THE CHALLENGE
An increasing number of enterprise businesses are shifting from wired to cloud-based wireless access control to eliminate expensive wiring, installation costs, and dedicated space for controllers.
Identifying a wireless mesh connectivity solution was the first step in Spintly’s development process. Wireless technologies such as Thread, Bluetooth Mesh, and Wi-Fi were evaluated with interoperability, security, backward compatibility, low power, scalability, and ease of deployment as key requirements.
The major challenge was selecting a wireless connectivity solution that could scale to thousands of devices with minimal network congestion and provide optimal range in a commercial building environment. Though Wi-Fi is often used in commercial buildings, too many devices on the network can cause security problems and dropped connections, and the protocol doesn’t support mesh networking or low power devices that need years of battery life.
For wireless access control systems, readers act as controllers and can be controlled by a smartphone or wearable device to grant access to users. A wireless mesh topology is best suited for cases where readers communicate with each other over the network. This requirement brought Thread and Bluetooth Mesh into the consideration set when selecting wireless mesh solutions.
THE PROCESS
Thread’s technology closely aligns with Spintly’s product and market vision for an end-to-end, secure, easy to install IP-based approach for access control.
With Thread, devices can communicate directly to each other rather than through a siloed approach and paves the way for the company’s growth in the building automation market.
Interoperability directly between devices is also key when developing access control systems. Since Thread is IP-based, it provides for interoperability at the network level and removes the challenges associated with proprietary solutions.
And with major silicon vendors supporting Thread, the development process and time to market is considerably faster.
THE SOLUTION
Spintly’s product line includes devices such as wireless smart locks, readers and edge gateways which communicate with cloud platforms to bring access control to every door in commercial building environments.
The company envisions a fully wireless future for commercial buildings which can be achieved through technologies using a standardized interoperable communications protocol.
As an IP-based protocol, Thread aligns with this requirement and works well alongside existing IP infrastructure in buildings. Further, native IP-based applications can seamlessly communicate with Thread devices.
Moving forward, all Spintly products will support both Thread and Bluetooth-Mesh technologies enabling devices to communicate via existing building protocols and standards.
Competitive Advantage
As the physical security industry migrates towards cloud-based systems and fully wireless topologies, Spintly’s access control products offer a variety of advantages.
- Ease of deployment - Wireless mesh technology allows for easy installation and set-up saving space, time and money.
- Cloud-based platform – Operators can manage the system remotely using cloud-based access control eliminating the need for expensive servers.
- Hassle-free migration – Enables smart access control without additional infrastructure or wiring.
- Scalable and resilient network – With Thread, if one node fails, another one fills in. And the access control system scales easily across multiple locations and becomes more robust with each additional node.
- Years of battery life – Thread-enabled devices require less power and lower energy consumption.
