There are a multitude of standards, protocols and wireless technologies that address an ever-increasing number of industrial and consumer applications. Some wireless systems are based on proprietary technology while others are based on global standards.

There are standards to accommodate applications requiring security, very low power consumption, high noise tolerance or enable the transfer of large amounts of data; there are also standards which provide no security and others only work effectively over small distances.

Wireless Technologies

The following are some of the more popular wireless technologies.

ZigBee

ZigBee is a short-range wireless standard, also know as IEEE 802.15.4, and has been developed for low data communication from residential through to industrial contexts. ZigBee has been developed to provide low-cost, low power, two-way wireless communications for consumer electronics, home and building automation, industrial control and medical sensor applications.

Supporting a number of networking topologies, embedded security and the ability to discover other devices, ZigBee provides a suitable choice for many industrial applications including data logging and machine control.
Internet resource: www.zigbee.org

Bluetooth

Originally created by Ericsson, Toshiba, IBM, Nokia and Intel, Bluetooth is a short-range industrial specification for wireless Personal Area Networks (PANs), also known as IEEE 802.15.1.  Bluetooth provides the ability for devices like mobile phones, laptops and digital cameras to exchange information based on a standardised interface.
The Bluetooth protocol has been designed for low power consumption, and incorporates adaptive frequency hopping spread spectrum to improve resistance to interference and increase transmission speeds.
Internet resource: www.bluetooth.org

UWB

UWB or Ultra Wide Band is a carrier-less radio technology, which was designed to deliver very high data rate communications over short distances. UWB is intended to provide an efficient use of radio resources while enabling high data rate personal-area networks (PANs) as well as low data rate connectivity over longer distances.
Ultra-wideband is capable of being used in a multitude of commercial and consumer applications ranging from wireless networks to remote sensing, tracking devices and video streaming applications.
Internet resource: www.uwbforum.org

Wi-Fi

The Wi-Fi alliance was formed in 1999 to certify interoperability of wireless Local Area Networks (LANs) based products to IEEE 802.11.
Wi-Fi was intended to be used for fixed mobile computing devices in LANs, but now is being seen in consumer electronics such as televisions, DVD players and media centres. Most implementations of Wi-Fi contain one or more Access Points, which are accessed by one or more clients using the unlicensed spectrum near 2.4GHz or 5GHz.
Increased range and faster data speeds are part of the evolution of the 802.11 standard, using MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output) and exploiting spatial diversity and various coding schemes to achieve theoretical speeds of 540 Mbit/s over distances up to 50 meters.
Internet resource: www.wi-fi.org

3G UMTS

Standing for "Universal Mobile Telecommunications System", UMTS is a mobile technology enabling the transfer of voice and data over large geographical areas. UMTS represents an evolution in terms of capacity, data speeds and new service capabilities from second generation mobile networks.

Technical work on UMTS has seen further increases in throughput speeds of the WCDMA Radio Access Network with the deployment of High Speed Downlink Packet Access (HSDPA) enabling speeds of up to 14Mbp/s and future releases enabling throughputs of 100Mbp/s.

UMTS has received overwhelming global acceptance with over 80% of mobile operators progressing down the UMTS/GSM evolutionary path. This acceptance is largely due to the ability of UMTS to enable the deployment of new services requiring high data rates, voice and mobility over a large geographical area.

Internet resource:

www.umts-forum.org
www.3gpp.org

WiMAX

World Interoperability for Microwave Access is a family of technologies based on the IEEE 802.16 wireless Metropolitan Area Network (MAN) standard, designed as an alternative to cable and DSL (Digital Subscriber Line).
WiMAX has been designed to provide fixed, nomadic, portable and eventually mobile wireless connectivity similar to technologies such as UMTS. Many network operators are closely examining WiMAX as a technology for “last mile” connectivity.

IEEE 802.16(a) uses Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) using spectrum between 2 and 66 GHz at distances up to 50km without the need for direct line of sight. WiMAX improves upon many of the limitations of the Wi-Fi standard by providing increased bandwidth, stronger encryption and limited mobility.
Internet resource:  www.wimaxforum.org

Contact Us

This list of technologies is by no mean exhaustive; if you have any questions about other communications technologies you believe would fulfil your needs then please call us to discuss its suitability for your application.

4/2 Salisbury Street,
Richmond VIC 3121
Phone +61 3 9224 6636

General Enquiries
sean.worth@procept.com.au