Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN)
The emergence of long-range, low-power wireless network communication protocols and infrastructure designed for transmitting IoT, sensor, and metering data has been a game-changer for those that see the opportunity to monitor their infrastructure, equipment, and environment continuously to get a more complete and accurate picture of their condition and trends. Low Power Wide Area Networks, more commonly known as LPWAN, are leveraging higher storage, edge-computing, gateway and communication throughput and performance; lower overhead to support smaller data payloads, and higher grades of end-to-end data security and reliable connectivity. In short, wireless sensors now make economic sense to scale across multiple use-cases and a large geographical footprint.
Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) are a family of wireless telecommunication networks designed to facilitate low power, low bitrate communications between network endpoints, gateways, and servers. There are several benefits from LPWAN technologies, including longer range coverage, longer battery lives, and lower capital and operating costs. As wide area network technologies, they are expected to be capable of sending data over long distances, even within urban environments, which are more challenging than rural landscapes for non line-of-sight radio transmissions to traverse. The operating range of LPWAN networks are up to a few miles in urban settings and 10-20 miles in rural settings. Optimized for power consumption, LPWAN transceivers can run on small, inexpensive batteries for 10-15 years; reducing maintenance and labor costs. LPWAN's simplified, lightweight protocols reduce complexity in hardware design and lower device costs. Its long range combined with a star topology reduce expensive infrastructure requirements, and the use of license-free or already owned licensed bands, reduce network costs.
LoRaWAN is the most widely deployed LPWAN technology, and is an open-standards protocol using unlicensed spectrum. Behind the success of LoRaWAN adoption is the LoRa Alliance, a non-profit association with global members that sets standards for LoRaWAN. LoRa chipsets are designed for endpoints (sensors, IOT devices) and gateways and the LoRa IP is owned and licensed by Semtech. LoRaWAN battery lives tend to be the longest lasting among LPWAN technologies … ranging from 2-15 years depending on reporting frequency and other variables. Five to seven years of battery lives tend to be the most common ranges found amongst LoRaWAN devices.
Cellular IoT protocols are another LPWAN option. Cellular IoT protocols include CAT-M and NB-IoT. Cellular IoT provide a means of harnessing IoT data on a regional, country-wide or even transcontinental scale without the need for pre-established gateways to create a coverage area. Instead, existing cell towers transport the data. This means that your LPWAN will have the same blind spots the cellular networks do, and if the network connection is interrupted—for maintenance, subscription-limits, emergencies or some other reason—your network will also go down. Still, ease of deployment and the coverage area often overweigh the costs and limitations of dependence on a cellular provider.
Cat-M and NB-IoT both use cellular towers to communicate data, similar to high speed LTE. The main difference between these connection types is how data from moving devices is communicated when the devices are in motion. If a device moves from point A to a far away point B, crossing several different networks cells, the Cat-M device would never drop the connection because it behaves the same as a cell phone, connecting from tower-to-tower as it moves. NB-IoT devices, on the other hand, do not transfer the connection and instead have to re‑establish a new connection to a new cellular tower each time a tower is lost and a new tower is detected.