| Increasing demand for Internet-based control and monitoring
| Wi-SUN, IEEE 802.15.4g standardized PHY technology
| Wi-SUN Supported Endpoints, 90 Million Worldwide

Energy conservation, automatic metering control and monitoring requirements are top priorities for progressive cities and communities around the world. Accordingly, Internet-based control and monitoring strategies are being promoted.

IEEE 802.15.4 is a technology standard for Low Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs), which networks devices with low power characteristics and data transmission rates of several tens of kbps within an area of about 10 meters.

In environments where power supply is difficult or battery replacement is difficult, wireless communication technologies such as LR-WPANs with wide communication coverage and low power characteristics are required.

Wi-SUN is a physical layer (PHY) technology standardized as IEEE 802.15.4g. It is expected to be utilized in various fields as the output of the 900 MHz band has been increased from the existing 10 mW to a maximum of 200 mW to create new IoT industries and activate services.

Currently, Wi-SUN is widely used in smart metering and wiring automation in the United States and Japan, and many countries and companies are seriously considering introducing it as an alternative for smart grids, infrastructure management, traffic management systems, and smart lighting.

According to Navigant Research, there are more than 90 million Wi-SUN-enabled endpoints deployed worldwide.

In Korea, Korea Electric Power Corporation (KEPCO) is also utilizing Wi-SUN technology in its Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) construction project targeting 23 million households. It is mainly being constructed and operated in areas where power lines are buried underground and normal power line communication is difficult, as well as in rural areas.

In addition, the UGS Convergence Research Group under ETRI applied Wi-SUN technology to develop an IoT-based wireless communication chip that monitors the status of urban underground facilities and underground space conditions in real time and detects, predicts, and responds to abnormal signs in advance.

As the movement to utilize Wi-SUN technology gradually increases in Korea, the Wi-SUN Alliance has also shown full-scale interest in the Korean market.

The Wi-SUN Alliance was founded in 2011 to accelerate the adoption of interoperable smart utility networks based on the IEEE 802.15.4g standard.


Wi-SUN Open House, Embracing the Korean Market
On August 29th, the Wi-SUN Open House event was held jointly by Sigma Delta Technologies, Arm, and STMicroelectronics at COEX in Seoul. The event was attended by major Wi-SUN Alliance member companies, including Cisco, Itron, Landis+Gyr, and the National Information and Communications Technology Agency of Japan (NICT), who introduced their achievements, current status, and solutions.

In his first presentation at the event, Phil Beecher, President and CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance, explained the purpose of Wi-SUN, the purpose of the Wi-SUN Alliance, and how the Wi-SUN Alliance is expanding the Wi-SUN ecosystem.

Wi-SUN began with IEEE 802.15.2003. The IEEE802.15.4 TG (Task Group) was formed in December 2000 and defined the physical and MAC layers for Zigbee technology, publishing IEEE 802.15.4-2003 as its first standardization document.

IEEE 802.15.4-2011 added improved MAC performance and various PHY specifications, and IEEE 802.15.4-2015 added enhanced MAC standard technologies (IEEE802.15.4e) such as AMCA (Asynchronous Multi-Channel Adaptation), LLDN (Low Latency Deterministic Network), TSCH (Time Slotted Channel Hopping), and DSME (Deterministic and Synchronous Multi-channel Extension) that support low power, fast connection, and improved ranging techniques.

It also provides various physical layer standards to support special application services. Representative examples include SUN (Smart Utility Network) designed to have specialized functions for utilities such as electricity, gas, and water; RCC (Rail Communications and Control) suitable for railway communication and control functions; TVWS (Television white space) that can use empty areas in space and time for frequencies allocated for TV use; LECIM (Low-Energy, Critical Infrastructure Monitoring) that can be used for low-power disaster detection; and MBAN (Medical Body Area Network) that can be used for medical purposes around the body.

IEEE 802.15.4g was launched in 2012 to standardize the physical layer under the names MR-FSK, MR-OFDM, and MR-OQPSK. MR was originally denoted as 'Multi Rate' because it supports various coding rates, or 'Multi Region' because it can be used in multiple regions, but was later confirmed as SUN-FSK, SUN-OFDM, and SUN-OQPSK in the unified IEEE 802.15.4-2015 standard in 2015.


Wireless communication occurs a lot in the field.
The Wi-SUN Alliance continues to support Field Area Networks (FAN). Adoption of Wi-SUN FAN enables wireless connectivity in AMI, distribution automation and smart cities across all areas covered by the IEEE 802.15.4g global standard.


Accordingly, enterprises, service providers and local governments related to public infrastructure will be able to more smoothly utilize interoperability, multi-service and secure IPv6 communication over wireless mesh networks based on IEEE 802.15.4g by utilizing various specifications defined by Wi-SUN.

The FAN Certification Program was developed by the Wi-SUN Alliance to certify devices for use by utilities, smart city developers, and other service providers to simplify large-scale smart city, smart utility, and other IoT deployments.

Through FAN certification, the Wi-SUN Alliance certifies products that comply with communication profiles derived from open standards and have the ability to interoperate with other Wi-SUN certified products.

Currently, the Wi-SUN Alliance has over 240 member companies in 26 countries around the world.

“Standards and interoperability are key to the continued growth of the IoT industry,” said Phil Beecher, president of the association. “By providing Wi-SUN certified FAN solutions, we are “We provide utilities, cities and service providers with adaptive multi-services that are interoperable and secure for current and future generations,” he said.

In an era where tens of thousands of devices are connected to a single platform, solutions that cannot guarantee interoperability will be eliminated. If organic connections between devices are not guaranteed, the platform cannot function properly. Therefore, it is time for companies and engineers developing devices that are connected to the Internet to consider Wi-SUN.