Avi Barel, Business Development Director of ULE Alliance introduced a new wireless connected home technology, Ultra Low Energy (ULE), to the US market at International CES 2015.
Avi Barel, Business Development Director of ULE Alliance introduced a new wireless connected home technology, Ultra Low Energy (ULE), to the US market at International CES 2015. “What make ULE standard stand out in comparison with other technologies are long operation range, less interference and enhanced user experience,” said Barel. Users can just put the devices everywhere you want, and they are ready to use. Starting in January 2013, the alliance has over 60 members, including Deutsche Telekom, Huawei and Cisco before attending CES 2015. The alliance offers open source platform, free of charge, to software developers for fast development and market penetration.
ULE, inherited from worldwide-adopted DECT technology, is a connected home technology with strong market presence in Europe. ULE Alliance made its first appearance in the US at International CES 2015 with demonstration from eight member companies, Arcadyan, Crow, Dialog Semiconductor, DSP Group, Gigaset, Lantiq, Panasonic and VTech Communications. Gigaset, a spin-off from Siemens, already released ULE- compatible products in six European countries.
Clean frequency and ease of use
What’s unique of ULE is its performance and distance. ULE is alone in the 1.9GHz frequency band, the frequency is clean with much less interference than others like 2.4GHz. Barel said, “ULE has dedicated communication frequency that is not interfered with others. Besides, the standard can transmit strong signal and long range without repeaters and extra things after you buy a wireless system. It translates into easy installation and use.” The operation range of ULE-compatible products reaches up to 1,000 feet from the bridge or base station in open area, and up to 200 feet within the building through the walls. “We are simple without complex things—just as you use your cordless telephone system,” said Barel. People easily connect their cordless telephones to the smart home area, a natural extension from the DECT standard to ULE. He addressed, “Most important of all, DECT is a mature technology. On people’s minds, DECT works.”
Furthermore, the transfer rate of ULE reaches 1Mbps, similar to Bluetooth, enabling users to transmit data, voice, controlling information and limited videos.
Cost effective
Besides ease of use, affordability is also important. ULE, built on DECT cordless phone technology, benefits from the low cost of chip technology. Over 3 billion chipsets are shipped, being used in hundreds of millions of cordless phone sets. Also, the standard uses single chip solution to achieve cost effectiveness. “There should be low-cost product for the mass market. We make smart home products more affordable,” added Barel. Coming from the DECT community, the alliance believes it can offer low-cost solutions for the mass market. “The DECT telephone system is cheaper than a family pizza in Europe. That’s where we are coming from. We offer chips for cost-sensitive products.”
He believes ULE can realize true DIY solutions without repeaters, technicians and installers as well as extra cost from hardware spending and service fees.
Product Adopted:Wireless Transmission