Amazon Sidewalk

[Sushubh]

One of the things we learned from the Alexa Connect Kit is that developers are always looking for new ways to invent for their customers, and that includes pushing the boundaries outside the home. But when we do that, real technology problems come into play. Bluetooth has limited range. WiFi only goes so far. And 5G cellular is incredibly important when you need reliable, long distance, guaranteed delivery of data, but it can be complex. That leaves a middle ground for devices that are looking for low-cost, low-power, low bandwidth connection where battery life needs to be measured in years, not days.

We came up with a concept we call Amazon Sidewalk.

A low bandwidth, highly secure network, that uses the free 900 MHz spectrum to first and foremost extend the distance at which you can control simple, low-cost, edge IoT devices.

We think developers will build all kinds of useful, low-cost products for this network. We started with the obvious use case of lighting with Ring's smart lighting, but think about all the things that are far from your home WiFi that might use Sidewalk—weather stations to tell you how much rain you’ve gotten, a water sensor in your garden with your tomatoes, a little sensor in your mailbox that lets you know when the mail has been delivered. The possibilities are endless.

As we got to building this idea of this network, we learned that, with just a few access points, very broad coverage becomes available.

We went to Ring HQ to test a few devices, and asked the team how long it would take to get an Amazon Sidewalk network up and running. We sent 700 devices out to employees, friends, and family, and three weeks later, we had the LA Basin - the second largest city in the country - completely covered in three weeks. Because it has such good overlap and range, you get great coverage.

As the Sidewalk network grows, it will be useful for keeping track of things. And what better to track than the family dog?

We’re going to build a reference design called Ring Fetch - a dog tracker that will use Sidewalk and ping you if your dog leaves a certain perimeter. This will be coming next year.

We will be publishing this protocol and allowing the Sidewalk network to be used by things we and other developers make to do secure, over-the-air updates to ensure the software is up to date, one of the biggest problems we face with the Internet of Things.

It is very early days but we are so excited to see what developers will invent using Sidewalk.

 

[Sushubh]

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