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DASH7

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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Jkmstevens (talk | contribs) at 10:04, 13 July 2010 (Added RuBee to "see also" - RuBee (IEEE 1902.1) is only wireless tech in secure areas in US - should also add table comparison - Dash7 article has not included any discussion of security issues). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

DASH7 DASH7 is a new wireless sensor networking technology using the ISO/IEC 18000-7 standard for active RFID, operating at in the 433 MHz unlicensed spectrum. DASH7 provides multi-year battery life, range of up to 2 km (potentially farther), low latency for tracking moving objects, small protocol stack, sensor and security support, and data transfer of up to 250kpbs

International Standard

DASH7 follows the ISO/IEC 18000-7 open standard for the license-free 433 MHz ISM band air interface for wireless communications. 433 MHz is available for use worldwide. The wireless networking technology was originally created for military use and is now being repurposed for many commercial applications in place of wireless protocols like ZigBee or IEEE 802.15.4.

History

In January 2009, the U.S. Department of Defense announced the largest RFID award in history, a $429 million contract for DASH7 devices, to four vendors: Savi Technology, SPEC, Northrop Grumman, and Unisys.[1]

In March 2009, more than 30 organizations announced their participation in the DASH7 Alliance, a non-profit industry consortium to promote interoperability among DASH7-compliant devices.

By March 2010, the number of participating organizations had nearly doubled and shipping DASH7 enabled Product(s) have been announced.

Technical summary

DASH7 contrasts with existing wireless data technologies like ZigBee:

Technology Global standard used Frequencies used Globally available frequency(ies)? Penetrates water Penetrates concrete Range Average power draw Average latency Device cost Multi-hop capabilities Sensor and Security support Interference from 802.11n Maximum bit rate
DASH7 ISO/IEC 18000-7 433 MHz Yes Yes Yes 1,000 m 30–60 µW 2.5–5 seconds $10+ Yes Yes No 250 kbps
ZigBee[2] IEEE 802.15.4 2.4 GHz, 915 MHz, 868 MHz 2.4 GHz – yes; 915 MHz – no; 868 MHz – no No No 30–500 m 125–400 µW varies from seconds to potentially minutes $10+ Yes Yes Yes 250 kbps

Technical features

The air interface protocol provides support for sensors, encryption, and other features. Applications may be used to monitor temperature of flu vaccines, monitoring the exact pressure in automobile tires, monitoring electrical usage in a building, or monitoring CO2 emissions from a vehicle.

Competition for 433 MHz solutions comes from 2.45 GHz Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and other 3-10 GHz UWB-based active RFID systems. However, many of these systems are proprietary, unlike DASH7 which is an open, ISO standard.

The frequency penetrates concrete and water. Active 433 MHz devices boast better power efficiency, lower power drain, better tag-to-tag communication, military-grade reliability, and lower cost than their primary alternatives.

The low input current of typical tag configurations allows for battery powering on coin cell batteries for up to 10 years battery life.

BLAST networking technology

Networks based on DASH7 differ from typical wireline and wireless networks that operate with a "session". DASH7 networks serves applications in which low power usage is essential, and data transmission is typically much slower and/or sporadic, like basic telemetry. So instead of replicating a wireline "session", DASH7 was designed with the concept of BLAST:

Bursty
Data transfer is abrupt and does not include content such as video, audio, or other isochronous (i.e. streaming) forms of data.
Light
For most applications, packet sizes are limited to 256 bytes. Transmission of multiple, consecutive packets may occur but is generally avoided if possible.
ASynchronous
DASH7's main method of communication is by command-response, which by design requires no periodic network "hand-shaking" or synchronization between devices.
Transitive
A DASH7 system of devices is inherently mobile or transitional. Unlike other wireless technologies DASH7 is upload-centric, not download-centric, so devices do not have to be managed extensively by fixed infrastructure (i.e. base stations).

Range

DASH7 devices today advertise read ranges of 1 kilometer or more, however ranges of up to 10km have been tested by Savi Technology and are easily achievable in the EU where governmental regulations are less constrained than in the USA.

Interoperability

DASH7 devices employ single PHY and MAC layers, as well as a single global frequency. For end users, this simplifies deployment and maintenance decisions relative to specifications using multiple PHY and MAC layers and multiple frequencies.

