The Industrial Wi-Fi Shop Podcast

The Industrial Wi-Fi Shop Podcast – Ep. 21 HaLow Can You Go!

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Free 3D Printer Plans!

  • Oscium WiPry790x and Clarity/Lucid DIY bracket posted on Thingiverse. Bring your own hair ties. I have been informed that Printables is better so I will post it there soon.
    • https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:6991943

      • Upcoming Events!

      • Wi-Co 
        • November 6th – Washington, DC
        • November 10th – Dublin, Ireland
        • November 19th – Utrecht, Netherlands
        • WLPC – Phoenix AZ USA 2026
          • Main Conference: 17-19 FEB 2026
          • Boot Camps: 14-16 FEB 2026
          • Voting for presentations is open
          • Embedded World North America Annaheim, California
            • Nov 4-6, Gateworks will be doing a fireside chat with Morse Micro and U-Blox discussing development of AMRs  (AMR = Autonomous Mobile Robots)

              • Jeremy – I submitted two presentation options for WLPC Phoenix!

              • Common Industrial Deployments for complicated WLANS
              • Redundant Wireless Links: PRP over wireless, MPO, and other methods.
              • Voting is open until 11/14 we will put a link in the show notes and check linkedin.
              • https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/WLPCPHX2026

                • HaLow Outdoor Site Survey Deep Dive

                • https://www.thewlpc.com/presentations/802-11ah-wi-fi-halow-outdoor-site-survey-deep-dive-phx-26

                  • HaLow Development kit from Gateworks

                  • https://www.gateworks.com/products/single-board-computer-development-kits/wifi-halow-development-kit/ 

                    • Morse Micro Community

                    • https://community.morsemicro.com/ 

                      • Don’t forget to check out our new document library with free valuable downloadable content!

                      • Miliwatt to dBm  conversion table
                      • Wireless IoT reference charts for types and security
                      • Best practice white papers to help you stay on your game

                        • IWS Episode 21 – HaLow Can You Go

                        HaLow Basics

                        • Wi‑Fi HaLow is based on IEEE 802.11ah, a standard in the Wi‑Fi family that extends connectivity for IoT and machine‑to‑machine devices .​
                        • It operates in Sub‑1 GHz frequency bands ( 902–928 MHz in the U.S.), enabling long‑range communication—up to about a1 km outdoors and superior object penetration .​
                        • HaLow uses narrow channel widths (1–16 MHz), which improve range and energy efficiency compared to traditional Wi‑Fi that uses 20–160 MHz .​
                        • Supported modulation schemes include BPSK, QPSK, 16‑QAM, 64‑QAM, and 256‑QAM, offering adaptable data rates from 150 Kbps to 80 Mbps (theoretical with 4 spatial streams) depending on channel width and link quality .​
                        • It relies on OFDM (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing) to reduce interference and maintain link stability across multiple subcarriers .​
                        • Features like Target Wake Time (TWT) and long sleep cycles keep devices in low‑power mode most of the time, drastically extending battery life .​
                        • Security uses WPA3 and Wi‑Fi Enhanced Open, comparable to current enterprise‑grade Wi‑Fi .​

                          • Rumor has it you can link 88 of them together and push 1.21 Gigawatts

                          Frequencies

                          • 900MHz
                            • USA: 902-928 MHz
                            • Australia, New Zealand: 915–928 MHz
                            • Japan: 916.5–927.5 MHz and 920.5–921.5 MHz…trials underway to open up spectrum at 850MHz across Japan for Wi-Fi HaLow
                            • China: 755–787 MHz or sometimes 779–787 MHz
                            • Korea: 917.5–923 MHz and 925–931 MHz
                            • Vietnam: 918–923 MHz
                            • Europe
                              • Wi-Fi HaLow (IEEE 802.11ah) in Europe operates mainly within the 863–868 MHz sub-GHz ISM band, which offers significantly less spectrum compared to the U.S., creating certain limitations and regulatory constraints.​
                                • The European channel plan allocates just 5 MHz of spectrum in the 863–868 MHz range, split into five 1 MHz channels—much narrower than the U.S. allocation.​
                                • In some parts of Europe, an additional 2 MHz covering 915.8–917.4 MHz and 917.4–919.4 MHz is available for two additional channels, but full uptake is limited.​
                                • Channels typically available: 1 MHz and 2 MHz channel widths only.​
                                • Duty Cycle and Power Limitations
                                  • European regulations (ETSI/EN 2202, ERC Recommendation 70-03) strictly limit duty cycles—access points usually have a duty cycle restriction of 10%, while client stations are often restricted to 2.8%.​
                                  • These limits mean Wi-Fi HaLow data transmissions can only occupy the airwaves for a small fraction of time, making it less suitable for continuous, high-bandwidth uses like video streaming

                                    • What does HaLow look like on spectrum analysis?

                                    HaLow testing at a 2MHz wide channel

                                    HaLow testing at a 4MHz wide channel

                                    HaLow testing at a 8MHz wide channel

                                    “I’m fine to make the offer that the first 10 people to screen grab this image and send it out on their socials to their customers to see what their customers would like to do with the extra data throughput we can offer at hundreds of meters of distance…will get 2 x HaLowLink 1 devices from me to start their Wi-Fi HaLow journey. Just ask them to tag me (Andy), Morse Micro and the Industrial Wi-Fi Shop of course!!!” – Andy McFarlane

                                    Just right click and “save as” for the image above! Don’t forget to tag Scott & Jeremy too!

