LPWAN: What the smart Wireless IoT Technologies can do

Low power, wide area – the LPWAN wireless technologies specially developed for the Internet of Things score points with their low energy consumption and long range. An overview.

Quite a few IoT applications place tricky demands on the mobile networking of the associated systems and devices via radio. In the case of smart electricity meters, emergency lighting, or heat pumps, the radio signal must be able to pass through thick basement walls. Radio modules on remote pipelines or measuring stations must work without an external power supply and also provide long range. And in the city, thousands and thousands of parking spaces, street lamps, or waste bins need to be connected as cost-effectively as possible. One technology is ideally suited to such challenges: Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN).

LPWAN includes a dozen different technologies, some proprietary, some standardized, with different performance characteristics. What they all have in common is long range and low energy consumption. They can best be divided into two groups: licensed and unlicensed (see info box). The four best-known standards are LoRaWAN, Sigfox, NB-IoT, and LTE-MT.

LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network), often abbreviated to LoRa, is a proprietary network protocol developed by the US company Semtech. LoRa networks consist of the end devices, the gateways to which they are wirelessly connected, a network server, and an application server.

Sigfox is a wireless network for IoT applications developed by the French telecommunications company of the same name. The infrastructure used is independent of existing networks such as mobile communications.

NB-IoT (NarrowBand IoT) is an industry standard that is now globally available and was developed by the industry specifically for IoT applications. It uses the infrastructure of the mobile network operators and their radio spectrum licensed by the 3GPP standardization committee. NB-IoT is therefore subject to the usual standards for mobile communications in terms of reliability and availability as well as transmission security and quality.

LTE-M (Long Term Evolution for Machines) is, like NB-IoT, a further development of the 4G mobile communications standard specifically for machine-to-machine (M2M) communication. Compared to NarrowBand IoT, LTE-M offers a higher bandwidth and lower latency. This technology therefore covers IoT applications whose requirements lie between LTE and NB-IoT (see graphic).

The four technologies serve partly similar, partly different requirements of IoT projects. Further information on transmission quality, coverage, energy efficiency, security, costs, and future viability can be found in our fact check "NB-IoT, Sigfox, LoRaWAN: An up-to-date Comparison". Our white paper "Comparison and Analysis of the Security Aspects of LoRaWAN and NB-IoT" is specifically dedicated to the topic of security.

As the name suggests, the low-energy long-distance networks are characterized by two main features:

Low energy consumption: Since IoT devices are often placed in hard-to-reach areas and operated autonomously over a period of several years, the energy efficiency of LPWAN is crucial for minimizing maintenance and operating costs. LPWA network technology specializes in the occasional transmission and reception of small amounts of data. The corresponding radio modules therefore consume an extremely small amount of power. This has several advantages:

• Depending on the application, the modules can be operated maintenance-free for several years using a commercially available battery.
• Battery operation makes LPWAN devices independent of sockets and power grids – and therefore flexible to use, even for mobile applications such as tracking.
• No maintenance and low power consumption therefore also keep overall operating costs low. The wireless modules themselves are also cost-effective, as they are comparatively simple in design.
• This cost advantage over LTE or 5G modules, for example, makes scaling more profitable: LPWAN is suitable for implementation on a large scale, for example in a smart city.

Long range: LPWAN technologies can cover a large area despite their low power consumption. The long range enables comprehensive network coverage with less infrastructure. In contrast to conventional wireless networks such as Wi-Fi or Bluetooth, which are designed for short distances, LPWAN enables communication over several kilometers. This is achieved by using low data rates, simple network architectures, and efficient modulation methods.

One particular advantage over other technologies such as Wi-Fi or LTE is the deep indoor penetration. This is where NarrowBand IoT excels: an NB-IoT radio module transmits reliably even through thick basement walls or via sewer pipes.

LPWAN has found a wide range of applications in the IoT sector:

• In a smart city, for example, the technology enables streetlights, parking sensors, and recycling bins to be connected in order to reduce energy consumption or optimize collection routes.
• In agriculture, LPWAN networks can be used to monitor soil moisture and weather conditions over large areas, enabling precise irrigation control.
• In the Industry 4.0, LPWAN facilitates the remote monitoring of machines, resulting in improved maintenance and operational efficiency.
• In a smart building, networked sensors monitor lighting, air conditioning, and heating to save energy.
• In logistics, asset tracking ensures seamless monitoring of the supply chain and transportation routes.
• Sensors installed in structures such as bridges and tunnels to measure temperature, humidity, and corrosion reveal weak points long before visible damage occurs.
• On the construction site, sensors in construction machinery and vehicles detect malfunctions and theft.

LPWAN has established itself as a key technology for the Internet of Things by enabling efficient, cost-effective, and far-reaching communication. The future of LPWAN for IoT networks looks promising, with trends pointing towards increased capacity, improved security features, and the integration of AI for smarter network management solutions. The ongoing miniaturization of IoT devices and the development of new LPWAN standards promises to create exciting new possibilities for IoT applications and solve complex problems in areas such as environmental monitoring and public safety. And mobile operators are driving development with increasingly flexible IoT tariffs tailored to customer projects, technical innovations such as SIM cards designed specifically for the Internet of Things, and new options such as combining mobile and satellite radio to ensure global IoT coverage.

*List of abbreviations
Important Abbreviations in the Article
3GPP = 3rd Generation Partnership Project
4G/5G = 4th/5th generation mobile communications standards
IoT = Internet of Things
LoRaWAN = Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRa for short)
LPWAN = Low Power Wide Area Network
LTE = Long Term Evolution
LTE-M = Long Term Evolution for Machines
M2M = Machine-to-Machine communication
NB-IoT = NarrowBand IoT
WLAN = Wireless Local Area Network