Wi-Fi HaLow: Hands on with AsiaRF's IoT network gateway

Although this model doesn’t have a weather-proof enclosure, AsiaRF does have an outdoor gateway model. Plus, they offer different antennas if you want a more directional or rugged antenna. For powering gateways that won’t be near electric outlets, they have a battery pack as well.

Inside the gateway, AsiaRF utilizes the Morse Micro MM6108 chipset for the HaLow. The HaLow radio supports flexible operation in worldwide sub-GHz ISM bands between 850 MHz and 950 MHz. The single-stream modulation and coding scheme (MCS) data rates range from 150 Kbps to 22 Mbps at 8MHz.

For traditional Wi-Fi, it has the MediaTek MT76X8 chipset, enabling 2.4 GHz wireless connections. Although it’s only supporting the old Wi-Fi 4 (802.11b/g/n), the HaLow technology would be a bottleneck anyway, if a newer and faster Wi-Fi standard were supported.

Deployment methods

One of the simplest deployment methods of this gateway is HaLow bridge mode. The HaLow connection serves as a means to provide a virtual Ethernet link between two points where running a physical cable may not be feasible. The use of HaLow is transparent to the rest of the devices on the network. This can be a convenient way to expand network coverage or connect networks in two separate buildings without isolating them into smaller sub-networks, especially when employing bridge mode.

It also supports router mode, connecting different IP network segments together, with each segment having its own range of IP addresses and subnet mask. The router forwards packets, allowing devices from different network segments to communicate with each other, while also providing network layer isolation and security controls (such as firewall rules).

It supports a mesh architecture to enable efficient data transmission across extensive areas that’s scalable, and enhances connectivity in environments where traditional Wi-Fi systems might be less effective. It supports three different mesh configurations: