The PCS2500 Wi-Fi HaLow Point SoC is part of a family of Wi-Fi HaLow products offered by Palma Ceia SemiDesign supporting the buildout of Wi-Fi HaLow networks, based on the IEEE 802.11ah specification. The PC2500 is a highly integrated Wi-Fi HaLow modem chip operating as an AP (Access Point) or a modem chip for an internet gateway. A single PCS2500 AP controls multiple PCS2100 Wi-Fi HaLow IoT STA/Client chips, establishing modem to modem connections to form a complete Wi-Fi HaLow network.
The PCS2500 operates in a sub-gigahertz (S1G) frequency range and can authenticate and communicate with devices up to 1 km away. It supports channel bandwidths of 1 MHz and 2 MHz. Operating using a Wi-Fi protocol with special IoT network management functions, the PCS2500 acts as a gateway to a LAN network, linking easily through TCP/IP or UDP protocol to the internet. The AP manages the efficient operation of dense IoT networks using features that reduce contention, reducing both wait and retransmit time, thereby lowering overall power consumption. The PCS2500 supports devices operating at long range, with scalable throughput, operating IoT networks with the best combination of density, range, throughput and power consumption.
Features
- Support for mandatory 1 MHz and 2 MHz operation
- Wi-Fi extensions for IoT, including Resource Allocation Windowing (RAW) and Target Wake Time (TWT)
- Broad spectrum support, 755 MHz to 928 MHz, to handle all regional regulatory requirements
- Excellent receiver sensitivity for reliable connections at longer range
- Superior phase noise and linearity performance to ensure Tx and Rx EVM
- (error vector magnitude ) exceed specifications significantly
- Narrowband transmission and simplified modulation delivers long-range performance
- External FEM TR switch and PA reaches an output power of + 26dBm
The PCS2500 supports up to 500 STA/Clients, in low duty cycle operations, working with them to establish targeted wake intervals (using TWT) or by assigning specific windows, organized by group or bandwidth intervals (using RAW), in which devices wake up and contend for the network in an orderly fashion, transmit and receive, and fall back to sleep. Several other Wi-Fi HaLow protocol features support reducing contention and lowering power consumption, making the PCS2500 an ideal wireless gateway for low-power, dense IoT networks.
Features such as Max_Idle are negotiated between the PCS2500 and PCS2100 and can put a device into sleep-only mode, waking when the sleep duration is met. These features give low duty cycle devices, such as sensors, extraordinary extended battery life, approaching 10 years.
Specifications
| Package | FCBGA |
| Standards | Wi-Fi HaLow (802.11ah) |
| Spectral Bands | 755MHz to 928 MHz |
| Channel Utilization | 1MHz, 2MHz |
| Coding Schemes | MCS 0-7, 10 |
| Maximum Modulation | 256QAM |
| Security/Cryptology | WPA3, OWE, AES-CCMP |
| Interfaces | HS-SPI, HS-UART, GPIO, JTAG |
| Features | RAW, TWT, Max_Idle Hierarchical AID Duplicate PPDU Bi-directional TXOP Grouping, Sectorization |
Robust and Reliable
The PCS2500 is designed to the strictest RF standards using advanced tools in the hands of experienced RF engineers. The design approach provides exceptional margin that makes the PCS2500 perform reliably across a wide range of operating conditions. The PCS2500 includes digital functions for calibration, production test and signal path compensation.
Software Support
The PCS2500 includes software for embedded internet operation, including IP stacks (TCP/IP and UDP). The Wi-Fi HaLow subsystem includes firmware for the Wi-Fi HaLow MAC and baseband. Software services allow for field updates of both firmware and IP stacks.
Device Support
The buildout of systems using the PCS2500 is supported by documentation on bring-up and provisioning. A reference board including a host processor is available for system software development and prototyping.
Security
Security is an important consideration when deploying IoT networks. Because Wi-Fi HaLow is a Wi-Fi standard, the network is controlled locally and does not require a cellular connection. Wi-Fi HaLow also uses the latest security feature WPA3. The PCS2100 supports WPA3-Personal and OWE along with AES-CCMP for encryption, providing the most secure Wi-Fi network available today.
Wi-Fi HaLow integrates easily into existing Wi-Fi networks by using a host controller that supports Ethernet, USB or PCI-Express.
Learn More
To take advantage of Palma Ceia’s solutions for Wi-Fi connectivity, send an email to info@pcsemi.com or contact us at one of our worldwide offices.