Amazon Sidewalk’s network is designed to keep gadgets like outdoor smart lights and Tile trackers online even when their main network goes down. To do this, the solution relies on Bluetooth or LoRa radios transmitting device signals over 900MHz frequency.
Now, Amazon is expanding its presence with a professional-grade bridge. This will enable devices to be connected to Sidewalk in places such as business campuses, university campuses and remote locations.
Enhanced Range
Amazon Sidewalk Bridge Pro is an enhanced version of their low-bandwidth, 900 MHz network that utilizes Bluetooth, LoRa, and other frequencies to make devices work better in and outside your home. It operates at no charge to customers and is designed to simplify new device setup, extend LBG working ranges, and ensure online connectivity even when devices aren’t within Wi-Fi range.
The Amazon Sidewalk Bridge Pro offers increased capacity over its predecessors, featuring multiple indoor and outdoor units that can simultaneously connect to hundreds of devices located five miles apart. Plus, its ruggedized housing ensures it can withstand outdoor elements without issue.
This technology is intended for businesses, universities and public spaces where long-range connectivity is essential for smart city devices.
One of the first organizations to test Amazon’s sidewalk bridge pro was Arizona State University’s university technology office, who used it for connecting on-campus smart city sensors like sunlight, air quality and CO2 detectors.
Firefighters can collect and analyze air-pollutant, temperature, and humidity data to model smoke movement and keep people safe. Amazon Sidewalk Bridge Pro is an advanced IoT solution designed for business owners, municipalities, and universities to connect their devices to Amazon’s network.
Amazon’s new sidewalk bridge pro can provide Sidewalk connections to devices like sunlight sensors and air quality monitors in commercial centers, parks, and wilderness areas. Not only will it offer more options to connect multiple devices together, but also comes with multiple layers of privacy and security protections built-in.
Amazon recently unveiled the Amazon Sidewalk Bridge Pro, an important addition to their IoT portfolio that also includes Ring devices and Echo smart speakers as well as the Amazon Cloud Platform. Businesses and universities can use it to create a low-power wide area IoT network that can enhance customer experiences while connecting devices directly to Amazon Cloud Platform. Furthermore, this provides developers with secure and dependable access to their apps and devices through this gateway.
Simplified Connection
Amazon operates Sidewalk, a low-bandwidth wireless network at no charge to customers that helps wifi devices work better. The network enables new devices to connect quickly and extends the range of your smart home gadgets.
This mesh network operates at 900MHz using LoRa spectrum with Frequency Shift Keying (FSK) and Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE). Gateway devices like Echo speakers or Ring cameras can opt in to share a small portion of their internet bandwidth, creating an open crowdsourced mesh system.
Amazon recently unveiled their Sidewalk Bridge Pro powered by Ring, designed to extend their network outside into public and commercial areas. This ruggedized device can be mounted atop buildings to pick up the Sidewalk signal and support hundreds of IoT devices up to five miles away, according to Landi.
Amazon Sidewalk is expanding its range by partnering with companies and universities who wish to install the Sidewalk Bridge Pro. Arizona State University is testing out the device on light poles on campus in Tempe, using it for extended range of its “sunlight sensors, temperature sensors, CO2 detectors, and particle counters” used for smart city research.
Amazon is joining forces with Thingy, a startup that builds sensor systems for clients across industries. Through the Sidewalk Bridge Pro, it will connect its air quality monitoring systems in remote locations so it can predict wildfires and alert first responders.
In the meantime, if you’re worried about other people’s Sidewalk-enabled devices connecting to yours, go to account settings and toggle off “Sidewalk.” That way, all your Echo devices will no longer be connected to the Sidewalk network.
Amazon recently added a “Community Finding” option, which enables devices like Tile trackers and compatible location-tracking devices to use the network if they become lost or separated from you. This is especially useful for pet trackers or other devices that cannot utilize cellular connections for self-location.
Lost and Found
Amazon Sidewalk is a network of smart devices that connects to your home Wi-Fi and beyond, using 900 MHz band and Bluetooth Low Energy technology for extended range. While this tech had been around for some time, it received an upgrade last year with Amazon’s reimagined smart home platform launch.
What’s great about this new service is that it can be activated by any homeowner without needing extra hardware or software, thanks to an ingenious router trick. Plus, you can plug one or more Sidewalk Bridges into your existing router for creating a local WiFi network!
Sidewalk has its advantages, but also some drawbacks. For one thing, it may not be the most secure way to connect your devices to the internet and it has limited bandwidth with a 500MB monthly cap on data sent to the cloud.
In conclusion, home automation can be a great way to bring the smarts to your house, but not everyone should have access to it.
There are multiple options for optimizing your connection to the cloud; however, you must invest in appropriate hardware otherwise you’ll be left behind.
Enhanced Security
Amazon sidewalk bridge pro is set to launch a new version later this year with several enhanced security capabilities. Notably, this model helps ensure fire sensors remain connected during power outages.
CEO Jeff Bezos revealed the addition of LoRa wireless connectivity to Sidewalk, its network designed for connecting IoT devices where cellular or Bluetooth networks don’t reach or are oversubscribed or cost prohibitive. This means the product will cover vast areas where Wi-Fi or Bluetooth might not be as accessible due to geography.
One of the most significant improvements to this new product is its improved range. It can now reach up to five miles away, compared to its previous model’s 2.5-mile capability.
This extended range allows it to support more devices on a given network.
Though this can help firefighters, it also poses a potential privacy risk to consumers. The new product collects and shares more data than standard Wi-Fi connections, leaving homes more susceptible to malware and hacking attacks.
Therefore, it’s essential to determine your comfort level with this increased data collection. If you don’t want Amazon collecting more details about your home, you can opt out of their service and disable the new feature.
Another way to safeguard your privacy is by altering the permissions that permit a new feature access your home’s WiFi network. These options can be found in the Settings tab of your Amazon Alexa app.
The main toggle allows you to turn Sidewalk on and off, while a second option controls “Community Finding.” Enabling this permission will share your Bridge’s approximate location with neighbors who need help connecting to their network. With this permission, your Sidewalk-enabled devices will still function normally, though neighbors won’t see your exact address or names of other devices.
