IoT Protocols: A Brief Tour

Posted on by Bridget Donofrio

At Telkonet, we are fond of talking about the Internet of things in terms of Zigbee, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi. But IoT consists of a long list of protocols. We have selected eight of today’s most popular IoT communication protocols. In this post, we offer an overview of their uses, advantages, disadvantages, and technical details.

Bluetooth was the foundation of the Internet of Things. The ubiquitous Bluetooth is important short-range communication technology.

Statistics

  • Standard: Bluetooth 4.2 core specification
  • Frequencies: 2.4 GHz (ISM)
  • Range: Approx. 50-150 meter (Smart/BLE)
  • Data Rates: 1 Mbps (Smart/BLE) (data, video traffic)

Uses

Bluetooth is scalable and flexible. It features short-range communication technology and low power consumption. Bluetooth technology is used in healthcare, homes, cars, consumer electronics…a vast spectrum. It enables wireless control and communication between smartphones and smart locks, mobile devices and hands-free headsets, PCs and their mouse/keyboard/printers. 

Advantages

  • Bluetooth technology is widely available
  • Wireless
  • Easy to use
  • Low-powered

Disadvantages

  • Low rate of transmission, particularly compared to Wi-Fi; not suitable for audio or video streaming
  • Short-range
  • Relatively easy to hack; should not be used for personal information

BLE

BLE (“Bluetooth LE”, “Bluetooth Low Energy”) is not the same as Bluetooth. It was designed to transmit and receive smaller amounts of data on a relatively more infrequent basis than Bluetooth. It consumes very low amounts of power and remains in “sleep” mode when not in use. 

Statistics

  • Standard: Bluetooth SIG
  • Frequency: 2.4 GHz 
  • Range: <100 m (<330 ft)
  • Data Rates: 0.27-1.37 Mbps

Uses

BLE applications include mobile phones, wearables, heart rate monitors, fitness trackers, and other health monitors.

Advantages

  • Supported by a majority of smartphone and computer manufacturers
  • Supports mesh networking
  • Relatively inexpensive technology

Disadvantages

  • Not used for large data transmission because of its rate of transmission
  • Not used for long-distance communication
  • Relatively easy to hack; should not be used for personal information

Cellular (4G and 5G)

Cell phones connect to a system of cells, and each cell is defined by its tower. Cells are then connected to the network by communication with satellites. Initially, cell phones carried voice data only, but as they’ve advanced, they can now carry text, pictures, and video as well.

4G is most widely used today for mobile cellular data.

Cell phone companies began deploying 5G in 2019. 5G is the fifth generation technology for broadband cellular networks. The advantage of 5G over 4G is its greater bandwidth: download speeds will increase exponentially.  5G is expected to be nearly 100 times faster than 4G. 

5G networks operate on up to three frequency bands – low, medium, and high

Statistics

4G

  • Standard: Cellular network
  • Frequencies: below 6 GHz
  • Range: 16 km (10 miles)
  • Data Rates: top speeds of up to 100 Mbps, though real-world performance is generally no more than 35 Mbps

5G

  • Standard: 5G NR (New Radio),  the standard adopted by 3GPP
  • Frequencies:
    • Low bands: 600–850 MHz; 
    • Mid bands:  2.5–3.7 GHz;  
    • High-band: 25–39 GHz,
  • Range:
    • Low: hundreds of square miles; 
    • Mid: several mile radii; 
    • HIgh: one mile or lower radius.
  • Data Rates:
    • Low: 30–250 megabits per second (Mbps); 
    • Mid: 100-900 Mbps 
    • High: 1-3Gbps

Uses

  • Mobile phones are the most common use of cellular.  Large geographic areas are split into smaller cells to avoid line-of-sight signal loss and to support a large number of active phones in that area. In cities, each cell site may have a range of up to approximately 1?2 mile (0.80 km), while in rural areas, the range could be as much as 5 miles (8.0 km). It is possible that in clear open areas, a user may receive signals from a cell site 25 miles (40 km) away.

