Low Power Wide Area (LPWA) Networks: Technologies, Players, Opportunities

Low-Power, Wide-Area (LPWA) networks are opening new M2M use cases where connectivity costs are expressed in dollars per year rather than dollars per month. LPWA networks seek to address a sweet spot of high coverage with minimal power consumption and low cost.

1 Executive Summary
2 Introduction
2.1 How wide is a Wide Area Network?
2.2 Low Power is a Key to Ubiquitous M2M Connectivity
2.3 M2M Landscape Today
2.4 Gaps in the Transition from M2M to IoT
2.4.1 Cost for Cellular WAN Limits Use Cases
2.4.2 The 2G `Sunset' affects Coverage for the Majority of Cellular M2M Connections
2.4.3 5G aims to embrace massive M2M - but the Timeplan doesn't match the `gap'
2.4.4 Local Area Networks have Limitations Going to `Wide'
2.4.5 Limitations of Wi-Fi
2.5 LPWA Can Help fill the M2M - IoT Gap
3 The Low Power, Wide-Area Opportunity
3.1 How Large is the LPWA Opportunity?
3.1.1 Existing Cellular M2M Connections in the `IoT Gap'
3.1.2 New IoT Use Cases
3.1.3 Smart Metering/Utilities
3.1.3.1 Smart Street Lighting
3.1.3.2 Smart Car Parking
3.1.3.3 Smart Water, Oil and other Industrial Control
3.1.4 Building Automation
3.1.5 Wide-Area Trackables
3.1.6 How big is `Pure' LPWA vs. Backhauled Mesh Networks?
3.2 Where is the LPWA Opportunity?
3.2.1 Key Regions
3.3 Challenges that LPWA must Overcome
3.3.1 Longevity of Investment vs Short-Term Innovation
3.3.2 Initial LPWA Business will be Limited by Network Roll-Out
4 LPWA Technology
4.1 White-Space Radio
4.2 Ultra Narrow-Band (UNB)
4.3 Weightless - Open Communication Standard
4.4 802.11ah Wi-Fi (900 MHz)
4.5 Hybrid WAN Networks (ZigBee, Thread)
4.6 Bluetooth 4.0
4.7 Cellular - MTC evolution of LTE
4.8 Unlicensed Spectrum challenges
4.8.1 Licensed vs Unlicensed
4.9 6LoWPAN
4.9.1 Thread
4.9.2 ISA100
4.10 Interference and Jamming
5 LPWA Players
5.1 Neul
5.1.1 Overview
5.1.2 Solution
5.1.3 Business Model
5.1.4 Partners
5.1.5 Vision
5.2 SIGFOX
5.2.1 Overview
5.2.2 Solutions
5.2.3 Business Model
5.2.4 Partners
5.2.5 Vision
5.3 Libelium (Waspmote)
5.3.1 Overview
5.3.2 Solutions
5.3.3 Business Model
5.3.4 Partners
5.3.5 Vision
5.4 On-Ramp Wireless
5.4.1 Overview
5.4.2 Solutions
5.4.3 Business Model
5.4.4 Partners
5.4.5 Vision
5.5 Senaptic
5.5.1 Overview
5.5.2 Solutions
5.5.3 Business Model
5.5.4 Partners
5.5.5 Vision
5.6 Application Ecosystem
5.6.1 Application Middleware is Not an LPWA Driver in Itself
5.6.2 Worldsensing - a Typical LPWA Application Provider
5.6.3 The `New' LPWA Horizontal Providers need Hardware Implementations
5.6.4 `Older' LPWA Technology has Established Application Providers
6 LPWA Case Studies
6.1 Smarteo Water Automatic Meter Reading using SIGFOX
6.2 Landis+Gyr Smart Metering using RF Mesh Networking
6.3 SCALE - Safe Community Alerts beyond Broadband using SIGFOX
6.4 Microsoft - Mawingu White-Spaces Wireless Internet
6.5 Telensa - Remote Control and Monitoring of Street Lighting
6.6 Mayflower/TTC - Remote Control and Monitoring of Street Lighting with ZigBee
6.7 Anticimex/Rentokil Rat Control in Sewers (2G)
6.8 BigBelly Smart Wastebin (2G)
6.9 Whistle GPS - Premium tracking using SIGFOX triangulation
6.10 Smart Parking
6.10.1 Libelium - Smart Santander
6.10.2 Gorizont Telekom - Smart Parking, Russia
6.10.3 Fastprk - SIGFOX-based solution, Moscow
7 Recommendations
7.1 Opportunities for Network Service Providers
7.2 Opportunities for Product Manufacturers
7.3 Opportunities for Users of M2M
7.4 Opportunity for Value Added Service Providers
8 Conclusions
8.1 Contact the author of this report: