AMNYTT Nr 5 - 2012 | Page 33

ARC Rapport 33 / 93 ARC View, Page 3 AMNYTT # 5 networks. This includes 6LoWPAN-compressed IPv6 networks. It also supports the synchronized TDMA network properties used in industrial low-power applications (e.g., WirelessHART and ISA100.11a). Finally, 15.4e accommodates extensions, so that these diverse networks (as well as future ones) can extend the standard MAC without violating the standard itself. This decouples WSN development from the three to four year long IEEE standards development process. It will give the IEEE standard greater value and a much longer life, enable greater interoperability among WSN silicon and network stacks, and enable future WSN technologies to leverage an existing and fully standard MAC. Dust Networks and 15.4e The new standard incorporates many of the technology enhancements that Dust Networks discovered and championed from its earliest days, and has continued to use right through the newest SmartMesh WH and SmartMesh IP products. But the new standard was developed not only from Dust’s technology but also with extensive and enthusiastic contributions from many major suppliers, notably including Siemens. Dust now employs its most recent chip design (which conforms to 15.4e) in both WirelessHART and IPv6 products. Using the latest chipset is a big benefit for the WirelessHART (industrial) customers, since Dust has driven down the power consumption of its chipsets by roughly 50 percent with each new generation. In battery powered industrial devices, this provides an “energy surplus” ena &Ɩ