Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) communication technologies
have the potential to provide a step change in the enablement
of cost-effective and energy efficient Internet of
Things (IoT) applications. With an increase in the number
of offerings available the real performance of these emerging
technologies remain unclear. That is, each technology
comes with its own advantages and limitations; yet there is
a lack of comparative studies that examine their trade-offs
based on empirical evidence. This poses a major challenge
to IoT solution architects and developers in selecting an appropriate
technology for an envisioned IoT application in a
given deployment context.
In this paper, we look beyond data sheets and white papers
of LPWA communication technologies and provide insights
into the performance of three emerging LPWA solutions
based on real world experiments with different traf-
fic loads and in different urban deployment contexts. Under
the context of this study, specialized hardware was created
to incorporate the different technologies and provide scientific
quantitative and qualitative information related to data
rates, success rates, transmission mode energy and power
consumption, and communication ranges. The results of experimentation
highlight the practicalities of placing LPWA
technologies in real spaces and provide guidelines to IoT solution
developers in terms of LPWA technology selection.
Overall aim is to facilitate the design of new LPWA technologies
and adaptive communication strategies that inform
future IoT platforms.