technology, RIPlink™ (Remote IP link), which allows applications running on non-IP devices to be connected over IP (Internet Protocol), drastically simplifying M2M (machine-to-machine) application design and deployment.

IP architecture is the undisputed reference for communicating applications. 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 inter-connecting 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.

To overcome these barriers, Wavecom launches an innovative technology that extends IP networks’ reach. 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.

Thanks to RIPlink™, M2M application development becomes simpler and more easily portable. Applications can operate on heterogeneous devices on IPv4 - or IPv6 - and non-IP networks, using standard IP addressing, TCP and UDP principles.

RIPlink™ is fast, inexpensive and safe to deploy: there is no hardware impact, no network stack impact – thus no re-certification – and the extra application software fits into the smallest device processors. RIPlink™ requires less than 10kB of code, just a few hundred words of RAM, no significant processing capacity, no real-time capacity, and no operating system on the device.

To ensure that the M2M community benefits to the fullest from the RIPlink™ technology, Wavecom is making RIPlink™ available as an open technology, with public specifications and solutions available from Wavecom as well as from other RIPlink™ adopters.

The RIPlink™ 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 (www.apsystems.it), which specializes in wireless solutions for smart metering, has designed a RIPlink™ enabled concentrator, called M³-C (Multi Metering Management Concentrator). The concentrator 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. These functions are easily implemented thanks to the powerful Wavecom Wireless CPU®. The M³-C concentrator is also used for other applications such as street lighting control via PLC connections.

“We are very enthusiastic about the potential of RIPlink™ for the M2M industry,” said Davide Bassetto, Product Manager of AP Systems. “With such combined performance, simplicity and flexibility, IP applications can be deployed quickly and smoothly. Thanks to RIPlink™, the M³-C is ready to embed new communication technologies and move with the market, both with wireless and wired solutions.”

Ember Corporation, a ZigBee technology leader, is supplying the underlying ZigBee silicon and software used by Wavecom and APSystems for these RIPlink implementations. “RIPlink™ is very complementary to our implementations of the ZigBee Alliance standards,” said Bob Gohn, VP Marketing of Ember. “This technology provides a simple and useful way of extending IP services to devices on standard, scalable and secure ZigBee networks.”

Laurent Girault, Technical Marketing Director at Wavecom, concluded: “RIPlink™ is a powerful way to simplify M2M application development and deployment, while keeping the choice of the best connectivity open for each specific application. RIPlink™ not only provides the right technical solution: as a freely available technology it is future-proof and open, as IP is. This technology removes a barrier to growth in the M2M market, and companies adopting RIPlink™ will be able to improve their business efficiency and capture new opportunities.”

To find out more, visit http://www.riplink.org. A blue paper on the RIPlink™ technology is available from http://www.wavecome.com/bluepapers.

Wavecom will be presenting this technology today at the Wireless Congress in Munich, Germany. For more information: http://www.elektroniknet.de/home/termine/wireless-congress

About Wavecom 

Wavecom is a leading provider of embedded wireless technology for M2M (machine-to-machine) communication. The company provides a range of GSM/GPRS, CDMA, EDGE and 3G Wireless CPUs; programmable processors which also act as wireless modules or wireless modems. These are backed by a C and Lua-based cellular wireless software suite which includes a real-time operating system (RTOS), a software development environment based on Eclipse™, and several Plug-Ins (GPS, TCP/IP, security, Bluetooth™, Lua script and more). Wavecom also offers a wide range of professional and operated services. The solutions are used for automotive telematics, smart metering, fleet management, GSM/GPS/satellite tracking, wireless alarms, wireless POS (point of sales), WLL (fixed voice), remote monitoring and many other M2M applications.

Founded in 1993 and headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux (France) near Paris, Wavecom has subsidiaries in Hong Kong (PRC), Research Triangle Park, NC (USA), Farnborough (UK), Munich (Germany) and Sao Paolo (Brazil).

Information Source:    Business Wire