                                    Let’s talk Use Cases / Applications

                                    • Worth initially positioning Wi-Fi HaLow as the connectivity power behind IoT 2.0 … .being clear on how the first generation of IoT use cases opened up, what their restrictions are and how Wi-Fi HaLow is underpinning a new generation of higher throughput use cases. 
                                      • Commercial / Enterprise
                                        • Video Security Cameras
                                        • Smart Meters (Electricity meters rather than water or gas meters)
                                        • Smart Buildings (Door locks, behind the meter devices ref power load management)
                                        • Industrial  / Manufacturing
                                          • AMR’s both inside the factory/warehouse and outdoors
                                          • Grid monitoring
                                          • Transportation: Rail, Fleets, Asset Tracking 
                                          • UAV
                                          • Retail security, asset tracking and ESL(Electronic Shelf Labels) 

                                            • Are there any verticals we missed?

                                            Doing some AI digging (fast becoming a secondary hobby of mine):

                                            **********

                                            Several HaLow vendors have established partnerships with major industrial control companies like ABB, Honeywell, and Rockwell Automation to deploy robust industrial IoT solutions.

                                            Notable HaLow Vendor Partnerships
                                            • Morse Micro and Gateworks: This partnership focuses on bringing Wi-Fi HaLow to industrial IoT environments including smart factories, transportation systems, and energy infrastructure. Their collaboration emphasizes secure, long-range, low-power wireless connectivity tailored for industrial settings, which aligns with the needs of companies like ABB and Rockwell Automation.​

                                              • **********

                                              Gateworks (Whole USA Solution) How does this figure in with tariffs, MM and working with customers with something like a no China policy?

                                              **********

                                              Morse Micro and Gateworks are collaborating on projects that deliver industrial-grade Wi-Fi HaLow (IEEE 802.11ah) connectivity designed specifically for tough industrial environments such as smart factories, transportation systems, and energy infrastructure. Together with Silex Technology, they have developed a high-performance ecosystem that enables secure, low-power, long-range wireless connectivity ideally suited for:

                                              • Large sprawling industrial facilities and remote infrastructure with Wi-Fi coverage exceeding 1 km
                                              • Battery-powered sensors and devices requiring ultra-low power consumption
                                              • Smart factory applications including wireless sensors, automated mobile robotics, and machine health monitoring
                                              • Smart transportation projects such as train safety systems, fleet management, and predictive maintenance
                                              • Smart energy solutions including grid management, solar inverters, wireless EV charging, and smart meters

                                                • Key technology developed by the partnership includes the GW16159 industrial-grade M.2 Wi-Fi HaLow card, manufactured by Gateworks using Morse Micro’s MM6108 SoC. Gateworks also released the GW11056 Development Kit for accelerated evaluation and prototyping, enabling faster time-to-market for industrial automation and monitoring use cases.

                                                Additionally, here’s a few links you might like to use.

                                                • Here’s MM’s community page I referenced at the end of the podcast. https://community.morsemicro.com/
                                                • Here’s MM’s GitHub site. https://github.com/MorseMicro
                                                • Here’s a recently uploaded unboxing video for one of our HaLowLink test devices… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISVt7QTAP_0&t=22s
                                                • Plus our YouTube page… https://www.youtube.com/@morsemicro1641
                                                • Same for Instagram… https://www.instagram.com/morse.micro
                                                • And for those preferring more brain rot in their lives…our TikTok page… https://www.tiktok.com/@morse.micro

                                                  • **********

                                                  If you would like to connect with Kelly Peralta or learn more about her employer, Gateworks, then check the following:

                                                  Kelly Peralta – https://www.linkedin.com/in/kelly-peralta-ab6ab23/ 

                                                  Gateworks – https://www.gateworks.com/ 

                                                  If you would like to connect with Andy McFarlane or learn more about his employer, Morse Micro, then check the following:

                                                  Andy McFarlane – https://www.linkedin.com/in/andymcf/ 

                                                  Morse Micro – https://www.morsemicro.com/ 

                                                  • Here’s our GitHub site. https://github.com/MorseMicro 
                                                  • Here’s a recently uploaded unboxing video for one of our HaLowLink test devices… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ISVt7QTAP_0&t=22s 
                                                  • Plus our YouTube page… https://www.youtube.com/@morsemicro1641 
                                                  • Same for Instagram… https://www.instagram.com/morse.micro 
                                                  • And for those preferring more brain rot in their lives…our tiktok page… https://www.tiktok.com/@morse.micro 

                                                    • If you would like to connect with Scott or learn more about his employer, Global Process Automation (GPA), then check the following:

                                                    Scott McNeil – https://www.linkedin.com/in/americanmcneil/ 

                                                    GPA – https://www.global-business.net/ 

                                                    If you would like to connect with Jeremy or learn more about his employer, Prism Systems Inc, then check the following:

                                                    Jeremy Baker – https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremyabaker/ 

                                                    Prism Systems Inc – https://www.prismsystems.com/  

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                                                    The Industrial Wi-Fi Shop PodcastBy Scott McNeil & Jeremy Baker
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