Sigfox technology – Make things come alive
Abstract: With the rapid growth of the internet of Things (IoT) paradigm, another important technology appears in the research field that helps in earning a high performance wireless communication between devices, it is called low power wide area network (LPWAN). LPWAN technology has many technologies but there are four main technologies: LoRa, Sigfox, NB-IoT, LTE-M. These technologies have been put into practice in different countries and territories. In particular, Sigfox technology has many outstanding advantages which is a promising technology developed to overcome the IoT applications challenges.
What is Sigfox technology?
Sigfox is a long-range wireless communication that offers custom solutions primarily for low-throughput IoT and M2M applications by availing its end-to-end IoT connectivity services using its patented technologies. The Sigfox network protocol has base stations that are integrated with software-defined radios. The end devices use binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) modulation to connect to the base stations.
Sigfox employs the differential binary phase-shift keying (DBPSK) and the Gaussian frequency shift keying (GFSK) that enables communication using the Industrial, Scientific and Medical ISM radio band which uses 868MHz in Europe and 902MHz in the US. It utilizes a wide-reaching signal that passes freely through solid objects, called “Ultra Narrowband” and requires little energy, being termed a “low-power wide-area network” (LPWAN). The network is based on a one-hop star topology and requires a mobile operator to carry the generated traffic.
Sigfox has partnered with several firms in the LPWAN industry such as Texas Instruments, Silicon Labs and ON Semiconductor. The ISM (industrial, scientific and medical ) radio bands support limited bidirectional communication. The existing standard for Sigfox communications supports up to 140 uplink messages a day, each of which can carry a payload of 12 octets at a data rate of up to 100 bits per second.
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