Protocols For The Wide-Area IoT

Emmanuel Gresset, Business Development Director, Wireless Business Unit, CEVA
ECN (10/19/2016)

The internet of things (IoT) will rely on the ability to place sensors anywhere they are needed. The sensors could be embedded in bridges, scattered across the fields of farms or monitoring traffic from streetlights.

Because these sensors will be distributed so widely, there will be many situations where the most efficient way for a device to connect to the Internet is through a direct wireless long distance link rather than through a nearby gateway device using short-range communications.

The ranges of protocols such as 6LowPAN and Bluetooth are generally restricted to 100m or less (although Bluetooth 5 will change this). Ideally, for low power consumption, they typically operate over much shorter distances. For highly distributed sensors in suburban areas or rural sensors this implies a relatively high density of gateways compared to the number of sensor nodes they can serve. For example, the need to install a network of 6LowPAN gateways together with laying the cable to interconnect them would quickly become prohibitive for farmers keen to monitor soil moisture levels and other environmental factors.

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