ZigBee is a low-power, low-cost sensor network alternative. Wireless networking products from MeshNetworks Inc. sit at the other end of the spectrum. The concept behind MeshNetworks (Maitland, FL) technology is that communication of data should not follow a hub-and-spoke model like the one used by the phone system in which two points in a conversation communicate through a central point.
Instead, MeshNetworks technology follows the Internet's communication paradigm in which all the routers and servers are interconnected. If congestion appears on one path, the traffic is automatically routed to a less-congested route. Available today, MeshNetworks' technology, called MEA (Mesh-Enabled Architecture), lets OEMs build wireless sensor networks for high-end applications.
"We focus on connecting multi-thousand dollar pumps and sensors over very wide areas," says Rick Rotundo, vice president of technical marketing for MeshNetworks. These are expensive devices with high data rates. You need to be able to monitor them in near real time. The company was founded in 2000 and built on a U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) project involving wireless radios used by soldiers in the desert.
MeshNetworks is rolling out its first industrial application in conjunction with Royce Technologies (New Orleans, part of ITT Industries) for a large municipal wastewater treatment facility in central Florida. The facility has monitors, controls and valves spread over 100 acres. "These systems check water quality and they're everywhere," says Jeff Schmidt, manager of the product design for MeshNetworks. But the sensors were not networked and there was no application to control everything. "They don't have the funding to send people in a square-mile area to check the sensors every hour. Now, they get updates every 10 seconds," says Rotundo.
The system will help the wastewater management facility prove that it is in compliance with water-quality regulations, as well as giving a historical record of conditions in the plant. Though it is the first industrial application for MeshNetworks, the prospects are good. "Our technology is turning out to be an excellent transport medium for sensor data in industrial applications," says Schmidt.