As there are more and more types of wireless communication technologies, there are more and more choices for customer, but different communication technologies have different characteristics, and we will choose suitable solutions according to the characteristics.

Common wireless communication technologies:

  • Bluetooth
  • Wi-fi
  • Technology based on IEEE 802.15.4 (Tråd, Socken)
  • Z-Wave
  • Cellular low-power wide area network technology (Kvicks, LTE-M)
  • Non-cellular low-power wide area network technology (LoRaWAN, Sigfox)

Bluetooth

Bluetooth wireless communication technologies is a low-power wireless solution operating on the 2.4 GHz ism frekvensband. Under åren, Bluetooth -tekniken har fortsatt att expandera, and now has great flexibility in terms of distance, bandbredd, and communication topology to meet the needs of different IoT applications.

Bluetooth echnical details:

Det finns för närvarande två olika Bluetooth -radioalternativ: Bluetooth Classic andBluetooth Low Energy Module (Bluetooth le). Klassisk Bluetooth (eller BR/EDR), Den ursprungliga Bluetooth -radioen, används fortfarande allmänt i streamingapplikationer, especially audio streaming. Bluetooth Low Energy is mainly used for low-bandwidth applications where data is frequently transmitted between devices. Bluetooth Low Energy är känd för sin extremt låga kraftförbrukning och sin popularitet i smarta telefoner, tabletter och persondatorer.

Bluetooth låg energi är uppdelad i punkt-till-punkt, Star Topology, mesh Topology and broadcast topologies. I mesh -topologin, nodes are directly connected without communicating with other nodes through the hub. Noder kan skicka data och information till andra noder utanför kommunikationsområdet för den ursprungliga källnoden, expanding the network coverage in a large area. Related Bluetooth products：Silicon Labs Bluetooth Module SIG MESH | FSC-BT671

Wi-fi teknologi

Wi-fi wireless communication technologies is the brand name of all IEEE 802.11 standard trådlösa lokala nätverk (Wlan). Wi-Fi-arbetsfrekvensbandet är vanligtvis 2.4 GHZ och 5 GHZ ism, Men nyare versioner av Wi-Fi använder också andra frekvensband.

Wi-fi technical details

Det finns många versioner av Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi Alliance antog nyligen ett nytt version för version numreringssystem: Wi-fi 1 (802.11b), Wi-fi 2 (802.11en), Wi-fi 3 (802.11g), Wi-fi 4 (802.11n), Wi -fi 5 (802.11växelström) och wi-fi 6 (802.11yxa). Den senaste versionen kan tillgodose behoven hos olika applikationer, including longer distances, högre genomströmning och större täckning. The most popular Wi-Fi topology is the star topology. Men i stjärntopologin, Noder kan bara kommunicera med varandra genom navet.

Tråd, Socken

IEEE 802.15.4 technology refers to the low-speed wireless personal area network (LR-WPAN) access layer.

Tråd, Socken Tekniska detaljer:

Thread and Zigbee wireless communication technologies are two technologies based on this specification. They are characterized by low power consumption and low data rate. IEEE 802.15.4 is mainly used in application scenarios where data is small, distance is short, and low power consumption is required at the same time. Although this technology also supports star topology, the most commonly used is mesh topology.

Z-Wave

Z-Wave wireless communication technologies was originally a lighting system control protocol, and later evolved into a home automation protocol managed by the Z-Wave Alliance.

Z-Wave Tekniska detaljer

This proprietary technology uses 908/915 MHz in the US and 868 MHz in Europe. The different frequency bands are to avoid interference with the 2.4 GHz ISM band and expand coverage. This technology mainly uses a mesh topology. This technology is mainly used in smart home scenarios.

Kvicks, LTE-M

LTE-M (LTE Cat-M1 or Long-Term Evolution for Machines) and NB-IoT (Narrowband Internet of Things) are both technical standards developed by 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project), and are used for cellular devices.

These two technologies will coexist with other 5G technologies and are expected to become part of a long-term 5G IoT strategy. 5G is the general term for the fifth-generation cellular mobile communication technology, representing a high-speed network of 2 Gbps (it can even reach 100 Gbps in the future). 5G technology will reduce network latency and expand coverage (in terms of the number of devices connected to the network at the same time).

Kvicks, LTE-M Tekniska detaljer

LTE-M and NB-IoT Wireless communication technologies are different in characteristics, so the suitable application scenarios are also different. NB-IoT is best suited for simple applications that require low power consumption and low bandwidth, while LTE-M is best suited for real-time and mission-critical applications due to its higher data rate. The main difference between the two is speed and delay (LTE-M has higher speed and lower delay).

NB-IoT and LTE-M mainly adopt star topology structure.

LoRaWAN, Sigfox

LoRaWAN is an open source wireless network protocol maintained by the LoRa Alliance. LoRaWAN is built on the basis of LoRa, which is a proprietary modulation format developed by Semtech.

LoRaWAN, Sigfox Tekniska detaljer:

LoRa only defines the lower layers of the network stack, while LoRaWAN defines the higher layers of the network stack. LoRaWAN is just one of many protocols built on LoRa. LoRaWAN is classified as a low-power wide area network (LPWAN) teknologi, which can achieve remote communication between devices with low power consumption.

Sigfox is also an LPWAN technology, but it is a proprietary technology provided by the French company Sigfox. The company is the only network operator of this technology.

Comparison of wireless data transfer module technologies

wireless communication technologies Comparison
Comparison of wireless data transfer module technologies