Millennial Net Increases Flexibility and Speed of Wireless Sensor Network Deployments with New 802.15.4-Based Product Line
Standards-Based Features Include Integration Enhancements and a Clear Path to ZigBee Compliance
Boston, Mass.--Aug. 16, 2004--Millennial Net, Inc., the leading developer of self-organizing, wireless sensor networking systems, today announced the release of its new product line, the i-Bean® 5324 Family (iB-5324). The new product line provides support for emerging standards in low-power wireless mesh networking and integration enhancements to speed deployment and increase revenue opportunities for OEMs and systems integrators. The two primary features of this release are a greater array of software and hardware options and support for 802.15.4 radios based on specifications from the ZigBee Alliance, an association of companies working together to develop low-power wireless networking products based on a global, open standard.
As a member of the ZigBee Alliance, Millennial Net will demonstrate multiple wireless sensor networks leveraging the new iB-5324 Family at the ZigBee Alliance Member Meeting on Aug. 16-20, 2004 in Boston, Mass. at the Seaport Hotel & World Trade Center. Highlighting the flexibility of the system, Millennial Net will aggregate and transmit temperature and humidity information over wireless sensor networks through two different gateways to a personal computer and a handheld personal digital assistant (PDA).
"Millennial Net is providing its customers with a clear path toward ZigBee compliance with the launch of its new iB-5324 product line," said Bob Heile, chairman of the ZigBee Alliance. "We're pleased to see Alliance members bringing ZigBee-ready technology to OEMs and system integrators. There are vast opportunities for wireless monitoring and control devices, and the timing is right to develop products based on ZigBee."
The ZigBee Alliance has played an important role in facilitating the adoption of IEEE 802.15.4, a standard used to connect sensors or other monitoring devices over very low power wireless mesh networks. With 802.15.4 wireless radios already available today, the ZigBee Alliance plans to release a networking protocol specification and application profiles for the standard later this year. The iB-5324 product line ensures Millennial Net customers are ZigBee ready, providing them with the option to leverage 802.15.4 radios in their wireless sensor networks today and the associated protocol and application layer once it becomes available.
"This product launch is focused on providing customers with more development and deployment options," said Mark Pacelle, vice president of marketing at Millennial Net. "In addition to guaranteeing our customers support for emerging wireless sensor networking standards like ZigBee, the iB-5324 product line supports portable handheld gateway configurations providing the world’s first completely mobile wireless sensor network, which is important to areas like medical monitoring or industrial instrumentation."
In addition to support for 802.15.4, the iB-5324 combination software-hardware package includes other features designed to increase flexibility and ease integration for a wide variety of wireless sensor applications. New gateways and endpoints are now available in multiple configurations to support a wider range of systems and application settings like those requiring mobile handheld devices. New Millennial Net APIs have also been added to support handheld operating systems and other system integration options. The iB-5324 hardware is composed of Millennial Net endpoints, gateways and routers based on the new 2.4GHz spread-spectrum radio, which provides increased resilience against interference.
The Millennial Net iB-5324 evaluation kit for OEM prototyping is generally available today. The kit includes five endpoints, three routers, one gateway, the software APIs and monitor. For more information contact Millennial Net at (781) 222-1030 or www.millennialnet.com.
About Millennial Net
Headquartered in Burlington, Mass., with offices in Tokyo, Japan, Millennial Net is the world leader in developing and manufacturing ultra-efficient, highly scalable, self-organizing wireless sensor networking systems. Millennial Net's award-winning networking software and tiny micro-power hardware elements, called i-Beans®, allow instrumentation and sensing devices like gauges, sensors and actuators to connect and communicate with each other over self-organizing, self-healing networks. Patented technology enables the i-Bean to operate with an extremely low rate of power consumption on the energy of a 3-volt coin-sized battery for years at a time. Wireless sensor networks enable the remote monitoring and management of critical devices while providing continuous streams of previously unavailable data to enable more informed decision-making, better control and increased revenue opportunities. Wireless sensor networks are in use today for industrial, medical, consumer and military applications. Millennial Net is committed to advancing Wireless Sensor Networking...Anywhere. For more information, please visit www.millennialnet.com.