Wireless, Earthquake Monitoring, a Seattle to Portland Wireless Network Proposal, Berkeley Wireless Research Center, The Age of Steam and ZigBee’s Low Power Wireless.
