

The Wi-Fi Alliance recently announced the long-awaited Wi-Fi HaLow standard for products incorporating IEEE 802.11ah wireless networking technology (HaLow is pronounced just like the title of the popular video game from Microsoft).
HaLow extends a flavor of Wi-Fi into the 900 MHz band, which provides greater range than the pre-existing 2.4 GHz standard, provides better connectivity through barriers such as walls and promises extensibility in the development of low-power Internet of Things (IoT) applications, such as Smart Home sensors and wearables.
HaLow is the natural next step in the evolution of IoT. “IP on Everything” has been the mantra for IoT evolution for quite a while now, and HaLow has the potential to exponentially extend that trend. What HaLow facilitates are battery-operated Wi-Fi IP devices that “just work,” which has been a key goal in IoT development for many years. IP devices enable us to overcome one of the major barriers to entry for the Smart Home.
The need for physical-layer protocol bridges and gateways, and the upfront costs associated with them (in terms of price, simplicity and usability), has long been a sticking point for retailers, service providers and consumers alike. HaLow offers the promise of removing a bridging device, once manufacturers’ consumer network equipment include HaLow capability in their product lines.
HaLow promises to optimize battery life in 900 MHz-connected devices not tethered to real power supplies. Other technologies have promised the same in the past, with mixed results, so I am cautiously optimistic that the work being done by the Wi-Fi Alliance and IEEE with 802.11 ah will become widely adopted as the key communication standard.
There are many reasons for the optimism. Here are a few:
But there also are a few reasons for caution:

