User's Manual

Integrator’s Task ____________________________________________ Boomer II User Manual & Integrator’s Guide
Wavenet Technology 16 BM210012WT27
Plan the Product and Create the Design
To plan the product and create the design, perform the following steps:
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Develop a usage model.
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Develop a message model.
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Define a service strategy.
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Investigate and obtain regulatory approval.
Develop a Usage Model
The usage model answers the question, “How will the end product be
used (portable or mobile; 8 hours, 7 days a week; and so on)?”
Perhaps the most important enabler of success is a clear determination
of how the final product is to be used. This steers the development
process, because all design considerations drive toward meeting the
needs of the final user. For example, design issues related to a mobile
device, such as alternator noise and vibration, are completely different
from considerations required for a fixed-point telemetry application
powered by a solar panel. Defining what is and what is not important to
the end user helps to make the critical engineering trade-off decisions
that are inevitable in every product design.
Develop a Message Model
The message model defines how many messages are sent/received and
how often. To create the message model, determine how much and
how often data will be sent in each of the uplink (terminal to network)
and downlink (network to terminal) directions.
Answer the question, “Is there a requirement for the terminal to be on
and able to receive 8 hours a day, or does the user turn the unit on only
when making a query to the host system?” The answer has a direct
bearing on the battery size and capacity requirement for powering the
device. The amount of data sent and received is relevant in calculating
the cost of airtime and deciding on which type of network connection
to use. In short, the message model is required source data for making
many engineering design decisions, especially in calculating such
values as sleep time versus wake time and in determining battery
capacity requirements.
For additional information, refer to section “Message Traffic Model”
on page 47. The typical approach to creating the model is to define the
peak and average network throughput requirements based on input
from the user. Wavenet Technology is able to provide current
consumption figures for each of the various modes of operation
(receive and transmit, for example) and explain the functionality of the
network Power Save protocol.
The network throughput of the host device depends on many factors in
addition to the raw throughput of the radio channel. For example, in
addition to the overhead involved in forward error correction and