The document discusses the limitations of existing wireless standards like 3G and LTE, particularly highlighting their high costs, power consumption, and inability to support millions of low-value connections needed for IoT applications. It introduces the Weightless standard as a solution designed specifically for low power, low-cost connectivity targeted at machine-to-machine communication, enabling extensive sensor network deployments in smart cities. The progress of the Weightless initiative is noted, with increasing membership and hardware availability anticipated to facilitate large-scale deployment trials.

1. why does the world need another
wireless standard?
alan woolhouse
diciembre 2013
la laguna, tenerife
CONFIDENTIAL Weightless | www.weightless.com
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2. What’s wrong with 3G/LTE?
 Why low-cost/power is important

10s of billions of connections of very low value

remote sensors must be wireless, must be battery operated
 Why cellular cannot deliver the connectivity

high cost spectrum

high cost terminal hardware

high cost base station hardware

high cost deployment (vs off-grid)

high cost operation (spectrum amortisation / ARPU)

high power terminals because of sophisticated processing

high bandwidth protocol demands processing power

high power terminals because of network traffic

high power terminals because of data packet overhead
CONFIDENTIAL Weightless | www.weightless.com
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3. Smart Cities
• City Wide sensor networks – the backbone of the city
• Parking and traffic management – direction to empty spaces
• ‘Smart’ Litter bins – emptied on demand
• Environmental monitoring – traffic flow control to reduce CO2
• Street Light optimization – activated by movement
• Electric Vehicle (EV) re-charging points (EVSE)
• Road condition monitoring – variable speed limits, ice gritting...
• Integrated traffic management – flow and congestion
PLEASE PARK ON L4 498
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4. Some general trends in cellular
 Cost per chip ~ 2x per generation
 Often a mix of complexity and royalty costs
 Power consumption growing per generation
 Moore’s Law improvement more than offset by added complexity
 Bill of materials may grow even faster than 2x
 MIMO antennas, multi-core processors, extra bands, etc
 Becoming more data-centric
 2G voice with data added later
 3G a mix of both, circuit and packet switched
 4G doesn’t fully support voice (being worked on)
 Reducing number of networks
 Consolidation, network sharing, outsourcing to same partner
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5. IoT barely works on 2G
 Requirements
 ~$2 per chip
 Battery life up to 10 years
 Range of 5km+ with indoor penetration
 2G
 ~$5 per chip
 Battery life up to months with care
 Range of 3km with indoor penetration
 4G
 ~$50 per chip, might fall over time
 Battery life of days
 Range probably less than 2G
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6. Synchronisation
database
Client
information /
management
system
Internet
Network
Manager
Base station
interface
Weightless specification
Air interface
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7. Weightless design principles
 Designed for machines
 Very low overhead on small packets
 Almost no signalling traffic
 Features like multiparty messages and “alert quashing”
 Designed for white space (but will work elsewhere)
 TDD
 Smart hopping, nulling and other interference mitigation
 Ubiquitous coverage implies a cellular architecture
 Deep indoor coverage with low transmit power implies spreading to extend
range
 Entirely software-based core network to lower cost
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8. Why Weightless?
 No existing standard in this space
 Technically very different from existing technologies
 Commercially very different from existing value chains
 No other technology will enable tens of billions of connections
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9. Overall progress to date
 Weightless SIG in place for over a year and published v1.0 in April 2013
 Board Members: Accenture, ARM, Vodafone, CSR, Neul
 Over 1,350 members and growing fast
 White space available in US and nearly complete in UK
 Hardware available early 2014
 The key step in enabling large-scale trials and deployments
 Multiple trial networks
 Join now as Observers - it’s free, it’s easy, it’s quick...
 Visit weightless.org
 Join the Weightless LinkedIn Group
 email me: alan.woolhouse@weightless.org
CONFIDENTIAL Weightless | www.weightless.com
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10. Overall progress to date
 Weightless SIG in place for over a year and published v1.0 in April 2013
 Board Members: Accenture, ARM, Vodafone, CSR, Neul
 Over 1,350 members and growing fast
 White space available in US and nearly complete in UK
 Hardware available early 2014
 The key step in enabling large-scale trials and deployments
 Multiple trial networks
 Join now as Observers - it’s free, it’s easy, it’s quick...
 Visit weightless.org
 Join the Weightless LinkedIn Group
 email me: alan.woolhouse@weightless.org
CONFIDENTIAL Weightless | www.weightless.com
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