by Jim Rapoza
CES2016:
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| naseemjumma.blogspot.com |
The Consumer Electronics Show
(CES) is one of the most anticipated events of the year for true gadget nerds.
Outside of company-specific events such as Apple’s WWDC or Google I/O, CES is
where we see the future of the technology that we will all use in the near
future.
However, when it comes to
technology for business and the enterprise, CES can sometimes be a hit-or-miss
affair. On the surface, that does seem to be the case for CES 2016, this week
in Las Vegas, as most of the focus seemed to be on smart cars and homes,
virtual reality, and drones. That’s not exactly technology that’s in the
enterprise IT sweet spot.
But there was one announcement at
this year’s show — one that flew a bit under the radar — that will have a huge
impact on everyone, from business to consumers to the Internet of Things, and
it wasn’t even a product announcement.
CES 2016 saw the debut of
802.11ah, or WiFi HaLow. This will be the next version of the wireless
networking technology that we all rely on to connect our devices to the
Internet, and it has the potential to be the most important new wireless
networking standard in a long time.
That’s because, along with the
expected improvements in network speed and coverage, 802.11ah “HaLow” is also
expected to greatly reduce the power requirements of a wireless network
connection. And this could be a huge development for the growth of the Internet
of Things.
Think about it. Everyone knows
that the one of the best ways to save the battery on your smartphone is to turn
off WiFi. Leave WiFi on overnight, and by morning, your phone battery will be
nearly dead. Turn it off, and you probably only lose a couple of percentage
points in battery life.
If 802.11ah can deliver on the
reduced power consumption (and its much greater range capabilities), it will be
a big boost for wearables, sensors, and other Internet of Things devices, which
will be able to connect to high-speed networks without the need for direct
power connections or hefty battery requirements.
Of course, this change won’t
happen overnight. The standard will take a while to become fully defined, and
it will be months after that before we start to see devices and networking
hardware that leverage 802.11ah.
But hopefully within a year or
two, we will be able to say goodbye to our power-hungry WiFi connections and
say “HaLow” to the future of wireless networking.
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