04/04/2007 -- In January 2006 MeshNetics, a young Russian IT company was granted the 2006 Frost & Sullivan Excellence in Technology Award. Recently MeshNetics, still little known in Russia, presented itself to the public telling both about itself and about potentials and opportunities in the wireless sensor market, MeshNetics' main field of activity.
MeshNetics grew out of the R&D division of Luxoft, an IBS Group company. Today it belongs to Oradell Capital, a venture fund that is owned by IBS shareholders but is not part of the IBS Group.
Besides MeshNetics Oradell Capital owns shares of Medialogia, Yandex and NewsPaperDirect. Currently the fund is actively searching for new projects and is planning to invest around US$15 million in technology startups this year.
MeshNetics officially spin off from Luxoft late in 2005. The company unveiled its first product, ZigBee sensor network communication module in mid-2006.
The ZigBee standard is used for connecting various devices in a network that enables wireless transmission of telemetric information and sending control signals from these devices. Bluetooth can also be used for these purposes but according to Vasili Suvorov, MeshNetics General Director it is not very good for large-scale use.
There are a number of advantages that go along with ZigBee, namely low power consumption as well as the ability to support the complicated cellular layout of a self-organizing mesh network that allows for sending data from point to point using different routes. The technology allows extensive coverage of up to several hundred meters in open space and a few dozen meters inside a building. Yet with extensive coverage like that, the speed of connection is relatively low - 256 Kbps which makes such networks good only for text information transfer.
MeshNetics develops ZigBee modules that can be used by electronic hardware manufacturers. The scope of ZigBee module use is very wide ranging from automation system electricity meters to home mousetraps.
MeshNetics receives about a hundred client enquiries a month, some of them most out-of-the-ordinary. MeshNetics specialists have developed a kit that can be used by other developers to create their own applications and devices with a ZigBee interface.
The overall investment in the project totals $4 million. Currently the company's annual turnover does not exceed one million dollars yet MeshNetics is full of ambitious plans. These include increasing the turnover to at least $10 million in three years as well as winning 15 percent of ZigBee-based network projects in Europe and 5 percent in the US. In 2007 MeshNectics hopes to become the second and fourth largest player in this market in the US and Europe correspondingly. The plan for 2008 includes becoming Number One in Europe and the second largest player in this segment in the US.
There has been continual talk about growth in the wireless sensor networks market ever since the early 2000s. Yet real growth has only just begun. According to MeshNetics estimates, 10 million ZigBee microchips will be sold worldwide in 2007, 22 million in 2008 and 48 million in 2009. Introduction and implementation of open standards and mass production of ZigBee microchips making them less expensive will stimulate the market. The current price of a MeshNetics module is $21 in large quantities which is one of the market's lowest. According to MeshNetics it will drop even further eventually making the power battery the most expensive item in the whole unit.
MeshNetics is selling its products in North America, Australia and New Zealand, as well as Western Europe, but not yet in Russia. So far there are no OEMs in Russia which would want to integrate wireless ZigBee modules into their devices. Besides, for potential users of wireless sensors such as oil and gas companies it is easier to buy ready-made hardware that already has these chips embedded from companies like GE or Honeywell.
