Issue #140 | Apr. 4, 2008 | by Jeff Schaengold

In writing last week about how drastic the difference 700 MHz will make to RFID – and to the world in general – it drew an understandable response. Some wondered if I am suggesting the market stall (again) while we wait years for the new frequency to become all-pervasive. (Answer: of course not.) Others asked that if 700 MHz really could travel through buildings and hills as I said, don’t we have even worse privacy issues than the naysayers are already predicting?

We're not describing Blackberry or handset WLAN connectivity, we're actually describing the "Internet of Things" or "Internet B," where passive and active devices can backscatter an ID in real time, within a building, outdoors and in movement.

I was asked, “If this makes RFID so powerful, would it replace GPS for some domestic usage?”

That’s missing the point, or not understanding this Internet of Things in the fist place. GPS is RFID! Just as a cell phone is RFID and a wireless Access Point/Router is RFID.

GPS and unique identifiers in orbit
Each GPS unit has unique signature and it uses radio frequencies. How 700 MHz will enhance GPS today is to enhance the telemetry. Right now pure GPS uses high orbit satellites. As we build low orbit satellite infrastructure, we combine the telemetry of both high orbit and low orbit to penetrate through steel.

Here is an example. You can't use GPS today with high orbit systems if the GPS device and the antenna are inside an ocean container or the belly of a ship. With low orbit systems, the signals are not impacted by metals and liquids. Very much like RFID. 900 MHz is like high orbit and 700 MHz is like low orbit.

What will impact GPS will be the integration of high orbit, low orbit and Wi-Fi telemetry. This means that GPS units will use satellite telemetry as well as land based telemetry to produce more accurate GPS.

Including the environment in Internet B
That is exactly what is happening in the next five years. High orbit and low orbit satellites will transform GPS from an outdoor application to a universal indoor/outdoor application. Visibility on the street and in the office building and in the warehouse. The more satellites, the higher the accuracy.

Currently, a number of companies are tapping other elements of our environment to enhance locating. For instance, at the same time that a GPS knows where it is outdoors, we install GPS devices on hundreds of thousands of trucks and taxis that collect data such as speed and traffic flow. Now, instead of burying things in the road and using stationary sensors, we use the network of vehicles to tell us when the traffic flow slows down or stops.

A neural network of devices
Combine these elements with GPS, and the GPS device calculates the best route based on real traffic conditions instead of an algorithm. Combined with digital FM and 700 MHz, we can transmit the traffic conditions in real time to the GPS device. So you see, each GPS device, in every moving object, becomes an input to all other devices. “A neural network of devices.”

This also means that the "network of wi-fi/wimax access points and routers" is now producing this same type of information network. Today, when you connect to the Internet with your laptop or your wi-fi device, we can determine with improved precision where you are, without GPS. If you are using a mobility device, we are getting much better at locating you as you move, without ever accessing the satellite systems. We just track you from one wi-fi device ID to another.

So you see, guys, we are already in an Internet of Things, or “InternetB”, it’s just not as visible as an RFID label and an RFID warehouse portal.

As long as you have a laptop with Wi-Fi, I can track you and I know where you are with your laptop. I also know which Wi-Fi device you are connecting with and I know which router its attached and I know the locations. Every month we are becoming better and better at this. We already have billions of RFID devices on the Internet of Things; it's just not silly labels on toilet paper.

700 MHz will give us the ability to get better visibility. The data rate will improve tenfold, which means that 'real time' will be very much 'real time.' With 700 MHz we can integrate all the elements of RF into a unified body. 900 MHz was never intended to meet the needs of the Internet of Things, either on a local level or global. 900 MHz was intended for local communication and the world wants a unified spectrum. For the next 20 years it will be 700 MHz.