WIBREE TECHNOLOGY

CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

1.0 INTRODUCTION

Now a days the wireless technologies are more in use and are widely evolving. Some

of the technologies now in use are Wi-Fi, Wi-max, Zigbee, Bluetooth. Out of which

Bluetooth is most popular.

These technologies are widely used to connect the large devices like mobile phones or

personal computers. No other existing wireless technologies will connect with small button

cell battery devices so effectively. So the Nokia introduced the new radio technology called

Wibree.The recent announcement of the Wibree standard by Nokia seems to have caught the

industry unawares. The initial response of many analysts and much of the media has been to

categories it as yet another competitor in the 2.4GHz space. A significant number have

announced that it obviously just a Bluetooth killer. One of the most important aspects of

Wibree is that it envisages dual-mode chips that can support both Bluetooth and Wibree. This

symbiotic existence is key to Wibree’s market success. There will also be single-mode

Wibree chips that offer low power operation, which will enable a wide range of devices to

talk to these dual mode chips.

Every wireless standard faces a problem of achieving a critical mass of nodes if it is

going to enable mass market applications. Wi-Fi managed this on the back of laptops;

Bluetooth managed it on the back of mobile phones. So far none of the other prospective

short range wireless technologies have found a platform that will give them critical mass

within the market place. The design of Wibree is -particularly cunning as it builds in a route

to mass deployment. Because the bulk of Bluetooth chips shipped by Christmas 2008 will

include Wibree dual-mode functionality, effectively for free, it means that by the end of 2009

there could be over 100 million Wibree enabled handsets in existence.

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It is a strategy that means Wibree will redefine the speed at which a new wireless

technology can be rolled out into the market. If we look back over the last fifty years, it

typically took years for new technologies to reach their first million products in the field. It

took the color TV eight years to reach the million mark. The PC was faster, at 28 months, the

Palm Pilot set a new record at 9 months. That record for consumer products was shattered by

the iPod, which took just 17 days. Wireless technologies have had even slower gestations.

From the first to the millionth 802.11 chip took a leisurely 4 years.

Bluetooth did better, but was still a slow starter taking 17 months from the first

product to the millionth one, although it proved exceptionally active since that point, taking

just another 5 years to get to the billion mark. All existing records, both in consumer goods

and wireless technologies are set to be overturned when Wibree leaves the starting blocks.

Because of the fact that it will be integrated inside Bluetooth chips, it is likely to reach that

one million shipment milestone in just one week.

That combination of Wibree within a Bluetooth chip is vitally important in

understanding its place and the role that it can fulfill. Because low power, personal Wibree

devices will be able to communicate with handsets, it means that in time every mobile phone

becomes a Wibree gateway to the mo-bile network. So every Wibree device can

communicate with the internet, allowing information to be sent backwards and forwards. And

because the data rates are low, the cost of this data transfer will be a negligible portion of the

user’s monthly phone contract. That paradigm change will enable a wide range of additional

services that today are just too expensive for widespread deployment.

Fig. 1.1 Data transmission using wibree

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Wi-MAX:

WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a communication

technology for wirelessly delivering high-speed Internet service to large geographical areas.

The 2005 WiMAX revision provided bit rates up to 40 Mbit/s with the 2011 update of up to 1

Gbit/s for fixed stations. It is a part of a “fourth generation,” or 4G, of wireless-

communication technology. WiMax far surpasses the 30-metre (100-foot) wireless range of a

conventional Wi-Fi local area network (LAN), offering a metropolitan area network with a

signal radius of about 50 km (30 miles). The name "WiMAX" was created by the WiMAX

Forum, which was formed in June 2001 to promote conformity and interoperability of the

standard. The forum describes WiMAX as "a standards-based technology enabling the

delivery of last mile wireless broadband access as an alternative to cable and DSL". WiMax

offers data-transfer rates of up to 75 Mbit/s, which is superior to conventional cable-modem

and DSL connections. However, the bandwidth must be split among multiple users and thus

yields lower speeds in practice

WiMAX can provide at-home or mobile Internet access across whole cities or

countries. In many cases this has resulted in competition in markets which typically only had

access through an existing incumbent DSL (or similar) operator. Additionally, given the

relatively low costs associated with the deployment of a WiMAX network (in comparison

with 3G, HSDPA, xDSL, HFC or FTTx), it is now economically viable to provide last-mile

broadband Internet access in remote locations. Mobile WiMAX was a replacement candidate

for cellular phone technologies such as GSM and CDMA, or can be used as an overlay to

increase capacity. Fixed WiMAX is also considered as a wireless backhaul technology for

2G, 3G, and 4G networks in both developed and developing nations.

