LPWAN Technologies: Emerging Application Characteristics, Requirements, and Design Considerations

Low power wide area network (LPWAN) is a promising solution for long range and low power Internet of Things (IoT) and machine to machine (M2M) communication applications. This paper focuses on defining a systematic and powerful approach of identifying the key characteristics of such applications, translating them into explicit requirements, and then deriving the associated design considerations. LPWANs are resource-constrained networks and are primarily characterized by long battery life operation, extended coverage, high capacity, and low device and deployment costs. These characteristics translate into a key set of requirements including M2M traffic management, massive capacity, energy efficiency, low power operations, extended coverage, security, and interworking. The set of corresponding design considerations is identified in terms of two categories, desired or expected ones and enhanced ones, which reflect the wide range of characteristics associated with LPWAN-based applications. Prominent design constructs include admission and user traffic management, interference management, energy saving modes of operation, lightweight media access control (MAC) protocols, accurate location identification, security coverage techniques, and flexible software re-configurability. Topological and architectural options for interconnecting LPWAN entities are discussed. The major proprietary and standards-based LPWAN technology solutions available in the marketplace are presented. These include Sigfox, LoRaWAN, Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), and long term evolution (LTE)-M, among others. The relevance of upcoming cellular 5G technology and its complementary relationship with LPWAN technology are also discussed.

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Principles and Applications of Narrowband IoT

Advances in Wireless Technologies and Telecommunication - Principles and Applications of Narrowband Internet of Things (NBIoT) ◽

10.4018/978-1-7998-4775-5.ch003 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 46-85

Author(s):

Eisha Akanksha

Keyword(s):

Low Power ◽

Communication Technologies ◽

Wide Area ◽

The Internet ◽

Battery Life ◽

Area Network ◽

Wide Area Network ◽

Radio Communication ◽

Processing Power ◽

Living Things

The internet of things (IoT) brings ‘life' to non-living things. In the IoT frameworks, the devices become smarter, more intelligent, become able to make decisions, and can communicate with other entities, applications, as well as human beings. According to a Gartner report, by 2020 more than 25 billion devices will be connected to the internet. Low power wireless wide area network (LPWAN) is a group of various low power, wide-area technologies such as LoRa, Sigfox, NB-IoT, DASH7, RPMA, LTE-M, designed to interconnect low bandwidth, battery-operated devices having limited processing power, limited memory, transmission speed with low bit rates at long-range using radio communication technologies. Most of these technologies provide a long battery life, low deployment cost, large capacity, and generates deeper insights of businesses. However, each technology differs in latency, data rate, handover mechanisms, quality of services, applications, and use cases. In this chapter, the authors provide the basic principles of these LPWANs and present their applications in different domains.

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A Survey of LoRaWAN for IoT: From Technology to Application

Sensors ◽

10.3390/s18113995 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 18 (11) ◽

pp. 3995 ◽

Cited By ~ 81

Author(s):

Jetmir Haxhibeqiri ◽

Eli De Poorter ◽

Ingrid Moerman ◽

Jeroen Hoebeke

Keyword(s):

Low Power ◽

Swot Analysis ◽

Research Work ◽

Area Network ◽

Wide Area Network ◽

Covered Area ◽

Wide Range ◽

Security And Reliability ◽

Number Of Publications ◽

Significant Attention

LoRaWAN is one of the low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies that have received significant attention by the research community in the recent years. It offers low-power, low-data rate communication over a wide range of covered area. In the past years, the number of publications regarding LoRa and LoRaWAN has grown tremendously. This paper provides an overview of research work that has been published from 2015 to September 2018 and that is accessible via Google Scholar and IEEE Explore databases. First, a detailed description of the technology is given, including existing security and reliability mechanisms. This literature overview is structured by categorizing papers according to the following topics: (i) physical layer aspects; (ii) network layer aspects; (iii) possible improvements; and (iv) extensions to the standard. Finally, a strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis is presented along with the challenges that LoRa and LoRaWAN still face.

