What is the difference between NB-IoT, LoRa, and Sigfox?
At present, the most popular LPWAN technologies are LoRa, Sigfox, and NB-IoT. These three technologies have their own advantages. The public can select the most suitable communication technology according to different fields and usage requirements. What are the specific differences between NB-IoT, LoRa, and Sigfox? Is there any detailed comparison information?
Wireless communication technology is the transmission basis of the Internet of Things. With the development of smart city applications becoming popular, various technologies have been introduced and new, and they have seized the Internet of Things market. Among the LPWAN technologies, the most popular ones are LoRa, Sigfox, and NB-IoT.
In the trend of the Internet of Things, what are the advantages of each of these three technologies? Who will be the best partner in your professional field? The words of the Internet of Things, big data, AI artificial intelligence, the relevant industry personnel must be familiar with the heart.
In the technical framework of the Internet of Things, “sensing” is the most basic core source. In the fields of agriculture, industry, construction, transportation, medical care, etc., the sensed data should be analyzed through AI to form related applications. First, you must deploy the appropriate transmission technology and domain to collect and report huge amounts of environmental data. In wireless communication technology, WI-FI, Bluetooth, ZigBee, and Z-Wave, which have been launched earlier, have laid the foundation for development in different fields. WI-FI is suitable for large data transmissions, such as audio and video transmission or AR/VR. It is also the basis of general wireless network. The disadvantage is that it consumes a lot of power. Bluetooth is mostly used in personal wearable devices. Mature; ZigBee and Z-Wave are fruitful in automatic control applications such as industrial and construction.
When it comes to wireless networks, what everyone thinks of, besides WI-FI, it is probably the mobile communication network of mobile phones. Today's communication technology is about to enter 5G, which is about higher bandwidth, higher speed, lower latency, and of course more power consumption. Because it is communication between people, data transmission is more intensive and the amount of exchange is more. huge. For M2M communication, because the deployment scope of the device is generally wider, and the wireless device must avoid frequent battery replacement, LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) technology takes advantage of the situation, its small data volume, long-distance transmission and The power-saving features make a big splash in the field of Internet of Things applications.
Earlier wireless transmission technologies, such as WI-FI, ZigBee, and Z-Wave, had a communication transmission distance of only 100 meters. In the smart home field, it is necessary to add a signal-enhanced antenna or relay station. If you want to meet the relevant applications of smart cities, such as environmental monitoring or asset tracking, LPWAN technology with a transmission distance of up to 20 kilometers can obviously reduce the construction cost, as long as several stations can cover a large area; battery as power The source omits the wiring problem and makes the sensor installation procedure easier.
At present, the most popular LPWAN technologies are LoRa, Sigfox, and NB-IoT. These three technologies have their own advantages. Owners can choose the most suitable communication technology according to different fields and usage requirements.
The biggest difference between NB-IoT and other protocols is that it gets the spectrum. It has the support of the state and has its own spectrum. In this case, he can calm down and do various applications because he does not have to worry too much about interference. Just like 3G and 4G, his spectrum is unique to him, so that he can fully develop various protocols. Others like LoRa and Sigfox, they don't currently have the licensed spectrum of our country, they can only use the free frequency band, so you will inevitably encounter various interferences, and also Interfere with others.
LoRa uses spread spectrum technology, so I think its advantage is that the distance will be longer, but at the same time he will have a lot of spectrum resources. In this case, if it is in the dedicated spectrum, I think this is not The problem, but if it is in the public spectrum, it will be a bit unfair to other users. That is to say, all of us have a good one sitting on a stool, and then you come over and have a row of stools, which is not fair to everyone. At the same time, because of this spread spectrum technology, the channel will be less and the number of networking will be smaller.
Sigfox's ultra-narrowband technology is actually similar to NB-IoT. It maintains stable communication over a narrow bandwidth. In fact, short-range wireless communication, as I said before, is not a real application, it is just a bridge, it is for a variety of applications. It serves to connect sensors and devices, as well as the cloud. To say the application, I think we still have to explore it in practice. For example, the air conditioner thermostat of Thread is, or we may have a meter reading application, or we have the application of pm2.5 or the agricultural application of temperature and humidity collection, all kinds of It is a real application.