Advantages

  • Cellular phones are ubiquitous and cellular towers are everywhere, too. That means cellular technology boasts a wide range compared to, say, Wi-Fi.

Disadvantages

  • Cellular networks cannot be used with most IoT devices due to their frequency, range, and security challenges.
  • Cellular requires either a constant power source or to be recharged regularly.

LoRaWAN is a low-power wide-area network protocol. LoRaWAN was designed to wirelessly connect battery-operated ‘things’ to the internet, ranging from local to national to global networks. It is popular in part because of its open protocol: organizations can set up their own networks and infrastructure.  LoRaWAN supports massive networks like smart cities with millions of low-powered devices.

Statistics

  • Standard: LoRa is an open communications protocol managed by the LoRa Alliance, a non-profit organization with members such as Cisco and IBM. 
  • Frequencies: 915 MHz in North America
  • Range: Approx. 2.5 km (urban environment), 15 km (suburban environment)
  • Data Rates: 0.3 to 50 Kbps

Uses

  • Tracking vaccine storage temperature (We’ve all learned a thing or two about that recently!)
  • Tracking luggage at airports
  • Identifying leaks in a city’s water network
  • Monitoring the safety of dementia patients who wear wristbands.
  • Tracking endangered species
  • Tracking soil moisture on farms
  • In battery-powered, harsh industrial applications with a small amount of data exchange, when not conducive to communication, like noisy industrial settings

Advantages

  • Well suited for battery-powered IoT devices (especially when there is no access to electricity)
  • Long range 
  • Low cost
  • Low bandwidth
  • One of many low-power wide-area-network protocols
  • Suitable when devices are difficult or impossible to access physically or are too numerous to equip with a costly cellular subscription
  • When instant feedback is not necessary
  • LoRaWAN is secure: 128bit end-to-end encrypted

Disadvantages

  • No real time data; small packets are sent every few minutes
  • Not appropriate for controlling lights, sending photos or streaming videos

SigFox, a French wireless network provider, specializes in connecting simple, low-powered, low-cost Internet of Things (loT) devices to the internet. They offer what they describe as a “unique device-to-cloud communication” that offers insights into operations and assets. Its technology is low-powered and is referred to as a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN). 

SigFox and their partners set up antennas on towers (just like a cell phone company would) and receive data transmissions from devices such as parking sensors or water meters. Its signals can be used to cover large areas and even reach underground objects.

Statistics

  • Standard: collaborating with ETSI on the standardization of Sigfox-based network
  • Frequencies: 915 MHz in North America
  • Range: 10 km (urban), 40 km (rural)
  • Data Rates: 100 bps max

Uses

  • Offers asset tracking within a single building or across the world
  • In hospitality, provides rapid response buttons to alert security to employees in distress
  • Monitors smart water, gas, and electrical meters for cities
  • Tracks product inventory levels and shopping cards

Advantages

  • Compatible with Bluetooth, GPS 2G/3G/4G, and WiFi
  • A good fit for any application that needs to send small, infrequent bursts of data

Disadvantages

  • Shortens battery life
  • Is not able to guarantee that a message is actually received by a tower
  • Has been slower to deploy in the US than expected. (Under FCC Part 15, the law that governs the use of the unlicensed radio spectrum, the maximum time a transmission can be on the air is 0.4 seconds. Since SigFox transmissions are 3 seconds or so, this has required a new architecture).

Wi-Fi is easily the most popular wireless technology today. Wi-Fi is a wireless networking technology that allows devices to interface with the internet. Wi-Fi is fast, cheap, and easy to set up.

