Papaioea/Palmerston North, Aotearoa/New Zealand <14 February 2018>
New Zealand’s first Weightless Internet of Things (IoT) wireless network has launched. In order to support the economic aspirations of a Māori community in the Manawatū, First Tree Growing Ltd is providing local Māori farmers hands on access to a range of emerging technologies in the smart agriculture space including the low power, wide area network technology called Weightless. One of the first projects to benefit from the Weightless network is a Māori Future Farm initiative.
First Tree Growing is in the process of deploying 300 IoT sensors exchanging data using the new low power, wide area (LPWA) wireless technology called Weightless. The decision to use the new technology Weightless over the well-known LoRaWAN has garnered attention from the IoT community. Graeme Everton points out three major drawbacks of using LoRaWANthat was key in making his team’s decision.
LoRaWAN bears risk of transmission collisions between end devices
LoRaWAN class A for battery operated devices cannot support Firmware-Over-The-Air
LoRaWAN uses substantial amount of spectrum
Weightless has addressed these critical issues by implementing a time-based synchronized network so end devices transmission does not collide. This also allows reliable and efficient downlink to support firmware-over-the-air, system control, and security patch updates. In addition, a Weightless base station is using just 100kHz for 8 channels; 10 times less spectrum than LoRaWAN.
“After really diving into the technical limitations of LoRaWAN, we were in search of a more future-proof technology to introduce to the New Zealand IoT community,” explains Graeme Everton.“The increase in reliability, data rate, and scalability will open new doors to innovative solutions for our ecosystem of partners and provide a wider choice for critical applications.”
First Tree Growing has partnered with Ubiik, a Weightless technology vendor in Taiwan to continue to enhance the deployment effort and evangelization of the new technology. The main objective of the deployment site is to bring attention to the value IoT technology can bring to the New Zealand primary sector by demonstrating the unique capabilities of a long range, ultra low power wireless technology. Virtually any sensor can be made wireless by using Weightless. First Tree Growing has chosen to first deploy temperature, humidity and GPS sensors sending data every 5-10 minutes to a base station located multiple kilometers away.The First Tree Growing team is motivated by the lack of initiatives aimed to cater to the specific needs and profiles of the Māori primary producer given that Māori are significant investors in the primary sector.
First Tree Growing invites the New Zealand IoT community to reach out to acquire additional information about deploying Weightless LPWAN networks.
About First Tree Growing Ltd
First Tree Growing’s Innovation Lab located in the Manawatū is committed to introducing cutting-edge technology to New Zealand’s primary sector. First Tree Growing works along side of IoT device makers, system integrators and educational institutions to make innovations around IoT accessible to the New Zealand market.
For more information please contact:
Graeme Everton
Project Leadfor First Tree Growing Ltd
Phone: 022 600 4617
Email: graeme@everton.co.nz
Website: http://www.firsttreegrowing.co.nz
About Ubiik
Ubiik is a global leader in industrial IoT solutions and connectivity. Formed by industrial veterans with years of track record in product innovation and business development and experts in wireless connectivity, Ubiik has created a series of breakthrough products that significantly help customers to improve operational efficiency and transparency.
Ubiik is pioneering the high performance, open standard LPWAN technology, Weightless (formerly known as Weightless-P). By working with its global ecosystem partners, Ubiik is providing the market with a robust, highly scalable and low cost LPWAN technology to release the full potential of the IoT.
Further details at ubiik.com
For more information, please contact
Jay Wey
Business development
+886930839993
jay@ubiik.com
About Weightless
The Weightless SIG is a global member based not-for-profit organisation that exists to manage the development and licensing of wireless connectivity technology specifically for machine communications.
Weightless offers certification, and arranges events, plugfests, discussion groups and other activities that add value to members. Weightless promotes the Weightless logo and the brand as the single way to ensure IoT devices all interoperate.
Weightless also provides a forum where members can agree on new standards prior to approaching bodies such as ETSI and can also provide non-binding recommendations on higher-layer protocols, application interfaces etc.
Membership of the Weightless SIG is open to all companies.
Further details at weightless.org
For more information please contact
Alan Woolhouse
Chair Weightless SIG Marketing Working Group
+44 7787 570752
alan.woolhouse@weightless.org