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Some wireless technologies used in IoT

WLAN
THREAD
EnOcean
LoRa
SIGFOX
WHDI
Zigbee
6LoWPAN
Z-Wave
NFC
RFID
INSTEON
WiMAX
GSM
Etc.

Why? They are answers to the following


challenges:
Trade off between power, data rate and
coverage range
Interoperability between wireless standards
Security aspects
Prevention of interference and failure modes

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Simple comparison table


Technologie
s

Standard

Network
Type

Max Range

Data Rate

Security

WIFI

IEEE802.11a,
11b,11g,
11n,
11ac, 11ad

WLAN

100m

600 Mbps 6.75 Gbps at


60 GHz1
Watt

WEP, WPA,
WPA2

Z-Wave

Z-wave

Mesh

30m

100 Kbps, 1
mW

Triple DES

Bluetooth

Bluetooth,
Formerly
IEEE
802.15.1

WPAN

100m

1 - 3 Mbps, 1
Watt

56/128 bit

BLE

IoT
Interconnect

WPAN

100m

1 Mbps, 10 500 mW

128 bit AES

Zigbee

IEEE 802.15.4

Mesh

10m

250 Kbps, 1
mW

128 bit

LoRa

IEEE
802.15.4g

LPWAN

2-5 Km/15 Km 0.3 - 50 Kbps,


some Watt

EUI64, EUI128
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Standard

Network
Type

Max Range

Data Rate

Security

RFID

Many
standards

Point to Point

1m

423 Kbps, 1
mW

Possible

NFC

ISO/IEC
13157

Point to Point

0.1m

424 Kbps, 1
to 2 mW

Possible

GPRS

3GPP

GERAN

25Km/10Km

171 Kbps,
2W/1W

GEA2/GEA3/GE
A4

EDGE

3GPP

GERAN

384 Kbps,
3W/1W

A5/4, A5/3

HSDPA/
HSUPA

3GPP

UTRAN

27Km/10Km

0.73 - 56
Mbps,
4W/1W

USIM

LTE

3GPP

GERAN/UTRA
N

28Km/10Km

0.1 - 1Gbps,
5W/1W

SNOW 3G
Stream Cipher

ANT+

ANT+
Alliance

WSN

100m

1 Mbps,
1 mW

AES-128

Cognitive
Radio

IEEE 802.22
WG

WRAN

100Km

24 Mbps,
1W

AES-GCM

Weightless

Weightless

LPWAN

5Km

0.001 - 10

128bit

26Km/10Km

Simple comparison table

Technologie
s

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LoRa Technology
LoRaWAN - Low Power Wide
Area Network (LPWAN)
specification
Adaptive data rate scheme

Technologie
s

Standard

Network
Type

Max Range

Data Rate

LoRa

IEEE
802.15.4g

LPWAN

2-5 Km/15 Km 0.3 - 50 Kbps,


some Watt

Security
EUI64, EUI128
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LoRa Technology

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LoRa Technology
Other technologies: 10m 100m

LoRa: 2 - 5 km

Wireless

Wireless

Wired

Less GW points

No flexibility

Flexible positioning

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Vendors
On the low power, wide-area network (LPWAN) side,
companies like SigFox, Ingenu, LoRa Alliance, Weightless,
Link Labs and others all offer different standards with
different costs and benefits.
LoRaWAN
Symphony Link/ Link Labs
Creator

Semtech / LoRa Alliance

Link Labs / IEEE 802.15.4

Coverage

Carrier Operated Networks

Customer-Deployed

MAC Focus

Uplink Data Traffic

Fully Bi-Directional

MAC Controller

Server Driven

Gateway Driven

Downlink Latency

4s-120s

100ms-120s

Adaptive Data Rate

Yes (Static)

Yes (Dynamic)

Frequency Band Focus

ITU Region 2 (Europe)

ITU Region 1 (Americas, Etc.)


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Semtech Demo

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Cisco

Cisco IR 910 Series


Semtech LoRa SX1301
Semtech SX1257 RF
A LoRa solution requires a
minimum set of components
that are:
LoRa endpoints - available from
3rd party
LoRa gateway - IR 910 with LoRa
interface
LoRa Network Server - available
soon through Solution Plus
Application Server - available
from 3rd party
Currently no BOM for 910 Series, at
least in my account
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Link Lab
Modules: LL-RLP-20/LL-RXR-27 29$
Gateway (x000 nodes): LL-BST-8 800$
Beta carrier base station (200.000 nodes): LL-BST24 ?$

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