As announced 2019 Amazon wants to start its free sidewalk network “later this year”. Sidewalk is supposed to bring remote Amazon devices to the Internet via “installed echo gateways” even if the WLAN connection fails or is insufficient. The group also announced this to users in Germany, which caused some irritation among the recipients. Above all, the fact that the devices can connect to third-party Echo gateways in order to access the Internet makes some Amazon customers suspicious. You are wondering whether and how data protection is observed.

However, little of the Sidewalk specification has so far been made public. According to the manufacturer, Echo devices reduce part of the connection capacity in order to bring third-party sidewalk-capable devices into the Internet if they are disconnected from their usual connection or if they cannot be reached via WLAN; therefore Amazon calls this architecture a neighborhood network. In addition, one should be able to use the Internet access provided via sidewalk in order to be able to set up new Echo devices more quickly on the in-house WLAN.

Three rabbits in one hat Contrary to what you might think, Sidewalk does not describe a single radio technology. If you look closely, Amazon even pulls three rabbits out of one hat for Sidewalk: Gateways offer Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) as a transmission medium (physical layer, PHY) in the 2.4 GHz band and also in license-free 900 – MHz radio band either LoRaWAN or a proprietary FSK method (Frequency Shift Keying).

The clients – Amazon calls them Sidewalk Endpoints – then, depending on the equipment and signal quality, pick one of these three radio paths to communicate with the Sidewalk Network Server via the gateway. Not only the intelligent Echo loudspeakers can work as gateways (also called bridges), but also devices such as the Ring Floodlight Cam.

Amazon assures that the Data protection is guaranteed; the transmitted data are protected by encryption (Amazon Sidewalk Privacy and Security Whitepaper). Since the service will initially only run in the USA, local users do not have to move, at least for the moment. However, Amazon initially gave the opposite impression because the group had erroneously written to users in Germany.

Actively deactivate It should be noted that sidewalk on the gateways in the USA is apparently activated by Amazon itself. Anyone who does not tolerate the service on their Internet connection must explicitly deactivate it in the account settings. The sidewalk concept sounds well thought out, however, and the data rate, which may be pinched off, appears acceptable. Sidewalk 10 KBit / s for yourself, the monthly upper limit per account is 500 megabytes. At the latest with these key data it becomes clear: Sidewalk is a narrowband network for the Internet of Things (IoT).

Accordingly, the Sidewalk endpoints include smart devices and sensors, whose status can be checked remotely. Amazon writes: “With Sidewalk, for example, you can still receive motion alarms from your surveillance cameras even if your WiFi goes down. Or if your WiFi doesn’t reach your smart lights at the edge of your driveway, Sidewalk can help you stay connected.” Amazon’s delivery program also includes pet and object trackers. The tracker division was incorporated into Amazon 2018 through the takeover of the US company Ring; Ring in turn bought the trackers 2017 when it took over Iotera. The trackers should only be integrated later.

The list of devices that can be addressed via sidewalk, however, looks quite extensive:

Ring Floodlight Cam (2019) Ring Spotlight Cam Wired (2019) Ring Spotlight Cam Mount (2019) Echo (2nd Gen) Echo (3rd Gen) Echo (4th Gen) Echo Dot (2nd Gen) Echo Dot (3rd Gen) Echo Dot (4th Gen) Echo Dot (2nd Gen) for Kids Echo Dot (3rd Gen) for Kids Echo Dot (4th Gen ) for Kids Echo Dot with Clock (3rd Gen) Echo Dot with Clock (4th Gen) Echo Plus (1st Gen) Ech o Plus (2nd Gen) Echo Show (1st Gen) Echo Show (2nd Gen) Echo Show 5 Echo Show 8 Echo Show 10 Echo Spot Echo Studio From the end of the year the company Tile will also use the sidewalk technology. Tile develops small radio buoys that can be attached to keys, wallets or backpacks in order to be able to locate them if they are lost.

(dz)