There are now many competing wireless standards, each with its own advantages and disadvantages in battery power consumption, transmission distance, and applicability to different uses. Which is the best wireless standard for your application? Download this whitepaper.
Competing wireless standards
There are many competing wireless standards including cellular, WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, LoRa and SigFox. Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, so depending on your application, it is important to choose the optimal technology.
Wireless technologies
There are now many competing standards, each with its owns advantages and disadvantages in battery power consumption, transmission distance, and applicability to different uses.
| BLE | Bluetooth | Zigbee | LoRa WAN | SigFpx | Wi-Fi | Cellular | NB-IoT | LTE-M | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Range | Short (3-10 meters) | Short (3-10 meters unless the power is increased) | Medium range upto 100 meters | Long, 2m-45km | Long, 10-50km | Medium range up tp 100 meters | Long, 1-10km | Long, 1–50 km | Long, 1–50 km |
Operating Frequency | 2.4 to 2.485 GHz | 2.4 to 2.485 GHz | 868 MHz (EU, Japan) 915 MHz (ISM, US) 2.4 GHz (worldwide) | 109,433,868,902-928 MHz | 868MHz,902-928 MHz | 2.4 & 5GHz | 1G, 2G, 3G, 4G. LTE, & 5G | 451 to 2200 MHz | 455 to 2500 MHz |
Data Rate | Low 35 kbit/s | Low and hogh 1-3 Mbit/s | Low 250k bit/s | Low 300-50k bit/s uses Chirp | Low 300bit/s BPSK,GFSK | High | High | Medium 200K Kb/s | Medium 1 Mb/s |
Supports Video Data Rate | No | Limited | Limited | No | No | HD video | HD video | Limited | Limited |
Supports Voice & Text | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes  | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Cost | Very low cost | Very low cost | Low cost parts,implementation can be expensive | Very low cost | Very low cost | Low cost with new Wi-Fi modules | Med cost | Low cost | Low cost |
Power Consumption | Very low power Sleep mode | Low power Sleep mode Long wake-up time | Low power Sleep mode | Very low power Sleep mode | Low power Sleep mode | Generally not suited to battery applications,but some standards support low power | High | Low Power Sleep Mode | Low Power Sleep Mode |
Network Topology | Point-to-point | Point-to-point | Point-to-point, star or mesh | Point-to-point, star or mesh | Point-to-point, star or mesh | Star | Star | Star | Star |
Typical Applications | Widely used for short distances | Widely used for short distances | Widely used in industrial commercial applications like lighting control and process control | Increasing used fot IoT industrial and commercial applications | Text & low data, IoT applications like burglary alarms and tracking devices | Excels at carrying Ethernet signals wirelessly | Mobile phones and devices | IoT | IoT |
About Voler Systems
Voler Systems provides R&D consulting from concept through smoothly moving new products into production. Since 1979, clients have turned to us for reliable new products involving sensors and measurement electronics. Our highly experienced team delivers high quality products on time and on budget. We have developed wearable devices, IoT devices, medical devices, consumer products, and other specialized sensor-based electronics and prototype circuits.