WiMAX has more substantial backhaul bandwidth requirements than legacy cellular

applications. Consequently the use of wireless microwave backhaul is on the rise in North

America and existing microwave backhaul links in all regions are being upgraded

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Wi-Fi:

Wi-Fi is a popular technology that allows an electronic device to exchange data

wirelessly (using radio waves) over a computer network, including high-speed Internet

connections. The Wi-Fi Alliance defines Wi-Fi as any "wireless local area network (WLAN)

products that are based on the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' (IEEE) 802.11

standards". However, since most modern WLANs are based on these standards, the term

"Wi-Fi" is used in general English as a synonym for "WLAN".

A device that can use Wi-Fi (such as a personal computer, video game console,

Smartphone, tablet, or digital audio player) can connect to a network resource such as the

Internet via a wireless network access point. Such an access point (or hotspot) has a range of

about 20 meters (65 feet) indoors and a greater range outdoors. Hotspot coverage can

comprise an area as small as a single room with walls that block radio waves or as large as

many square miles — this is achieved by using multiple overlapping access points.

Wi-Fi has had a checkered security history. Its earliest encryption system, WEP,

proved easy to break. Much higher quality protocols, WPA and WPA2, were added later.

However, an optional feature added in 2007, called Wi-Fi Protected Setup (WPS), has a flaw

that allows a remote attacker to recover the router's WPA or WPA2 password in a few hours

on most implementations. Some manufacturers have recommended turning off the WPS

feature. The Wi-Fi Alliance has since updated its test plan and certification program to ensure

all newly-certified devices resist brute-force AP PIN attacks

Wi-Fi allows cheaper deployment of local area network. Also spaces where cables

cannot be run, such as outdoor areas and historical buildings, can host wireless LANs.

Manufacturers are building wireless network adapters into most laptops. The price of chipsets

for Wi-Fi continues to drop, making it an economical networking option included in even

more devices

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Different competitive brands of access points and client network-interfaces can inter-

operate at a basic level of service. Products designated as "Wi-Fi Certified" by the Wi-Fi

Alliance are backwards compatible. Unlike mobile phones, any standard Wi-Fi device will

work anywhere in the world.

The current version of Wi-Fi Protected Access encryption (WPA2) as of 2010 is

widely considered secure, provided users employ a strong passphrase. New protocols for

quality-of-service make Wi-Fi more suitable for latency-sensitive applications (such as voice

and video); and power saving mechanisms (WMM Power Save) improve battery operation.

Limitations

A Wi-Fi signal occupies five channels in the 2.4 GHz band; any two channels whose

channel numbers differ by five or more, such as 2 and 7, do not overlap. The oft-repeated

adage that channels 1, 6, and 11 are the only non-overlapping channels is, therefore, not

accurate; channels 1, 6, and 11 are the only group of three non-overlapping channels in the

U.S.

Range

Wi-Fi networks have limited range. A typical wireless access point using 802.11b or

802.11g with a stock antenna might have a range of 32 m (120 ft) indoors and 95 m (300 ft)

outdoors., however, can exceed that range by more than two times. Range also varies with

frequency band. Wi-Fi in the 2.4 GHz frequency block has slightly better range than Wi-Fi in

the 5 GHz frequency block which is used by 802.11a. On wireless routers with detachable

antennas, it is possible to improve range by fitting upgraded antennas which have higher gain

in particular directions. Outdoor ranges can be improved to many kilometers through the use

of high gain directional antennas at the router and remote device(s). In general, the maximum

amount of power that a Wi-Fi device can transmit is limited by local regulations, such as

FCC Part 15 in the US.

Due to reach requirements for wireless LAN applications, Wi-Fi has fairly high power consumption compared to some other standards. Technologies such as Bluetooth (designed to

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support wireless PAN applications) provide a much shorter propagation range of <10m and

so in general have a lower power consumption. Other low-power technologies such as

ZigBee have fairly long range, but much lower data rate. The high power consumption of Wi-

Fi makes battery life in mobile devices a concern.

Researchers have developed a number of "no new wires" technologies to provide

alternatives to Wi-Fi for applications in which Wi-Fi's indoor range is not adequate and

where installing new wires (such as CAT-5) is not possible or cost-effective. For example,

the ITU-T G.hn standard for high speed Local area networks uses existing home wiring

(coaxial cables, phone lines and power lines). Although G.hn does not provide some of the

advantages of Wi-Fi (such as mobility or outdoor use), it's designed for applications (such as

IPTV distribution) where indoor range is more important than mobility.

