Networking for IoT Cellular, Wi-Fi, Satellite and Fixed

The connectivity platform calls for seamless networking across multiple networks using any
available media that can provide access to connected devices cellular, satellite, Wi-Fi and fixed
(copper, coaxial cable, fiber). This means there is a single global SIM for provisioning services, a
universal accounting and billing platform, interoperability across more than 200 countries and
spanning 500 or so network carriers. This calls for deep integration via APIs Application
Programming Interface, to enable seamless integration for provisioning, invoicing, reporting, device
management and customer care support.

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

The IoT Reference Model Network Layer

End to End Security

Management Capabilities

Application Layer

IoT Applications
(Asset Management, Smart cities, healthcare, )

Why build end to end

solutions?
Which solutions areas?

Service, Application
Support Layer

Generic Support

Specific Support

Networking

How do you define a

platform?
How do you attract
developers?

Managing connections
across multiple networks
is not an easy job

Devices are custom

Network Layer
Transport

Device Layer

Device

Gateway

Ref: ITU-T Y.2060

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

IoT system Networking

sensor

Applications
Infrastructure

sensor

APIs

sensor
Local or Personal
Area Network

Wide Area Network

Gateway

Backend
Management
Systems

sensor

sensor
sensor

sensor

Personal Area Networks (short range)

802.15.4
Bluetooth.
Local Area Networks (medium range)
Wi-Fi
Ethernet.

Wide Area Network (long range)

Cellular
satellite
TV Whitespaces (400+ MHz)
Wireline (fiber etc.).

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

Wireless LAN (WLAN) or WiFi (IEEE 802.11)

Operates on the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz Industrial, Science and Medical
(ISM) frequency bands.
Specified by the IEEE 802.11 standard and it comes in many

different variations like IEEE 802.11a/b/g/n.

The application of WLAN has been most visible in the consumer
market where most portable computers support at least one of
the variations.
4

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

Bluetooth (IEEE 802.15.1)

The IEEE 802.15.1 standard is the basis for the Bluetooth wireless
communication technology for short range communication.
It is designed for small and low cost devices with low power
consumption.
Three different classes of devices: Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3 where the
range is about 100 meters, 10 meters and 1 meter respectively.
Wireless LAN operates in the same 2.4 GHz frequency band as
Bluetooth, but the two technologies use different signaling methods to
prevent interference.
5

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

ZigBee (IEEE 802.15.4)

ZigBee is a wireless standard somewhat similar to Bluetooth
ZigBee operates in the 868 MHz, 915 MHz and 2.4 GHz ISM bands
The technology defined by ZigBee is intended to be simpler and less
expensive than Bluetooth targeting applications that require a low
data rate, long battery life, and secure networking
Applications:
Wireless light switches with lamps
Electrical meters with in-home-displays
Consumer electronics equipment via short-range radio needing
low rates of data transfer.
Home Entertainment and Control Smart lighting, advanced
temperature control, safety and security, movies and music
Wireless Sensor Networks
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Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

A Comparison of Various Wireless LAN/PAN standards

Standard

Frequency

Data Rate

Range

802.11a

5 GHz

54 Mbps

120m

802.11b

2.4 GHz

11 Mbps

140m

802.11g

2.4 GHz

54 Mbps

140m

802.11n

2.5/5 GHz

248 Mbps

250m

802.15.1

2.4 GHz

3 Mbps

100m

802.15.4

868/915 MHz
2.4 GHz

40 kbps
250 kbps

75m

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

WAN Options
Cellular (Smartphone)
LPWA
Satellite

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

IoT Multi-Network WAN Connectivity

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

Single pane of glass across

cellular/satellite and other
wireless connectivity options
LPWA and WiFi

Deep integration via APIs

Seamless integration for

provisioning, invoicing,
reporting, device
management and customer
care support

Multi Mode Devices

Cellular/Satellite/WiFi

4G Cellular Network

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Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

What does it take to go Global?