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FILLING LEVEL MEASUREMENTS OF MIXED WASTE BINS USING LOW POWER IOT SENSORS AND LORA WAN TECHNOLOGY

22-osios jaunųjų mokslininkų konferencijos „Mokslas – Lietuvos ateitis“ teminės konferencijos Aplinkos apsaugos inžinerija straipsnių rinkinys ◽

10.3846/aainz.2019.006 ◽

2020 ◽

Author(s):

Nino Inasaridze ◽

Vaidotas Vaišis

Keyword(s):

Low Power ◽

Mixed Type ◽

Low Cost ◽

Empty Space ◽

Battery Life ◽

Area Network ◽

Waste Collection ◽

Wide Area Network ◽

Software Optimization ◽

Cost Components

The article deals with sensor-related solutions to improve waste collection and monitoring in public waste bins. Availability of use of an inexpensive monitoring system for measurement process was tested. The system consists of wireless nodes that use ultrasonic sensors to measure the empty space in the waste bins. A sensor gateway based on Long Rage Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) protocol was used. Purpose of this work was to describe the new sensor node typology based on low-power and low-cost components. The article analyses the architecture of nodes in detail, focusing on energyefficient technologies and policies to extend battery life by reducing energy consumption through hardware and software optimization. Measurements were performed at five points in two size of containers with different two levels of filling and mixed type of waste. The results show that existing technologies are mature enough to create and deploy inexpensive additional sensors for outbound bins and that such a system can provide the necessary insights on how to optimize waste collection processes and avoid overflowing containers.

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LPWAN-based hybrid backhaul communication for intelligent transportation systems: architecture and performance evaluation

EURASIP Journal on Wireless Communications and Networking ◽

10.1186/s13638-021-01918-2 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 2021 (1) ◽

Author(s):

Taghi Shahgholi ◽

Amir Sheikhahmadi ◽

Keyhan Khamforoosh ◽

Sadoon Azizi

Keyword(s):

Low Power ◽

Intelligent Transportation Systems ◽

Intelligent Transportation System ◽

Road Traffic ◽

Intelligent Transportation ◽

Traffic Monitoring ◽

Transportation Systems ◽

Area Network ◽

Emergency Vehicle ◽

Wide Area Network

AbstractIncreased number of the vehicles on the streets around the world has led to several problems including traffic congestion, emissions, and huge fuel consumption in many regions. With advances in wireless and traffic technologies, the Intelligent Transportation System (ITS) has been introduced as a viable solution for solving these problems by implementing more efficient use of the current infrastructures. In this paper, the possibility of using cellular-based Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) communications, LTE-M and NB-IoT, for ITS applications has been investigated. LTE-M and NB-IoT are designed to provide long range, low power and low cost communication infrastructures and can be a promising option which has the potential to be employed immediately in real systems. In this paper, we have proposed an architecture to employ the LPWAN as a backhaul infrastructure for ITS and to understand the feasibility of the proposed model, two applications with low and high delay requirements have been examined: road traffic monitoring and emergency vehicle management. Then, the performance of using LTE-M and NB-IoT for providing backhaul communication infrastructure has been evaluated in a realistic simulation environment and compared for these two scenarios in terms of end-to-end latency per user. Simulation of Urban MObility has been used for realistic traffic generation and a Python-based program has been developed for evaluation of the communication system. The simulation results demonstrate the feasibility of using LPWAN for ITS backhaul infrastructure mostly in favor of the LTE-M over NB-IoT.

