MRFS
With increasingly mobile lives, the desire to be connected anywhere and the demand for convenience on every level, consumers are rapidly adapting to wireless devices for a variety of personal and professional needs. Meanwhile, wireless communication is expected to be a key technology for the home automation market. The new wireless revolution, using short-range radio frequency (RF) communication to do away with wires in homes and offices, is creating an unprecedented demand for cost-effective RF-ICs providing maximum integration, universal applicability, low power and flexibility.
Besides the complex and costly two-way customer RF communication technology, such as 3G, High data rate WLAN, and Bluetooth, Telemetry, the systems typically require a data rate of only a few kbps as typical functionality is simple control and monitoring functions, also plays a more and more important role. Generally, there is no need for high data rates for these home automation applications as most functions are related to simple control and monitoring. Typical data rates are in the range of 0.1-40 kbps. However, what is especially important for home automation is the need for very low cost and very low power solutions. In a few years a house can typically have a control and monitoring system with 50-200 intelligent radio nodes, used for e.g. remote lighting control, remote heating control (wireless thermostat) etc. This requires completely different system thinking and specification.
It is more and more recognized that Bluetooth is not the ideal solution for all short range radio communication systems. E.g. for a wireless light switch one does not need the 1Mbps raw data rate capability and the complex software stack. Much simpler and less power hungry solutions can be used. Preferably such a system should be able to operate with an 8 bits microcontroller with only a few kBytes of program memory. Of course moderate/low data rate wireless networks can't be used for all home network applications. E.g. data transfer between PCs, high-speed Internet access and steaming video applications would require WLAN or Bluetooth.
The communication distance of Telemetry is in the range of a few meters up to hundred meters. Typical applications are home automation, remote keyless entry, automatic meter reading and alarm and security systems, electronic toys and game pads and audio and voice applications.
The telemetry systems are used more specifically on Home Automation, which is expected to be a very important and fast growing field within this wireless application segment. These telemetry systems have common requirements for some of their most important features. Very often these products are physically small and require highly integrated single-chip solutions to minimize the size and to reduce the number of components required. In many cases a flexible solution that can be programmed for worldwide use is essential. On the other hand, scientists and engineers are also considering the affordability as a very important factor. Overall, we need a new method fitting following requirements:
• It must be small
• It must be stable, expandable and, at least, partly programmable
• It must perform excellently when dealing with low date rate information flows
• It must be affordable
Cuneatic's MRFS meets these and other stringent requirements and, as a result, has proved to be an ideal solution for many products in many of these sectors. MRFS is designed to provide a low-cost solution for wireless communication between low data rate Home Automation devices.
In several cases the use of MRFS is highly desirable or necessary due to the ability to penetrate walls and ceilings. Wireless communication also significantly reduces system installation cost.
Typical applications of MRFS within home automation are:
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