On Friday 30th September 2011, we attended the launch of Neul's (http://www.neul.com/) new M2M technology. The presentations from the launch event can be found here:
Neul introduced its technology designed for M2M applications. It is designed to support tens of thousands of devices per basestation on the assumption that each device generates (or consumes) very small amounts of data at regular intervals and that latency of delivering this data is not critical. Applications include telemetry functions such as traffic light controls; street lighting control; collecting diagnostic info from cars; collecting consumption data from smart meters; collecting data from health monitors, etc. It is not a specification that could deliver media-rich data services to consumer devices such as smart phones and laptops. Each Neul base station will theoretically cover a cell with a 4Km radius. Hence, the UK could in theory be covered with 6000 Neul base stations.
The system is designed to operate at low power in a spare 8MHz TV channel, where it will potentially compete for access to the spectrum with other TVWS applications such as rural broadband. Typically several channels should be available to Weightless systems across the country so it could conceivably achieve near 100% indoor coverage. This requires use of very high out of band power masks to avoid DTT interference, as well as low power (<40mW), uplink sub-channels and channel hopping to avoid interference. Therefore more spectrum could be available for Weightless versus White Space Wi-Fi (802.11af) unless that also conform to these tight restrictions. Also, a common theme was that if certainty of performance is required, the system could be redeployed into licensed spectrum. Basically, if you want to be able to rely on the standard, you may need to have spectrum available.
Presentations from the event:
Neul – Glen Collinson, Board member
· Potential apps include remote car engine management, smart billboards, objects that tweet their location so you don’t lose them, and many more
· Presently, 2G/3G M2M module systems integration costs are high ($10 for GSM and $50 for 3G). Neul’s technology aims to reduce this substantially (sub $2 module)
· Although designed for unlicensed white space, Neul could be used in licensed spectrum
Landis & Gyr – David Lauk, Head of R&D residential meters
· Security is critical if lifetime of embedded module is 15-20 years i.e. during the this lifetime it must be ensured that the security protocol is not broken
· Power Line Carrier (PLC) is in pole position in Europe for smart metering primarily driven by the Italian deployment to all households in Italy
Itron – Tony Field, UK Marketing Manager
· Smart Grids and Smart Metering lies at the boundary of the slow moving energy industry and the fast moving telecoms industry
· EDF in France is focused on PLC for smart metering. Also, PLC has been deployed across Italy and is due to be deployed in Spain. PLC could become a de facto standard for Europe, other than in the UK where the regulatory environment (networks and retailers are split) does not encourage it.
C&W – Amy Cooke, Director of Smart Utilities
· The Smart Grid market in the UK is a £200M ICT sales opportunity
· C&W sees hybrid access networks for Smart Metering – no one solution is good enough.
ARM – Gary Atkinson, Director of Embedded Marketing
· Sees Neul capable of covering cellular “black spots”
Neul – William Webb, CTO
· Designed for low data rates and low power
· Frame length is 2 seconds
· A super frame is broadcast every 15 minutes with additional system information. Battery operated devices expected to wake every 15 minutes and listen for the super frame.