Customers and Use Cases

Defense Applications

DASH7 is being used extensively by the U. S. Department of Defense (DoD) and other militaries. In January 2009, DoD awarded a $429 million contract for DASH7 devices, making it one of the largest wireless sensor networking deployments in the world, especially when combined with DoD's $500 million + installed base of non-DASH7 infrastructure which DoD is upgrading to DASH7.[1]

Commenting on the U.S. Department of Defense's move to an RFID III multi-vendor contract earlier this year, Lt. Col. Pat Burden, the DoD's Product Manager Joint-Automatic Identification Technology, stated, "This is a significant milestone for DoD in that this migration will not only give DoD and other Federal agencies' customers best-value solutions at competitive prices, but it moves us to ISO 18000-7:2008 compliant products, thus broadening interoperability with DoD and our coalition partners."[3]

NATO military forces are required to interoperate with DoD's DASH7 network and are required to deploy interoperable infrastructure. All NATO militaries are deploying or in the process of deploying DASH7 infrastructure.[4]

Commercial Applications

As NATO militaries continue to deploy DASH7 infrastructure, defense suppliers (see Classes of Supply) are expected to also deploy DASH7 infrastructure given NATO requirements for supply chain visibility beyond just physical boundaries of a given military and deep into the supply chains of an array of suppliers around the world. DASH7 is expected to be adopted similar to the way barcoding was rapidly adopted by commercial companies, many of whom are also defense suppliers, following the LOGMARS barcoding mandate from the U.S. Department of Defense in 1981.

Similar to other networking technologies that began with defense sector (e.g. DARPA funding the Internet), DASH7 is similarly suited to a wide range of applications in development or being deployed including:

  • Tire-pressure monitoring system DASH7 is increasingly seen as the next-generation tire pressure monitoring system given its operation at the same frequency (433 MHz) as nearly all proprietary TPMS systems today. DASH7-based TPMS will provide end users with more accurate tire pressure readings, resulting in greater fuel economy, reduced tire wear and tear, and greater safety.[5]
  • Smart Grid energy management. DASH7's signal propagation characteristics allow it to penetrate walls, windows, doors, and other substances that serve as impediments to other technologies operating at 2.45 GHz, for example. For smart energy and building automation applications, DASH7 networks can be deployed with far less infrastructure than competing technologies and at far lower total cost of ownership.[6]
  • Social Networking DASH7 is being used today to develop new social networking applications using smartphones that will allow users to view the Facebook or Twitter addresses of those nearby, extend location-based services like Facebook, and more.[7]
  • Smart billboards and kiosks
  • Ticketing, licensing, and passes. DASH7 can replace paper-based systems with low cost wireless systems that can be deployed using flexible substrates and thin-film batteries.[8]
  • Cold chain management (vaccines, fresh produce, cut flowers, etc.) Monitoring the in-transit temperature and other environmental factors that can impact the integrity of sensitive products.

Semiconductor Industry Support

DASH7 alliance gets support by the semiconductor industry including multiple options, with Texas Instruments, ST Microelectronics, Melexis, Semtech and Analog Devices all offering DASH7 hardware development kits or system-on-a-chip products.[9] Texas Instruments also joined the DASH7 Alliance in March 2009 and announced their CC430 system-on-a-chip product for DASH7 in December 2009[10].

One semiconductor industry approach is the combination of DASH7 with MEMS sensing products:

"We strongly believe that the next big wave in sensors will be driven by the combination of the sensing function with wireless transmission – and ISO 18000-7 is the right solution for security and asset monitoring applications," said Benedetto Vigna, group vice president and general manager of the MEMS and Healthcare Product Division at STMicroelectronics in the company's announcement. "The Smart Web-Based Sensor HDK is a best-in-class development platform that will help the adoption of wireless sensors across the industry."[9]

ST Microelectronics announced the beta version of its DASH7 SmartSensor developers kit in May 2009 in collaboration with Arira Design.[11]

DASH7 is also seen as a complement to 13.56 MHz NFC (Near Field Communications), where both technologies can "co-exist" in the same silicon with only minor adjustments to the NFC silicon to accommodate DASH7.[12]

