Internet Of Things : Connection and Security Part 1
The growth of the internet technology has brought us to a new era where all the technologies that have been created by human civilization can communicate with each other via the internet. The discovery of the concept of the IoT has certainly brought many extraordinary benefits and advantages in all sectors. However, as with the history of other technological developments, the IoT concept still has a lot to learn more deeply, especially in communication technology and security. How we can secure all of our IoT devices and systems? Which one of communication technology is suitable for our IoT system? This part of article, we will discuss about communication technology for Internet of Things System.
IoT Communication
Based on my research few weeks ago, there are many types of communication technology that is used fot IoT such as :
- Bluetooth
- Wi-Fi
- Cellular Network (LTE)
- NB-IoT
- LoRa
Bluetooth
First, bluetooth is very common communication technology in many years, it is very lightweight, requires small power consumption after the new BLE (Bluetooth Low Energy) comes out and easy to attach to every devices since the bluetooth module is scalable, low-cost and flexible. With bluetooth, your project does not need any more power source to provide communication. Bluetooth also has transfer speed up to 1Mbps and range approx 50–100 meters. This communication technology usually used in smartwatch to control your audio speaker, get message notification, and voice call in some devices. The usage of bluetooth for IoT project must considering the range and data size. If the project needs to be control everywhere with big size of data, bluetooth is not suitable for it.
Wi-Fi
Next, Wi-Fi is one of the most popular communication technology, it has been used in certainly in various devices. This technology give us another option to send big data in few seconds with transfer speed up to 600Mbps with the most common is 150–200Mbps depend on the channel frequency and number of antennas (some configuration offer 1Gbps). This technology has similar coverage area as bluetooth with 0–150 meters. Compare with bluetooth, Wi-Fi needs more power consumption, so the project must consider more power source to provide communication module. It may need some configuration and procedure to use Wi-Fi in our IoT project since the module is more complex than bluetooth. But Wi-Fi can be affected with many factors which makes it unstable connection.
Cellular Network (LTE)
Move to cellular network especially LTE. We all know that this technology has come with 5G right now. The transfer speed of this technology is not in doubt, it can reach the speed up to 20Gbps maximum and average of 300Mbps. With this speed, we will not worry about big data transfer such as image and video. This technology also provide very large coverage area and more stable than Wi-Fi, as long as we can reach the satellite so we can connect to our devices anytime anywhere in earth. To use LTE for our IoT project, we must consider the cost, complexity, and high power consumption.
NB-IoT
Now, we discuss about another communication technology which is designed for IoT. NB-IoT (Narrow-Band) is kind of radio communication that uses same frequency spectrum as LTE but with narrow bandwith. It covers large scale area since it has same technology with cellular network, one mini BTS (Base Transceiver Station) can reach 100.000 devices. Because it uses narrow bandwith, it only provide data transfer up to 1Mpbs maximum with average of 300Kbps. But this technology is focused on large scale and very low power consumption. It can last for 10 years without changing battery or additional power source.
LoRa
Last, LoRa is also communication technology which is focused for IoT system. LoRa is kind of new modulation technology that uses unlicensed frequency, so it covers large scale area and low power consumption like NB-IoT. This technology also can be described as Wide Area Network or LoRaWAN because it focused on wide wireless communication on IoT devices. It can last for 5 years for a single charge or battery pack. LoRa is suitable for design smartcity which uses low data sensor or devices since it’s data transfer speed up to 100Kpbs such as water meter, air polution, temperature, weather, etc. This technology requires a separated module with main devices and some procedure so we must consider additional cost to use it.
Conclusion
Internet of Things is one of the biggest digital transformation in this era, choosing the best requirement for it’s system is a must. Every communication technology that is available has it’s own pro and cons and it is depend on our project. We must consider our system’s needs such as data transfer speed, coverage area, stability, power consumption. Hope this article can help us choose the appropriate type of connectivity. Thank You.