Service Provisioning Platform
One Global SIM

Single
SIM

Global
Provisioning

11

200

~500

Countries
and
Territories

Carriers

Unified
Billing

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 1

Cellular networks designed for smartphone

applications are optimized for
-

High speed data and voice

and therefore are expensive and power hungry

IoT networks need to be designed for

12

Low speed data

and should be inexpensive and low power
Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) optimized for IoT

sensor

Applications
Infrastructure

sensor

APIs
sensor
Backend
Management
Systems

Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) Network

Gateway

Fixed Network

sensor

WiFi Network

sensor

sensor

sensor

Personal Area
Network

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

13

IoT network based on LPWA

LPWA: Low Power Wide Area
Alternative: to cellular (3G, LTE)
Advantages: cost, battery life, and configuration
simplicity
Timing: Deployed in select European markets; US
markets announced, expecting 2015 rollouts
Technology highlights: Lightweight protocol that
preserves battery, good propagation (better link
budget than GPRS)
Spectrum: Most players using unlicensed ISM band,
with willingness to support carrier-provided licensed
Installation: On existing towers, or rooftops.

LTE
WiFi
LPWA

$35

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

Module Costs

$15
$10
$4

$5

Today

$4 $4

$3 $3

2016

2017

320

320

LTE
150

LPWA

Battery life
(months)

Today

2017

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LPWA Options LoRa, SigFox

LoRa (Long Range): LPWA solution from US company Semtech
SigFox LPWA solution from French company SigFox

LoRa
FREQUENCY
MODULATION
BW
RX SENSITIVITY
DATA RATE
TX POWER
TX CURRENT
RX CURRENT
2-WAY COMMUNICATION
INTERFERENCE IMMUNITY
MOBILE/NOMADIC NODES
LINK BUDGET
RANGE
PACKET OH
BATTERY LIFE
ENCRYPTION
ERROR CORRECTION

SigFox

902-928 MHz
FSK
125 kHz SS Up, 500 kHz Down
-134 dBm
300 bps - 50 kbps
up to 30 dBm
low
low (10-12 mA), sleep current <200nA
yes
good noise immunity (spread spectrum and error
coding)
yes (can handle up to 100 km/h) / yes
154 dB
3 km urban, 30 km rural
13 Bytes
>8 years
128 bit AES
4/5 to 4/8 coding

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

902-928 MHz
BPSK/FSK
600 Hz hopping in 200 KHz
-126 dBm
600 bps (fixed)
up to 30 dBm
low
low (10-13 mA)
no, but possible with future versions
bad (narrow-band FSK and no coding; however repeats
each message 2 times)
no (cannot handle the Doppler shift) / yes
146 dB
2 km urban, 20 km rural
14 Byte
>7 years
none
none

15

LPWA Products LoRa, SigFox

LoRa Base Station and Device

SigFox Base Station and Device

Measured Range up to 8 miles

Measured Range up to 6 miles

Measured <58 micro W-h power consumed per

transmission

Measured >78 micro W-h power consumed per

transmission

Device connection retained during movement/mobility

Device connection challenged by movement/mobility

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

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5G Design requirements

The use case that the network of the future is

much more varied compared to what we
experience today:

1000x capacity increase

Enhanced mobile broadband

Massive IoT

Ultra low latency (factory automation, V2X etc)

Broadcast

Throughput &
Capacity

10x 100x

As a result the 5G requirements are very

diverse and we need to design a network that
can accommodate them all:

Not all requirements are needed to be supported

simultaneously.

4G*

5G
Very Low
Latency

Massive
Connectivity
*The 4G technology for this comparison is LTE Rel 10

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

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Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 1

IoT Related Industry standards activity

Application layer
Protocols for developing IoT applications e.g. protocols optimized for use with resource constrained devices (CoAP, MQTT, OMA-LWDM etc.)
Industry Forums: IETF, OASIS, OMA, W3C etc.

