WAV, Auburn University, Trident IoT, Axzon, Blecon: RFID News Roundup

Published: October 17, 2024

Auburn to Expand RFID Lab

Auburn’s Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) Lab is seeking more space. Currently housed in the former Bruno’s grocery store building on East Glenn Avenue, officials are moving forward in attempts of securing a new building that would better house the current lab operations and allow for expanded collaborations with private and public sector partners.

In an effort to accommodate the university’s research growth, the Board of Trustees granted permission for the university administration to enter into a lease agreement with the Auburn Research and Technology Foundation (ARTF) to house a research facility in the Auburn Research Park.

Auburn’s RFID Lab focuses on the business case and technical implementation of RFID and other emerging technologies in retail, aviation, defense, supply chain and manufacturing. Moving this work to space in the park will increase the visibility of the research program and potentially attract other private and public sector research collaborators to locate in the park, according to school officials.

Auburn will be a tenant in the new facility, and the research projects located in it will pay rent under a lease for the space they occupy.

Trident IoT Adds Authorized Test Lab Accreditation

Trident IoT has been approved as an authorized test lab for Zigbee certification by the Connectivity Standards Alliance. This approval enhances Trident IoT’s position as a trusted certification partner, adding to its existing status as an authorized test lab for Z-Wave certifications.

With this approval, Trident IoT can now offer manufacturers and developers a streamlined path to Zigbee certification, ensuring their products meet the rigorous standards set by the alliance.

“Our approval as a Zigbee certification test lab reinforces our commitment to helping companies bring secure, reliable, and compliant devices to market faster. Combined with our Z-Wave testing capabilities, Trident IoT is now a one-stop solution for developers working across these two major standards,” said Mariusz Malkowski, chief technology officer of Trident IoT. “By locating our labs in the US, we make it easier for North American developers to communicate throughout the certification process, resolving issues that arise quickly which results in products getting to market faster.”

The addition of Zigbee testing services complements Trident IoT’s existing service offerings, including Z-Wave testing, RF performance testing and design and development services. The company’s state-of-the-art testing facilities and expert engineering team ensure that products comply with the latest wireless standards and regulatory requirements, facilitating smooth market entry for global manufacturers.

The Zigbee certification program is designed to ensure product interoperability, security, and reliability, critical factors for smart homes, buildings, and industrial applications. With the widespread adoption of Zigbee in these markets, Trident IoT is poised to support manufacturers looking to get their certified product to market as quickly as possible.

Axzon Partners with Phychips

Axzon has partnered with Phychips, the leading RAIN RFID Reader IC and Module provider, to offer a higher level of data protection and data integrity to the data stored on every Opus logger.

Attached to every product, Opus loggers store environmental conditions the product gets exposed to throughout its supply chain journey. With supply chain rules, which define the desired conditions for the supply chain to adhere to and store on each Opus logger, having the record of the environmental conditions to which each logger is exposed to, is the difference between an acceptable product or one that needs to be scrapped.

To that end, the stored data in each Opus logger gives customers detailed knowledge of the environmental conditions that each product has been exposed to throughout, identifying with unprecedented precision, where the failure in the supply chain occurs, holding all the stakeholders accountable.

Phychips’s Wine Module and Opus Logger, which offer data encryption and data integrity features, works in concert to protect the logger data integrity throughout the entire supply chain. The result is a fully encrypted, secured, and trusted data communication between the reader and the Opus loggers throughout the entire logger’s journey, which cannot be accessed, read, or altered by any untrusted parties.

Blecon Raises $4.6 Million for Commercial IoT Deployments

Blecon has raised $4.6 million in seed funding, advancing its mission to unlock the full potential of Bluetooth Low Energy for IoT Connectivity.

The company, founded in 2021 by seasoned IoT experts from ARM, AWS, and Microsoft, has developed a solution that unlocks Bluetooth’s potential for commercial IoT deployments. Blecon leverages Bluetooth’s inherent benefits combined with Wi-Fi’s deployment model and cellular’s network model.

Blecon-enabled bluetooth devices can securely and automatically connect to the cloud without the need for traditional bluetooth pairing. Devices can route data bidirectionally through any available Blecon hotspots, enabling cellular-like roaming. Further, Blecon apps enable phones and laptops to be hotspots, with Blecon Hubs for dedicated coverage—all without configuration.

“Bluetooth has seen unprecedented technical and commercial success as a consumer technology for personal connectivity, with adoption in billions of devices,” said Simon Ford, CEO of Blecon. “Now, businesses are exploiting those economies of scale and unique low-cost, low-power characteristics for cloud-connected devices, and Blecon is providing the technology to allow them to achieve it.”

The funding, led by MMC Ventures, enables Blecon to strengthen product development further and expand customer engagements.

“At MMC, we take a research-led approach to the companies and technologies that will reshape our economy over the coming decades,” said Bruce Macfarlane, founding partner of MMC Ventures. “Blecon’s infrastructure proposition has the potential to leverage all the investment already made in tried and tested Bluetooth technology and unlock that for new data-driven product companies and applications.”

WAV, MBSI WAV Welcome Altowav as a New Manufacturer Partner

WAV and MBSI WAV, leading distributors of LTE, wireless broadband, fiber, networking, and Wi-Fi equipment, announced their partnership with Altowav, a provider of high-bandwidth, low-latency wireless connectivity solutions.

Officials from the companies said this collaboration positions WAV and MBSI WAV to deliver enhanced systems integration solutions, bringing wireless network devices to a broader market.

Altowav’s portfolio includes point-to-point and point-to-multipoint solutions tailored for diverse applications, such as building-to-building connections, video security, Wi-Fi backhaul, smart city infrastructures, and internet propagation. Their wireless devices are engineered to offer superior performance, seamlessly supporting high-bandwidth requirements while minimizing latency across any network even in high-density deployments.

“We are excited to join forces with WAV and MBSI WAV to bring our wireless connectivity solutions to more partners in the industry. This partnership will help us empower service providers with reliable, scalable, and multi-GB point-to-point solutions for virtually any application,” said Alex Doorduyn, president, Altowav.

Norm Dumbroff, CEO of WAV, emphasized the importance of the partnership, saying, “Our collaboration with Altowav reinforces our dedication to offering comprehensive wireless solutions and bridging the digital divide. Their products align with our mission to “connect them all” and deliver reliable connectivity that meet the needs of both urban and rural end users through our service provider customers.”

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