Due to the complex nature of radio propagation at typical Wi-Fi frequencies,

particularly the effects of signal reflection off trees and buildings, algorithms can only

approximately predict Wi-Fi signal strength for any given area in relation to a transmitter.

This effect does not apply equally to long-range Wi-Fi, since longer links typically operate

from towers that transmit above the surrounding foliage.

Data security risks

The most common wireless encryption-standard, Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP),

has been shown to be easily breakable even when correctly configured. Wi-Fi Protected

Access (WPA and WPA2) encryption, which became available in devices in 2003, aimed to

solve this problem. Wi-Fi access points typically default to an encryption-free (open) mode.

Novice users benefit from a zero-configuration device that works out-of-the-box, but this

default does not enable any wireless security, providing open wireless access to a LAN. To

turn security on requires the user to configure the device, usually via a software graphical

user interface (GUI). On unencrypted Wi-Fi networks connecting devices can monitor and

record data (including personal information). Such networks can only be secured by using

other means of protection, such as a VPN or secure Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTPS)

over Transport Layer Security.

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BLUETOOTH :

Bluetooth is a proprietary open wireless technology standard for exchanging data over

short distances (using short-wavelength radio transmissions in the ISM band from 2400–

2480 MHz) from fixed and mobile devices, creating personal area networks (PANs) with

high levels of security. Created by telecoms vendor Ericsson in 1994, it was originally

conceived as a wireless alternative to RS-232 data cables. It can connect several devices,

overcoming problems of synchronization.

Bluetooth is managed by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, which has more than

15,000 member companies in the areas of telecommunication, computing, networking, and

consumer electronics. The SIG oversees the development of the specification, manages the

qualification program, and protects the trademarks. To be marketed as a Bluetooth device, it

must be qualified to standards defined by the SIG. A network of patents is required to

implement the technology are only licensed to those qualifying devices; thus the protocol,

whilst open, may be regarded as proprietary.

A master Bluetooth device can communicate with a maximum of seven devices in a

piconet (an ad-hoc computer network using Bluetooth technology), though not all devices

support this limit. The devices can switch roles, by agreement, and the slave can become the

master (for example, a headset initiating a connection to a phone will necessarily begin as

master, as initiator of the connection; but may subsequently prefer to be slave).

The Bluetooth Core Specification provides for the connection of two or more piconets

to form a scatternet, in which certain devices simultaneously play the master role in one

piconet and the slave role in another. At any given time, data can be transferred between the

master and one other device (except for the little-used broadcast mode). The master chooses

which slave device to address; typically, it switches rapidly from one device to another in a

round-robin fashion. Since it is the master that chooses which slave to address, whereas a

slave is (in theory) supposed to listen in each receive slot, being a master is a lighter burden

than being a slave. Being a master of seven slaves is possible; being a slave of more than one

master is difficult. The specification is vague as to required behaviour in scatternets.

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Bluetooth v1.0 and v1.0B

Versions 1.0 and 1.0B had many problems, and manufacturers had difficulty making

their products interoperable. Versions 1.0 and 1.0B also included mandatory Bluetooth

hardware device address (BD_ADDR) transmission in the Connecting process (rendering

anonymity impossible at the protocol level), which was a major setback for certain services

planned for use in Bluetooth environments.

Bluetooth v1.1

Ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2002

Many errors found in the 1.0B specifications were fixed.

Added support for non-encrypted channels.

Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI).

Bluetooth v1.2

This version is backward compatible with 1.1 and the major enhancements include the

following:

Faster Connection and Discovery

Adaptive frequency-hopping spread spectrum (AFH), which improves resistance to

radio frequency interference by avoiding the use of crowded frequencies in the

hopping sequence.

Higher transmission speeds in practice, up to 721 kbit/s, than in v1.1.

Extended Synchronous Connections (eSCO), which improve voice quality of audio

links by allowing retransmissions of corrupted packets, and may optionally increase

audio latency to provide better support for concurrent data transfer.

Host Controller Interface (HCI) support for three-wire UART.

Ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2005

Introduced Flow Control and Retransmission Modes for L2CAP.

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Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR

This version of the Bluetooth Core Specification was released in 2004 and is

backward compatible with the previous version 1.2. The main difference is the introduction

of an Enhanced Data Rate (EDR) for faster data transfer. The nominal rate of EDR is about 3

Mbit/s, although the practical data transfer rate is 2.1 Mbit/s. EDR uses a combination of

GFSK and Phase Shift Keying modulation (PSK) with two variants, π/4-DQPSK and

8DPSK. EDR can provide a lower power consumption through a reduced duty cycle.

