Wifi mesh technology could kick-start the smart homeWifi mesh technology could kick-start the smart home

An emerging technology designed to create a seamless domestic connectivity experience could create a bunch of other opportunities, according to Qualcomm Atheros.

We spoke to Irvind Ghai, VP of Product Management at Qualcomm Atheros, at a briefing in London. After covering the recent announcements of some new 5G NR small cells and a collaboration with Facebook over its Terragraph FWA project, we moved onto wifi, which is one of the areas Ghai’s bit of Qualcomm focuses on.

One of the most interesting concepts we covered was wifi mesh, which involves installing multiple (typically three) wifi nodes in the house to extend the range of a router. Unlike current fixes such as wireline wifi extenders, a mesh has additional cleverness that enables your connected devices to dynamically hand over between nodes depending on which provides the best signal.

The really clever bit, however, lies on some of the ancillary stuff this technology enables. Of greatest interest to CSPs could be a radar-like ability to map the interior of the home, which enables localised responses to voice commands. For example you could say “lights on” when you’re in the kitchen and the smart home system would only turn the lights on in the kitchen.

In fact these sorts of systems can apparently support their own voice UI systems and, such is the precision of this domestic radar that it can also support things like gesture UI. On top of that it can detect when doors and windows are open, so it seems to offer lots of tools for CSPs to fashion into a compelling smart home proposition if they can just get their acts together.

Ghai told us that mesh products already account for 40% of the US domestic wifi market and pointed to vendors such as Plume (mesh nodes pictured above), which make small, unobtrusive nodes that can be discretely placed around the house. You can see some of Ghai’s slides below and if wifi mesh delivers as advertised it could be a significant technology for the development of the smart home.