Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2021 - ST-5

ties also creates challenges. Wireless
solutions must be able to integrate with
legacy equipment such as PLCs to break
down data silos and provide access to
previously inaccessible information.
Legacy wireless technologies can't
keep up with the range, power, and cost
requirements in IoT sensor networks.
Traditional cellular connectivity (e.g.
3G, LTE, etc.) and wireless local area
networks (Wi-Fi) are too expensive and
power hungry for transmitting small
amounts of data from a large number of
sensor devices. Other solutions like
Bluetooth, Zigbee, and Z-Wave have
highly constrained physical range; and
even though many of them employ a
mesh topology to extend their coverage,
multi-hop relaying is power-consuming,
while entailing complex network planning and management. As such, mesh
networks are suitable for medium-range
applications at best.
Low-power wide area networks
(LPWAN) are unique in that they overcome these pitfalls and deliver an efficient, affordable and easy-to-deploy solution for massive-scale IoT networks. The
appeal of LPWAN is derived from its two
signature features: long range and low
power consumption. While Wi-Fi and
Bluetooth can only communicate over
tens or a hundred meters at best, an
LPWAN is able to transmit signals up to
15 km in rural areas and up to 5 km in
urban, structurally dense areas. On top of
that, lightweight, power-optimized protocols reduce transceiver costs while
enabling a very long battery life for sensor nodes.
It's important to note, however, that
quality-of-service varies across LPWAN
technologies. This is mainly due to two
reasons - their operations in the licensefree spectrum and the use of simple
asynchronous communication, typically
pure ALOHA (a node accesses the channel and sends a message whenever there
is data to send). While bringing significant power benefits, uncoordinated
transmissions in asynchronous networks
greatly increase the chance of packet
collisions and data loss. As wireless IoT
deployments and radio traffic in the
license-free sub-GHz bands rapidly grow,
legacy LPWANs potentially come with
serious quality of service (QoS) and scalability challenges caused by co-channel
interference. In the same regard, the
standardization and reliable mobility
support are other critical factors not to
be overlooked.

Wrapping Up
The ability to identify hidden patterns, predict future issues, forecast
usage and costs, and derive insights from
IoT sensor data will reshape the industrial process forever. While the sector has
been adopting communication technology for some time, new wireless connectivity like LPWAN is helping to bring
vastly more data points online at a much
lower price tag. Amidst compounding

industry challenges, IoT implementation can be a turning point to take quality management and operational efficiency to the next level and stay on top
of the competition.
This article was written by Wolfgang
Thieme, Chief Product Officer, BehrTech
(North York, ON, Canada), For more information, contact Mr. Thieme at wthieme@
behrtech.com or visit http://info.hotims.com/
79411-160.

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Sensor Technology, March 2021

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Tech Briefs Magazine - March 2021

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