Arch Rock unveils OEM version of wireless networking suite
Arch Rock today unveiled an original equipment manufacturer, or OEM, version of its IP-based PhyNet technology suite that now can be embedded into third-party sensing and control devices for the public safety, utility and municipal sectors. The technology includes a hardware module with a microprocessor as well as a low-power, wireless personal area network (802.15.4) radio that operates over the company’s proprietary network software, said Roland Acra, the company’s CEO.
The standards-based PhyNet suite consists of a router, server, modules and networking software, Acra said, adding that the nodes, server, router and software development licenses cost $4995. When the modules are embedded into sensing devices they perform as low-power wireless nodes to form IP mesh networks.
“The new product takes the core elements in the company’s sensor nodes and makes it available as a communications engine for third-party devices,” Acra said. “That could be wireless measurement devices, meters for utilities, a smart-parking device, a weather device—anything that could be measuring or controlling and that so far as been standalone or that [requires] more power-hungry or dollar-costly networks like cellular and Wi-Fi.”
He added that the suite has been incorporated into sensors designed for use by personnel working in extreme conditions. For example, sensors have been placed into the helmets of firefighters to track their location and to obtain vital information about their physical condition and the environment in which they’re working.
“Whether they are lying down or moving, or whether the temperature around their body is regular or an inferno,” Acra said.