Supplement: Just like the technical features of LPWAN, LoRa and Sigfox have the characteristics of long distance and low power consumption, which can extend battery life and form a wide range of message transmission. Both use the unlicensed Sub-1GHz ISM band, no additional licensing fees, and due to breakthroughs in electronic chip manufacturing technology, the hardware manufacturing costs of the two technologies continue to decrease, such as Sigfox, which was launched in Taiwan last year. The monthly fee is as low as 0.4 yuan. LoRaWAN is a network standard promoted by various industry alliances. It provides open technologies and can develop individual applications as long as key content is achieved. Different from the openness of LoRa, Sigfox is a technology developed by the French company of the same name. It masters the operation and deployment of the core network. It intends to deploy the network based in the global role as an independent operator. It is now available in 36 countries. Use zones and devices to connect with the region.
In terms of type, LoRa is like a small private domain with a transmission distance of up to 20 kilometers. As long as you master the technology, you can set up your own base station with higher freedom. Sigfox is a global blueprint for expanding its network base. It provides users with existing network deployment and cloud services. It requires an additional monthly fee. Compared with LoRa, the cost is higher, but the platform solution is complete. No additional network construction is required. Sigfox has a transmission range of up to 50 kilometers, which is the widest of the three technologies. However, in order to achieve low power consumption, LoRa and Sigfox have limited daily transmission times, and the transmission time of one day is very short. In areas where there is no need for real-time communication, such as daily fixed-return data sensors, specific environmental data such as temperature and humidity, PM2.5, etc. can be measured, and large-area IoT applications can be formed by long-distance, low-order transmission patterns.
Another hot technology discussed in the IoT industry chain is NB-IoT. The biggest difference between the two technologies mentioned above is that it is a technology developed by the 3GPP organization, using the licensed GSM and LTE bands, that is, NB-IoT must purchase the frequency band license through the telecom industry. Users can only obtain the licensed technology and frequency band through the carrier or third-party agents to use the NB-IoT related services. The advantage of NB-IoT is that it is a technology introduced by existing telecom operators. It does not need to re-establish the network. As long as the software is updated, the existing 4G telecom base station and related equipment can be used. On the other hand, the use of carrier-grade networks has a high degree of security in terms of communication quality and message security. Far-East Telecom of Taiwan has launched the pre-emptive experience of NB-IoT, and it is expected to complete the upgrade of the base station by the end of May. As long as the remote telecom can receive the signal, the NB-IoT can be used. It is from 2 to 12 yuan.
The three popular LPWAN technologies have different characteristics. The industry predicts that one of the technologies will be the best in the future. However, as Olivier Hersent, one of LoRa's founders, once said, coexisting relationships with each other are more likely to lead future technologies to new developments.
In fact, there are hundreds of Internet of Things applications, and the characteristics of these three technologies also correspond to the special needs of different fields. For example, NB-IoT, user license band, and LTE technology, the network does not limit the number of times of transmission of messages, and the amount of data that can be carried is higher. Therefore, it is suitable for smart industrial fields that emphasize network transmission stability and real-time performance, or An Internet of Things device that transmits high data such as sounds and image files. In contrast, NB-IoT consumes more power than the other two technologies, resulting in a large loss of battery life. At the same time, the cooperation mode with telecom operators will be faster and easier when it is promoted to users. From another perspective, it is also limited by hardware cost (chip) and monthly rental cost.
Compared with NB-IoT, LoRa and Sigfox are more suitable for small data volume and large-scale transmission applications due to low hardware cost and low power consumption. The current scale of development of LoRa technology has matured, and it has cooperated with Asia Pacific Telecom and Hon Hai Fu Hong Network and has actual operational results in Taiwan. Although the transmission distance is not better than Sigfox, the transmission bandwidth is high, the construction cost and technical difficulty are not high, and it is suitable to construct a closed domain in the high-tech factory area and transmit various types of sensing data.
In terms of global deployment, Yu Kaiqun, manager of information and communication technology at Lein, Germany, said that Sigfox is a very developmental technology. Because Sigfox provides global domain services, it is more convenient for multinational companies. In particular, the integrated network solution provides a complete and stable cloud service for high-yield companies, eliminating many developments and collaboration problems. Sigfox has the longest transmission distance, but it has the fewest transmissions in a day, so it is suitable for scenarios where data changes or data transmission during fixed periods, such as pipeline monitoring, smart meters, regional climate monitoring, and alarms. Sigfox is currently working with O-bike in Taiwan to provide location tracking services, as well as ZTE's device status detection and smart medical remote care applications. Because it is a multinational application, Sigfox also cooperates with the American Express Company to install sensors on the package. In addition to knowing where the package is shipped, it can also detect the time of disassembly and transmit specific data back to the United States.
In the fields of transportation, industry, agriculture, construction, medical care, finance, etc., the Internet of Things will focus on emerging applications under data. Device networking is only the foundation. Only by making good use of software services and mastering application opportunities can specific implementations be realized. The true wisdom of networking.