In the description of some electronic devices, such as phones, you can find support ANT+, The question naturally arises: what kind of opportunity is this and how the presence of ANT+ can help the user.

ANT+ what is it

ANT+ This is a wireless communication standard (similar to Bluetooth), its purpose is to transfer information between devices that support ANT+. Uses the same frequency as Bluetooth. One device acts as a sensor from which information is received and the second, which acts as Hub devices receiving data.

Support is implemented in devices through the use of a special chip that allows you to transfer information between devices, the communication range is about 30 meters.

The alliance that developed this standard chose the niche of medicine and home use. The success of this standard depends on the number of devices that will support it, since the alliance includes many famous and influential companies, such as HbbTV, EBU, France Televisions, Institut für Rundfunktechnik, OpenTV, Philips, Samsung, SES ASTRA, Sony, TF1, The pace of release of devices supporting this standard is quite high.

How ANT+ works

For example, you have an electronic device with ANT+ support installed at home for opening gates, your phone has special program which uses an ANT+ connection, if the gate is opened, a message will be sent to your phone indicating that the sensor installed on the gate has been triggered.

Second use case(in medicine): sensors are installed on the patient to indicate his condition; using an ANT+ connection, a doctor or nurse can, being in the next room, monitor the patient’s condition on a phone or other device with which the status sensors are connected via ANT+.

Disadvantages of ANT+

Some users report problems with ANT+ when using other Bluetooth-connected devices at the same time, especially on one device, for example, if you connected a heart rate sensor via ANT+ and are playing sports, at the same time you connected via Bluetooth wireless headphones, since both devices use same frequency There is (sometimes) loss of information packets.

The future of this standard is most likely narrowly targeted niches, the main advantage this standard- energy saving, since ANT+ connection is 70% less energy-intensive than Bluetooth.

Articles and Lifehacks

Bluetooth support is available in almost every modern gadget. This has become the norm, and the usefulness of this communication standard is not discussed by anyone.

But the proprietary ANT protocol and the ANT+ technology developed on its basis are so far nothing more than exotic, mainly found in models and.

But no one will simply develop and develop an alternative protocol - it has its own advantages over Bluetooth.

What is ANT+

Moreover, among them are names such as Texas Instruments, which in itself indicates the importance of ANT.

This wireless technology uses the unlicensed 2.4 GHz band. The communication range is approximately comparable to: the protocol specification limits it to 30 meters.

It is clear that no one guarantees the maximum communication radius for any specific device using it.

Another useful feature is significantly lower power consumption. For a smartphone this is not so critical, but the fact that other devices using the ANT+ interface can be powered by a coin cell battery is much more important for developers.

But the key property of the standard is its multi-channel nature. Communication is organized according to the master-slave principle, and the master device is able to receive information from several slaves at once, without interfering with each other.

This is what made this protocol so attractive for creating all kinds of sports equipment.

In smartphones

There are many devices whose information needs to be transferred to the main device, which is the smartphone:

• Scales.
• Pedometer.
• Heart rate monitor.
• Blood pressure indicator.
• Thermometer.
• Calorimeter.

To service all these devices, for mobile devices Corresponding applications have been developed and can be found in or.

Regarding the latter, it should be said right away: iPhones do not support ANT+, but no one prohibits the use of adapters. The same applies to Android devices that do not have this interface.

Disadvantages of technology

The 2.4 GHz band used for operation can be “littered” by interference signals from Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and cordless phones. As a result, interference with the interface may occur.

Compatibility issues often arise software mobile devices with connected sensors.

In conclusion

So if your gadget has it, it’s worth spending a little time and understanding its capabilities. Monitoring body parameters is a rather tempting idea, and its implementation requires minimal cost and effort.

Companies that produce equipment for athletes offer enough devices for almost any sport, with the possible exception of chess.

Electronics are developing rapidly, and the most familiar household appliances are acquiring functions that no one could attribute to them before. A regular smartphone has a wide range of capabilities. Today we will talk about ANT technology, find out what it is and discuss its features.

What is ANT+?

This is a special protocol that allows mobile device receive information from nearby sensors. This is data from:

• speed sensors
• pedometers
• heart rate sensors
• calorie counters

To ensure that your mobile device can freely communicate with devices that measure your condition and physical activity, it is equipped with a special wireless communication module that supports information transport via the ANT+ protocol. There are many examples of such a module; the most common is the WCN3680 from Qualcomm. Data transmission is carried out at a frequency of 2.4 GHz, the communication range is approximately three tens of meters.

