Overview of Common IoT Communications

Technologies
 Foreword

 Communications technologies are the foundation of not only the Internet of Things
(IoT), but also a fully connected world. If the IoT is a logistics system of information,
then communications technologies are the various means of transportation. However,
regardless of the technology adopted, the ultimate goal is to connect devices to the
cloud-based applications.
 Common communications technologies can be classified into two types: wired and
wireless communications technologies. In terms of their applications and technical
features, the specifications of wired and wireless technologies vary considerably.

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 Objectives

At the end of this course, you will have knowledge of:

 Common IoT wired communication technologies.
 The technical standards, features, and differences between various short-range
wireless communications technologies.
 The characteristics and developing trends of cellular mobile communication
technologies.
 The characteristics of Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) communications
technologies and distinguish between their different types.

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 Contents

1. Wired Communications Technologies

2. Wireless Communications Technologies

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Ethernet
 Ethernet is the main LAN technology of TCP/IP and is named after the medium Ether, which transmits electromagnetic waves.

 A base station can use one ETH port, two FE/GE ports, or two SFP ports. ETH indicates it is a standard Ethernet, which transmits
data at the rate of 10 Mbit/s. FE is short for fast Ethernet, which provides a tenfold increased transmission rate of 100 Mbit/s, and
GE is short for Gigabit Ethernet, which provides a transmission rate of 1000 Mbit/s. SFP ports are gigabit optical ports, which
transmit data over optical fibers. FE/GE enable autonegotiation of transmission rate with the peer switch.

 Carrier sense multiple access with collision detection (CSMA/CD) is the core Ethernet technology. "carrier sense" indicates the
detection before transmission, "multi-access" indicates that data sent from one sender is received by multiple receivers, and "
collision detection" indicates the detection during transmission.

R-J45 connector

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Introduction and Comparison Between RS-232 and RS-485

Item RS-232 RS-485

Communication
Less than 20 m 1200 m theoretically; 300–500 m in reality
distance
Transmission Unbalanced transmission mode; single- Balanced transmission; differential
mode end communications transmission
Number of A maximum of 128 transceivers on the
One-to-one communications
transceivers bus
Transmission
38.4 Kbit/s 10 Mbit/s
rate

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USB
 USB, short for Universal Serial Bus, is a serial bus standard for connecting computer systems and devices. It is also a technical
specification for input and output interfaces. It is widely used with information communications products such as personal
computers and mobile devices, and its use has been extended to related fields such as photography equipment, digital TVs (set-
top boxes), and game consoles.

 Before USB was developed, the scalability of computer interfaces was inadequate with limited rates due to devices (such as the
keyboard, mouse, modem, printer, and scanner) needing to be connected to different interfaces (such as serial/parallel interfaces),
making it impossible for a computer to provide sufficient interfaces for connections. USB is designed for high speed, scalability, and
ease-of-use.

 The latest-generation USB is USB 4, with a transmission rate of 40 Gbit/s.

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M-Bus
 M-Bus, short for Meter Bus, is a data bus designed for information transmission of consumption
measuring instruments and counters. M-Bus has been widely applied in business and collection of
data on industrial energy consumption.
 The maximum transmission distance of the M-Bus is 1000 m. As the M-Bus can supply power to
onsite devices, no power cable needs to be connected. The power supply capability of the bus is 5 A,
and the current of each node needs to be less than 0.65 mA.
 The M-Bus not only fulfills the need for the networking and remote reading of utility meters but also
meets the specific requirements of the remote or battery power supply system. The bus topology of
the M-Bus serial communications meets the requirements of the utility meters for reliable and cost-
effective networking. Hundreds of backup devices can also be connected within a distance of several
kilometers.

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Power Line Communication
Power application software and Central Station
Database network management server
TCP/IP
Communications
server (CS)
ETH
Switch

Tele-meter device Tele-meter device

management management
TCP/IP
Low voltage Base Base
electrical power station station
cable

PLC PLC PLC PLC

Meter reading device Meter reading device Meter reading device Meter reading device

 Power line communication (PLC) refers to a mode of communication in which data and media signals are
transmitted on an electrical power cable. With PLC, high frequency signals containing information are loaded onto
the current, and the adapter receives the information over the cable, separates the high-frequency signals from
current, and then sends the signals to a computer or telephone.
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Comparison of Wired Communications Technologies
Communication
Characteristics Application Scenario
Mode
Intelligent terminal, video
ETH Comprehensive protocol, universal, cost-effective
surveillance

