What is LPWA for the IoT? Part 2: Standard vs. Proprietary Technologies

As you can see from the chart, all LPWA technologies can meet the 10-year benchmark in good coverage, but no LPWA technology can provide both huge coverage range and great power consumption at the same time—this is the laws of physics. Past the +12dB coverage point, none of the methods can provide 10 years of battery because coverage is gained by lowering the data rate. But lowering the data rate requires very long transmit times, which draws significant power.

So you may be able to deploy base stations only every 20km but if you do this, then many devices will be in bad coverage and thus have bad battery life.

Bottom line, there is no better battery saving and coverage technique than densely deployed base stations. So be wary of LPWA technologies and deployments that have base sites deployed every 20km. They may have the coverage, but the battery life and the data speeds will be very limited.

Hopefully you’ll remember the 4 Cs from my last post; they’re table stakes for the IoT, but many applications require more than that. Additional things to think about when selecting an LPWA technology include:

1. Will my application require over-the-air upgrades in the future?
2. Will my application require basic positioning or voice?
3. Does my application require the use of standard security protocols (HTTPS/SSL)?
4. Is my device mobile? Will it move between cities? Countries? Continents?
5. How long will my application be deployed? Months? Years?
6. How reliable of a connection do I need? Is it serving a mission critical application where?
7. If you’re deploying on unlicensed spectrum, what guarantees do you have that interference won’t be a problem in the future?
8. If you’re deploying on a licensed spectrum, can the network operator offer the SLA terms you require?

Although we’ve covered the 4 Cs and tearing down how proprietary technologies stack up to standard mobile IoT technologies, there’s a lot consider when selecting a technology for your application. You’ll need to base your selection on both current and future requirements.

My next post in this series will give you a cheat sheet to decode the different types of standard technologies.

Looking for more information about LPWA? Start with Sierra to speak with one of our experts who can help you deploy the right LPWA technology for your application. Download the whitepapers, LPWA: Separating Fact From Fiction, Coverage Analysis of LTE-M Category M1, and our What is LPWA? infographic.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in August 2016 and has been updated for accuracy and comprehensiveness.