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WiFi HaLow connects the smart devices in the house

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The Wi-Fi Alliance has announced a new form of WiFi: WiFi HaLow. This variant uses less energy and is therefore suitable for smart devices and of course smart homes. After all, many smart home devices have to last for months on one battery.

WiFi HaLow: New version of WiFi connects smart home devices

If you’re wondering why many manufacturers don’t choose WiFi when it comes to their smart home devices and connections, the answer is simple: normal WiFi consumes too much energy from a device, draining batteries far too quickly. That is why the Wi-Fi Alliance now presents a new form called WiFi HaLow. This new version not only consumes less energy, it also travels through your home faster and passes through the walls much better. And that is of course very useful for the house of the future.

WiFi HaLow will soon be an extension of the 802.11ah standard. The first products with a certificate for HaLow from the Alliance will not ship until 2018, but there is a good chance that products without that logo will be released earlier. The intention is that HaLow will appear in all kinds of devices, for indoors and outdoors, such as cameras, fitness trackers, home sensors and much more. Existing products cannot simply benefit from HaLow: they really need new chips for that.

It is difficult to say now whether HaLow will be a success – after all, we have to wait more than two years for it. HaLow has the advantage that it is built or existing and powerful technology, but the disadvantage that it is not able to send a lot of data at once from device to device. HaLow works on the 900MHz frequency: it is faster and has a better range, but is therefore not more powerful. It is true that manufacturers can adjust their devices themselves for more data, which will be at the expense of battery life.