

A wireless network for gadgets set to arrive in San Francisco - 11thEarlOfMar
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9248478/A_wireless_network_for_gadgets_set_to_arrive_in_San_Francisco

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vmarsy
It's an exciting technology but isn't a silver bullet for all connected
objects either:

from Sigfox website > On SIGFOX you can send between 0 and 140 messages per
day and each message can be up to 12 bytes of actual payload data. The
protocol already transmits the device ID, so the 12 bytes represent the actual
payload and there is no limits on how you can structure the 12 bytes.

So if I'm correct you can only transmit 1.64 KB per device per day.

~~~
deckar01
Considering the article says it operates at 100 bits/second, a daily
allocation of 1.64Kb takes a minimum of 2 minutes and 14 seconds to transfer
(about 1 second per message).

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dsl
It's hard to link directly, but here is some info for developers
[http://sigfox.com/en/#!/technology](http://sigfox.com/en/#!/technology)

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TheSpiceIsLife
Ought not this prompt carriers to leverage their existing networks to deliver
a similar product. In Australia Telstra delivers 3G via 800mhz - I've been in
the middle of buttfck nowhere and still been able to get 5mbit downstream. I'm
not aware of any technical reason why existing carriers couldn't deliver a
competitive service -ie. rate limited and tiny upload / download qutoa- for
dollars per year.

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willidiots
Looks like they're running on 900MHz. To be effective, 900MHz antennas usually
must be rather large. May limit the useful applications.

Edit: I stand corrected. [http://www.slashgear.com/whistlegps-dog-tracker-
first-to-use...](http://www.slashgear.com/whistlegps-dog-tracker-first-to-use-
sigfox-iot-network-21329885/)

~~~
tanvach
Yes that is correct, with traditional antenna design. I believe the collar
itself has a hidden antenna to allow good impedance matching.

Coming from communications engineering I find ultra band modulation scheme
intriguing. I haven't seen any papers that on what this is exactly and am
waiting for more information to come out!

Ps: there is work on metamaterial based antenna design to shrink antenna
dimensions
[http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamaterial_antenna](http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metamaterial_antenna)

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zwieback
This seems really sketchy to me - they use terminology nobody else uses so
it's totally unclear how they would share the 900MHz spectrum, which is very
polluted.

~~~
andyidsinga
it shouldnt be that unclear how to share the 900mhz spectrum. fcc part 15 reg
indicate how to do this ( freq hoppong etc ). companies like northwest emc
help device makers verify compliance and generate correct reports.

~~~
zwieback
+1 for NW EMC, I enjoyed working with them.

What I meant was there's no detail on the modulation they are planning to use
and no mention of frequency hopping.

I wonder what they mean by "Ultra Narrow Band", at those bit rates it seems
you would need hardly any bandwidth at all anyway.

~~~
andyidsinga
ah, got it. yes, what they'll actually do is another matter entirely. :)

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ausjke
This indeed fills a nice gap, promising!

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p1mrx
The sigfox.com website is IPv4-only. Let's hope they show more foresight when
it comes to the network design.

~~~
joshu
Criticism truly is the currency of HN.

~~~
p1mrx
The only way we'll ever move beyond IPv4 is to criticize every new thing that
requires it.

I don't know whether that's the case for this network (for all I know, it
might not be IP-based at all), but the inability to dual-stack one's public-
facing website, nearly two years after World IPv6 Launch, is a failure that
more people should acknowledge.

~~~
gress
Do you know who hosts their website?

~~~
p1mrx
195.154.183.147 -> AS12876 -> [http://www.online.net/](http://www.online.net/)

I use IPvFoo to get the IP address, then copy-paste it into
[http://bgp.he.net/](http://bgp.he.net/) . Note that the www.online.net does
at least have working AAAAs.

~~~
gress
That implies that the lack of ipv6 support on their website has nothing at all
to do with their technology.