Operating principle

ANT+ refers to adaptive synchronous protocols, where each connection occurs between two components, one of which is a slave and the other is a master.

Differences from Bluetooth

An inquisitive mind has already noticed certain similarities between Bluetooth and ANT+. Despite the general frequency of operation, the two communication standards have a number of differences from each other. They have different packet structures, different channel intervals and reception ranges - Bluetooth operates at a distance of up to 50 meters.

ANT+ outperforms its competitor in terms of power consumption. In sleep and active modes, the consumption is approximately identical, but when initiating communication sessions the difference is obvious. Features of the ANT+ format allow it to send less additional data. There are other points, the difference for each of which individually is small, but in total there is an advantage of 30 percent. The presence of this protocol will be a positive factor for people who attach great importance to the power consumption of a smartphone.

Conclusion:

ANT+ is a unique technology that allows you to connect many devices to your gadget at once. For now, it will only be useful to fans of sports-related utilities. But that's not all - the list of supported applications is quickly growing, owners of devices with this technology can control music playback, view navigation data, and so on.

ANT is a low-power wireless sensor communication protocol that operates over a specific frequency range. It was developed in 2004 by a company that was acquired by Garmin, a manufacturer of GPS navigation equipment.

Today, modern devices use the ANT+ (ANT Plus) protocol - wireless secure data transmission. Used primarily in medicine and sports.

What does ANT+ do?

ANT+ is in many ways similar to another well-known communication protocol, BlueTooth, but not all devices support ANT+.

The range using the ANT+ protocol reaches 30 meters. For comparison, the range of action of the same BlueTooth in many cases does not exceed 10-15 meters.

ANT+ allows you to connect two components together. For example, it can be used to receive information from sensors installed in the next room to a smartphone.

Where is ANT+ used?

There are three main areas of application for ANT+: medicine, sports, and home health. Here are some cases where the current protocol is used:

• Speed ​​sensors

• Pedometer

• Heart rate monitor

• Activity sensor

• Heart rate monitor

• Lighting control

• Managing Music Players

• Fitness control

How is ANT+ better than BlueTooth?

The main advantage is energy consumption. ANT+ consumes less energy, which has a positive effect on the autonomy of the device. According to various sources, energy savings can reach 50-70%.

The second advantage is that it is possible to launch several applications at once that will use the same communication protocol, which can be very convenient in some cases.

ANT+ is a wireless data transfer protocol. Operating at 2.4 GHz (similar to Wi-Fi and Bluetooth) and featuring low power consumption, it is used in sports and medical equipment such as online calorie and cadence counters, as well as smart home systems.

Standardization means that devices that support them can communicate with each other without additional settings. A classic example of this is a heart rate monitor. The sensor is able to communicate with all Garmin sports watches that support this protocol, as well as with the Health application Samsung smartphone S. An ANT+ device can be used with any device like it.

The protocol is being developed open group ANT Alliance, and ANT Wireless is a division of Dynastream, which is owned by Garmin.

Convenience for the manufacturer

The ANT+ consortium holds developer conferences every year to meet product manufacturers and programmers. This is where discussions happen and product managers request new profiles for upcoming features. It's also a place where startups submit new designs and profiles in hopes that manufacturers will license them, or simply want to make things themselves.

Since June 2012, the ANT+ technology development team has been led by Sebastian Barnovsky, who is creating profiles - a communication language for a specific type of information.

Thus, heart rate data has its own profile, as do power, speed, cadence, etc. This allows you to work with devices various brands, which is good for everyone. Closed systems like Polar's proprietary language simply don't have a future where ANT+ technology is headed.

Integration efficiency

So what happens if someone wants to send new information that is not in current profiles? According to Barnowski, this can be done in two ways. First and most quick option is to create your own profile, which is necessary to quickly bring a product to the market or to hide something from other devices. This can be done at any time at the manufacturer level, which significantly speeds up the development cycle.

The second option is to request a new one open profile ANT+. This is necessary if, say, Speedplay wants to convey sole pressure or pedaling speed. For this you need computer company, which will receive this data and, upon request, provide it to various electronics for reading and display. In this case, Speedplay representatives will contact ANT Plus and tell you what they need.

Sports trainer

Wahoo Fitness is a brand that touts Bluetooth connectivity and produces iPhone-centric devices. But this company, having first created its own profile for the Kickr trainer, is collaborating with ANT+ to create a standardized trainer profile. This will make it possible to sell different types of them and work with different online training programs. Existing Kickr trainers have been updated since the final public release, but the user will also have to update their computer or mobile device.

