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802.11ah Wi-Fi Standard Approved (networkworld.com)
alphadogg writes: A new wireless standard that extends Wi-Fi's reach down into the 900MHz band will keep the 802.11 family at the center of the developing Internet of Things, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced today. 802.11ah, combines lower power requirements with a lower frequency, which means that those signals propagate better. That offers a much larger effective range than current Wi-Fi standards, which operate on 2.4GHz and 5GHz frequencies, and lets the newer technology penetrate walls and doors more easily.
That's the key question: Unless you have an available open access frequency band, this standard is just wishful thinking instead of a new product.
The current allocations in Europe (http://www.erodocdb.dk/docs/doc98/official/pdf/ERCRep025.pdf) covers all of 890-942, 942-960 and 960-1164 MHz, with usage mostly cell phone, radio-navigation and broadcasting.
Terje
"almost all programming can be viewed as an exercise in caching"
The bitrate for HaLow will (initially) be 18 Mbps max (source: Computerworld and a dozen other websites).
But the intended purpose range is IOT, and I don't see refrigerators, light switches and thermometers needing more than that.
(Insert famous "640 K should be enough for everyone" quote here).
The only reason the 5Ghz band works so well isn't the faster speeds, rather paradoxically the limited range that keeps the noise floor (SNR) level down due to less congestion from other networks near by; relatively speaking that is. Otherwise, the 2.4Ghz band is perfect other than the fact it's exceedingly crowded and oversaturated in apartment and business complexes. Packet loss sucks. It will only get worse - far far worse - for these IoT 900Mhz devices dotting the wireless landscape.
Life is not for the lazy.