Low Power Wide Area network (LPWAN) - an ideal solution for such diverse and unique requirements of Internet of Things Essay

Abstract
The Internet of Things(IoT), is a beginning of another period of pervasive connectivity. With the advent of IoT based technology, every day a new device is been added to the pool of IoT network. Service providers are constantly struggling for a communication network which provides long range connectivity ,variable data rates and which have low power requirements. Low Power Wide Area network (LPWAN) is predicted to be an ideal solution for such diverse and unique requirements of Internet of Things. Standards based on LPWAN operate on Licensed spectrum and Unlicensed spectrum are been constantly optimized to suffice the growing demands of Wireless Internet of Things.
Introduction
Internet of things (IoT) offers the smart devices like smart health, smart homes, smart cities, smart business, smart industries and so forth. With the advent of IoT based technology, isolated gadgets are been added to the heterogeneous landscape of IoT network. It has now become the integral part of everyday life. From the design of smart homes, smart gadgets, smart cities to Smart business,M2M market has a wide and diversified demands. It has enabled us to monitor and control intelligent devices from anywhere and any part of the world. An important component for designing the web of this devices is the intercommunication between them.
"Connectivity, devices and communication technologies are fundamental to M2M/IoT solution enablement they provide the basic "plumbing" for connected assets"[1].Due to the dynamicity of the data generated by IoT devices, selecting a mode of connectivity between the devices is an important parameter. Communication technologies and protocols, in terms of carrier frequency, bandwidth, modulation, coding schemes, packet structures, packet sizes will dictate the choice to be made while deploying IoT networks.
With the advent of time the concept of pervasive connectivity has evolved. Devices initially were connected over a personal area network. The range of operation amongst devices were limited to few meters. However, with the advent of technology, the requirement to monitor and control devices at longer range became prevalent. The concept of machine to machine communication have extended and has no bounds. The connectivity of devices are not limited to Personal area network but they have evolved to Local area networks, Metropolitan Area network and Wide area network. Devices connected over wired lines have become thing of Past. There has been an ocean of communication methodologies prevalent in the market to connect machines on the web. Exploring the right type of IoT connectivity amongst this pool of technology is a challenge. Following paragraph explores the various options by which devices can communicate.
Types of IoT Connectivity
Communication between devices is a backbone of IoT. For Machine to Machine communication the market offers a wide variety of communication technologies like WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Whitespace TV, Thread, Unlicensed LPWA(Low Power Wide Area) like LoRaWAN and Sigfox, wired networks and Cellular networks. Figure 1 depicts a range of communication technologies used for IoT. These standards are either based on multi-hop method designed for short range or cellular based techniques for long range communication.