Abstract
Description
This report is about automatically monitoring forest fires, country wide
utility equipment, aircraft, hospitals and much more over wide areas,
something previously impossible. It is becoming possible thanks to the new
Wireless Sensor Networks WSN otherwise known as Ubiquitous Sensor Networks
USN. Uniquely, these employ so-called "mesh networking" of tags to provide
massive scalability - a small system is easily made into a very large one. The
new systems are also exceptionally fault tolerant, easy to install and they
are increasingly affordable compared with previous forms of active RFID ie
RFID where there is a battery in the tag to enhance performance. Indeed, they
often subsume the functions of traditional active RFID and Real Time Locating
Systems RTLS. The new WSN are even uniquely tolerant of the hardware being
moved and some are remotely reconfigurable.
So what is a mesh network? Think of the electronic equivalent of party guests
passing on the message that a child is missing until that child is found -
many short range communications, in many directions - like a mesh - add up to
finding the child further away. All those people were able to pass on a
message in an ad hoc network that dissolved when its task is done. In the
electronic equivalent, WSN can form ad hoc networks where many small ranges
add up to a big one thus permitting the tags to be much smaller, lower cost
and more reliable than would otherwise be the case. However, here the network
operates without human intervention. It performs its tasks silently and
automatically.
Many now refer to traditional active RFID as First Generation. Examples of
this include the device that opens your car from a distance and the device in
your car windshield that uses a battery to incur and record non-stop tolling
charges. Another example is the widespread tracking of military supplies and
assets by electronically recording when they have been near an electronic
device that reads the tag using radio waves. Real Time Location Systems RTLS,
that continuously interrogate the tag from a distance, are called Second
Generation active RFID and WSN is called Third Generation because it works in
yet another completely different manner to provide its unique benefits.
Most commonly, these three generations address different markets and use
different frequencies and standards. First Generation has been around for
about 60 years, RTLS for about 12 years and USN, in fully functional form, is
only now becoming available. However, only Second Generation (RTLS) and Third
Generation ( WSN) have the potential to become multibillion dollar businesses.
While there are many academic texts about WSN dealing with the highly complex
technical challenges of producing these systems, readable material putting
such systems in context, including forecasting their rollout and commercial
opportunity are few and far between, so the present report covers these
aspects without being excessively technical. That said, some technical
background would help the reader to more readily grasp the concepts.
Uniquely, this report new goes into depth on WSN from a global, commercial
viewpoint. We examine a large number of potential applications of WSN
including intelligent buildings, military deployments, body monitoring and the
ultimate supply chain where the location and condition of everything is known
all the time. (RTLS will eventually be affordable and technically appropriate
for use in major supply chains where it will locate things from a distance in
real time but, unlike WSN, they will not comprehensively monitor condition or
have the other advantages that attributed to WSN)
In this report, we show how, for the more demanding potential applications,
sensing, information theory, transmission and detection, networking, control
theory, system theory, enterprise software and middleware all need to be
improved and that is why countries such as Japan and Korea have very broad
ranging WSN programs (often referred to as USN), involving both government and
industry, to improve all these aspects. Only then will the market need of
deployment of billions of tags in the larger applications become a reality. A
wide variety of business opportunities are now becoming available.
We analyse the technologies, standards, development programs, impediments to
rollout and other aspects of USN. Most of these companies are not involved in
the earlier generations of active RFID or they are minimally involved, though
some are using skills in RTLS to progress to WSN. Others are seeking to apply
mass production skills in allied technologies. For example, in late 2008,
Toppan Forms in Japan, part of the $12 billion Toppan Printing, told us that
its strategic plan now involved USN/WSN. It can leverage its skills in printed
electronics and data management. Others wish to leverage their skills in
software and hardware for sensing. IDTechEx notes that it is largely
completely different companies that are in the lead in the three generations
of active RFID and this may continue.
Progress is now rapid and the much smaller size of the latest WSN tags is one
indication of this. While the original concept was for billions or even
trillions of tags the size of dust, the first ten years of development of USN
has more often seen expensive tags, some the size of a videotape or, more
recently, palm sized. However, further miniaturisation and cost reduction are
now imminent.
Report Statistics
- Pages 240
- Tables 24
- Figures 113
- Forecasts to 2019
- Last update Nov 2008
| 
View Cart