Service Layer
Frameworks for enabling IoT services e.g. frameworks for discovering and controlling other devices on the network, developing a common m2m
service layer for different verticals
Industry Forums: OneM2M, OIC, Allseen etc.

Network Layer (and in some cases above)

Layer 3 optimizations e.g. IPV6 header compression for use with IEEE 802.15.4 etc.
Industry Forums: IETF, Zigbee Alliance, Thread SIG etc.

Access technologies
Defining
Layer 1 and 2 (MAC and PHY) optimized for used with IoT services e.g. airlinks for cellular, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth etc.
Access network specific optimizations e.g. cellular system and packet core level optimizations

Industry Forums: 3GPP, IEEE 802.11 and 802.15, Bluetooth SIG, Weightless SIG etc.

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

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Zigbee Alliance and Thread SIG

These groups overlap and compete with each other
Zigbee Alliance

Thread SIG

More than a decade old industry standard with a

significant product base and deployments
This is the most commonly used solution for low cost
and low power IoT applications
runs on top of IEEE 802.15.4
Developed a series of standards for verticals like
building automation, consumer electronics, energy
sector etc.
A non IP-based solution

Zigbee
Alliance

Formed in 2014, led by Google and the

semiconductor industry
Directly driven by Googles acquisition of Nest
Aims to develop optimization on top of IEEE
802.15.4 PHY and MAC
An IP based solution that leverages 6LoWPAN
(IPv6 over Low Power Wireless Personal Area
Networks) and competes with Zigbee.
Zigbee based solutions maybe software
upgradable to Thread according to some chipset
vendors

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

Thread
SIG

21

Allseen Alliance and Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC)

These groups overlap and compete with each other
Allseen Alliance

Open Interconnect Consortium (OIC)

History:
Concept initially developed by Qualcomm and presented
in 2011 as an open source project named Alljoyn
In 2013 Qualcomm passed the project on to the Linux
Foundation and with their help formed the AllSeen
Alliance

Allseen
Alliance

Framework provides access agnostic way to enable

activities such as discovery of adjacent devices,
pairing, message routing etc.
Framework can be used by the developers to create
custom apps
Qualcomm claims work done in Allseen to be
complementary to OneM2M

Formed in 2014 by industry players (led by

Intel) that share a general sense of distrust
surrounding Qualcomms intentions with
Allseen
Concerns/justifications included
Issues of IPR about Qualcomm
A perceived lower level of standardization
by Allseen
Intel, Atmel, Dell, Broadcom, Samsung, and
Wind River announced as initial set of
members of the consortium

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

OIC

22

Weightless SIG
Formed in 2012 to develop standards specifically for IoT type communications within whitespaces
Stated targets for Weightless based products

$2 chip
5 km range
10 year battery life

Initial Weightless deployments anticipated in TV whitespace (400-800MHz)

Whitespaces bring some advantages including license-free access, excellent propagation and the promise of
global availability

Regulatory aspects of use of whitespaces are still relatively undefined

Carriers actively exploring low cost alternatives to traditional cellular access for M2M services

Potential use of LTE guard bands with a proprietary technology for such services.
Such low cost and long battery life requirements are inline with stated targets for the Weightless
Also in line with 5G system requirements where IoT is a key use case.

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

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IoT Industry Activity A Summary

Access Layer

3GPP
IEEE 802.15.4
Bluetooth SIG
Weightless SIG
HGI
BBF

Network Layer

IETF
Zigbee Alliance
Thread Group

Service Layer

OneM2M
Allseen Alliance
OIC

Application Layer

Verticals

IIC - Industrial
PCHA/Continua -Health
SGIP Smart Grid

General

IEEE
ITU-T
Global Platform
ATIS
ETSI
GSMA

Advocacy Groups

IMC
IPSO

Regulatory Bodies

FCC

IETF
OASIS
W3C
OMA

Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2

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End of Lecture

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Krish Prabhu, GIAN Lecture 2