Mysterious Wireless Band Fits IoT Apps – Electronic Design

Mysterious Wireless Band Fits IoT Apps | Electronic Design

Recently, I wrote about how many wireless standards are out there and how engineers choose one for their application. Well, let me tell you something—you don’t know the half of it. If your application is relatively simple, you have even more choices than you know.

Studying the FCC rules and regulations “bible,’ the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) 47 Parts 15, 18, 95 and others you can discover some interesting possibilities. Of late, I learned of one alternative that fits basic industrial needs and eliminates the complexity of complying with some of the more well-known standards. This may be of interest if you’re designing wireless applications in one of these sectors:

Most short-range wireless technologies use the industrial-scientific-medical (ISM) band spectrum in the 902- to 928-MHz and 2.4- to 2.4835-GHz, and more recently, the 5.725- to 5.850-GHz ranges. The 2.4-GHz band is loaded with Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and a half dozen or so others. With all of the recent Internet of Things (IoT) activity, traffic in these bands is heavy and interference is a real problem. If you have a relatively simple but mission-critical application, you might want to consider some other possibilities.

If you dig deep enough into the CFR 47, or if you just happened to run across someone who knows, you may discover the Radio Control Radio Service (RCRS). You will find it in Part 95.701 and beyond. It’s a non-commercial short-distance radio service for wirelessly controlling the operation of devices including, but not limited to, model vehicles like boats, cars, or airplanes. But it can also be used for other purposes such as remote monitoring and control.

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