Pick your connectivity solution

Nicolas Lesconnec — @nlesconnec

And do it wisely

• Choosing your connectivity is more than deciding between two commodities

• It will impact overall cost, autonomy, ease of configuration, user adoption

You cannot have it all• Cheap

• Autonomous

• Heavy data exchanges

• Long battery life

• Long range

Independance

• Is the device linked to a hub ?

• Or does it communicate independently with the outside world ?

Range

• How close must my device to its hub or receiving station ?

• A few meters or a few kilometers ?

Energy

• Battery-powered or plugged ?

• Autonomy in days, weeks, months, years ?

Operated network ?

• Do you need your own network ?

• Are you ready to handle deployment/operations/maintenance ?

WiFi

Basics• LAN : Local Area Network

• ~100m

• Operates mostly on 2.4GHz (or 5GHz)

• High bandwidth

• Rely on a hub connected to the Internet

Benefits

• Rely on the user’s Internet connection, no additional subscription

• Lot of data can be sent from & to the device

• Can support several devices on one hub

Constraints

• WiFi is not everywhere !

• Configuration can be a nightmare

• WiFi Hub can be off or offline

Constraints

• Cost a lot of energy. Not suitable for really autonomous devices

• Not so easy on the developer side.

• Not scalable : a single WiFi hotspot can only handle a finite number of objects

Where to use

• Connected solutions in the home or the office

• Target population is already connected

• Device needs to talk a lot

• Battery life is not an issue

Where not to use

• Mobile solution

• Device autonomy is critical

• Needs to be plug & play

Bluetooth / BLE

Basics

• « Classic » Bluetooth is becoming more & more rare

• Bluetooth 4 introduced Bluetooth Low Energy

BLE Basics

• Bluetooth Low Energy

• Short range communication : ~20m

• Lingua Franca of today’s connected objects

• Operates on 2.4GHz

Benefits

• High speed : up to 1Mbps

• Cheap

• Easy to set-up

• Compatible with every smartphones

Benefits

• Low energy : ~15mA

• Enable battery-supported devices lasting days or weeks

Constraints • Rely on a nearby hub (a.k.a The Almighty

Smartphone)

• Real world speed vs advertised 1Mbps

• Not so easy on the developer side

• Hub cannot handle a great number of active connections.

Where to use

• Companion solutions

• No need for independent communication

• Moderate data transfers (avoid video …)

• Target autonomy in days/weeks

Where not to use

• Device need to send data even when there is no smartphone/hub around

• Heavy data transmissions

Zigbee & Z-Wave

Basics

• Solutions designed for building mesh networks

• Z-Wave : Sub-GHz, proprietary solution, Local Area Network

• Zigbee : 5GHz, Private Area Network

Benefits

• Mesh networks : devices communicate with each other

• Development modules widely available

Constraints

• Need to set up, configure, and maintain your own local radio network

• Still need a hub connected to the internet

• Fragmentation

Where to use

• Home automation

• Monitoring installations you own & control

• Used to handle radio stuff

Where not to use

• Need for direct connection to Internet

• No interested/skilled in maintaining your own network

• Looking for plug&play solutions

GSM

Basics

• Available (almost) worldwide

• Proven use in M2M solutions

Benefits

• High Bandwidth, ever increasing

• Availability

• Maturity

Constraints

• Costs

• Interoperability / roaming

• Battery life is shorter than a butterfly’s

• Evolution : new standards are pushing older ones out

Where to use

• Mobile solutions

• Need to transfer a lot of data

• Energy not an issue, not battery-supported

Where not use

• Battery-supported devices

• Looking for optimized costs

• Devices are not talking that much

Custom solution

Basics

• Because why not ?

• You can build your own protocol on free-to-use frequency bands

• Be prepared for trouble !

Sigfox

Basics

• Operated network (LPWA), dedicated to the IoT

• Main focus : energy efficiency

• Small messages every now and then

Basics

• Operates in ISM bands : 868MHz in EU, 915 in US

• Ultra Narrow Band : ~100Hz

• 12 bytes messages, up to 140 times per day

• Indoor & outdoor use

Energy efficiency

• ~25mA in emission, during a few seconds

• No registration on the network, no negotiation : power on, send, power off is the default behaviour

• 99% of the time, connected objects are not connected !

Two-way communication

• Communication is always initiated by the device

• Explicitly ask for response, then stays awake for ~30 secs.

Coverage

• As of May 2015

• Nationwide in France, Netherlands & Spain

• UK : 10 largest cities

• San Francisco

• Citywide coverage : Dublin, Prague, Seoul, Bogota, Santiago, Milan, …

Hardware

• SIGFOX is not a hardware vendor

• No technology licensing model

• RF transceivers & modules available from a variety of silicon vendors: Texas Instruments, Atmel, Silicon Labs, Axsem, ..

Benefits• No hub needed

• Very low energy cost : up to years of autonomy

• Indoor / Outdoor

• Operated network

• Cheap subscription : a few euros per year

Constraints

• Short messages : up to 12 bytes

• Up to 140 messages per day from the device

• Up to 4 messages per day to the device

Where not to use

• Multimedia

• Permanent communication

Questions ?

Nicolas Lesconnec

SIGFOX Developer & Maker Evangelist

nicolas.lesconnec@sigfox.com

@nlesconnec