IoT Connectivity Types and the choices you need to make relating to the use case
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Introduction
We hear about a lot of the variables that can impact the choice of IoT. People will talk about connectivity, maximum distance, battery life, use cases, latency and much more. The IoT era is here and the choices available can be daunting with a significant number of solutions that are out there to meet the requirements of use cases from monitoring air quality to ensuring the moisture level is correct in your soil to optimise crop production.
IoT is the network that connects machines and devices (things). It is a network of objects that interact with each other. IoT devices are able to communicate with other devices, search for information and send it back to their originators. These interactions happen over different types of communications or connectivity.
So, what is the best option for connectivity for your devices?
What is IoT?
Let’s just remind ourselves, Internet of Things (IoT) is the interconnection of physical devices, vehicles, buildings and other items embedded with electronics, software, sensors and network connectivity that enables these objects to collect and exchange data. The IoT consists of uniquely identifiable embedded computing devices (or “things”) and it is capable of performing actions without human interaction.
What are some of the trade-offs to consider when choosing a connectivity type
When thinking about the trade-offs of choosing a connectivity type for your IoT product, you should consider:
- How much power does an IoT device need? The lower the power consumption, the longer your device will last on a single charge. This is usually an important consideration when designing a battery-powered device like a long-life tracker or a wearable.
- What is the distance an IoT device needs to communicate? If you’re building something small and portable, long range may not be as important as getting high bandwidth over short distances. However, if your product involves monitoring equipment in remote locations with poor infrastructure then wireless networking may be more appropriate than wired networking.
- How much bandwidth does an IoT device need? Is speed important because data needs to be transmitted quickly? Is latency an issue? A few of the many more questions you need to ask.
Wi-fi in relation to IoT
Wi-fi is a wireless local area network (WLAN) technology based on the IEEE 802.11 standards. Wi-fi is used for high-speed wireless communication to connect devices such as computers, tablets and smartphones to one another, to access points and to the Internet. It can also be used to connect these devices with other non-wireless equipment via an Ethernet cable or even wired backhaul links if Wi-Fi is unavailable at a particular location.
How does 4G/5G apply to IoT?
4G is a wireless technology that is used to connect to the internet. It stands for fourth-generation and has many benefits over previous generations such as 3G and 2G networks. 4G offers faster speeds, greater reliability, expanded coverage, and improved security compared to earlier generations of mobile technology.
5G is the next generation of mobile connectivity. 5G has several key advantages that make it ideal for IoT use cases:
- Speed – 5G networks are much faster than 4G, so they’re better suited to handling large amounts of data from devices connected to them.
- Reliability – 5G is more stable and reliable than 4G because it uses different technologies that make the network less likely to experience interruptions or dropouts due to signal interference or congestion issues—two problems that have plagued previous generations of wireless technology like 3G and 2G in the past.
- Security – New security features built into 5G allow you to protect your data from hackers trying to steal information about your products by stealing passwords and other sensitive details like user names or contact lists stored on your systems.
How does LTE apply to IoT?
- LTE/4G is a wireless communication technology
- LTE stands for Long Term Evolution, and it’s the latest standard of wireless communication protocols, which means it uses the highest level of security and speed to transfer data.
What is Cellular and how does it apply to IoT?
Cellular connectivity allows for the connection of devices to a cellular network. This can be done via dongles and modems, as well as by using a device’s native cellular capabilities in low power mode. It is often used in situations where there is no Wi-Fi available, or where more reliable connections are desired.
Cellular networks differ from other types of wireless connections such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in their coverage area: they tend to cover much larger areas than other technologies, with fewer points of failure and higher bandwidths available at most times. However, this normally comes at the cost of monthly charges.
Can Bluetooth be used as connectivity for IoT solutions?
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless communication standard. It was originally intended for personal area networks, but has since been adopted by the telecommunications industry as well. Bluetooth uses a lower frequency than Wi-Fi, which means it can transmit data over longer distances and doesn’t suffer from interference as much.
Bluetooth devices can be paired to create ad hoc networks between two or more devices that are within range of each other (usually about 10 meters). The great thing about Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) is that it’s focused on being resource efficient, so it doesn’t require any additional power source such as batteries or USB ports like other wireless technologies do; instead, BLE is powered through the device you’re using with it. Commonly you will see BLE devices connecting to a mobile device to then load data points to your applications.
What is Bluetooth meshing and how can it be used in an IoT network?
Bluetooth meshing is a technology that allows Bluetooth devices to connect to other Bluetooth devices, even if they do not have a direct line of sight. This is different from the original concept of Bluetooth, which only works within 30 meters and requires at least one device to be connected by wire.
Bluetooth meshing uses mesh networking principles to extend the range and increase connectivity between nodes on an IoT network. It does this by using routing protocols that share information about available networks on each node’s local area network (LAN), so that these nodes can then route messages from one device to another over alternate paths if the primary route fails or becomes congested.
What is MQTT and how can it be used for IoT?
MQTT (Message Queue Telemetry Transport) is a publish/subscribe based messaging protocol.
It is a lightweight protocol, suitable for constrained devices and low-bandwidth, high-latency or unreliable networks.
What is NBIoT and how does it differ from LTE/4G?
LoRa, Sigfox and NB-IoT are three examples of LPWANs. These networks were created with the aim of enabling low cost, low power devices that can be used in IoT applications.
These networks offer devices with long battery lives and a range up to 10km in urban areas. This means they are ideal for remote monitoring applications such as smart meters or industrial equipment.
What is satellite and how might it be used in IoT applications?
Satellite is one of the connectivity types used in IoT applications. It is mainly used for long distance communication and can be effective for remote locations, disaster relief, and remote monitoring and control.
The satellite network consists of many satellites that communicate with each other to relay signals between two points on Earth. The main advantage of this technology is that it allows users to transmit data at high speeds across long distances even when line-of-sight obstacles are present or if there are no terrestrial networks available nearby (such as during an emergency). This type of connection works well for transmitting large amounts of data over long periods of time because satellites are stationary compared to ground-based cellular networks which move around as you move from place to place—and so do their towers!
Connectivity requirements for different sectors
The type of connectivity you need will depend, at the end of the day, on the IoT project use case you are trying to deliver and the sector into which it is being delivered. The impact of IoT on industry is big and is adding business and process automation to the way things are done traditionally. IoT will be able to cut costs, improve efficiency through automation, enable predictive maintenance, asset management, remote monitoring and provide numerous other use cases based on the actionable insight you are after.
How much power does an IoT device need?
Power consumption is a key consideration in selecting a connectivity type. It’s important to consider not only the amount of power your device needs, but also how much distance you will be from the gateway, and whether you have bandwidth constraints. For example, if you are trying to connect a device over a long distance and it requires more than 5 watts of power (no matter what kind of channel you use), then you might want to look at other options.
Conclusion
As you can see, there are many different types of connectivity and each one has its own benefits and drawbacks. It’s important to consider what type of coverage the network will have in order for it to work properly before choosing which one is best suited for your application. It boils down to the use cases, power consumption and data processing, ROI and the visualisation and actionable insight required from the data. We hope this article will help you make an informed decision about which type of connectivity is best for your product!