The Internet Of Things is coming to a home like yours. But do you know which things are trying to connected to the internet, and to each other ... and how?
Sure you do, right?
The first things we connected were computers and smartphones, connected either in-home through your broadband router (fibre or copper), or out-of-home through a wireless connection (WiFi or 3G/4G wireless).
And now it's safe to say that your games console, smart TV and maybe even your heating controls are internet connected through that home broadband link, and connected in-home with a LAN cable or WiFi. And some people are using Powerline technology to create a LAN through the electricity cables around your home.
So there's a fair amount of connectivity going on already, and at least a few wireless protocols clogging up the air waves.
Look a little deeper and you'll see some short-range wireless chatter happening. Aside from the Infrared or RF-frequency that your TV remote is kicking out, there'll be a host of keyboards, mice, headphones speakers and game controllers competing for their place in your household airwaves.
Most of these short-range connections will be using the 2.4GHz or 5GHz spectrum band. This is unlicensed and free to use, unlike the 900/1800/2100MHz spectrum bands which the government auctioned off to the mobile phone networks in 2000. A further auction for 4G spectrum bands at 800MHz and 2.6GHz was completed in 2013, further slicing up the airwaves for 'Mobile Broadband' use.
What that all means is that in the big picture is that the two most common bands for short-range connectivity including Bluetooth, console controllers, smart light bulbs, heating controllers, garden moisture monitors, fitness trackers, home gym equipment heart-rate straps, etc... is somewhat congested.
And by the way... you're not the only people using those bands. Ofcom have also allocated portions of these bands for military use and outdoor TV broadcasts.
The many different wireless protocols do a pretty good job of not interfering with each other, and being digital, they should either work perfectly or not work at all. But if you have a leaky seal around your microwave door, there could be interference that no protocol can fix. A 1000 Watt microwave has shielding to ensure the chef doesn't get cooked, but the shielding isn't 100%. Your WiFi router is probably kicking out less than 1 Watt, so the potential for disruption by a 1000 Watt microwave is quite high.
In my experience, right now, there is plenty of 'white space' spectrum to have every device connect successfully in this short-range space. But if the Internet Of Things continues to accelerate and create the 50+ billion devices by 2020, this will bring unprecedented load to the white space spectrum.
If you already have to hold your Garmin Bike Computer close to your Cycle Power Meter to pair them, or you have the occasional glitch with your Bluetooth mouse, or you can't move your phone far from your wireless speaker without the music breaking up, then you may be seeing the start of congestion in your home airwaves.
What can you do about it? Not much, I'm afraid. But there are a couple of tricks...
1. Enable 5GHz on your WiFi router. The 5GHz is not as congested, and isn't affected by Microwave ovens. The devices that can talk 5GHz for WiFi will be happier and the 2.4GHz devices will have a little more breathing room too.
2. Switch to a low channel (1 or 3) for your 2.4GHz WiFi. This is below the wavelength that a Microwave operates at, so should be less prone to discruption.
3. Make use of extra WiFi accesspoints, connected through LAN cables and/or Powerline homeplugs to extend WiFi coverage, rather than use WiFi repeaters or higher power directional WiFi routers.
And if you don't think you can make a difference by cleaning up your WiFi environment, here's a little story to amuse and educate...
In 2015 I was working for a company that had a division which tested WiFi routers for performance. Most of the UK broadband providers had this company check their routers before releasing them to the public. The company owned a house in Berkshire which was furnished like a regular English home, but purely used to test WiFi performance. The router was placed in a set number of locations, at various orientations, while laptops and smartphones were placed throughout the house running specialised software to measure the WiFi strength.
On a normal day, the results were completed predictable and repeatable. After hundreds of routers had been tested, the team had a solid methodology for reproducing the measurements. They even had WiFi-shielding curtains in every room to reduce any external WiFi influences.
One day the lead engineer came back from lunch to repeat a test on a well known router brand, and this time some readings were different. Only by a factor of 3%, but still different. As this was highly unusual, he checked that none of the devices had been moved, they were all running correctly and that nothing else had changed. He was flummoxed, until his colleague returned from the bathroom and casually suggested to him that he 'Close the toilet seat before he flushed'. The engineer, being a clean living sort, said that he always did. Then the penny dropped.
On this occasion, the engineer had left the toilet seat up. The reflective surface of the toilet seat had sent the WiFi waves bouncing in different directions than they were bouncing before his lunch. Problem solved, and a new stricter toilet seat protocol was introduced!
The moral of the story... keep a clean-living approach to your WiFi connections, and if you start getting connection problems, invest in some WiFi-shielding curtains.
