SAN DIEGO, Sept. 12, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Relentless advances in wireless sensor networks (WSN) have resulted in billions of connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices, according to a recently published report by IoT research firm ON World.
"More than 1 billion annual WSN chipsets were sold worldwide last year due to breakthroughs in wireless mesh networking, Low Power Wide Area Networks, multi-protocol devices, IP-addressable end nodes and cloud IoT platforms," said Mareca Hatler, ON World's director of research. "Consumer WSN markets are entering early majority mass market status and enterprise solutions continue robust growth."
In this report, ON World covers two primary WSN market landscapes:
- Short Range Wireless Sensor Networks
- Low Power Wide Area Networks
Short-range WSN technologies such as 802.15.4, Bluetooth Low Energy and WiFi will continue to have the biggest impact on consumer markets including the smart home, media center, health, fitness and wearables. Compared with consumer IoT, enterprise applications are more diverse with demand for both short range and long range WSNs.
By 2024, global revenues for drop-in WSN modules and chipsets will reach $9.8 billion up from $4.1 billion in 2018. Enterprise applications will make up 30% of the chipset unit shipments and 49% of the revenues by this time due to higher chipset and module average sale prices (ASPs) compared to consumer applications.
Short Range Wireless Sensor Networks
Advances in low power wireless radios and wireless mesh network stacks have driven most IoT development over the past decade. Zigbee has the largest share of the wireless mesh market but IP-based protocols Thread and Wi-SUN are making up a larger portion of new product designs.
The Thread Group recently released an updated Thread specification (version 1.2) that provides several enhancements such as lower power consumption and extensions for Bluetooth and scalable commissioning for commercial buildings. Wi-SUN is used in some of the largest IP-based wireless mesh networks and there will be nearly 100 million Wi-SUN devices installed worldwide in the next few years.
Combination chipsets, or "combo chips" that combine technologies such as Bluetooth Low Energy and Zigbee/Thread has created new developer opportunities and is part of a continuing trend toward network agnostic solutions. Combo chips are now the default option from many of the leading WSN suppliers including Nordic Semiconductor, NXP, Qorvo, Qualcomm, Redpine Signals, Silicon Labs, Telink and TI.
Low Power Wide Area Networks
LPWAN technologies such as Sigfox, LoRa®, LTE-M and NB-IoT create multi-mile star networks of sensor nodes with multi-year battery lifetimes that are managed through an in-premises or cloud-based network server. Unlicensed LPWAN technologies continue to dominate LPWAN market with adoption for private networks increasing the fastest.
LPWANs are providing a range of IoT applications that are increasingly viewed as complementary to wireless mesh sensor networks such as Wi-SUN. Network backups, remote asset monitoring and asset tracking are a few examples. LPWANs provide geolocation capabilities without GPS for lower hardware and battery costs that leverage cloud infrastructure platforms to manage tracking, locating and monitoring of shipping containers, equipment, livestock, bicycles and other mobile assets. LPWAN will drive much of the growth for 270 million connected industrial IoT asset trackers within the next seven years.
More information about ON World's report, "Wireless Sensor Network Markets," and a free executive summary is available from: https://www.onworld.com/wsn.
About ON World:
ON World (https://www.onworld.com) provides global business intelligence on Internet of Things markets. Our market research is used by Fortune 1000 companies, investors and IoT developers worldwide.
Contact:
Mary Purvis
p: 858-259-2397
e: [email protected]
SOURCE ON World
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