The Weightless SIG has unveiled plans for a new 2-way communications IoT standard, after commencing work with M2Communications.

In the world of IoT, platforms and standardisation initiatives are unfolding at a rate of knots, and the announcement by Weightless suggests a new low-powered WAN for city-wide cellular-enablement of M2M is on the way. “Weightless-P”, according to the group, provides 2-way communications, at data rates ranging from 200 bps to 100kbps, where the majority of M2M IoT traffic is predicted to be. The group also claims it will enable higher capacity than existing LPWAN and cellular tech for primarily uplink traffic with, and by utilising common chipsets at will target both stationary and mobile devices which are capable of hand-over between networks, as well as roaming and cell re-selection.

M2COMM is apparently leading the SIG’s working group on Weightless-P, and the firm’s CEO Derrick Wei pointed at early retail and industrial applications of IoT as an indicator of future success for the standard.

“Weightless-P will breathe new life into an IoT market that is waiting on a reliable LPWAN technology,” he said. “Many IoT sectors require reliability to be addressed with ultra-low energy wireless communications not accessible through operator services today. The show adoption of wireless IoT solutions highlights a huge technology void that Weightless-P will address without requiring custom hardware. Our current technology deployments in the retail and industrial sectors are a powerful indication of the future success we anticipate for Weightless-P.”

The Weightless-P spec will likely be published by Q4 2015, when it will be made available to members of the SIG. hardware for Weightless-P, dev kits included, will be launched in early 2016. William Webb, the Weightless SIG CEO said M2COMM’s contribution is in line with the existing Weightless portfolio. “We are delighted to welcome M2COMM to the group and very excited about what Weightless-P brings to the IoT market,” he said. “This new technology is bringing unique capabilities to the space – it fits perfectly within the Weightless stable of technologies.”