The specification is published as "Bluetooth v2.0 + EDR" which implies that EDR is an

optional feature. Aside from EDR, there are other minor improvements to the 2.0

specification, and products may claim compliance to "Bluetooth v2.0" without supporting the

higher data rate. At least one commercial device states "Bluetooth v2.0 without EDR" on its

data sheet.

Bluetooth v2.1 + EDR

Bluetooth Core Specification Version 2.1 + EDR is fully backward compatible with

1.2, and was adopted by the Bluetooth SIG on July 26, 2007. The headline feature of 2.1 is

secure simple pairing (SSP): this improves the pairing experience for Bluetooth devices,

while increasing the use and strength of security. See the section on Pairing below for more

details. 2.1 allows various other improvements, including "Extended inquiry response" (EIR),

which provides more information during the inquiry procedure to allow better filtering of

devices before connection; and sniff subrating, which reduces the power consumption in low-

power mode.

Bluetooth v3.0 + HS

Version 3.0 + HS of the Bluetooth Core Specification was adopted by the Bluetooth

SIG on April 21, 2009. Bluetooth 3.0+HS supports theoretical data transfer speeds of up to

24 Mbit/s, though not over the Bluetooth link itself. Instead, the Bluetooth link is used

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fornegotiation and establishment, and the high data rate traffic is carried over a collocated

802.11 link.

The main new feature is AMP (Alternate MAC/PHY), the addition of 802.11 as a

high speed transport. The High-Speed part of the specification is not mandatory, and hence

only devices sporting the "+HS" will actually support the Bluetooth over 802.11 high-speed

data transfer. A Bluetooth 3.0 device without the "+HS" suffix will not support High Speed,

and needs to only support a feature introduced in Core Specification Version 3.0 or earlier

Core Specification Addendum 1.

Bluetooth v4.0

Bluetooth low energy (BLE), previously known as WiBree, is a subset to Bluetooth

v4.0 with an entirely new protocol stack for rapid build-up of simple links. As an alternative

to the Bluetooth standard protocols that were introduced in Bluetooth v1.0 to v3.0, it is aimed

at very low power applications running off a coin cell. Chip designs allow for two types of

implementation, dual-mode, single-mode and enhanced past versions. The provisional names

Wibree and Bluetooth ULP (Ultra Low Power) were abandoned and the BLE name was used

for a while. In late 2011, new logos “Bluetooth Smart Ready” for hosts and “Bluetooth

Smart” for sensors were introduced as the general-public face of BLE.

In a single mode implementation the low energy protocol stack is implemented solely.

CSR, Nordic Semiconductor and Texas Instruments have released single mode

Bluetooth low energy solutions.

In a dual-mode implementation, Bluetooth low energy functionality is integrated into

an existing Classic Bluetooth controller. Currently (2011-03) the following

semiconductor companies have announced the availability of chips meeting the

standard: Atheros, CSR, Broadcom and Texas Instruments. The compliant

architecture shares all of Classic Bluetooth’s existing radio and functionality resulting

in a negligible cost increase compared to Classic Bluetooth.

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ZIGBEE :

ZigBee is a specification for a suite of high level communication protocols using

small, low-power digital radios based on an IEEE 802 standard for personal area networks.

Applications include wireless light switches, electrical meters with in-home-displays, and

other consumer and industrial equipment that requires short-range wireless transfer of data at

relatively low rates. The technology defined by the ZigBee specification is intended to be

simpler and less expensive than other WPANs, such as Bluetooth. ZigBee is targeted at radio-

frequency (RF) applications that require a low data rate, long battery life, and secure

networking. ZigBee has a defined rate of 250 kbps best suited for periodic or intermittent data

or a single signal transmission from a sensor or input device.

ZigBee is a low-cost, low-power, wireless mesh network standard. The low cost

allows the technology to be widely deployed in wireless control and monitoring applications.

Low power-usage allows longer life with smaller batteries. Mesh networking provides high

reliability and more extensive range. ZigBee chip vendors typically sell integrated radios and

microcontrollers with between 60 KB and 256 KB flash memory.

ZigBee operates in the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands; 868 MHz

in Europe, 915 MHz in the USA and Australia, and 2.4 GHz in most jurisdictions worldwide.

Data transmission rates vary from 20 to 900 kilobits/second.

ZigBee builds upon the physical layer and medium access control defined in IEEE

standard 802.15.4 (2003 version) for low-rate WPANs. The specification goes on to complete

the standard by adding four main components: network layer, application layer, ZigBee

device objects (ZDOs) and manufacturer-defined application objects which allow for

customization and favor total integration. ZigBee is not intended to support powerline

networking but to interface with it at least for smart metering and smart appliance

purposes.Because ZigBee nodes can go from sleep to active mode in 30 ms or less, the

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latency can be low and devices can be responsive, particularly compared to Bluetooth wake-

up delays, which are typically around three seconds. Because ZigBee nodes can sleep most of

the time, average power consumption can be low, resulting in long battery life.

