4.2.5. LPWAN

This technology was introduced to provide equilibrium between energy consumption and data rate in WAN. Cellular networks have been widely used to transmit high data rates in WAN but with high energy consumption. LPWAN could defeat this weak point of a cellular network by introducing SIGFOX and LoRa. These technologies have been applied to a star topology, which will result in the simplicity of the system and less power consumption. LoRa technology is divided into two subsets, including LoRa modulation and LoRaWAN. LoRa is a physical layer protocol using ISM bandwidth modulation. Despite Frequency Shifting Key (FSK) used by legacy wireless protocols, LoRa applies Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) brought by a higher data rate for LoRa. While LoRa modulation is a physical layer protocol, LoRaWAN contains the MAC layer as well as the physical layer and improves data rate concerning power consumption [51–54].
