LPWAN technologies for 2023?

LPWAN technologies for 2023?



Digitalisation, or digital transformation, is a term we’ve heard about in recent years. IoT, the Internet of Things, is one of many enabling technologies. Digital transformation is often a technical exercise, but to be successful, the transformation must demonstrate business value. Business benefits aside, in this news letter, we’ll focus on what you need to know about available technologies on the market if you will use IoT for digitalisation in 2023.

IoT can be many things

The Internet of Things is a broad term encompassing things connected to the internet. It is a set of disruptive technologies. The set consists of several technical solutions. One of them is massive IoT, large-scale wireless deployments that typically solve three basic needs:

  1. ??measure something (sensors)
  2. ???control something (actuators)
  3. ???position something (trackers)

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Massive IoT or LPWAN?

Almost every connected device has two interfaces: the first is the radio interface, and the other one is the interface to a sensor, a GPS, or whatever the purpose of the device. The radio interface consists of different LPWAN or Low Power Wide Area Networks technologies. LPWAN is not a technology standard but a group of wireless technologies that use low power but have a large coverage area.

Proprietary network infrastructure

Let’s first look at technologies where you have to build the network infrastructure yourself. The two strong candidates are Mioty and 5G NR+.

Mioty

Mioty is a relatively new technology for free frequencies; in Europe, it uses the 868 MHz band, which is license-free. Mioty, supported by mioty alliance , uses a bandwidth of 200 kHz for two channels. The distinguishing feature of the technology is that it uses efficient channel coding. If you want to take advantage of free bands, have identified performance issues with LoRaWAN and want to build your own infrastructure, then #mioty could be for you. On paper, a technology with significantly better performance but a limited hardware offering.

5G NR+

DECT NR+ 5G is characterised by the fact that it is a technology that does not need any actual infrastructure, i.e. no base stations; it is instead built to be decentralised. NR+ is based on MESH technology and uses the DECT bands, so it was designed to take advantage of license-free operation.

NR+ aspires to be a democratised 5G standard with a low investment cost. Ideal for smart cities, electricity and water meters and industrial networks. This standard could be a hit; hardware is slowly becoming available. Nordic Semiconductor is working on chips, and they are already starting with smart electricity meters, while the mass market is coming in the fall of 2023. Wirepas has come a long way already, but expect a large rollout next spring.

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Own network and operator-managed networks?

One technology allows you to build your own network or choose an operator, namely LoRaWAN. There are two, but for LPWAN, it is LoRaWAN that applies. 5G is available for private networks, but on the bands allocated in Sweden, there is no hardware available for LPWAN at the moment.

LoRaWAN

LoRaWAN enables narrowband transmission over shorter and longer distances. LoRaWAN can transmit long distances with low power output, which keeps power consumption low. To benefit from #lorawan , data volumes should be minimal. The longer the distance from the base station, the greater the power consumption (as with 4G/5G). LoRaWAN has been endowed with the novelty of Relay, which, when made available, allows LoRaWAN to cover greater distances than before or to keep power consumption down at long distances.

LoRaWAN is a flexible standard suitable for those who want to build their own networks or use public networks. Several LoRaWAN operators are offering ready-made networks. Unlike a 5G operator, these operators do not own their spectrum, which means they can’t make any guarantees around the availability of the spectrum band, a downside if you’re looking for reliability.

Operator-based networks

If you want to hand over network responsibility to an operator, in addition to LoRaWAN, there are two technologies for massive IoT with an operator running the network, Sigfox and 5G.

Sigfox

SigFox relies on the free frequencies of 868 MHz, like LoRaWAN. #sigfox is a narrowband (ultra-narrowband) technology that divides the spectrum into narrow chunks for transmitting and receiving data. This allows the receiver to use a limited spectrum piece and eliminate the noise effect. Each message is only 12 bytes to increase robustness against other transmitters on the same channel. An operator runs SigFox networks, so you can’t build your private network.

Sigfox is aimed at the same type of customers as LoRaWAN via operator-based setups. Sigfox went bankrupt a year ago and had new owners, UnaBiz . UnaBiz has raised around $60 million in funding and they seem very serious about success. However, my tip when it comes to Sigfox is to wait and see how it develops business-wise. LoRaWAN or 4G/5G are the technologies you should look at in 2023; Sigfox is an uncertain card at the moment if you are looking at a new business case.

