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Survey of Low-Power Wireless Network Technologies for the Internet of Things

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Abstract

A large number of different low-power wireless network technologies exist, including IEEE 802.15.4, Bluetooth Low Energy, multiple protocol standards of WiFi (IEEE 802.11), Near Field Communication (NFC), and LoRa. Given this number of competing technologies, the selection of the best one for a new project is not trivial. This paper aims to help Internet of Things (IoT) practitioners in this task. To this end, we illuminate the underlying technical differences between these state-of-the-art wireless solutions through their assessment and brief analysis. We quantify and compare their latency, throughput and overhead, as well as overview their main characteristics such as frequency bands, bandwidth, medium access methods, and packet sizes.

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Funding

The research leading to these results has been supported by the ECSEL Joint Undertaking under grant agreement no. 737453 (I-MECH) [8]. This Joint Undertaking receives support from the European Union Horizon 2020 research and innovation program and the ECSEL member states.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Electronics and Computer Science (EDI), LV-1006, Riga, Latvia

    Niklavs Barkovskis, Kaspars Ozols & Atis Elsts

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  1. Niklavs Barkovskis
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  2. Kaspars Ozols
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  3. Atis Elsts
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Kaspars Ozols or Atis Elsts.

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Niklavs Barkovskis, Ozols, K. & Elsts, A. Survey of Low-Power Wireless Network Technologies for the Internet of Things. Aut. Control Comp. Sci. 55, 177–194 (2021). https://doi.org/10.3103/S0146411621020024

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.3103/S0146411621020024

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