Advantages of EnOcean Technology | Disadvantages of EnOcean Wireless IoT Technology

This page covers advantages and disadvantages of EnOcean Wireless IoT Technology. It mentions benefits or advantages of EnOcean Technology and comparative drawbacks or disadvantages of EnOcean Technology.

What is EnOcean Technology ?

Introduction: The EnOcean is a wireless technology which does not require battery for its operation. It uses energy harvesting techniques to power its devices and to transmit extremely short data telegram wirelessly. It uses sub 1 GHz frequency bands for its operation and covers distance of about 300 meters (Outdoors) and 30 meters (indoors). The specifications of EnOcean technology is defined in ISO/IEC 14543-3-1X standard. "EnOCean" is a company which is originator of this energy harvesting wireless technology. The company is headquartered in Oberhaching, Germany. EnOcean Alliance is a international consortium with 400 companies worldwide. The alliance develops and promotes EnOcean technology based products and solutions.

EnOcean technology uses solar cells, motion converters and thermo converters for energy harvesting. It uses energy management techniques so that minimum power is used for small amount of data transmission. The EnOcean software stack is modular and versatile which makes interoperability between different manufacturers of the EnOcean sensors and devices.

Following are the technical features of EnOcean wireless technology.
• Operating Frequency : 868 MHz (Europe and China), 315 MHz (Asia), 902 MHz (North America and Canada), 928 MHz (Japan), 2.4 GHz (World Wide for IoT applications).
• Modulation type : ASK, FSK
• Data rate : 125 Kbps (ASK)
• Channel Bandwidth : 280 KHz (For ASK)
• Transmit power : 6 dBm typical at antenna input
• Receiver sensitivity : -97 dBm typical
• Information data type : Frame (Encoded data at physical layer), Telegram (Consists of maximum of 3 subtelegrams), Subtelegram (After decoding process)

Figure depicts EnOcean wireless system and its modules. EnOcean wireless technology can be used for various applications which include smart homes, building automation, M2M (Machine to Machine) communication and IoT (Internet of Things).

Benefits or advantages of EnOcean Technology

Following are the benefits or advantages of EnOcean Technology:
➨EnOcean devices do not require battery. Hence it is maintenance free.
➨It does not require wires as it is wireless technology. Hence it is easy to install which saves both time and money.
➨It uses interoperable protocol. Sensor profiles are well defined and all EnOcean devices are identified by 32 bit unique transmission ID. Hence devices and sensors from different manufacturers can be installed together in the same building or home without any issues.
➨Reduced fire risk and inductive fields.
➨It transmits small size data with minimum power to longer range. For example, 50 µW power is needed to transmit small telegram to about 300 meters in a free field.
➨EnOcean technology co-exist with WLAN, DECT, PMR systems due to no interference between them.
➨Risk of data collision is very low due to use of extremely short telegram (~ 1ms) or data overhead in EnOcean technology.
➨It uses license free radio frequency spectrum below 1 GHz world wide in different bands.
➨Each EnOcean nodes has its own processor. Moreover it uses distributed intelligence so that entire EnOcean system does not fail if a single component or device fails.
➨It covers distance of up to 30 meters in indoors and 300 meters in outdoors (free field) using sub 1GHz frequency bands. It supports range from 10 meters (indoors) to 100 meters (outdoors) using 2.4 GHz band.

Drawbacks or disadvantages of EnOcean Technology

Following are the comparative limitations or drawbacks or disadvantages of EnOcean Technology with respect to other indoor wireless technologies.
➨It offers lower data rate (~ 125 Kbps ) compare to Zigbee (max. 250 Kbps) , Bluetooth (720 Kbps), UWB (110 Mbps) and WLAN (11 to 54 Mbps).
➨It supports medium range (~ 30 meters) indoors which is less compare to Zigbee (~100 m), UWB (~300 m) and Wavenis (~1000 m) technology.
➨It offers basic security using 32 bit unique ID. For applications requiring additional security such as smart homes, maximum 24 bit RC (Rolling Code) is incremented with each telegram and 128 bit AES algorithm is employed.

References

• Visit www.enocean.com for everything you would like to know about EnOcean technology from inventor and pioneer of this energy harvesting wireless technology.
• EnOcean Alliance

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