IoT: What role do LPWA networks play in the smart foundation?

Today, there is a twofold motivation for both urban and rural areas to embark on the path of digital transformation. First, with regard to the public services administered by local authorities, digital technology represents an opportunity for streamlining, breaking down silos, and improving efficiency, both operationally and financially.

Secondly, it opens the door to new services for citizens to improve social welfare. Between the modernization of public services and the provision of connected services to citizens, the territorial jurisdictions involved are numerous: environment and waste management, roads and mobility, health and social action, culture and heritage, energy, security, etc. Numerous innovations can be identified in each of these verticals.

Nevertheless, the multitude of innovative services that can be envisaged should not overshadow the need for infrastructure, without which none could be implemented. Once acquired, the raw information must be transmitted to a data processing unit that actually produces the expected service. This value chain is made possible by equipment that comprises the concept of a "smart base," promoted by Tactis. The smart base consists of:

• sensors and connected objects associated with the Smart City/Smart Territory,
• all the wired or wireless connectivity solutions for these sensors, as well as the other points to be connected,
• data hosting and computing power infrastructures (Data Center).

Connectivity needs are divided into two distinct types of uses. On the one hand, the needs for good and high-speed connectivity and on the other hand, low-speed connectivity. High-speed needs are typically those of video surveillance or electric vehicle charging (IRVE) infrastructures, which can be met by wired or wireless 3G or 4G connections. On the other hand, low-speed use cases are those of vehicle counting sensors or air quality measurement, for example, which are addressed by radio networks known as LPWAN (low power wide area network).

The sensors addressed by LPWAN technologies are characterized by simple measured data that only require a low-speed connection, and by low power consumption, giving them a battery life of 5 to 10 years. Sensor data transits over LPWAN networks to be collected by applications that give them meaning and value.

LPWAN connectivity addresses a large number of Smart City and Smart Territory use cases and therefore represents an essential building block of a territory's smart foundation. The coverage area of ​​an antenna (or hub, or gateway) is very broad by definition, which represents one of the main advantages of these solutions, which require little relay infrastructure.

LPWAN technologies fall into two main categories: cellular networks that rely on 4G antennas, and non-cellular networks, which primarily include technologies in the ISM band (868 MHz in Europe) such as LoRa and Sigfox, but also other frequency bands such as 169 MHz (Wize Alliance).

The most widespread cellular LPWAN technology today is NB-IoT. Its main competitor is LTE-M (and its variants LTE-Cat1 and LTE-Cat2). Cellular technologies give existing 4G antennas the ability to collect data from connected objects using these protocols, through a simple antenna update. It is therefore naturally the telephone operators who are developing offers on these technologies. In France, SFR has an NB-IoT offer, and Orange LTE-M.