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Smart Monitoring and Controlling of Appliances Using LoRa Based IoT System

Designs ◽

10.3390/designs5010017 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 5 (1) ◽

pp. 17

Author(s):

Nur-A-Alam ◽

Mominul Ahsan ◽

Md. Abdul Based ◽

Julfikar Haider ◽

Eduardo M. G. Rodrigues

Keyword(s):

Power Consumption ◽

Low Power ◽

Modular Design ◽

Real Life ◽

Environmental Data ◽

Automation System ◽

Area Network ◽

Wide Area Network ◽

Long Distance ◽

At Home

In the era of Industry 4.0, remote monitoring and controlling appliance/equipment at home, institute, or industry from a long distance with low power consumption remains challenging. At present, some smart phones are being actively used to control appliances at home or institute using Internet of Things (IoT) systems. This paper presents a novel smart automation system using long range (LoRa) technology. The proposed LoRa based system consists of wireless communication system and different types of sensors, operated by a smart phone application and powered by a low-power battery, with an operating range of 3–12 km distance. The system established a connection between an android phone and a microprocessor (ESP32) through Wi-Fi at the sender end. The ESP32 module was connected to a LoRa module. At the receiver end, an ESP32 module and LoRa module without Wi-Fi was employed. Wide Area Network (WAN) communication protocol was used on the LoRa module to provide switching functionality of the targeted area. The performance of the system was evaluated by three real-life case studies through measuring environmental temperature and humidity, detecting fire, and controlling the switching functionality of appliances. Obtaining correct environmental data, fire detection with 90% accuracy, and switching functionality with 92.33% accuracy at a distance up to 12 km demonstrated the high performance of the system. The proposed smart system with modular design proved to be highly effective in controlling and monitoring home appliances from a longer distance with relatively lower power consumption.

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An Autonomous Low-Power LoRa-Based Flood-Monitoring System

Journal of Low Power Electronics and Applications ◽

10.3390/jlpea10020015 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 10 (2) ◽

pp. 15 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Mattia Ragnoli ◽

Gianluca Barile ◽

Alfiero Leoni ◽

Giuseppe Ferri ◽

Vincenzo Stornelli

Keyword(s):

Low Power ◽

Monitoring System ◽

Area Network ◽

Test Results ◽

Wide Area Network ◽

Web Structure ◽

Flood Monitoring ◽

Node Architecture ◽

Different Types ◽

Wireless Module

The development of Internet of Things (IoT) systems is a rapidly evolving scenario, thanks also to newly available low-power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies that are utilized for environmental monitoring purposes and to prevent potentially dangerous situations with smaller and less expensive physical structures. This paper presents the design, implementation and test results of a flood-monitoring system based on LoRa technology, tested in a real-world scenario. The entire system is designed in a modular perspective, in order to have the capability to interface different types of sensors without the need for making significant hardware changes to the proposed node architecture. The information is stored through a device equipped with sensors and a microcontroller, connected to a LoRa wireless module for sending data, which are then processed and stored through a web structure where the alarm function is implemented in case of flooding.

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Worldwide Connectivity for the Internet of Things Through LoRaWAN

Future Internet ◽

10.3390/fi11030057 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 11 (3) ◽

pp. 57 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Lorenzo Vangelista ◽

Marco Centenaro

Keyword(s):

Internet Of Things ◽

Low Power ◽

Cellular Network ◽

Wide Area ◽

The Internet ◽

Area Network ◽

Wide Area Network ◽

Frequency Bands ◽

The Moment ◽

The Internet Of Things

The low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) paradigm is gradually gaining market acceptance. In particular, three prominent LPWAN technologies are emerging at the moment: LoRaWAN™ and SigFox™, which operate on unlicensed frequency bands, and NB-IoT, operating on licensed frequency bands. This paper deals with LoRaWAN™, and has the aim of describing a particularly interesting feature provided by the latest LoRaWAN™ specification—often neglected in the literature—i.e., the roaming capability between different operators of LoRaWAN™ networks, across the same country or even different countries. Recalling that LoRaWAN™ devices do not have a subscriber identification module (SIM) like cellular network terminals, at a first glance the implementation of roaming in LoRaWAN™ networks could seem intricate. The contribution of this paper consists in explaining the principles behind the implementation of a global LoRaWAN network, with particular focus on how to cope with the lack of the SIM in the architecture and how to realize roaming.

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