Is LoRaWAN the Solution to Cellular IoT Challenges?

Ten years ago, there was great hope for cellular networks to drive the development of massive-scale IoT. In fact, according to a recent report by Enterprise IoT Insights, Cisco and Ericsson both predicted that by 2020, the market for interconnected devices would reach 50 billion devices. However, the growth of the entire IoT market has been slower than those predictions, with only 12.4 billion IoT devices in circulation at present, more than a year after those forecasts. Nevertheless, LPWAN solutions like LoRaWAN can easily adapt to the needs of IoT applications and have a greater impact on the massive IoT.

Massive-scale IoT is composed of a large number of low-complexity, low-cost devices that connect to networks with relatively lower throughput speeds. This combination of sensor devices and networks built specifically for IoT is transforming how enterprises operate, how public infrastructure is monitored, and how organizations implement sustainable development plans. It's easy to see why there was such high hope for cellular networks ten years ago since cellular connectivity dominated in other types of devices. The infrastructure was already in place, so why couldn't it be easily leveraged to power massive-scale IoT? It seemed like the development of massive-scale IoT was just a few years away. Then a few more. Always on the horizon.

Challenges of Cellular IoT

It turns out that the technology needed for large-scale IoT deployments did not exist when these predictions were made. Aside from other challenges, there is a mismatch between infrastructure costs, device battery life requirements, and availability. Cellular operators attempted to connect the predicted billions of devices using technologies that were not specifically built for IoT.

In the currently deployed IoT devices, 2G and 3G represent the majority of cellular IoT connections, with 53.1% using one of them. This is problematic because operators are phasing out these legacy technologies, and their replacements are still struggling to gain traction. This year, operators like AT&T and T-Mobile are shutting down their 3G networks, and 2G networks are already outdated in most regions globally, with some parts of Europe following suit. 47% of users have not received notifications about network shutdowns, creating an uncertain path forward.

In recent years, as use case requirements have become clearer, low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies, such as NB-IoT and Cat-M1, have seen development. However, even in their most prominent regions, challenges still persist. Take China, for example. According to internal estimates by Sequans, it is the largest and fastest-growing market for NB-IoT and Cat-M1, with 100 million cellular LPWAN chipsets sold in the region in 2020. The rest of the world is estimated to have only 5 million NB-IoT chipsets. In China, data plans and investments in infrastructure have allowed this technology to flourish, but even in China, hardware vendors are struggling to turn a profit.

Let's take a look at three cellular IoT challenges and how LoRaWAN can provide solutions.

1. Expensive Connectivity

Infrastructure costs have always been one of the biggest obstacles to deploying massive-scale IoT using cellular networks. Cellular requires expensive infrastructure to support it, including towers that cost over $100,000 to build, expensive gateways, and a significant labor force for network deployment and ongoing management. Due to the inherent deployment model of cellular networks, operators cannot build networks on demand, unlike license-free LPWAN solutions like LoRaWAN, which can easily adapt to the needs of IoT applications. The bill of materials (BOM) cost for LoRaWAN hardware is also lower, reducing the overall infrastructure and solution costs compared to cellular-based solutions.

This is not even considering the functional differences in critical areas, such as terminal device power consumption and associated costs in large-scale deployments. The communication profiles of the most common NB-IoT use cases, such as asset tracking, smart metering, and wearable devices, result in high power consumption for cellular devices. Supporting devices with higher power consumption inevitably leads to battery drain, and NB-IoT's inherent "chattiness" exacerbates this even further.

After device deployment, firmware updates for cellular devices typically consume longer battery life compared to LoRaWAN devices, making LoRaWAN a more viable solution for projects that require longer on-site durations.

According to Semtech, LoRaWAN has an overall operating power consumption three to five times lower than NB-IoT. The battery life of devices using NB-IoT is also not long-lasting, as ABI Research found that LoRaWAN devices average a battery life extension of over five years, providing longer lifetimes, depending on the use case. A group of researchers from the University of Bologna, University of Trento, and Integrated Systems Laboratory found that based on their experimental data using sensors for monitoring structural integrity, LoRaWAN battery life can be up to 10 times longer than NB-IoT in certain applications.

