Low Power Wide Area Networks: A Survey of Enabling Technologies, Applications and Interoperability Needs

Abstract

<div>Low-power wide area (LPWA) technologies are strongly recommended as the underlying</div><div>networks for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. They offer attractive features, including wide-range</div><div>coverage, long battery life, and low data rates. This paper reviews the current trends in this technology,</div><div>with an emphasis on the services it provides and the challenges it faces. The industrial paradigms for LPWA</div><div>implementation are presented. Compared with other work in the field, this paper focuses on the need for</div><div>integration among different LPWA technologies and recommends the appropriate LPWA solutions for a</div><div>wide range of IoT application and service use cases. Opportunities created by these technologies in the</div><div>market are also analyzed. The latest research efforts to investigate and improve the operation of LPWA</div><div>networks are also compared and classified to enable researchers to quickly get up to speed on the current</div><div>status of this technology. Finally, challenges facing LPWA are identified and directions for future research</div><div>are recommended.</div>

Study and design of a retrofitted smart water meter solution with energy harvesting integration

“…In contrast to short-range technologies, the LPWAN approach allows for long-range (kilometer-scale) communications and provides a connectivity solution that attractive in both range and energy consumption viewpoints. Based on the wave spectrum usage, different LPWAN technologies can be classified into two major groups [11,[21][22][23]. Technologies like LoRaWAN or SigFox use unlicensed ISM-based bands while others like Mobile IoT (NB-IoT) use licensed radio bands.…”

“…LoRaWAN requires external gateways to operate, others like SigFox rely on operator base stations and do not have global coverage. Although due to the modulation schemes, data rate, and the need of synchronization with the base stations [22], NB-IoT-based devices have higher power consumption than their ISM-based counterparts, their use still presents certain advantages due to one-hop data transmission, especially in terms of the availability, coverage, throughput and security [21][22][23]. At the data transmission through the unlicensed ISM band, others are likely to listen to communications and systems can experience high levels of interference as the number of connected devices increases [22].…”

Quaternion Model of Higher-Order Rotating Polarization Wave Modulation for High Data Rate M2M LPWAN Communication

“…These design goals greatly influence the design decisions such as modulation techniques, diversity techniques, and spectrum (licensed/unlicensed) to be used. Studies have been conducted to investigate the suitability of various LPWAN technologies to enable industrial communication [ 4 , 5 , 6 ]. B. Buurman et al [ 5 ] and N. Xia et al [ 7 ] recommend NB-IoT for long range critical systems while LoRa for medium range.…”

“…Modulation technique is an important design decision in deployment of the physical layer (PHY) of an ICS [ 5 , 6 ]. Complex modulation schemes can cause an increase in power consumption of transmitter and receiver.…”

Analysis of the Reliability of LoRa

“…L oRa [1], Semtech's solution for low power wider area network (LPWAN) [2], [3], among other technologies, has appeared as a strong candidate for the IoT applications. Perfect orthogonality for LoRa network, i.e.…”