CHAPTER II

WIBREE EXISTANCE

2.0 INTRODUCTION

Wibree didn’t just appear from out of the blue this October. Although the current

specification is still confidential a little digging produces a lot of its history and provides a

good guide to its content.

There is an irony in the fact that the origins of Wibree were the alternative proposal

for the radio and Media Access Controller (MAC) for the 802.15.4 standard, which is now

the basis of ZigBee and other short range radio networks. Back in 2001 two industry groups

put forward proposals for the form of this radio. Nokia headed one of the groups and

proposed a development that was handset centric. A major tenet of their design was that “it

can be deployed with minor effort into devices already having Bluetooth, e.g. cell phones”

with the added requirement that a “common RF section with Bluetooth must be possible”.

Their vision was also broader that of the competing camp in that it envisaged a world of a

trillion wireless, web connected devices. A key slide shows millions of connected laptops,

billions of mobile phones and trillions of what could be interpreted as Wibree enabled

devices.

In the event, the IEEE committee chose to adopt the alternative proposal for the

802.15.4 standard. However, Nokia didn’t stop work on their proposal. Over the intervening

years it has developed and matured into what has now been announced to the world as

Wibree. The original proposals are still available for public viewing on the IEEE site. The

name has also raised eyebrows. Like Bluetooth, it is a new word that tells us little of the

technology. It derivation shows some of the same interest in northern European history and

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mythology that generated Bluetooth. The “Wi” is the now obligatory prefix for “wireless”,

with Nokia claiming that the “bree” comes from the Old English word for a Crossroad.

We are not totally convinced – we have a suspicion that this definition of bree is a

Tolkien invention, as my Old English dictionaries define bree as “agitation”, “to frighten” or

“eyebrow”.

Both of which seem equally appropriate. So we have “Wireless at the Crossroad”,

“Wireless to be scared of” or Wireless eyebrows”. Whichever takes your fancy; one thing is

certain - Wibree will certainly herald a new era of personal wireless connectivity. And the

engagement of the major Bluetooth sil-icon vendors will ensure that it will quickly appear in

hundreds of millions of handsets.

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CHAPTER III

WIBREE OPERATION

The original documents, plus information gleaned from the Wibree web site give us a

good idea of what it will be able to do. With the engagement of the new partners there will be

a wider input into the standard before its public release in mid 2007 and some aspects will

almost certainly change to reflect current market requirements. Wibree’s main application is

to provide an ultra low power radio within the 2.4GHz band. Low power is always

determined in large part by the application–the longer a device is active, and the more data it

transmits, the shorter its battery life will be. Wibree is aiming to produce a radio that can

transmit a small packet of data approximately every second for a year using a small button

cell, such as a CR2430,with a capacity of around 280mAH. If the duty cycle is reduced to one

transmission every 15 to 30 seconds, then the battery life effectively becomes the leakage life

of the battery.

This low power drain is achieved by designing a radio and protocol that lets the radio

stay asleep for most of its life. It can wake up quickly, when it will broadcast its requirement

to transfer data on a number of advertising channels across the spectrum. The receiving

device, which is likely to contain a larger battery as it will be on for more of the time, will

acknowledge the message and tell the first device which channel to send its data on. It will

then acknowledge receipt of this data, at which point both can go back to sleep. The whole

process will take less than three or four milliseconds. More details of what this process is

likely to look like can be found in the original IEEE submissions [1].

Cost is a key advantage in Wibree existing within a Bluetooth chipset. But it’s not the

only advantage of that symbiotic existence. A major concern about radio deployment in the

2.4GHz band is the growing level of interference that is likely to exist. That’s already

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resulting in a resurgence of interest in Bluetooth for industrial applications because of its

resilience to interference.

Where ultra low power is a requirement, there is still no satisfactory solution – a

situation that has persuaded groups such as ISA to look afresh at their radio requirements for

a robust industrial wireless standard. Wi-bree provides the answer. Because the conversation

between devices allows the responding device to select the radio channel to use, it

introduces the concept of frequency agility, where the two radios can move to undisturbed

parts of the spectrum for their data transmissions.

