What’s the Frequency, Kenneth?

The Wireless IoT Forum, the body working to accelerate the wide-scale adoption of wireless wide-area networking technologies devoted to the Internet of Things (IoT), has issued a call to national telecom regulators such as Ofcom and the FCC to dedicate bandwidth to ensure the monetization and long-term sustainability of IoT networks and services.

“It is clear the Internet of Things is a key technology to boost productivity, alleviate key societal challenges, improve our working lives and to deliver growth and employment.”

At present, available bands do not meet the needs of large-scale IoT deployment in that power restrictions can be challenging, there are often duty cycle constraints as low as one percent, bands are fragmented around the world and interference levels can be high or risk becoming high because any type of applications and technologies can use the bands. 

Furthermore, problems can arise because all traffic on an IoT network has to go through a small number of base stations or network relay points and these are subject to the same regulatory constraints as any other device operating in unlicensed spectrum.

If current growth trends continue, a profusion of wide-area IoT networks will results in many thousands of IoT devices per cell. The WIoTF believes that to communicate with these devices the cells will need at least:

  • Sufficient power to deliver a range of up to 5km
  • The ability to have an uplink/downlink balance that is flexible, extending to applications that are predominantly downlink as well as those that are predominantly uplink
  • Reasonable freedom from interference
  • A small number of frequencies spanning a relatively narrow band that are available globally

This is no small issue. Like the AC versus DC debate in the 19th century, or the VHS and Beta controversy at the dawn of video cassette recorders, thousands may stay on the sidelines waiting for a dominant format to emerge. 

Dedicated, high-frequency spectrum that’s globally recognized and regulated will be essential to create production ready IoT devices that work in a global marketplace.

“It is clear the Internet of Things is a key technology to boost productivity, alleviate key societal challenges, improve our working lives and to deliver growth and employment,” said William Webb, WIoTF CEO. “For these reasons it merits a higher level of regulatory attention than many other wireless applications. We would like to see regulators dedicate bands in the range 800MHz-1000MHz to IoT applications, thus overcoming interference issues. Where IoT is deployed in general purpose unlicensed bands we would like to see 'light licensing' approaches for base stations removing duty cycle restrictions and enabling higher power levels.”

The forum’s mandate is to remove fragmentation and drive consolidation around a minimal set of standards for both licensed and license-exempt wireless solutions; developing a clear set of requirements through engagement with vertical end-users, and a clear use-case driven roadmap for the eco-system of technology companies, apps developers and operators.

About the Wireless IoT Forum

The Wireless IoT Forum aims to drive the deployment of the Internet of Things worldwide by reducing fragmentation and through the promotion of open standards. The Forum has been created to encourage the widespread adoption of wireless wide-area networking technologies in both licensed and unlicensed spectrum. It will work with key stakeholders from across the value chain to agree requirements that inform and accelerate standards development and deployments. The Forum’s board includes: Accenture, Arkessa, BT, Cisco, Telensa and WSN. For further information visit www.wiotf.org.