By Claus Hetting, WiFi NOW CEO & Chairman
IoT is arguably the most unruly of all Wi-Fi market segments with many thousands of Wi-Fi-enabled IoT device models in existence and more being released every day. Now Wi-Fi Alliance is doubling down on the value of Wi-Fi for IoT as well as a critical component for market success: Certification. Wi-Fi Alliance recently released this brochure that acts as a guide to Wi-Fi IoT for product managers and implementers.
IoT is probably the fastest growing Wi-Fi market segment right now: Research estimates that the consumer IoT segment is already a US$300 billion market and expected to grow at a rate of 10% per year for the next many years. Meanwhile, Industrial IoT is approaching $500 billion in market value (for 2025) and is growing even faster, hurtling towards US$2.1 trillion in 2034. But what makes a great IoT product and what can product managers and implementers do to maximise chances of success?
Wi-Fi has become close to the no-brainer connectivity technology of choice for nearly any wireless IoT product and its applicability is expanding as Wi-Fi standards and technology evolve. Network architecture, security, onboarding, power consumption, interoperability, spectrum availability, and cost are all important factors to consider – and more often than not, Wi-Fi turns out to be the technology of choice delivering the best overall value and applicability. Wi-Fi Alliance’s new brochure – available here – outlines the most important reasons to choose Wi-Fi.
But even with massive innovation being unleashed for Wi-Fi IoT – for example ultra-low power (battery-operated) sensors or Matter-compliant smart home devices – success can be tenuous without making sure that devices connect to networks correctly and deliver the expected performance.
“Wi-Fi CERTIFIED brings tremendous value to the smart home and Industrial IoT segments, contributing to its momentum by helping ensure interoperability among the growing number of devices. Wi-Fi Alliance testing and certification supports a better user experience and strong security that brings value to individual brands and the industry as a whole,” Wi-Fi Alliance says.
The good news is that Wi-Fi – depending on generation – will support practically any wireless IoT requirement that you can think of including spanning the full gamut of short to long range as well as low to very high bitrates. In the low end Wi-Fi 4 – field proven since 2009 – still does an exceptional job in connecting low-cost devices, for example. For higher rates and more sophistication (including newer features such as Targeted Wake Time to drive down power consumption), Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 7 deliver low-latency connectivity for anything from door locks to multimedia systems.
Add to this the long-range Wi-Fi IoT standard Wi-Fi HaLow, which is quickly coming of age with 100 million units in operation projected for 2029 (read more here). And within this matrix of options is also the opportunity to select your preferred band among 2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and mostly pristine 6 GHz.
Download the brochure “Wi-Fi CERTIFIED for IoT” by Wi-Fi Alliance here
Wi-Fi Alliance highlights the fact that generational certification (which always includes WPA3 for security) can be extended with feature certifications for Wi-Fi QoS Management™ (especially relevant for video streaming devices), Wi-Fi Easy Connect onboarding™, Wi-Fi EasyMesh™, and Wi-Fi Location™. Any or all of these can be included to improve and embellish the quality of the end user experience which – in the end – is really what matters.
Now add that Wi-Fi is designed to interoperate perfectly within the Matter IoT standard. The end result is that Wi-Fi IoT is becoming defragmented delivering better and more reliable connectivity than ever before for every market segment including both home and industry. Download the highly recommend new brochure here for all the details.
/Claus.