Statistics

  • Standard: Based on IEEE 802.11n
  • Frequencies: 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands
  • Rate: up to 600Mbps
  • Range: 50, up to 100 meters

Uses

We are all familiar with how we use Wi-Fi. That said, here are some innovative home uses from Lifehacker:

  • If all the computers in your house are connected to a Wi-Fi network, you can easily connect your smartphone to the same network and control them
  • Stream Audio to Any Speakers in the House
  • Wirelessly Transfer Photos from Your Digital Camera
  • Send Documents to Your Printer from Any Computer or Smartphone
  • Forward Notifications from Your Smartphone to Your PC
  • Tether Your Smartphone to Your Computer for Internet Anywhere
  • Stream Movies to Any TV in the House
  • Share Files with Nearby Computers
  • Sync Your Music Library, Photo Library, or Other Files with Your Smartphone USB-Free

Advantages

  • Most popular wireless protocol
  • Easy, simple connectivity
  • Fast data rate
  • Inexpensive
  • Easy, simple connectivity
  • Good for homes and various businesses

Disadvantages

  • Poor fit for battery low-power IoT applications
  • High power consumption makes it too power-consuming for many IoT applications
  • Security risks
  • Hindrances to Wifi performance and speed include signal interference, walls and barriers between access points, end-user applications, outdated security standards, and poor Wi-Fi design

Zigbee is a radio-frequency communication protocol that’s low-powered and can travel across long distances by “hopping” between shorter ones. It has a mesh-network design, which means if for any reason the communication between two nearby nodes fails, it simply hops to another node to continue.

Telkonet devices communicate using Zigbee. Zigbee is a common mode of communication, and that makes Telkonet devices easy to integrate with a wide variety of other IoT devices.

Statistics

  • Standard: Zigbee 3.0 based on IEEE802.15.4
  • Frequencies: 2.4 Ghz  
  • Range: Approx. 10-100m, up to 200m
  • Data Rates: 250 kbps

Uses

  • Telkonet thermostats/room controllers, external occupancy sensors, door contacts, smart light switches, and outlets
  • Door locks from Assa Abloy, Saflok, Salto
  • Axxess lighting controls, dimmers, DND/MUR signs
  • Smart draperies from Powershades, Lutron, Somfy, Crestron
  • Safety from TrackNProtect
  • Control4 Room Controls
  • Voice Control from Amazon Alexa, Angie, Volara
  • Medical data collection.
  • Smoke and intruder warning.
  • Building automation.
  • Remote wireless microphone configuration

Advantages

  • Low-interference
  • Inexpensive
  • 16 channels
  • Mesh network
  • Open protocol
  • Mature technology
  • Widely adopted 
  • Flexible protocol
  • Many manufacturers

Disadvantages

  • Low data-transmission rates
  • 10-meter range
  • Potential overlap with Wi-Fi
  • 2.4 GHz sometimes has propagation issues through construction
  • Complex protocol

Zwave is primarily used for home automation, although it was originally designed for businesses that required many devices connected to a network. Like Zigbee, Z-Wave uses low-powered radio frequency to communicate with other Z-Wave devices. Also like Zigbee, Z-Wave uses a mesh network. 

Statistics

  • Standard: Z-wave Alliance
  • Frequencies: 900 MHz in the U.S.
  • Range: Approx. 30m
  • Data Rates: 0.3 to 50 Kbps

Uses

  • Security systems
  • Home lighting control
  • Home security systems
  • Thermostats
  • Windows
  • Locks
  • Swimming pools 
  • Garage door openers

Advantages

  • Increased range
  • Reduced interference
  • Supports smaller mesh networks (up to 232 devices)
  • Unlimited range (just add more devices to extend the  network)
  • Self-healing
  • Secure
  • A sub-GHz network runs on a wireless frequency that is below 1 GHz. This is different from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth networks, which both use the same 2.4 GHz frequency band.
  • On the sub-GHz band, there is no interference from by Wi-Fi and Bluetooth – therefore, increased performance

Disadvantages

  • Not widely used, therefore lacks the capability to interface with many other devices
  • Single Channel

We’ve touched on only a handful of the IoT technologies in existence today. They’re each appropriate in certain situations, and many of them are capable of “talking” to each other, either directly or indirectly. Imagine the possibilities!

Are you ready to incorporate IoT into your building? Talk to one of our representatives today. Email [email protected]  or call us at 800-703-9398.