LPWAN TECHNOLOGIES FOR IOT APPLICATIONS: A REVIEW
Abstract
By 2025, there will be more than 75 billion Internet of Things (IoT) devices linked to the network. In recent years, as the IoT industry has evolved, low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) have emerged as a preferred technology for IoT applications because of their cheap cost, low-power consumption, and wide coverage communication capability. LTE-M, NB-IoT, LoRaWAN, and Sigfox are the four most popular LPWAN technologies for large-scale deployment of IoT. This study will attempt an effort to review and compare these communication protocols, emphasizing the primary features and behaviors of key power consumption metrics, quality of service (QoS), latency, and other characteristics. The study shows that for applications requiring low latency and QoS support, LTE-M and NB-IoT are preferable. On the other hand, LoRaWAN and Sigfox are chosen when battery life and cost are the primary concern. Furthermore, this paper provides guidelines for researchers to choose the most appropriate protocol for various IoT applications
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References
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