One-to-one communications, cost-effective, short A few instruments, industrial

RS-232
transmission distance control

Bus topology, cost-effective, strong anti- Industrial instruments, meter

RS-485
interference capability reading

One-to-one communications, universal, fast Smart home, office, mobile

USB
transmission devices

Designed for meter reading, common twisted-pair Industrial energy consumption

M-Bus
cables, strong anti-interference capability data collection

For power line communication, wide coverage, Power grid transmission,

PLC
easy installation electricity meter

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 Contents

1. Wired Communications Technologies

2. Wireless Communications Technologies

 Short-Range Wireless Communications Technologies

▫ Cellular Mobile Networks

▫ LPWA Communications Technologies

▫ Comparison of Wireless Communications Technologies

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Short-Range Wireless Communications Technology:
Bluetooth

Bluetooth
Server
device

Bluetooth Bluetooth
device device
 Bluetooth is a large-capacity wireless digital communications technology standard for exchanging data over short distances. The latest Bluetooth 5.0
supports a maximum transmission rate of 3 Mbit/s and a transmission distance of about 300 meters. The technology has been divided into two types:
Bluetooth Basic Rate/Enhanced Data Rate (BR/EDR) and Bluetooth low energy (BLE). The BR/EDR type supports only point-to-point (one-to-one)
communications, whereas the BLE type supports point-to-point, broadcast (one-to-many), mesh (many-to-many), and other modes of communications.
The BLE type is mainly used in the IoT field to provide services with higher performance that consume little power for smart home appliances.

 Advantages: high rates, high security, and low power consumption

 Disadvantages: The EDR type, with few network nodes, is not suitable for multi-point deployment.

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Short-Range Wireless Communications Technology: Wi-Fi
Master
concentrator

6
Trunk and hotspot AP

Wi-Fi 6
Device

Wi-Fi device Wi-Fi device Wi-Fi device

 Wi-Fi enables an electronic device to connect to a wireless local area network (WLAN) using the 2.4 GHz UHF or
5 GHz SHF ISM radio frequency band. The latest Wi-Fi 6 supports a transmission rate of 9.6 Gbit/s and a latency
of 20 ms.

 Advantages: wide coverage, fast data transmission rate

 Disadvantages: low transmission security, low stability, high power consumption, poor networking capability

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Short-Range Wireless Communications Technology -
ZigBee
ZigBee
Low power Two batteries can support the device for
consumption 6–24 months.
Master
No patent fee is required and the cost is
concentrator Low cost
about US$2.

Server Low rate 20–250 Kbit/s

Short distance 10–100 m

Low latency 15–30 ms

ZigBee ZigBee ZigBee Large capacity The number of nodes theoretically is 254.
device device device
High security Three security levels

Grant free 915 MHz, 868 MHz, 2.4 GHz

ZigBee device
 ZigBee is a short-range wireless communications technology featuring low power Easy networking Mesh networking, ad hoc networking
consumption.
Low compatibility The compatibility of different chips is low.
 Characteristics: short transmission distance, low complexity, self-organization, low
power consumption, and low data rate. Difficult Difficult to maintain due to high
maintenance networking flexibility
Widely used in industrial and smart home fields.

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Short-Range Wireless Communications Technology - Z-
Wave
Master
concentrator

Server

Z-Wave Z-Wave Z-Wave

device device device

Z-Wave device

 Z-Wave is an emerging RF-based wireless communications technology with a short transmission distance and
high reliability at low costs and little power consumption.

 Advantages: simple structure, high reliability, low rates, low power consumption, low costs

 Disadvantages: The standard is not open. The chip can only be obtained from Sigma Designs.

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Comparison of Short-Range Wireless Communications
Technologies
Bluetooth Wi-Fi ZigBee Z-Wave
2.4 GHz
Frequency 868 MHz/915 MHz 868.42 MHz (Europe)
2.4 GHz 5 GHz
band 2.4 GHz 908.42 MHz (USA)
802.11b: 11 Mbit/s
802.11g: 54 Mbit/s 868 MHz: 20 kbit/s
Transmission 1–3 Mbit/s (24 Mbit/s
802.11n: 600 Mbit/s 915 MHz: 40 kbit/s 9.6 kbit/s or 40 kbit/s
rate over 802.11 links)
802.11ac: 1 Gbit/s 2.4 GHz: 250 kbit/s
802.11ax: 9.6 Gbit/s
Typical 30 m (indoor) to
1–300 m 50–100 m 2.4 GHz band: 10–100 m
distance 100 m (outdoor)
Data exchange between
nearby nodes such as a WLAN, high-speed Home automation, building
Typical Smart home appliance,
mouse, wireless Internet access at home automation, and remote
application headset, mobile device, and other indoor areas monitoring and control
control
and computer