Device Integrators

Many companies are members of the DASH7 Alliance to produce DASH7-compliant hardware products, including:[13][14]

The ISO/IEC 18000-7 Air Interface Standard

The original ISO 18000-7 standard was ratified in 2004 then modified in 2008. According to ISO:

ISO/IEC 18000-7:2009 defines the air interface for radio frequency identification (RFID) devices operating as an active RF tag in the 433 MHz band used in item management applications. It provides a common technical specification for RFID devices that can be used by ISO technical committees developing RFID application standards. ISO/IEC 18000-7:2009 is intended to allow for compatibility and to encourage inter-operability of products for the growing RFID market in the international marketplace. ISO/IEC 18000-7:2009 defines the forward and return link parameters for technical attributes including, but not limited to, operating frequency, operating channel accuracy, occupied channel bandwidth, maximum power, spurious emissions, modulation, duty cycle, data coding, bit rate, bit rate accuracy, bit transmission order, and, where appropriate, operating channels, frequency hop rate, hop sequence, spreading sequence, and chip rate. ISO/IEC 18000-7:2009 further defines the communications protocol used in the air interface.[15]

Interoperability Certification Testing

DASH7 Alliance interoperability testing is currently being led by MET Laboratories[1] in collaboration with the DASH7 Alliance. DASH7 interoperability testing references the ISO 18047 conformance standard.[16]

"The testing services that MET will provide for DASH7 developers are natural extensions of MET's experience in providing compliance testing for passive RFID, Bluetooth and other wireless technologies,” said Rob Frier, president of MET Laboratories. “We have an exciting opportunity to work with developers on innovative applications for DASH7 technology, making sure that their applications work with each other.”[17]

While interoperability testing is currently conducted by MET Labs, actual certification and license for the use of the "DASH7 Certified" logo is available exclusively through the DASH7 Alliance. The "DASH7" and "DASH7 Certified" trademarks are property of the DASH7 Alliance.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Bacheldor, Beth (January 9, 2008). "U.S. Defense Department Picks Four for RFID III". RFID Journal. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  2. ^ Norair, JP (March 16, 2009). "Introduction to DASH7 Technologies, 1st Edition" (PDF). DASH7 Alliance. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  3. ^ Savi Technology (March 18, 2009). "Alliance to Promote Greater Use of the ISO 18000-7 Wireless Data Standard Formed". RF Globalnet. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  4. ^ O'Connor, Mary Catherine (December 7, 2005). "NATO Rolling Out System for Sharing Data" (PDF). RFID Journal. Retrieved 2009-08-31.
  5. ^ http://www.allbusiness.com/electronics/commercial-industrial-electronics-radio/13136135-1.html
  6. ^ http://dash7.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=13
  7. ^ http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/dash7_bringing_sensor_networking_to_smartphones.php
  8. ^ http://dash7.org/blog/?p=945
  9. ^ a b "Leading Technology Users and Providers to Form DASH7 Alliance to Advance Wireless Data Technology" (PDF). DASH7 Alliance. March 18, 2009. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  10. ^ http://www.dash7.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=126%3Adash7-alliance-and-texas-instruments-join-forces-to-bring-wireless-networking-to-the-mass-market&catid=14%3Apress-releases&Itemid=190
  11. ^ Albright, Brian (May 12, 2009). "STMicroelectronics Offers Active RFID Development Kit". RFID Update. ALX Technologies. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  12. ^ http://dash7.org/DASH7+%20NFC%20Whitepaper%20041210.pdf
  13. ^ Swedberg, Claire (January 12, 2007). "Seven Companies Sign Up for Savi IP License". RFID Journal. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  14. ^ Savi Technology (August 6, 2007). "Savi Announces Six RFID E-Seal IP Licensees". RFID Update. ALX Technologies. Retrieved 2009-09-04.
  15. ^ http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/catalogue_ics/catalogue_detail_ics.htm?csnumber=43892
  16. ^ http://www.rfidjournal.com/article/articleview/7714/1/1/
  17. ^ http://dash7.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=136%3Acertification-press-release&catid=14%3Apress-releases&Itemid=190
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