Recent Trends in Next Generation Sub1 GHz Wireless Local Area Network for Internet of Things

The next generation sub1GHz Wireless local area network (WLAN) IEEE802.11ah is being standardized to operate around 1GHz ISM band. It is currently much less congested and enable the WLAN devices to access the network to send burst data. It penetrates easily the obstacles and is less affected by frequency fading and thus offers a long range. It offers simple architecture, high energy efficiency, long life of sensor nodes, improvement in range capability with better data rates in comparison with present IEEE802.15.x WPAN (ZigBee, Bluetooth) which works at 2.4GHz for short ranges and due to high power consumption in Bluetooth sensor nodes life is very short. The ZigBee provides data rates up to 250kbps. The 802.11ah based on Wi-Fi sensor nodes combines the sensors and communication applications together to obtain high data rates from 100kbps to several Mbps. In Internet of Things (IoT) the smart objects are coverted from physical to virtual world to connect with Internet. The Internet of Things enables smart objects to observe, identify, and understand the world without intervention of human-being. The 802.11ah has architecture similar to IEEE802.11 WLAN to operate on existing infrastructure, which will commercially empower the future of technology to develop and deploy many applications in IoT era and WSN world.