Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: What does S5 Wireless do?
S5 provides low-cost, wide-area wireless device location and telemetry services that consume very little battery power and enables years of battery life for mobile devices in most scenarios. S5’s technology provides location as accurate as GPS outdoors and better than GPS indoors.
Q: What is unique about S5 Technology?
We have developed a DSSS (Direct Sequence Spread Spectrum) physical layer technology based on a unique patented coding and modulation approach that provides high processing gain to enable operation in very high interference environments and provide the capability to process many simultaneously arriving signals. Furthermore, S5’s DSSS technology requires approximately 50 times less processing hardware to implement as typical high processing gain systems.
Q: Is this RF technology an 802.11 variant?
No, this is a new physical layer technology that is not an 802.11 (WiFi) variant. We have designed this physical layer to provide very long range to enable cost-effective wide area coverage and building penetration and very high processing gain to operate in high interference bands with thousands of tags.
Q: What frequency does S5 wireless technology use?
S5 Wireless’ technology is frequency independent and operates reliably and securely in the typical noisy unlicensed 915 MHz and 2.4 GHz ISM band spectrums.
Q: What are the components of the S5 Wireless technology?
S5 tag components include: the transmitter (Tag), receiver Base Station (BS), Location and Telemetry System (LATS) and Network Operations Center (NOC).
Q: How is device location done, does it use GPS?
We do not use GPS. When an S5 Wireless mobile device transmission occurs, the signal travels to each of the network base stations. When the transmission is detected, it is time stamped with time of arrival at the base station. The time-difference of arrival (TDOA) information of the transmitted signal at each of the multiple base stations is routed to a positioning server (located in the core network) where S5 Wireless’ unique triangulation algorithms determine the position of the transmitting mobile device.
Q: How do you identify each device?
Each device has a unique ID embedded in the packet it transmits that is similar to a MAC address.
Q: What is the capacity of your network?
The system scales easily to provide an almost unlimited capacity.
Q: How secure is your wireless system?
S5 Wireless’ signal is extremely difficult to intercept or jam and we incorporate anti-spoofing techniques. Furthermore, traditional security, encryption and authentication methods can be layered onto the S5 Wireless system for additional levels of data protection.
Q: What is the size of the S5 tag?
The size of the chip is approximately 5mm x 5mm. The size of the module is approximately 11mm x 13 mm. The size of the end-user tag will depend on how it is being used and what battery and antenna configuration are required by the application.
Q: What is the battery life to be expected from an S5 device?
Battery life is impacted by a number of factors, including the number of transmissions required by the application. A typical application transmitting every 10 minutes and using 3 size AA alkaline batteries will yield almost three years of battery life.
Q: What markets is S5 targeting?
S5 has identified key markets that will greatly benefit from tracking and telemetry information including construction equipment tracking and monitoring, E9-1-1 VoIP device location, and pet tracking, and we have been awarded $1.2 million dollars in contracts from the Department of Homeland Security to develop wireless communication systems to track and monitor cargo containers.
Q: What is the stage of development?
The technology is proven and demonstrable with a prototype network installed and operational in the Salt Lake City area.
