RF Chirp tech: Long distance, incredible penetration, low bandwidth

RF Chirp tech: Long distance, incredible penetration, low bandwidth

5 years ago
Anonymous $4ckUSNo_FL

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2019/09/rf-chirp-tech-long-distance-incredible-penetration-low-bandwidth/

At Ars, we get daily product pitches that range on a scale from "must review" through "no thanks" to "wtf." So when a representative for a small company's PR firm reached out with a pitch for a "radio signal that's thousands of times more robust than Bluetooth or Wi-Fi" and invited us to "take the Wi-Fi challenge," it pegged my BS meter—but I took a closer look anyway.

It turns out that Sure-Fi isn't intended to replace Wi-Fi at all. When Ars spoke to Sure-Fi president Mark Hall, he clarified that the company's gear is high tech RF for industrial controls, and it's not intended for a consumer audience. It uses 900MHz spectrum RF chirp communications to establish a low-bandwidth, high-reliability connection between industrial equipment (such as HVAC systems or electronic security gates) and their controllers.