Wavecom has announced the introduction of a new technology, RIPlink (remote IP link), which allows applications running on non-IP devices to be connected over IP (Internet Protocol), simplifying M2M (machine-to-machine) application design and deployment.
The telecoms industry has invested significant resources to design and deploy a wide range of IP-based solutions, both for industrial and consumer applications, and there are few systems designed today that do not consider interconnecting to IP. For M2M industry players, IP represents the best way to secure investments in telecoms product design, ensuring a smooth transition path as communication technologies evolve.
Despite IP benefits, however, today’s M2M application deployments are still largely based on non-IP capable network technologies and devices, due to strict requirements on power consumption, coverage, device resources or deployment costs.
Thanks to a RIPlink gateway that is connected on one side to the IP network, and on the other side to one or more non-IP networks, standard TCP or UDP applications can run on non-IP devices and have access to the IP network resources. No IP stack is required on the device, and the underlying non-IP network remains unchanged. The client or server IP application running on the device is seen from the IP network as a standard IP application of the RIPlink gateway.
The gateway can manage several devices simultaneously, on one or more different non-IP networks. Applications can operate on heterogeneous devices on IPv4 or IPv6, as well as non-IP networks, using standard IP addressing, TCP and UDP principles.
RIPlink’s implementation implies no hardware impact or network stack impact – thus no re-certification – and the extra application software fits into small device processors. RIPlink requires less than 10 KB of code, just a few hundred words of RAM, no significant processing capacity, no realtime capability, and no operating system on the device.
To ensure that the M2M community benefits to the fullest from the RIPlink technology, Wavecom is making it available as an open technology, with public specifications and solutions available from Wavecom as well as from other RIPlink adopters.
The technology has already been successfully ported and demonstrated on several non-IP networks, including ZigBee and PLC (power line communication). For instance, the Italian company AP Systems, which specialises in wireless solutions for smart metering, has designed a concentrator which uses RIPlink to collect consumption data from electricity meters over PLC and from gas meters over ZigBee. It performs pre-billing calculations and sends the data to the back-end system over the GPRS network.
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