Wi-Fi for IoT – a boon or a bane?

Internet of things is hot now. But what technology should be used to interconnect those devices? Over the years there were multiple contenders, but Wi-Fi was always a bit aside, since it was always perceived as not too energy-efficient. Until recently…

Here’s a picture from a chip maker Rockchip, claiming (claiming!) that their Wi-Fi chip is the most efficient, overperforming even the specially designed ZigBee and BLE chips.

While this seems as a reason to rejoice, promising greater speeds and technology convergence, I’d like to point one thing: 802.11b. Not n, not g, but b. Remember the protection modes, airtime fairness and other nightmares? They might come back in legions. And stay for what seems forever, as Rockchip claims “powering an IoT device for up to 35 years with a single AAA battery”.

What do you think? Is energy-efficient 802.11b chip a boon or a bane for modern WLANs?

P.S. News via SmallNetBuilder – excellent website, whose author is doing great job finding relevant news and testing devices. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/wireless/wireless-news/32743-rockchip-unveils-iot-wi-fi-soc