Personal area network, la radio a cortissima distanza

La visione di un mondo pervaso di oggetti dotati di un forma di intelligenza digitale, capacità di rilevamento ambientale (sensori) e funzioni di trasmissione o ricetrasmissione via radio di dati sta gradualmente assumento la concretezza di uno scenario futuribile ma non fantascientifico. Uno studio di ABI Research, società di analisi di mercato specializzata nelle applicazioni wireless, parla delle prospettive economiche del silicio rivolto a un nuovo standard di rete, una evoluzione della famiglia Ethernet utilizzata per l'interconnessione di sensori, dispositivi di elettronica di consumo (per esempio telecomandi) e altro ancora (per esempio infrastrutture per la gestione intelligente delle reti di distribuzione elettrica e il metering). Lo standard è regolato dall'IEEE con la sigla 802.15.4 per "personal area network" e "short range" che sta diventando la base di specifiche come ZigBee, WirelessHART e MiWi. I chip per questi dispositivi varranno nell'insieme mezzo miliardo di dollari entro 5 anni e si prevedono numerose applicazioni.

Underpinning a New Era of Standardized Wireless PANs, 802.15.4 Is Set for Strong Growth

LONDON - April 7, 2009

The market for IEEE 802.15.4 semiconductors, in both consumer electronics and commercial markets, is set for significant growth over the next five years as the standard becomes the foundation for a host of applications and systems.
That growth will see 802.15.4 chipset shipments grow from nearly 15 million in 2008 to nearly 499 million in 2014 — a CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 79.6% over the period.
“Vendors across a range of industry verticals and applications are taking advantage of the availability of standardized 802.15.4 semiconductors to build their own proprietary and increasingly standardized equipment and systems,” says ABI Research principal analyst Jonathan Collins. The firm has just released a new study examining the potential for 802.15.4 semiconductors.
To date, the 802.15.4 market has grown steadily, based on proprietary point-to-point solutions and some ZigBee-based AMI infrastructure trials. Now 802.15.4 is also set to underpin a new generation of consumer electronics remote control solutions, developed by the RF4CE Consortium and recently rolled into the ZigBee Alliance. In addition, AMI trials and a growing interest in smart energy and utility management heralds a move towards full-scale smart energy solution rollouts.
While 802.15.4 will help drive broader standardization, the low-level nature of the physical and MAC layer specification will continue to provide a lower cost building block for many proprietary applications that can be hosted on 802.15.4 silicon. In fact while industry standard adoption will foster significant growth, proprietary markets will continue to account for the bulk of the market through 2014 although their dominance will recede greatly over the period.
”The 802.15.4 Chipset Market” provides insight into the 802.15.4 IC market dynamics and opportunities, and includes forecast data for unit shipments, average selling prices, and revenue to 2013. Additionally, it highlights the leading early adopter vertical markets, and forecasts 802.15.4 adoption among several different wireless sensor network verticals.