In most cases, this receiving device will be a mobile phone, which is acting as a

gateway. The same Bluetooth chip that contains the Wibree radio within the phone will be

constantly scanning the radio spectrum as part of its adaptive frequency hopping requirement

to see what spectrum is free. It makes perfect sense to s-hare this information with the Wibree

radio to give it the frequency agility that it needs to meet high reliability applications. So

living inside a Bluetooth chip becomes a doubly positive advantage for Wibree.The current

description of Wibree on its web site firmly positions it as a low range radio, suggesting that

it will be limited to around 5 meters. That would appear to be driven by a marketing

requirement rather than a more considered analysis of how it is going to be deployed In that

sense it’s probably the same type of understatement that has haunted Bluetooth, although

Bluetooth is normally referred to as a short range technology for less than ten meters, the

reality is that it is successfully used for many applications over hundreds of meters. Looking

more closely at what we know about the parameters that will determine Wibree range, the

first point is that it will share the radio & receiver of Bluetooth chips. The most recent

generation of Bluetooth chips have receive sensitivities around -85dBm & can directly output

at transmit powers of around +4dBm.With careful RF design that gives an open field range

better than 200 meters. The higher modulation index of Wibree suggests that for the same

receive and transmit values the link budget should be improved- giving an additional 20% of

range. Dual Mode Wibree chips will use the same receiver and transmitter technology

within these chips, which means that there should be no problem in expanding Wibree’s

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usage from devices that we wear or carry with us to sensors anywhere within the house or

factory floor. Adding a Power Amplifier to boost the output to 100mw (+20dBm) should

make it possible to reach an open field range close to one kilometer..

CHAPTER IV

THE WIBREE PROFILE SET

4.0 INTRODUCTION

Wibree is adopting the principle of profiles to define its most common application

areas. In its initial release, these cover the watch, sensors and Human Interface Devices

(HID).Although this may seem a somewhat esoteric selection, together they enable far more

than a first glance would suggest.

Taking the watch profile first, its main task would appear to be transmitting

information to a watch to allow it to act as a micro-display. That may be seemed to be a very

“James Bond” sort of usage, and time will tell how attractive a user feature it really is.

What’s important is to realize is that it provide a method of transmitting information to any

display. And the most prevalent portable display is the screen of our mobile phone. So the

scenario can be turned around, with the watch profile being used to make a handset a general

purpose display for other devices. That can be anywhere. At home, or in the wider world,

such as public transport information broadcast from a bus stop or in a railway carriage.

The receiving device doesn’t need to be static for this scenario. A feature of the short

time required to complete a data transfer means this profile can be used with moving

receivers. If we consider a transmitter with a 100 meter range, a vehicle moving at 100 km/hr

will be within range of the transmitter for around 4 seconds – more than enough time to pick

up traffic information from a beacon. An increasing number of vehicles already have a driver

display that is Bluetooth enabled – it called their satellite navigation system. There’s only a

minimal incremental cost to Wibree enable it to receive additional messages from roadside

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transmitters. It makes Wibree a very interesting proposition to those developing ITS

(Integrated Traffic System) applications

Perhaps the killer application for the watch profile is to use it for remote control of

home entertainment, where the handset acts as a remote control for the PVR or entertainment

centre. That’s an application that has been bubbling around for many years, but has never

been cracked. It has always been my belief that the wireless standard that can gain ownership

of the universal remote control will own the home automation space.

The issue has been the low cost of an infra red transceiver, which is way below that of

any current radio technology. Wibree will be the first wireless standard that approaches the

cost of infrared. It has an additional advantage in that if you use your mobile phone, the set

top box or PVR manufacturer can enable your mobile phone at no cost to themselves, as it

already contains the Wibree radio. Because the Wibree watch profile lets another device

“take over” the display of a consenting handset, it offers a technology route for far more

advanced control and user feedback than is addressable with mass market remote controls. So

the PVR manufacturer can ship a simple, low cost remote control with their box and enable

the customer’s mobile phone to add additional functionality and interactivity. Wireless

sensing is another great market waiting to happen. It doesn’t just cover industrial monitors in

factories, but encompasses pulling information from medical devices, home alarms and

anything where some form of device needs to send information. The low power of Wibree

makes if suitable for a host of battery powered devices. It also opens up the market for

“power-free” devices that either use solar energy, or some of the more recent energy

scavenging power sources that produce power from thermal heat (such as the human body) or

vibration. Finally HID is important because it takes account of latency. Latency in wireless

systems refers to the delay between something happening at the sensor and the time that it is

reported back to the receiving system. Delays can happen for many reasons – both external

factors such as interference, and internal ones, such as the devices turning off to save power.

For many applications a short delay doesn’t matter, but for some it is vital that data is

transferred at carefully controlled times. Human Interface Devices such as keyboards and

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mice are one such application where delays become very apparent, and the HID profile ad-

dresses these concerns.

