Some things you need to see to believe! Like over 1000 IoT end nodes mesh networking right in front of you. Well, it looks like Wirepas have proven their bold claim of highest mesh densities for hyperscale IoT…
In another interview with the hosts of Wirepas OPEN 2024, ipXchange chats with Jari and Jouni for a live demonstration of just how dense Wirepas’ mesh networks can get. The setup: over a thousand end nodes all packed into a rack unit measuring just 1 cubic metre in volume!
As Jari explains, this demo uses Wirepas’ 2.4-GHz mesh networking protocol and makes for a great proof-of-concept for, say, an asset-tracking system in a warehouse. In such an application, asset tracking tags are extremely closely packed, so your system must be able to recognise and monitor each tag individually. This is where Wirepas mesh networking has a distinct advantage over, say, traditional Bluetooth mesh networking – scalability.
That said, 2.4 GHz is the band shared by Bluetooth, so you can still gain the affordability benefits of this widespread technology. All you need is to use a chipset that supports Wirepas’ protocol stack, such as those by Nordic and Silicon Labs. This means low cost for asset tracking tags, which is exactly what you want when you need millions of them in a warehouse!
Of course, you need a great platform to be able to monitor those asset tags, so Jouni shows us Wirepas’ latest tool. This enables you to autonomously manage your IoT nodes, visualise your network, and send Over-The-Air (OTA) updates. Note that this is more of a tool for use after your mesh network is deployed rather than a tool for developers.
Wirepas’ dashboard provides alerts, gateway and network reliability, the location of nodes on a map, the mesh network topology, gateway traffic, and much more. You can even see the mesh connections and key performance parameters for each individual node.
To get started, all you need to do is apply for a Wirepas mesh licence – using the link to the board page below – and Wirepas will supply you with everything you need to get started, including binaries for the hardware and the backend tools for your application. Wirepas currently has this tool available for smart metering and smart tracking for the 5G mesh and 2.4-GHz mesh networking protocols respectively.
Keep designing!
Want to see more from Wirepas OPEN 2024? Check out these other interviews on mesh networking and IoT:
Superior smart metering with Wirepas connectivity