PowTechnology Limited
De-Mystifying Wireless Sensor Networks: The Relative Benefits of Cellular (LTE M & NB IoT), LoRaWAN, Wi Fi, Bluetooth, Private 5G And NTN
We're finding the choice of wireless sensor networks is bewildering to many! This guide de-mystifies the main tech:LTE M, NB IoT (Cat NB1), LoRaWAN, Wi Fi, Bluetooth LE, Zigbee, Sigfox, Private 5G & takes a deeper look at NTN (Non Terrestrial Networks).
Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have never offered more choice or more confusion. From “classic” industrial telemetry to today’s LPWANs (low power wide area networks), Wi Fi variants, Bluetooth and private cellular, each option trades off range, power, latency, payload size, network ownership and cost.
We can't fit the full article here, so please use the the link below! We cover:-
1) The Core Trade Off: Interval, Range and Battery Life
2) Cellular IoT: LTE M (Cat M1) vs NB IoT (Cat NB1 / “NB1”)
3) LoRaWAN: Private or Public LPWAN With Great Battery Economics
4) Wi Fi: Excellent Throughput, Take Care Regarding Power And Infrastructure
5) Bluetooth LE: The “Last Few Metres” Champion
6) Zigbee: Low-Power Mesh For Buildings And Local Networks
7) Sigfox (0G): Ultra Narrowband, Ultra Small Messages
8) Private 5G: When You Need Deterministic Performance At Scale
9) NTN (Non Terrestrial Networks): Satellite As “NB IoT Via Space”
10) The Nub Of It: Which Technology Fits Which WSN pattern?
11) Practical Selection Checklist (What We Ask Before Choosing.)
When our team helps customers choose connectivity, the winning technology usually reveals itself after these questions:
1. Transmission interval: seconds / minutes / hours / daily?
2. Power: What’s available?
3. Payload size: a few bytes, hundreds of bytes, kilobytes, or megabytes?
4. Downlink needs: configuration changes, control, acknowledgements, or “mostly uplink”?
5. Mobility: fixed, slow-moving, or fast-moving across cells/sites?
6. Coverage reality: indoor basements, steelwork, rural, offshore, cross-border?
7. Ownership model: do you want a private network (LoRaWAN/Private 5G/Wi Fi HaLow) or rely on public infrastructure (cellular, Sigfox, public LoRaWAN)?
8. Lifecycle: provisioning, security updates, device management - can you support it at scale?
12) Getting Started
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