Silicon Labs expands IoT wireless portfolio with Wi-SUN technology

Silicon Labs has announced a new standards-driven Wi-SUN technology, that it says will help to open the door to new Internet of Things (IoT) market opportunities and accelerate smart city application development.

Its certified Wi-SUN solution combines the EFR32 hardware platform, full-featured IPv6 mesh stack, and advanced development tools to enable secure wireless connectivity for a broad range of applications, from advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) to street lighting networks, asset management and smart city sensors such as parking, air quality and waste management.

“Wi-SUN is the perfect addition to our portfolio,” said Matt Johnson, senior vice president and general manager of IoT Products. “It is a comprehensive solution optimised for large scale, long-range LPWAN networks. Our Wi-SUN technology enables a non-proprietary approach to industrial and smart city applications, making deployments more scalable, resilient and safer.”

Wi-SUN is certified by the Wi-SUN Alliance and builds upon standard Internet protocols (IP) and APIs, enabling developers to extend existing infrastructure platforms to add new or emerging applications serving a wide range of industrial and smart city workflows. Built to scale due to its long-range capabilities, high-data throughput and IPv6 support, Wi-SUN is able to simplify wireless infrastructure for cities and expanding suburban areas.

“The Wi-SUN Alliance’s mission is to bring Smart Ubiquitous Networks to service providers, utilities, municipalities and other smart city enterprises,” explained Phil Beecher, president and CEO of the Wi-SUN Alliance. “It is gratifying to see Silicon Labs and other alliance member companies innovating new solutions on the Wi-SUN FAN specification, which defines everything needed to build secure, reliable, and resilient networks for large scale outdoor smart city applications.”

Silicon Labs’ first family of wireless SoCs to support Wi-SUN is EFR32xG12, a 32-bit Arm Cortex-M4 platform with up to 1 MB of flash and 256 kB of RAM as well as an integrated +20 dBm PA for sub-GHz frequencies.

Silicon Labs currently has certified Wi-SUN FSK PHYs and is working with lead customers to bring fully-certified Wi-SUN applications to market. General availability of Silicon Labs’ full Wi-SUN solution is expected early Summer 2021.