The application extends far outside these devices and is particularly relevant to

industrial control systems. Putting these together, the three Wibree profiles of Watch, Sensor

and HID enable most of the prospective applications currently envisaged by wireless device

developers.

CHAPTER V

TYPES OF WIBREE

5.0 Two types of Wibree implementations

Wibree stand-alone chip

Wibree-Bluetooth dual-mode chip

5.1 WIBREE STAND ALONE CHIP

The Wibree stand-alone chip is designed for use with applications which require

extremely low power consumption, small size, low cost and where only small quantities of

data are transferred. It's an ideal solution for small devices (like heart-rate monitors) that use

only short data messages and must have long battery life. Examples of devices that would

benefit from the Wibree stand-alone chip are: watches, sports and wellness devices and

human interface devices (HID) such as wireless keyboards.

5.2 BLUETOOTH-WIBREE DUAL-MODE CHIP

The Bluetooth-Wibree dual-mode chip is designed for use in Bluetooth devices. In

this type of implementation, Wibree functionality can be integrated with Bluetooth for a

minor incremental cost by utilizing key Bluetooth components and the existing Bluetooth RF.

This type of implementation allows Bluetooth devices to connect to a new range of tiny

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battery-powered devices. Examples of devices that would benefit from the Bluetooth-Wibree

dual-mode chip are mobile phones and personal computers

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Fig. 5.2. wibree stand-alone chip & wibree-bluetooth dual-mode chip

CHAPTER VI

OPPORTUNITIES

6.0 Opportunity for network operators and service providers:

One of the most important features about Wibree is that it will quickly become

embedded into a wide range of mobile phones. That allows the phone to act as a gateway for

information, transmitting it back over the network to an internet based monitoring service. In

general the data throughputs involved will be small, so the transmission costs will be low and

will not swamp the networks’ capacity. It opens up a whole new market for monitoring

consumer applications that is largely untapped.

Today the GPRS network is used for Machine to Machine (M2M) and telemetric

applications, but these generally carry a significant hardware cost, as they require an

integrated GPRS modem as well as an individual SIM and network contract. That prices them

above what is acceptable for consumer oriented applications. With Wibree, the additional

cost to the sensor will be the cost of a Wi-bree chip. The phone and contract are already paid

for by the consumer, so network operators and service providers have the platform to enable a

whole new generation of services.

The range of these is limited only by consumer demand and developer imagination.

The obvious ones are healthcare. Less obvious ones will rapidly evolve. For example,

consider emergency messages. If Wibree is fitted into the airbag in your car, then whenever it

is deployed in a accident, the airbag could send an emergency call out through your phone.

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The cost of implementing that is around a dollar for the chip, plus the cost of the monitoring

contract, which a network could offer for a minimal annual premium. Compare that to the

cost of current systems, which involve several hundred dollars of hardware in the vehicle and

a similar annual monitoring cost. It also plays to the current legislative requirements for

mobile phones to provide emergency location information.

The same economics come to play in almost every scenario where a low cost alarm or

monitor will be within range of a consumer handset. More and more government legislation

around the world, such as that for food safety, vehicle tolling and medical compliance raise

the need for data to be recorded, which in turns puts pressure on the market to deliver low

cost wireless sensors. Wibree is appearing just as these programs are moving towards

deployment.

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CHAPTER VII

COMPARISION

7.0 Wibree and Bluetooth

There is one area which Wibree will revolutionize more than any other, which is

wireless healthcare. It’s another market that has been waiting to start for many years, but

there is a growing perception that its time is ripe.

Earlier this year, in his presidential address to the IET [5], Sir Robin Saxby, founder

of ARM, predicted that healthcare monitoring would be the next wireless revolution. He

explained that we are currently in a mobile phone economy driven world, but in the next

decade his vision is that we will see a major wealth creation growth drive within healthcare,

where wireless devices will drive things like telemedicine, helping a global aging population

stay fitter. That reflects a widespread understanding that healthcare needs to encompass

remote monitoring in order to service the aging population. Depending on the application this

goes by a variety of names, including Healthcare, assisted living and wireless wellbeing. It

encompasses everything from personal fitness plans to disease control and dementia

monitoring. And it provides the means for an increasing proportion of the population to live

independent lives, rather than slipping into institutional care which governments find ever

more difficult to fund.

What these initiatives need is a low cost, low power wireless standard to allow the

mass availability of sensors that are worn or which surround us and which have a method of

transmitting the data they measure to a central server for analysis. Although personal

monitors may only need a short range, a large percentage of the lifestyle monitoring

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applications require these sensors to be distributed around a house, placing a demand for

significant range coupled with low power.