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 Contents

1. Wired Communications Technologies

2. Wireless Communications Technologies

▫ Short-Range Wireless Communications Technologies
 Cellular Mobile Networks

▫ LPWA Communications Technologies

▫ Comparison of Wireless Communications Technologies

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Cellular Mobile Networks - 2G
 Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) is the second-generation mobile
communications technology. It is a standard developed by the European Committee for
Standardization in 1992. It incorporates digital communications technologies and a unified
network standard, which ensures the quality of communications and enables it to develop
various new services. The data rate of GSM is 9.6 kbit/s.
 General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) is a mobile data service available to GSM mobile
phone users. It is a data transmission technology of the second-generation mobile
communications and an extension of GSM. GPRS provides data rates of 56–114 kbit/s.

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Cellular Mobile Networks - 3G
 3G is the third generation mobile communications technology. It supports high-speed data
transmission and can transmit voice and data simultaneously with a rate of several-
hundred kbit/s. 3G is a mobile communication system that integrates wireless
communications and multimedia communications such as the Internet. Currently, 3G has
three standards: CDMA2000, WCDMA, and TD-SCDMA. The latest WCDMA technology
HSPA+ supports a downlink rate of up to 42 Mbit/s.

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Cellular Mobile Networks - 4G
 4G is the fourth-generation mobile communications technology. It includes two modes: LTE
TDD and LTE FDD.
 Integrating 3G and WLAN, 4G can transmit data, high-quality audio, video, and images at a
high speed. The download rate of 4G can exceed 100 Mbit/s, which is 25 times the speed
of ADSL (4 Mbit/s), meeting almost all users' requirements on wireless services. In addition,
4G can be deployed in areas where the digital subscriber line (DSL) and cable television
modem are not covered, and then expanded to the entire region. 4G has shown notable
advantages.

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LTE UE Categories
 The LTE UE category indicates the UE access capability level, in other words, the transmission rate level
supported by a UE. For example, LTE category 4 indicates that the LTE network access capability level of the UE
is 4.

Level Downlink Rate (Mbit/s) DL-MIMO Uplink Rate (Mbit/s)

1 10 1 5
2 50 2 25
3 100 2 50
4 150 2 50
5 300 4 75
6 300 2 or 4 50
7 300 2 or 4 150
8 1200 8 600
9 450 2 or 4 50
10 450 2 or 4 100

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LTE UE Category 1
 UE category 1 supports a downlink rate of up to 10 Mbit/s, enabling IoT devices
with lower power consumption and costs to connect to LTE networks. LTE
operators around the world deploy LTE networks based on 3GPP Release 8 or
later. As such, operators can simply reconfigure parameters to permit the access of
UE category 1 without needing to upgrade the networks.
 Although higher rates are supported for UE category 4 or later, the costs are
relatively high for the IoT industry. Therefore, using UE category 1 is most cost-
effective.

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Cellular Mobile Networks - 5G
 The fifth-generation mobile communications network, 5G's theoretical maximum transmission rate can reach 10
Gbit/s, which is 100-fold improvement over 4G. With 5G, a 1 GB movie can be downloaded in eight seconds.

 ITU Radiocommunication Sector (ITU-R) defined three major 5G application scenarios in June 2015: enhanced
Mobile Broadband (eMBB), Massive Machine-Type Communications (mMTC), and ultra-reliable low-latency
communication (URLLC), as well as eight capability specifications, including the throughput, latency, connection
density, and spectral efficiency.

 On June 6, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) officially issued 5G commercial
licenses to China Telecom, China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Broadcast & Television, and announced the
start of 5G commercialization on October 31, 2019.

