Joining up the dots: Amazon Sidewalk
Amazon has announced that as of June 8, all the company’s devices (Echo home assistants, Ring cameras, etc.) in the United States will automatically connect with each other, forming a vast wireless mesh network via Bluetooth and radio signals in the 900MHz band, to create Amazon Sidewalk, its IoT service provider. The company says the network won’t use much bandwidth: the maximum from a Sidewalk Bridge to the Sidewalk server is 80 Kbps, and the total monthly data used per account is capped at 500 MB, but which will operate in opt-out mode: all devices will connect to it unless the user expressly changes the settings.
What are we talking about here? Basically, the creation of wirelessly connected zones where it would be easy to locate any object carrying a Tile device, although it seems unlikely that Amazon’s ambitions are that limited: it says the network can also be used to connect to devices far from our own WiFi. Device connections to the network are free, but are designed to support small bandwidth, clearly indicating a vocation for the IoT environment. In addition, the company offers Sidewalk Developer Service (SDS), a collection of approved silicon chipsets along with development boards, device software development kits (SDKs), device provisioning tools, technical documentation and a cloud integration for developers who want to take advantage of Amazon Sidewalk…
