Next-Gen Wi-Fi Standard Faces Hurdles in 'Crowded and Fragmented' Smart Home Space, Says ABI
The emerging low-power IEEE 802.11ah Wi-Fi standard faces challenges as it attempts to address the limitations of existing 802.11 technologies, said a report released Wednesday by ABI Research. Annual 802.11ah IC chipset shipments are forecast to reach just 11 million units by 2020, with the first chipsets forecast to hit the market next year, ABI said.
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Energy consumption and coverage are two Wi-Fi limitations 802.11ah will address for large-scale wireless sensor networking, IoT and machine-to-machine (M2M) applications, ABI said. The 802.11ah standard, operating in the sub 1-GHz license-exempt bands, offers longer range than 2.4- and 5-GHz technologies and power-saving mechanisms in the PHY and MAC layers to support “several years” of battery life, said ABI. The 802.11ah standard also supports up to 8,191 devices per access point and in extended range mode delivers 150 kbps throughout at a distance of one kilometer, ABI said.
Although the enhancements make 802.11ah attractive to markets including the smart home, healthcare, fitness, automation and control, it's facing competition from the “increasingly crowded and fragmented IoT connectivity space,” said the research company. Lack of compatibility is also a challenge for the latest Wi-Fi standard because unlike previous Wi-Fi versions that were backward-compatible, 802.11ah-enabled products will require a separate gateway or new access point with an 802.11ah radio. “This puts it in direct competition with other technologies such as ZigBee and Thread,” said ABI. Strong and well-established low-power, low-cost connectivity technologies are already available, so tri-band devices supporting sub-1GHz, 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz technologies will need to come to market fast if 802.11ah "is to have any chance of success,” said analyst Andrew Zignani.
Recent delays in the standards development process will also need to be quickly resolved in order to ensure that 802.11ah, already “late to the party,” has a chance of gaining a foothold, said Zignani. With Bluetooth and 802.15.4 technologies such as ZigBee and Thread gaining momentum in the smart home and other verticals IoT segments, “it is becoming increasingly clear that any remaining issues will need to be quickly resolved in order to ensure that the window of opportunity for 802.11ah, which is already closing very rapidly, does not slam shut altogether,” said Zignani.
When 802.11ah does hit the market, it will lag behind the latest developments in stand-alone chipsets, combo ICs, and IoT platforms from competitors “and likely at a higher cost,” Zignani said.