For a profile to be valuable, programs that can read its data are needed. A collaboration between Wahoo and Kinomap, the latter's videos are fully integrated with Kickr (and eventually other trainers). This allowed, for example, the software to change the load depending on height or other training program data. In other words, ANT+ technology allows you to synchronize efforts with video and vice versa. When the app starts, it looks for compatible sensors so it knows what data to work with, so it needs to program what piece of information will go to the virtual athlete on the screen.

Kinomap Products

According to the developers, there is a demand for premium content on top of the huge amount of user-generated data. To take advantage of it and discover other possibilities using Kinomap Reply - a new open API that allows other developers to transmit Kinomap content through their own third party application. They can purchase dedicated streaming hours or receive unlimited content for a monthly fee, which is then passed on to the end user.

There is also a Kinomap Group Training model that allows you to track many people and average their efforts to train at spinning gyms.

Sport display

How else is this technology used? 4iiii makes the Sportiiiis display, which syncs with your bike's ANT+ sensors to help you simple LEDs show the current workout status. The system mounts on any sunglasses and uses a series of red, yellow and green lights, the latter of which is in the center, to indicate whether the athlete is above or below your target zone. Voice guidance from the rear speaker provides a wider range of data, including heart rate, power, speed and cadence.

Beyond competition

What about Bluetooth? According to Quarq co-founder and CTO Jim Mayer, despite the hype surrounding the relatively low power consumption of this communication standard, the only one that works wireless technology for real power measurements it is ANT+. Its great advantage is that one device can transmit data and several can read it. This is important for products like Sportiiiis and others (racers probably use Bluetooth as their primary display. It's connected to a phone or something and no other device can hear that transmitter.

An example of the benefits of such a solution is real world is a triathlon. You can connect your sports watch and Garmin cycling computer to the power meter, and they all have access to the measurements. Another example is when the display is in the team car, but the driver wants to see the information on his computer. Everyone probably won't need this, but the important thing is that users can do it. According to research, approximately 30% of customers transfer data to multiple devices at the same time.

Operating range

Although the specification states that ANT+ has a range of up to 30m, it doesn't say that all devices must have that range. Most likely, sensor manufacturers will settle on a sufficient minimum, such as the distance from the bike sensor to the handlebars, thereby reducing power and significantly improving internal timing battery life devices. The Kickr is mains powered so it can handle maximum ANT+ signal. The receiver on the PC also operates at full power. Therefore, you should not be surprised if you easily receive signals from Kickr that the online calorie counter installed on your bike stops functioning if the exercise machine is moved a little further from the receiver.

Interference

ANT+ devices do not interfere with each other thanks to channel coding, modulation scheme and very clever time division of signals. But Bluetooth, wireless home phone, smartphone WiFi and even home WiFi also occupy the very crowded unlicensed 2.4 GHz band. All of these ANT+ signals are noise and can cause errors and affect reception range. If there is reason to believe that the data is incorrect, you should look for extraneous sources of radiation (including a microwave oven). Moving WiFi to the 5 GHz frequency so that every device in the room works in this band (if it is modern enough) can help solve the problem.

A USB3 hub can also wreak havoc on ANT+ broadcasts. If there is something similar nearby, you can try to turn it off. If reception improves, then the source of interference has been found.

What is ANT+ in a smartphone?

ANT+ is implemented on mobile phones Sony and Samsung. Apple does not support this technology. Other smartphones, PCs and Macs require a USB adapter. In the first case, you will need to install the ANT USB Service application. Otherwise, the operation of smartphones is no different from the operation of other devices that support this technology. Thanks to time division techniques, many devices use a single 1 MHz channel. Each source broadcasts in its own time period. The message length is 150 µs, and the period between 8-byte broadcasts varies from 0.5 Hz to 200 Hz. Errors are corrected with a 16-bit CRC. If there is interference, the channel may change. Frequency modulation with Gaussian filtering is used.

Availability

The Alliance is not blind to the fact that many smartphones do not support ANT+ technology. For this reason, new transmitters are being produced that are capable of broadcasting in different formats. 4iiiis has something similar built into the Viiiive heart rate monitor, which allows you to use iOS app to configure your Sportiiiis device on the go. HTC, Sony and Samsung are starting to include ANT+ transceivers in their tablets, phones and laptops, and North Pole Engineering makes ANT-Wifi receivers that capture ANT+ information and relay it over Wi-Fi in a format that can be received iOS devices. To use them, a developer must build a WASP NPE module into their application, and the fitness industry is a leading contender to use it. The cost of implementing hardware and software for this technology is approximately the same as for Bluetooth.