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Wireless Mesh In Depth
ēKo's Wireless Mesh Technology
Crossbow’s ēKo
is built on its, Xmesh, mesh networking technology, which extends the range and reliability
of wireless systems compared to line-of-sight only systems because it is designed
to form self-organizing and self-configuring sensor networks.
Problem:
All methods of radio transmission are prone to signal loss due to:
- Changing Environmental Conditions
- Obstacles
- Intentional
and Un-intentional RF Transmissions
- Line-of-sight radios permanently lose connectivity
when unable send or receive
an RF signal to the designated base station radio
Solution:
Mesh networks, unlike line-of-sight radios, recovers from
the above conditions by:
- Routing each ēKo node's message through
any nearby neighboring ēKo node that is within communications range.
Each ēKo unit is part of a robust community of ēKo devices; each unit is aware of its closest neighbors and maintains a constant watch over the happenings in its surroundings.
These wireless devices (sensor nodes) with XMesh will automatically find the optimal radio path for communication and continually
adjust these paths as conditions change. If a radio link between any two radios
deteriorates due to interference or other factors the nodes will automatically find
another path through another unit.
This overlap and redundancy of knowledge provides a strong and reliable system. Even if one ēKo is removed from the
community the remaining members will make the necessary adjustments – intelligent technology. No data is left behind.
- A radio doesn't need to
communicate with a base station radio. Instead, it will hop its messages through
the mesh network,
community of sensor nodes, which extends the communication distance greatly beyond the line-of-sight
limit.
- On adding, power-up new nodes in the network, the new nodes will automatically join
the network by communicating with
the ēKo
Base Radio, which provides a dynamic addressing service for the ēKo Nodes
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