Sure you do, right?
The first things we connected were computers and smartphones, connected either in-home through your broadband router (fibre or copper), or out-of-home through a wireless connection (WiFi or 3G/4G wireless).
And now it's safe to say that your games console, smart TV and maybe even your heating controls are internet connected through that home broadband link, and connected in-home with a LAN cable or WiFi. And some people are using Powerline technology to create a LAN through the electricity cables around your home.
So there's a fair amount of connectivity going on already, and at least a few wireless protocols clogging up the air waves.
Look a little deeper and you'll see some short-range wireless chatter happening. Aside from the Infrared or RF-frequency that your TV remote is kicking out, there'll be a host of keyboards, mice, headphones speakers and game controllers competing for their place in your household airwaves.
Most of these short-range connections will be using the 2.4GHz or 5GHz spectrum band. This is unlicensed and free to use, unlike the 900/1800/2100MHz spectrum bands which the government auctioned off to the mobile phone networks in 2000. A further auction for 4G spectrum bands at 800MHz and 2.6GHz was completed in 2013, further slicing up the airwaves for 'Mobile Broadband' use.
What that all means is that in the big picture is that the two most common bands for short-range connectivity including Bluetooth, console controllers, smart light bulbs, heating controllers, garden moisture monitors, fitness trackers, home gym equipment heart-rate straps, etc... is somewhat congested.
And by the way... you're not the only people using those bands. Ofcom have also allocated portions of these bands for military use and outdoor TV broadcasts.
The many different wireless protocols do a pretty good job of not interfering with each other, and being digital, they should either work perfectly or not work at all. But if you have a leaky seal around your microwave door, there could be interference that no protocol can fix. A 1000 Watt microwave has shielding to ensure the chef doesn't get cooked, but the shielding isn't 100%. Your WiFi router is probably kicking out less than 1 Watt, so the potential for disruption by a 1000 Watt microwave is quite high.
In my experience, right now, there is plenty of 'white space' spectrum to have every device connect successfully in this short-range space. But if the Internet Of Things continues to accelerate and create the 50+ billion devices by 2020, this will bring unprecedented load to the white space spectrum.
If you already have to hold your Garmin Bike Computer close to your Cycle Power Meter to pair them, or you have the occasional glitch with your Bluetooth mouse, or you can't move your phone far from your wireless speaker without the music breaking up, then you may be seeing the start of congestion in your home airwaves.
What can you do about it? Not much, I'm afraid. But there are a couple of tricks...
1. Enable 5GHz on your WiFi router. The 5GHz is not as congested, and isn't affected by Microwave ovens. The devices that can talk 5GHz for WiFi will be happier and the 2.4GHz devices will have a little more breathing room too.
2. Switch to a low channel (1 or 3) for your 2.4GHz WiFi. This is below the wavelength that a Microwave operates at, so should be less prone to discruption.
3. Make use of extra WiFi accesspoints, connected through LAN cables and/or Powerline homeplugs to extend WiFi coverage, rather than use WiFi repeaters or higher power directional WiFi routers.
And if you don't think you can make a difference by cleaning up your WiFi environment, here's a little story to amuse and educate...
In 2015 I was working for a company that had a division which tested WiFi routers for performance. Most of the UK broadband providers had this company check their routers before releasing them to the public. The company owned a house in Berkshire which was furnished like a regular English home, but purely used to test WiFi performance. The router was placed in a set number of locations, at various orientations, while laptops and smartphones were placed throughout the house running specialised software to measure the WiFi strength.
On a normal day, the results were completed predictable and repeatable. After hundreds of routers had been tested, the team had a solid methodology for reproducing the measurements. They even had WiFi-shielding curtains in every room to reduce any external WiFi influences.
One day the lead engineer came back from lunch to repeat a test on a well known router brand, and this time some readings were different. Only by a factor of 3%, but still different. As this was highly unusual, he checked that none of the devices had been moved, they were all running correctly and that nothing else had changed. He was flummoxed, until his colleague returned from the bathroom and casually suggested to him that he 'Close the toilet seat before he flushed'. The engineer, being a clean living sort, said that he always did. Then the penny dropped.
On this occasion, the engineer had left the toilet seat up. The reflective surface of the toilet seat had sent the WiFi waves bouncing in different directions than they were bouncing before his lunch. Problem solved, and a new stricter toilet seat protocol was introduced!
The moral of the story... keep a clean-living approach to your WiFi connections, and if you start getting connection problems, invest in some WiFi-shielding curtains.
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