Vivint.
Vivint.
Improving Smart homes In the US with Gigabit speed.
Improving Smart homes In the US with Gigabit speed.
Challenge
The market for urban broadband coverage in the US is dominated by a number of players. Each is active in their own regions and no real competition exists. The prices are relatively high and customer satisfaction is often low which opens up for new players that want to enter the market. Attempts have been made by Google Fiber and Facebook Terragraph programs to break in, but they have not been successful yet. Entering the market with fiber deployment has an extremely higher barrier due to its initial cost. Wireless infrastructure has technical challenges to reach fiber speed and needs site acquisition at low cost to be a challenger
Assignment
Based on the Qamcom relationship to chip manufacturers as a technology application specialist, Vivint, one of the largest smart home providers in the US decided to do a joint venture development with Qamcom. The assignment is characteristic for Qamcom flexibility to work with multiple business models and in this case share risk and reward with the customer.
Solution
To meet the requirement on a low operational cost a product was developed that utilizes the license free 60 GHz (V-band) spectrum. Intended for roof top mount on customer premises, it covers 360 degrees and has a IPv6 MESH network as a backhaul. The MESH network supports multiple gigabits, and northbound connectivity can be inserted anywhere, supporting 10 Gbps fiber or PtP microwave for technology redundancy. It has zero touch configuration from the installation team and connects to the user by a PoE connection with an up to 1 Gbps speed. With antenna beam steering there is no need for alignment between radios and +40 dBm EIRP in all directions is achieved with antenna array gain. The design was made with high security in mind. For example all protocols are encrypted, ARM secure boot is used as well as Radius authentication.
‘Vivint has a track record of developing complex connectivity products and getting them into mass production, enabling us to provide a very differentiated customer experience and business model. When it came to developing an innovative solution to power our next generation ISP network, we realized that we needed to find a strong partner with 60GHz and networking experience to help us build this product. We selected Qamcom because of their mix of highly talented team and experience with rapidly prototyping complex outdoor networking products along with their proven ability to get products into mass production with some of the world’s largest OEMs. Together we formed a very tightly integrated multinational design team collaborating between our design centers in California and Utah, along with their teams in Gothenburg and our manufacturing partners in Taiwan, Japan and China in order to get the product successfully into mass production.’
Outcome
The product is FCC, safety certified and industrialized at a Taiwan based contract manufacturer. Handed over to Vivint Internet for deployment as a key component in their offering as a complete smart home service provider, i.e. taking the next step and providing Internet connectivity for their customer base.
Want to learn more?
Joakim Nilsson
+46 (0) 736 619058
joakim.nilsson@qamcom.se
Qamcom is a leading Swedish
research and technology company
We deliver unique and deep competence within hardware, software and system development. Qamcom offers value-driven technology solutions, products and services in the fields of advanced signal processing, artificial intelligence, wireless communications systems, industrial IoT and system safety. Qamcom’s mission is quite simply to turn technology into value for society, industry and people. Based on insights and the needs of end users, Qamcom bridge the gap between technology and application to enable high ambitions together with our partners.
