Ingenu’s RPMA utilizes the 2.4 GHz ISM band. There, we said it. And we love it! The 2.4 GHz band offers many reasons why it is a practical choice for M2M communication if you are savvy enough to use it right.

At first glance some think that the 2.4 GHz band is inferior to the sub GHz band due to propagation. But this is trivially overcome with antenna diversity. In plain English, we put two antennae on our modules rather than one, because we can. The 2.4 GHz band wavelength is shorter than the 900MHz so we are able to place two antennae and still have flexible and practical small form factors. And just like that, propagation issues are overcome.

As with many things, government regulations are the largest hurdle for most frequency bands, including the 900 MHz family of bands. However, the 2.4 GHz band has very favorable government regulations in both the US and Europe. For example, in the US, narrowband transmissions are restricted to 400ms (or 0.4 seconds), but this doesn’t affect RPMA as it utilizes direct-sequence spread spectrum (DSSS) modulation. +1 RPMA!

Another advantage of the 2.4 GHz band is the enormous amount of bandwidth available in the 2.4 GHz band. We have 80 MHz of bandwidth in the US. That means in the US we have 40 completely independent channels to choose from. And in Europe we have an enormous amount compared to only 500 kHz for the 900 MHz band.

What’s more is the 2.4 GHz band is truly available worldwide cost-free. It’s as if some worldwide organization back in the mid 20th century decided that the 2.4 GHz band should be available worldwide. Wait, they did! The 900 MHz family has the ‘family’ in its name because in Europe it is actually 868 MHz and in the US it is 915 MHz; so it isn’t actually available worldwide as a single continuous band.

RPMA was designed to utilize the 2.4 GHz band because it is available worldwide, has more bandwidth, is cost free, and has extremely favorable regulatory conditions. In the end, it isn’t just the frequency band that matters; it’s what you can do with it. And what RPMA does is simply genius.

Get a more detailed comparison of the 2.4 GHz band and 900 MHz band by reading our forthcoming white paper, Unlicensed Spectrum: 2.4 GHz and 900 MHz Compared.

Supporting the Broadest Global Deployments

The IoT market is global – companies developing applications want to be able to deliver their solution to the widest available market. Similarly, serving the largest available market drives down costs by utilizing common components, infrastructure and so on.

The 2.4 GHz band has a substantial advantage over 900 MHz on this dimension. As shown in the figure below, 2.4 GHz provides a single spectrum choice with virtually global availability, under very similar rules. The 900 MHz band is a more fractured story, with different frequency bands in different geographies, variation in critical rules and some countries, without availability.

Global ISM Bands

More Spectrum Means Greater Capability and Flexibility

In addition to its global availability, the 2.4 GHz ISM band provides a large absolute amount of spectrum – covering 80 MHz of bandwidth.  Move available bandwidth provides more capability and flexibility in delivering real-world solutions.

On-Ramp’s RPMA system is architected around a one MHz channel bandwidth.  An entire RPMA network can be deployed as a single channel network using only one MHz of the entire 80 MHz of available spectrum.  This small channel footprint in the broad frequency band provides flexibility in deployment models to improve the capabilities and performance of RPMA networks.  RPMA networks are designed so that additional frequencies can be used to increase capacity, extend coverage, and provide robustness to interference.  Up to four independent RPMA networks can exist in the same area providing maximum benefit of channel flexibility for each.

RPMA – Specifically Designed for the Unlicensed Spectrum

The 2.4 GHz spectrum is ideal for delivering the benefits of the On-Ramp Wireless RPMA long-range IoT network with:

• Unparalleled coverage: RPMA breaks through the barrier in wireless communications by delivering wide-area coverage with a simple network architecture. The system’s performance parity and antenna diversity enabled by 2.4 GHz offset the propagation advantages of 900 MHz.
• Global Availability: RPMA technology has the operational advantage of virtually global availability in single frequency band
• More Deployment Options: The 2.4 GHz band results in substantially more available spectrum to provide enhanced deployment flexibility.

If you’re interested in deploying an M2M application, please get in touch with the experts at On-Ramp Wireless.