Amazon has issued a clarion call to the IoT crowd to build IoT devices for Sidewalk, its nationwide LoRa-based low-power wide-area (LPWA) network in the US. It said the Sidewalk network, which links consumer smart home devices into a low-power neighbourhood wirless infrastructure for public IoT tracking and monitoring, now stretches to 90 percent of the US population. It wants to put a billion IoT devices on the network, it said, with help from developers.
Sidewalk – the brand for Amazon’s community-based IoT networking initiative using proprietary LoRa in 900 MHz spectrum, plus short-range BLE; not to be confused with the failed Canadian smart-city project run by Google’s Sidewalk Labs busines – has drawn interest from IoT hardware makers. Chip firms Nordic Semiconductor, Silicon Labs, and Texas Instruments, plus module vendor Quectel, have variously issued software and hardware kits (SDKs and HDKs) for it.
Amazon is offering free test kits to developers to check its IoT capabilities, plus public coverage maps alongside – as a prompt for IoT makers to “build the next billion connected devices”. The test kits ping a location over the Sidewalk network, with associated signal readings available in a developer portal. Amazon has also announced Sidewalk integration with AWS IoT Core, the managed cloud platform from its cloud services business.
Nordic Semiconductor, Silicon Labs, Texas Instruments, and Quectel have each issued SDKs, which also work with existing silicon toolkits. The three silicon vendors have released HDKs for developers to design apps on reference hardware; Quectel has released a connectivity module to accelerate time-to-market. Amazon has placed a mobile SDK on GitHub for iOS and Android devices, plus a Tools App for troubleshooting IoT designs in the field.
Meanwhile, Semtech, which owns the LoRa technology, has said the very first third-party Sidewalk products are now available, from Browan, Deviceroy, Meshify (HSB), and New Cosmos – in the form, variously, of motion sensors, carbon dioxide sensors, water sensors, natural gas alarms, and a smart modem for solar installations. They are “some of the first” third-party “Sidewalk-qualified products” to be available, it said.
Amazon highlighted three fully-fledged Sidewalk-based IoT solutions, available later this year: the Multi-Sense S315 from Netvox, offering various in-building environmental and utilities sensing; the Sentinel 200 from OnAsset, geared for tracking high-value shipments through supply chains; and the Woody smart door lock from Primax, offering remote security monitoring and local access controls.
A statement explained: “Developers within Sidewalk’s coverage area can instantly connect a qualified silicon provider’s developer kit to the cloud without deploying their own network infrastructure. This also means developers’ customers can seamlessly add new Sidewalk-enabled devices without installing new apps or providing new passwords to connect their devices to Sidewalk.”
Dave Limp, in charge of Amazon’s devices and services business, said: “This is an open invitation for developers to put [Sidewalk] to the test. Many types of connected devices have been limited by the range of Wi-Fi and the cost of cellular – which has hindered the ability to connect devices like environmental sensors, leak detectors, and smart locks. Sidewalk is designed to provide a secure, low-cost way to invent and connect a whole new range of devices.”
Integration with AWS IoT Core affords developers a web management interface and access to a range of AWS services. “Device registration for the development kits is as simple as turning on the device, simplifying the onboarding experience for developers,” said Amazon. A GitHub repository features software, source code, scripts, and documentation to connect devices to Sidewalk, and AWS reference codes to rapidly prototype solutions.
Yasser Alsaied, vice president of IoT at AWS, said: “The integration… marks a significant milestone for developers, manufacturers, and customers, streamlining the design, connection, and deployment of Amazon Sidewalk based IoT solutions. Now, with AWS IoT Core for Amazon Sidewalk, developers can access more than 200 AWS services to build scalable solutions on top of a highly reliable, secure, and free-to-connect wireless network.”
Over at Semtech, Mohan Maheswaran, the company’s president and chief executive, commented: “The Sidewalk community network has crossed [a] significant milestone of broad, nationwide coverage, and is ready to support developers to create innovative new IoT devices and services… Our partnership with Amazon is the latest example of the strong global adoption of LoRa and why LoRa is the leading technology enabling a smarter… world.”
