Why Use Application-Specific Integrated Wireless?
The promise and opportunity of wireless device connectivity is enormous. Some observers have identified the “Internet of Things” and Machine to Machine Communications as being bigger and more impactful than the explosion of the internet itself. Will your product and market be impacted? Almost certainly.
[right_text_box]5 Myths of Zigbee1. Low Power – Yes, compared with Bluetooth or wifi, but nowhere near what can be achieved.
2. Low Cost – Zigbee modules typically cost 5-10x a custom RF solution. Even with custom Zigbee electronics, the large software footprint adds costs.
3. ‘Easy’ low cost NRE – fine tuning Zigbee can take almost as much effort as designing from scratch.
4. Ad-hoc, self healing – not “out of the box” – complex management needed.
5. Long Range – at a price (power, extra nodes), hampered by poor 900MHz availability.
[/right_text_box]So, you’re thinking of adding a wireless to your product. Maybe you’re considering direct Wi-Fi or cellular but, because of power usage, cost or other reasons, those are just not practical solutions and so you’re evaluating local wireless data networks.
Your next decision is typically: “use an off-the-shelf standard or module ( like Zigbee, Bluetooth, ANT, Z-wave or one of dozens of other standards) or design a proprietary system?”
The ease of implementation of standards or modules is alluring, but the product cost and design/performance compromises are not. Ask yourself “why are there so many wireless data network standards?” Because standard are necessarily compromises, and therein lies the rub: you will not achieve a truly optimized solution. And the problem is that this leaves the door open for a competitor to do a better job. There are only two good reasons to use a module or standard: interoperability (though it’s often better attain this through a gateway); or that high product cost and performance shortfalls are acceptable (e.g. low volumes).[left_text_box]
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In all other cases you should consider a proprietary design.
Venture’s RFOS addresses the gap between off-the-shelf and fully custom by offering the best of both worlds. Starting with your application requirements and RFOS’ library of building blocks, we design a solution that uses the right existing parts for the solution and then custom design only the new parts that are novel to your application. We do this right on your product’s microprocessor. You get the market beating performance and low cost that you need without the development overhead of a full custom design. And because our building blocks have been FCC approved on multiple products, certification is a breeze.
