Nexcomm Systems, a Tampa, Florida manufacturer of IoT gateways and solutions, is pleased to announce the integration of Wi-Fi HaLow into the Nexus System gateways. Through collaboration with Newracom, manufacturer of Wi-Fi HaLow chipsets, and Silex Technology, manufacturer of Wi-Fi HaLow modules, Nexcomm Systems has developed two of the first HaLow enabled cellular gateways on the market.

WiFi HaLow is best described as “sub-GHz long-range Wi-Fi”. Released by the Wi-Fi Alliance in 2017, it takes the features that have made Wi-Fi one of the most successful wireless protocols and brings it into these lower frequency bands.

The development kits can achieve ranges of 1Mbps at over one mile. Up to 15Mbps is available at shorter ranges. By virtue of the lower frequency, a HaLow system operating at a low power of 0dBm can achieve similar coverage to a 2.4GHz 802.11n system operating at 17dBm. Designers can balance range, throughput and current consumption by adjusting output power, bandwidth and antenna gain.

HaLow fills a gap in the IoT wireless technology options by offering much better range than Bluetooth and IEEE 802.15.4 radios while offering much better data throughput than protocols like ZigBee, Thread and LoRa.

The Nexus Industrial cellular gateway and router is designed as a communications hub, able to connect to a variety of sensors, drives and controllers and link them to cloud servers for bidirectional monitoring and control. Housed in an IP67/68 diecast aluminum enclosure, the Nexus Industrial is ruggedized for harsh industrial and outdoor environments.

The Nexus Panel is a small, panel-mounted cellular gateway. RS-485 and USB ports connect to a wide array of PLCs, controllers, sensors and other equipment for bidirectional monitoring and control. Housed in a DIN rail-mount enclosure, the Nexus Panel cellular gateway acts as a wired and wireless communications hub to the cloud for industrial control panels.

Demonstrations of these gateways with HaLow are available now. Full production will be in Q4 2022.