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IoT Wireless Technologies

The document discusses several low-power wireless technologies for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee, LoRa, NB-IoT, and SigFox. BLE and Zigbee are best for short-range communication of small amounts of data from devices like sensors. LoRa enables long-range communication over 6 miles while consuming little power. NB-IoT is a cellular technology not widely available yet that allows communication to the internet but uses more power. SigFox provides a network for low data rate IoT applications using ultra-narrow band technology.

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Bahi Ali
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43 views4 pages

IoT Wireless Technologies

The document discusses several low-power wireless technologies for Internet of Things (IoT) devices, including Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE), Zigbee, LoRa, NB-IoT, and SigFox. BLE and Zigbee are best for short-range communication of small amounts of data from devices like sensors. LoRa enables long-range communication over 6 miles while consuming little power. NB-IoT is a cellular technology not widely available yet that allows communication to the internet but uses more power. SigFox provides a network for low data rate IoT applications using ultra-narrow band technology.

Uploaded by

Bahi Ali
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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IoT Wireless Technologies

Low-Power / Short-Range Mesh Technologies


If your product is battery operated and needs to send relatively low amounts of
data a short distance away, then one of these four technologies is likely the best
solution.
A critical feature supported by all four of these technologies is called a mesh
network, sometimes referred to as a many-to-many network.

Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE)


Bluetooth Low-Energy is much more than just a low-energy version of Bluetooth
Classic. In fact, its applications are completely different than for normal
Bluetooth.
Bluetooth LE is probably the most common type of wireless functionality for the
products I help develop. It is designed to transmit/receive small amounts of data
on an infrequent basis, all while consuming extremely low amounts of power.
BLE has many applications but one of the most common is transmitting sensor
data. A sensor device that measures the temperature once per minute, or a GPS
device that records and transmits its location every 10 minutes, are a few
examples.
In many cases, Bluetooth LE products are powered only from a small coin cell
battery. If data is only sent infrequently, a BLE device running from a coin cell
battery may have a battery life of a year or longer.
As with all of the technologies discussed in this section, BLE supports mesh
networking. In fact, it allows mesh networks with up to 32,767 devices!

Zigbee

Zigbee is another short-range, networking technology similar in many ways to


Bluetooth LE with similar applications. It uses the same 2.4 GHz carrier frequency,
consumes very little power, operates over a similar range, and offers mesh
networking.

In fact, a Zigbee mesh network can include up to 65,000 devices which is twice as
many as Bluetooth LE can support. However, I have yet to see an application that
pushes either limit.

Zigbee is primarily used for home automation applications such as smart lighting,
smart thermostats, and home energy monitoring. It is also commonly used in
industrial automation, smart meters, and security systems.

Low-Power Long-Distance Technologies


If you require long-distance, low-data communication, as many IoT products do,
then your technology choices aren’t as clear as for other applications. This type of
network is commonly referred to as a LPWAN or Low-Power Wide Area Network.
LoRa
LoRa (short for Long-Range) enables very long-range communication of more than
6 miles in some areas, while consuming little power. It is a proprietary wireless
technology acquired by Semtech in 2012.

LoRa uses various frequency bands depending on the region of operation. In


North America 915 MHz is used, and in Europe the frequency is 868 MHz. Other
areas may also use 169 MHz and 433 MHz as well.

LoRa refers to the underlying technology and can be directly used for peer-to-
peer communications.

NB-IoT
Unlike LoRa, NB-IoT is a cellular technology. This means it is more complex, more
expensive to implement, and consumes more power. But it offers higher quality
cellular connections and direct access to the internet.

NB-IoT is only intended for transmitting very small amounts of data. The biggest
downside of NB-IoT is the limited availability. No U.S. carriers support it yet, and it
is currently only being tested in Europe. But it is expected to become available in
the U.S. sometime in 2019.

This technology doesn’t likely make sense to implement in your product now, but
it will become more practical within the next couple of years.

NB-IoT focuses specifically on indoor coverage, low cost, long battery life, and
high connection density. NB-IoT uses a subset of the LTE standard but limits the
bandwidth to a single narrow-band of 200kHz.

SigFox
SigFox provides a cellular style network operator that provides a tailor-made
solution for low-throughput Internet of Things and M2M applications.
In view of the low data rates used for IoT connections, the SIGFOX network
employs Ultra-Narrow Band, UNB technology. This enables very low transmitter
power levels to be used while still being able to maintain a robust data
connection.

The SigFox radio link uses unlicensed ISM radio bands. The exact frequencies can
vary according to national regulations, but in Europe the 868MHz band is used; in
the US it is 915MHz; and 433MHz in Asia.

The density of the cells in the SigFox network is based on an average range of
about 30-50km in rural areas and in urban areas where there are usually more
obstructions and noise is greater the range may be reduced to between 3 and
10km. Distances can be much higher for outdoor nodes where SIGFOX states line
of sight messages could travel over 1000km, although more usual figures will be
much less than this.

Difference between NFC vs RFID


In short: RFID stands for Radio Frequency Identification, a contactless one-way
communication method at varying distances. NFC, Near Field Communication,
allows for two-way communication and requires action by the user.

NFC has a very short range of action, as the general working range is within 0.1
meters. It is a user interactive technology, and it needs the user’s special
participation to ensure the completion of functions such as payment or access.
NFC technology plays a huge role in access control, public transportation, mobile
payment and other fields.

On the other hand, an RFID scanner can read a large number of tags at the same
time, which is very common in warehouse inventory. RFID works at distances of
hundreds of feet.

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