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Comparison of Cellular Mobile Network Technologies

2G 3G 4G 5G
Authorized Authorized frequency
Authorized frequency Authorized frequency
Frequency frequency band band
band band:
band (mainly 900 (mainly 900 MHz and
(1800–2600 MHz) C-band, mmWave
MHz) 1800 MHz)
Downlink 10 Gbit/s

GSM: 9.6 kbit/s TD-SCDMA: 2.8 Mbit/s Category 6/7: 300 Mbit/s (Balong 5000 chips
Transmission
GPRS: 56–114 CDMA2000: 3.1 Mbit/s Category 9/10: 450 support a downlink
rate rate of 4.6 Gbit/s and
kbit/s WCDMA: 14.4 Mbit/s Mbit/s
an uplink rate of 2.5
Gbit/s)

AR, VR, assisted

POS and smart
Typical Vending machines, Mobile terminals, video driving, automated
wearable
application smart home appliances surveillance driving, and
devices
telemedicine

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 Contents

1. Wired Communications Technologies

2. Wireless Communications Technologies

▫ Short-Range Wireless Communications Technologies

▫ Cellular Mobile Networks

 LPWA Communications Technologies

▫ Comparison of Wireless Communications Technologies

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LPWA - SigFox
 The SigFox network uses Ultra Narrow Band (UNB) technology. Its transmission power consumption
is low and the data connection is stable. Its radio link uses the unlicensed ISM radio frequency band.
Frequency usage varies according to national laws and regulations. The 868 MHz frequency band is
widely used in Europe, and the 915 MHz frequency band is used in the United States.
 The network adopts ultra narrow-band modulation technology. A single base station can transmit
network messages over a distance of over 1000 km. Each base station supports a maximum of one
million IoT devices.
 SigFox is preferred for IoT connections as it uses free frequency bands, devices that consume little
power, and a simplified network architecture.

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LPWA - LoRa
 The Long Range (LoRa) is a physical-layer-based technology that implements data
communications over networks. It is maintained and managed by the LoRa Alliance. The
technology supports bidirectional data transmission and complies with a series of open
source standards. The specific solution for network implementation is called LoRaWAN,
which is developed by Semtech and supported by IBM. The application of LoRa includes
automatic meter reading, smart home appliance, building automation, wireless warning and
security systems, industrial monitoring and control, and remote irrigation systems.
 LoRa uses unlicensed spectrum.

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LPWA - NB-IoT
 NB-IoT is a cellular based narrowband IoT. It is built on a cellular network and requires a
bandwidth of only 180 kHz. It can be directly deployed on legacy GSM, UMTS, and LTE
networks to reduce deployment costs and implement smooth upgrades.
 NB-IoT is an emerging technology widely used for LPWA IoT markets. It features enhanced
coverage and wide connections with low rates, costs, power consumption, and the optimal
architecture.
 According to 3GPP Release 14, NB-IoT supports base station positioning and mobility
scenarios with a speed less than 80 km/h.

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LPWA - eMTC
 eMTC is a wireless IoT solution proposed by Ericsson. The solution designs the soft
features of the wireless IoT network based on LTE access technology. It is mainly used in
IoT scenarios that require low rates, deep coverage, low power consumption, and a
considerable number of connections.
 eMTC features a higher rate (up to 1 Mbit/s) and power consumption and smaller coverage
and capacity than NB-IoT. eMTC also supports voice communications.

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Comparison of LPWA Technologies

SigFox LoRa NB-IoT eMTC

Frequency Sub-GHz unlicensed Sub-GHz unlicensed Mainly sub-GHz licensed Sub-GHz licensed
band frequency band frequency band frequency band frequency band

Transmission
100 bit/s 0.3–5 kbit/s < 250 kbit/s < 1 Mbit/s
rate

Typical
1–50 km 1–20 km 1–20 km 2 km
distance

Smart home
Water meter, parking, pet
appliances, smart Smart agriculture, Shared bicycle, pet
Typical tracking, garbage
electricity meter, mobile intelligent building, and collar, POS, and
application disposal, smoke alarm,
healthcare, remote logistics tracking smart elevator
and retail devices
monitoring, and retail

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 Contents

1. Wired Communications Technologies

2. Wireless Communications Technologies

▫ Short-Range Wireless Communications Technologies

▫ Cellular Mobile Networks

▫ LPWA Communications Technologies

 Comparison of Wireless Communications Technologies

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Comparison of Wireless Communications Technologies
Data Rates

10 Mbit/s
Video surveillance
High-rate and IoV
High-rate and long-range: Smart healthcare
short-range: 4G/5G
Wi-Fi/ Bluetooth
1 Mbit/s
Smart wearables
Intelligent logistics
Medium-rate and Elevator guard
long-range: Vehicle
3G, LTE UE management
200 kbit/s category 1
Small-packet
and short- Small-packet and ultra-long-range: Smart meter
Low-rate and
range: LPWA reading
long-range:
Z- (NB-IoT, eMTC, LoRa, SigFox) Environmental
2G
Wave/ZigBee monitoring
100 bit/s

10 m 1 km 10 km Coverage

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