5 ms·
Everyone I've talked to from the LORA crowd and even some (LORA) alliance guys tells me lo-energy meshes are hard to get right. Am I missing something?
by larodi 2y ago
Everyone I've talked to from the LORA crowd and even some (LORA) alliance guys tells me lo-energy meshes are hard to get right. Am I missing something?
- freeqaz 2y agoI wonder if ESP-NOW[0] would be useful for this. I've been toying with building some mesh-based lighting controllers for synchronizing lights. Fortunately it can be entirely static (number of nodes) which makes it an easier problem than dynamic meshes. 0: https://www.espressif.com/en/solutions/low-power-solutions/esp-now https://www.espressif.com/en/solutions/low-power-solutions/e...
- crest 2y agoMesh networks are a neat idea, but the reality of is often disappointing e.g. given compatible radios all the IoT devices in a room could form a mesh network of equal peers, but if a few lightbulbs use their position (mains powered, good location) to form a hierarchical network it will actually work (without wasting battery power and air time).
- teleforce 2y agoThe new DECT NR+, the first non-cellular 5G standard supports mesh configuration but fixed not mobile network: DECT NR+: A technical dive into non-cellular 5G: https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/nordic-blog/b/blog/posts/dect-nr-a-technical-dive-into-non-cellular-5g https://devzone.nordicsemi.com/nordic/nordic-blog/b/blog/pos...
- ryukoposting 2y agoCorrect. Source: I do low-energy mesh networks. There are loads of tradeoffs, and a lot of it just has to do with the physical medium. Sure, you could go with an off-the-shelf solution, but those aren't always a good fit for whatever product you're developing. If you can squeeze your bandwidth requirements to an absolute minimum, say, tens of kilobits, you can accomplish absolutely nutty stuff with a cheap LoRa radio and a well-designed antenna. Sure, it's tens of kilobits, but it's tens of kilobits sent and received over a mile between devices with batteries the size of your pinky.
- leafmeal 2y agoThis is fascinating! How can I learn more about this tech if I wanted to try an build something myself?
- larodi 2y agoTens of kb worked charm for me in the 90s. For iOt is more than enough. I’m more concerned whether the mesh works when devices move around yet still keep within vicinity of each other.
- ryukoposting 2y agoYou nailed it. The overwhelming majority of research around mesh networks assumes that nodes are stationary, and connection lifetimes are long-lived and consistent (if not perfectly reliable). My job is extra cool because none of those assumptions apply.