LPWAN – Low-power Wide-area Network. Communication for the Internet of Things.

Abstract

Recent advances in the field of cheaper sensors and various devices to control the parameters of industrial and household equipment has led to the emergence of new communication technologies, the so-called Internet of things, "machine-to-machine" or M2M technologies. The main feature of these technologies is a network communication of the physical objects without direct human intervention. The specifics of using the Low-power Wide-area Network (LPWAN network) for these new communication technologies are considered. The LPWAN technologies have significant prospects for development adding to already traditional technologies such as Wi-Fi and cellular. This very term describes an approach, the communication technologies, characterized by the principles of reducing the connection speed in order to achieve wider range and lower power consumption of end nodes. Based on this concept different companies have built the specific competing systems of communication, such as Sigfox (first LPWAN technology), LoRa (derived from Long Range) Ingenu RPMA, Weightless-P, “Strizh” telematics (the Russian analog of Sigfox) and others. Each of the systems applies different methods to increase the range of coverage, to lower energy consumption and to use different possibilities for scalability. The principles of functioning of these communication systems are analyzed below. The major attention is paid to describing the very popular LPWAN-technology LoRa as one of the most open technology for practical applications. It is based on the same name radio modulation using its own unique method to broaden a spectrum. The topology and the main components of this network, including the sensor (end device) with a radio module, the LoRa gateway and its network architecture are described in detail. Examples are given of the LoRa systems emerging on the domestic market of the Internet of things.

Keywords

• Internet of Things (IoT)
• LPWAN
• М2М- industry