4G/5G technologies

NB-IoT and LTE-M are 3GPP standards and part of 4G and 5G. They use cellular connectivity on a licensed radio spectrum owned by an operator. These solutions offer security and minimal risk of interference from other systems. Time and frequency synchronisation and handshaking are used to avoid collisions caused by other transmissions. These are mechanisms that significantly improve scalability. Both technologies support battery-saving features such as Power Save Mode and other power-saving mechanisms.

NB-IoT

Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) is characterised by good indoor coverage, low cost, long battery life, and support for many devices per base station. The disadvantages of NB-IoT are high latency and low data rate, maximum of 127 kbit/s (as of release 14). NB-IoT supports handover between base stations, but the standard is intended for something other than mobile applications. NB-IoT has three power modes depending on the distance to the base station. NB-IoT comes in two iterations, typically called NB1 and NB2. Most networks and the vast majority of hardware on the market support NB1, and NB2 has potentially lower power consumption and better support for handover between base stations.

NB-IoT is less flexible than LTE CAT-M1. NB-IoT suits smart meters and other applications with small data packets needing longer battery life.

LTE-M

Unlike NB-IoT, LTE-M supports roaming and higher data rates. LTE-M supports speeds of up to 4 Mbps with a 50 to 100 ms latency. Some argue that this technology is more energy-intensive than NB-IoT, but many tests show that LTE CAT-M1 is more energy efficient in situations with better coverage.

LTE-M1 is a flexible standard that is well-proven and deployed. The benefits of higher data rates make it possible to perform security updates of devices, which is possible but inappropriate with other standards.

Conclusion:

All the above technologies are suitable for controlling things, measuring or tracking things. They have different characteristics, so it is more complex to say that one standard is ideal for a particular application. You should ask yourself several questions, but don’t choose from the heart or listen to the self-pronounced expert in your network; select a standard that is the right business fit for your organisation.

Beware of the claim, “this hardware has a ten-year battery life” instead, ask what its consumption is at different distances from the base station; it is likely to differ by a factor of 4 between the best and worst value.

In the future, we will see new challengers from satellite connectivity, particularly LoRaWAN and 5G devices. But if you will act in 2023, then this is not something to look at right now.

Contact me if you want to discuss your hardware needs for massive IoT or IoT in general. You can reach me at [email protected] or call/text me: +46-765755751

Vasilis Vorrias

Technical Support Team

1 年

Hi Ulf. I am really wandering. I see engineers talking about LoraWan with statistics up to 2027 like nothing is happening in the IOT communication arena. They do not mention at all DECT NR+ . Only NB-IOT and LTE-M as the closest competitor. (but far behind). To me DECT NR+ looks extremely promising. Looks like the holly grail of IOT connectivity. Of course other excellent not 1.9 GHz but in SUBGhz range mesh technologies exist but there are proprietary. Having spend some time with LoRa please can anybody clear me the "mist"? Here is my hypothetical question: I am going to build a huge network (millions nodes) concerning agriculture sensors and city sensors with gateways to IOT mobile. Why on earth I must invest in LoRaWAN and not in DECT NR+ ? I am taking into account, range, economics, easy and masive deproyment, technology, open standards, speed, availability. To clear the term availability I am not sure but I think DECT NR+ is delivering this year using Nordicsemi chip nRF9161. If that is true lot of rethinking must be done about the next winner in IOT communication. I am open to suggestions.

Kristina Chaurova

Head of Business Transformation | Quema | Building scalable and secure IT infrastructures and allocating dedicated IT engineers from our team

1 年

Ulf, thanks for sharing!

回复
Thomas Weisshaupt

Regional Head Energy Market EU and GM D-A-CH bei Wirepas

1 年

Great Summary Ulf !! Nordic Semiconductor and Wirepas run a live network of NR+ at Embedded World this week. Hall 4 580 in Nuermberg - our team is ready to reshuffle the Massive IoT game.

Christoffer Lundgreen

Proptivity | Building indoor 5G, where we need it the most

1 年

Thanks, good to be updated on the status and the needs to follow the new smart technology!

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