Low-Power Wide-Area Networks at the IETF

Abstract

A new breed of wireless technologies has emerged under the generic name of low-power, wide-area (LPWA), with a number of common characteristics that make these technologies uniquely suitable for Internet of Things (IoT) applications. These common characteristics include a power-optimized radio network, a simplified network topology, frame sizes in the order of tens of bytes transmitted a few times per day at ultralow speeds, and a mostly upstream transmission pattern that allows the devices to spend most of their time in low-energy deep-sleep mode. These characteristics enable a range of several kilometers and long battery lifetimes, possibly ten years of operation on a single coin-cell. It also enables simple and scalable deployments with low-cost devices and thin infrastructures.