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 (Fil, Zigbee)
  • Z-Wave
  • Cellular low-power wide area network technology (NB-IoT, 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 Bande de fréquence ISM GHz. Au fil des années, La technologie Bluetooth a continué à se développer, and now has great flexibility in terms of distance, bande passante, and communication topology to meet the needs of different IoT applications.

Bluetooth echnical details:

Il existe actuellement deux options de radio Bluetooth différentes: Bluetooth Classic andModule Bluetooth basse consommation (Bluetooth LE). Bluetooth classique (ou BR/EDR), la radio Bluetooth d'origine, est encore largement utilisé dans les applications de streaming, surtout le streaming audio. Bluetooth Low Energy est principalement utilisé pour les applications à faible bande passante où les données sont fréquemment transmises entre appareils.. Bluetooth Low Energy est connu pour sa consommation d'énergie extrêmement faible et sa popularité dans les téléphones intelligents, tablettes et ordinateurs personnels.

Bluetooth Low Energy est divisé en point à point, Star Topology, mesh Topology and broadcast topologies. Dans la topologie maillée, nodes are directly connected without communicating with other nodes through the hub. Les nœuds peuvent envoyer des données et des informations à d'autres nœuds en dehors de la portée de communication du nœud source d'origine., expanding the network coverage in a large area. Related Bluetooth products：Silicon Labs Bluetooth Module SIG MESH | FSC-BT671

Wi-Fi technologie

Wi-Fi wireless communication technologies is the brand name of all IEEE 802.11 réseaux locaux sans fil standards (Wlan). La bande de fréquence de travail du Wi-Fi est généralement 2.4 GHz et 5 ISM GHz, mais les versions plus récentes du Wi-Fi utilisent également d'autres bandes de fréquences.

Wi-Fi technical details

Il existe de nombreuses versions du Wi-Fi. La Wi-Fi Alliance a récemment adopté un nouveau système de numérotation des versions: Wi-Fi 1 (802.11b), Wi-Fi 2 (802.11un), Wi-Fi 3 (802.11g), Wi-Fi 4 (802.11n), Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ca) et Wi-Fi 6 (802.11hache). La dernière version peut répondre aux besoins de diverses applications, including longer distances, débit plus élevé et couverture plus large. The most popular Wi-Fi topology is the star topology. Mais dans la topologie en étoile, les nœuds ne peuvent communiquer entre eux que via le hub.

Fil, Zigbee

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

Fil, Zigbee Technical details:

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 Technical details

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.

NB-IoT, 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).

NB-IoT, LTE-M Technical details

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 Technical details:

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) technologie, 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. L'entreprise est le seul opérateur de réseau de cette technologie.

Comparaison des technologies de modules de transfert de données sans fil

wireless communication technologies Comparison
Comparaison des technologies de modules de transfert de données sans fil