Although solutions are available today, they tend to be inconvenient, have short

battery life, or require specialized gateway equipment to relay the data back.

What Wibree offers is a low cost wireless solution for the sensor along with a

ubiquitous gateway for the data transfer in the form of the mobile phone.

7.1 Low bandwidth technologies comparison

characteristic Zigbee Wibree Bluetooth

Price Under 3$ N/A More than 5$

First specification time

2004 (supposed)2008 1994

Range 10-75 maters 10 meters 10 meters

Throughput 20-250kbps Less than 1Mbps Maximum 3Mbps

Network Latency 15 Millisecond Not clearly mentioned

3 second

Power consumption 1 year Years Days

Security 128 bit AES 128 bit AES 64 or 128bit

Co-existing with Bluetooth

No Yes N/A

Frequency 2.4Ghz 2.4Ghz 2.4Ghz

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CHAPTER VIII

IMPLEMENTATION

8.0 Planning

Bluetooth, WI-Fi and other short range wireless technologies have already spawned a

first generation of personal wireless devices and embedded applications. However, neither

addresses the dual requirements of the myriad of devices that must operate off a small battery

for a period of years and also have a readily available portal to send their information back to

the internet. Wibree ticks both of these boxes. More importantly, Wibree comes built within

Bluetooth chips. Current development in Bluetooth, with the evolution of a medical profile,

automation profiles and broadcast Capability are paralleling the same developments within

Wibree. What that means to a product designer is that they can start to design their products

with Bluetooth today, knowing that there is a low power roadmap that will transition the mass

of consumer devices to Wibree within a few years. That allows early deployments, which

will start the collection of data for the expert systems that will need to sit behind so many of

the wireless health applications that we will need in the future.

In parallel, the work currently being performed within the Bluetooth and IEEE

organizations to standardize profiles and data formats for medical devices is also likely to

encompass Wibree based pro-ducts, providing the foundations for the growth of the new

wireless healthcare sector that Sir Robin Saxby has predicted.

In order to ensure fast availability of the new technology, Nokia is defining the

Wibree interoperability specification together with a group of leading companies representing

semiconductor manufacturers, device vendors and qualification service providers.

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The first commercial version of the specification is expected to be available by

1stquarter 2008.The technology will be made broadly available to the industry through an

open and preferably existing forum enabling wide adoption of the technology. The forum will

be established by 2ndquarter of 2007 or beginning of 2008.

Fig. 8.3 Usage of wibree modules over the years

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CHAPTER IX

ADVANTAGES & DISADVANTAGES

9.0 Advantages

Ultra-low power consumption

Long battery life

Use same frequency of Bluetooth (2.4GHz)

Small chip size

10 times more energy efficient than Bluetooth

Inexpensive implementation

Easily integrated with Bluetooth solution s

9.1 Disadvantages

Data transmission is very slow, i.e. only 1Megabit per second

Cannot be used in high bandwidth required applications

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CHAPTER X

CONCLUSION

Taking all of these factors together, Wibree has the potential to transform consumer

devices. It will solve the technology and monitoring issues that are currently hindering the

adoption of wireless healthcare services and enable a whole new generation of lifestyle,

monitoring and safety products. By making the mobile handset the gateway, it brings the

network operators into the equation. And they have the resources to aggregate and enable

service provision.

Today Wibree is a Nokia solution. However, it is being supported by the major

Bluetooth chip vendors including Cambridge Silicon Radio and Broadcom. That means it

will reside within the chips in almost every brand of handset. It is unlikely that other phone

vendors will not take advantage of its presence, not least because it offers the network

operators an additional revenue stream. Its presence will make it very difficult for any other

short range, low power wireless technology to gain traction in the handset, ensuring that

Wibree is placed to own the wireless healthcare market.

It may not become the accepted acronym, but Wibree will enable C2M - “Consumer

to Machine” or “Consumer to Middleware” applications at a price point that makes them

mass market.M2M is only just beginning to deliver against its promises. Wibree may result in

C2M delivering an even larger promise in a shorter timescale.

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REFERENCES

1.Bluetooth Wireless Technology vs. ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4) Specification Comparison

2. Apple’s Adoption of Bluetooth Low Energy Paves Way for New Possibilities, Apple adopts Bluetooth 4.0 in MacBook Airs and Mac Minis., July 25, 2011 By Financial Bin

3. M. Honkanen, A. Lappetelainen, K. Kivekas, "Low end extension for Bluetooth", Radio and Wireless Conference, 2004 IEEE, 19–22 September 2004

4.http://www.ieee802.org/

5.http://www.isa.org/

6.http://www.ezurio.com/

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