2. Inconsistent Coverage and Limited Choices

Due to delayed deployments of NB-IoT and Cat-M1, cellular IoT solutions have yet to be deployed on a large scale. However, LoRaWAN is experiencing rapid growth due to the flexibility of its deployment model and increasing interoperability among network operators, which will come together to provide global coverage in the near future.

According to data from the LoRa Alliance, there are now over 160 countries with public LoRaWAN networks, while according to GSA data, 64 countries have NB-IoT or LTE-M operators. The lack of networks and interoperability issues make it more challenging to manage deployments across locations using cellular IoT technology. On the other hand, the LoRaWAN network is experiencing significant growth. With integration between various ground networks and satellite connectivity, as well as advancements like LoRa Alliance's LR-FHSS transmission data rate, collaborations such as the MultiTech MultiTech MultiMode IoT Connectivity (MMIIC) are paving the way for achieving 100% global coverage by 2022.

Moreover, certified cellular terminal devices have been slow to market and have been negatively affected by the mentioned phasing out of 2G and 3G. In contrast, the LoRa Alliance offers a robust device certification program that provides end users with confidence that terminal devices supporting sensors are compliant with the LoRaWAN specification. Device compliance ensures proper behavior on the network, reduces support costs, and prevents failures when higher-cost fixes are needed in the future. Such policies and regulations will greatly contribute to ensuring the reliability of terminal devices expected to last for decades in the field.

Some operators have even abandoned NB-IoT, like NTT DoCoMo and Dish Network did last year, focusing instead on Cat M1, LTE-M, and 5G, respectively. There is a lot of confusion about which cellular technology will prevail, and it's anyone's guess—even among mobile network operators.

3. 5G is Not the Solution

NB-IoT and Cat M1 are 4G technologies compatible with 5G, so they are riding on the hype around 5G. With the sunset of 2G and 3G approaching, 5G positions itself as the solution to fill the gap when over half of the current cellular IoT connections no longer function. However, to date, enterprise adoption has been minimal, with only 290 publicly disclosed private 5G networks deployed globally, and a noticeable decline in the application of 5G spectrum.

While 5G supports NB-IoT and Cat M1 as cellular solutions for large-scale IoT deployments, they still have a long way to go to fill the gap. In the long run, several IoT technologies will coexist to maximize return on investment for IoT deployments. Cellular technologies will support use cases that require continuous communication, higher data rates, or lower latency, while LoRaWAN will serve as the primary technology for use cases that require long-range, deep indoor penetration, battery-powered devices, and coverage in challenging environments, as well as implementations that require a mix of public and private networks.

Connecting the Unconnected with LoRaWAN

LoRaWAN is poised to provide the cost structure and flexibility needed for large-scale IoT deployments. It offers longer range, extended battery life, better propagation characteristics, and more power-efficient maintenance, which combined can effectively support a broader range of use cases. These are some of the reasons why ABI Research predicts that by 2026, LoRaWAN will account for over half of all non-cellular LPWAN connections.

The range of LoRaWAN is particularly crucial as it can reach environments where cellular signals struggle to penetrate or where cellular infrastructure is lacking. From rural and rugged environments to indoor spaces and even deep within solid structures, LoRaWAN's propagation characteristics benefit everywhere.

Security is another key differentiating factor, as cellular signals are susceptible to interception as they hop from one point to another on the network. LoRaWAN provides end-to-end security built into the protocol. LoRaWAN also supports public, private, and hybrid models, offering great flexibility in how enterprises deploy network infrastructure.

With over 500 members collaborating closely to advance an open global protocol, LoRa Alliance's commitment aims to support this field for over two decades, compared to the five-year cycles of introducing new and deprecating old protocols by 3GPP. The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) recently approved LoRaWAN as a global standard for LPWAN, further solidifying LoRaWAN's position as a reliable, open standard.

Endgame

Trailblazers are paving the way for the latest predictions of 1 billion LoRaWAN devices by 2025 for IoT analytics. They have the innovation, deployment models, and partnerships that the cellular market still lacks. As LoRaWAN is used with sensors that detect the physical world, sensors that can last over a decade and be updated over the air, customers are free to explore endless use cases and benefit from the insights their data can generate. The potential of massive-scale IoT is finally being unleashed.