A survey on LPWA technology: LoRa and NB-IoT

TLDR

By 2020, more than 25 billion devices were expected to be connected via wireless communications, driving rapid growth of the IoT market and the popularity of low‑power wide‑area (LPWA) technologies such as NB‑IoT and LoRa. The paper surveys NB‑IoT and LoRa as efficient solutions for connecting devices. The authors conduct a comprehensive review of NB‑IoT and LoRa, comparing their technical specifications and deployment scenarios. The survey finds that unlicensed LoRa offers superior battery life, capacity, and cost, while licensed NB‑IoT provides better QoS, lower latency, higher reliability, and greater range.

Abstract

By 2020, more than twenty five billion devices would be connected through wireless communications. In accordance with the rapid growth of the internet of things (IoT) market, low power wide area (LPWA) technologies have become popular. In various LPWA technologies, narrowband (NB)-IoT and long range (LoRa) are two leading technologies. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive survey on NB-IoT and LoRa as efficient solutions connecting the devices. It is shown that unlicensed LoRa has advantages in terms of battery lifetime, capacity, and cost. Meanwhile, licensed NB-IoT offers benefits in terms of QoS, latency, reliability, and range.