LORAWAN AND NB-IOT: ®

COMPETITORS OR COMPLEMENTARY?

Introduction
Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) technologies are serving a need in multiple IoT markets for devices that are low cost and sustain long bat-
tery life, and networks that are low cost, cover wide areas, and can support massive numbers of connections. There are several options
for LPWA connectivity, but LoRaWAN and NB-IoT have shown the most momentum and will garner the largest share of the LPWA market
in the coming years. This whitepaper will examine the two technologies for their similarities and differences. It will transition to a discus-
sion of LoRaWAN use in several vertical markets, highlighting LoRaWAN’s unique benefits. The whitepaper will conclude with the potential
use cases where both LoRaWAN and NB-IoT will operate together to provide the greatest value for customers.

Technical Comparison of LoRaWAN and NB-IoT

LoRaWAN is an open LPWAN system architecture developed and standardized by the LoRa AllianceTM, a non-profit association of more
than 500 member companies. LoRa is the modulation technique used in the physical layer that enables long-range low-power com-
munications by using Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) modulation, which spreads the narrowband signals across a wider channel allowing
greater interference resilience and low signal-to-noise ratio levels. NB-IoT, on the other hand, operates in the licensed spectrum, and like
LTE, uses Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA) in the uplink, Orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) in the downlink, and Quadrature Phase
Shift Keying (QPSK) modulation. While both technologies can compete on Quality of Service (QoS), IoT applications that require more
frequent communications will be better served by NB-IoT, which has no duty cycle limitations operating on the licensed spectrum, but at
the expense of higher Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) relative to LoRaWAN.

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Technology Parameters LoRaWAN NB-IoT
Bandwidth 125 kHz 180 kHz
Coverage 165 dB 164 dB
Battery Life 15+ years 10+ years
Peak Current 32 mA 120 mA
Sleep Current 1µA 5µA
Throughput 50 Kbps 60 Kbps
Latency Device Class Dependent < 10 s
Security AES 128 bit 3GPP (128 to 256 bit)
Geolocation Yes (TDOA) Yes (in 3GPP Rel 14)
Cost Efficiency (Device and Network) High Medium
Source: ABI Research

Both LoRaWAN and NB-IoT end devices have lower power consumption by shifting to sleep mode when
not in operation. As a synchronous protocol, NB-IoT consumes significantly more energy than LoRaWAN,
which is an asynchronous protocol, and when measured on the same data throughput, NB-IoT con-
sumes higher peak current required for OFDM/FDMA modulation. Regardless, the characteristics of
these two technologies are critical for many application segments that require deep indoor coverage
and years of battery life.

Enterprise customers looking to deploy a hybrid network using both private and public network infra-
structure are best served by LoRaWAN for multiple reasons. With private LoRaWAN networks, enter-
prises are not restricted due to business and cost constraints by data transmissions. Where available,
campus network access can be augmented with a public LoRaWAN network. NB-IoT connectivity is cur-
rently offered in areas that already have cellular coverage, but relative to LoRaWAN, deployment costs
are higher because private network deployments will require acquisition or leasing of RF spectrum from
network operators. Another factor affecting relative cost and performance between LoRaWAN and NB-
IoT is that LoRaWAN has demonstrated better indoor penetration capabilities. The Maximum Coupling
Loss (MCL) for both uplink and downlink of LoRaWAN is 165 dB; the NB-IoT MCL value can be from 145
dB to 169 dB for uplink and 151 dB for downlink based on the device class. The lower link budget of NB-
IoT also reduces battery life.

More LoRa Devices Than NB-IoT

As of April 2019, worldwide there are more than 113 LoRaWAN networks in 55 countries at various
stages of commercial deployment, according to the LoRa Alliance, compared to 90 NB-IoT networks. Ac-
cording to the LoRa Alliance, there are 118 LoRaWAN devices that are certified by the LoRa Alliance. This
compares to a total of 43 commercial NB-IoT and CAT-M devices, as reported by the Global Mobile Sup-
pliers Association. According to Semtech Corporation, as of April 2019, the cumulative number of LoRa
end nodes reached 97 million. LoRaWAN solution growth is accelerating because the device ecosystem
has been rapidly expanding to address a broader set of vertical markets.

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Utilities
LoRaWAN has been predominantly strong with utilities connecting smart
meters for gas and water utilities. China has been an early adopter of LoRa
connectivity technology for smart metering projects, accounting for near-
ly 65% of chips shipped in 2018. Birdz, a subsidiary of Novo Veolia and
Veolia Water, announced on December 19, 2018, that it had chosen Or-
ange Business Services (OBS) to connect 3 million LoRaWAN smart water
meters. Veolia’s contract is the largest smart water meter implementation
using a public LPWA network. Energy utilities that are in more advanced
stages of their smart meter deployments are now turning to modernize
their Medium-Voltage (MV) and High-Voltage (HV) electrical infrastructure. ABB, a leader in electrification
solutions, announced the availability of LoRaWAN surge arresters that measure excess voltage discharge
current and leakage current. The LoRa Alliance and the DLMS association jointly announced in April 2019
their cooperation to deliver a new DLMS profile adapted for LoRaWAN networks, enabling many IoT ap-
plications to be used by utilities and allowing the use of DLMS/COSEM for connecting smart electricity
meters with LoRaWAN.

Smart Buildings
IoT solutions using sensors to monitor multiple environmental condi-
tions such as temperature, humidity, and light intensity, and detect mo-
tion, shock, and water leaks are increasingly used in commercial buildings.
Smart buildings are also incorporating office space management solutions
that use room sensors to provide real-time information on occupancy for
access to desk space and conference rooms, and optimal usage of HVAC
systems. Occupancy knowledge can also help building facility managers
more efficiently manage soft services such as cleaning, waste manage-
ment, and security. LoRaWAN technology has had the most success in
enabling these use cases and benefits because of the availability of de-
vices and ease of creating in-building networks with deep indoor penetration. Intelligent edge gateway
vendors such as Cisco, MultiTech, Kerlink, TEKTELIC, and Laird all provide micro and femto gateways that
support from 3,000 to 7,000 end-point connections respectively.

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Logistics/Asset Tracking
Wirelessly tracking enterprise assets is one of the biggest opportunities in
the industrial IoT market, and LPWA network technologies will play a major
role by cumulatively tracking more than 9,500 million assets worldwide in
the next 5 years. The biggest challenge that LoRaWAN can solve is visibility
and traceability of assets across a larger portion of the supply chain that
extends from indoor environments to yard environments and even across
metropolitan areas and regions using a single technology. Currently, vis-
ibility to assets is only available either indoors using short-range wireless
technologies such as RFID, Bluetooth, UWB, or Wi-Fi, or outdoors with cel-
lular or satellite technology. On February 19, 2019, an aircraft manufacturer chose Objenious for its
hybrid LoRaWAN infrastructure, allowing it to track assets not only within its factories but also between
factory locations using the Objenious public LoRaWAN network. Another example is asset tracking sys-
tems that track vehicles transporting high-value assets. In Brazil, Maxtrack chose LoRaWAN, and by the
end of 2018, has deployed more than 400,000 trackers for vehicle and cargo tracking.

Industrial and Smart Manufacturing

One of the key enablers of digital transformation in manufacturing is the
Industrial Internet of Things. LoRaWAN-certified sensors help enable IoT
applications in manufacturing to improve visibility on production flow,
monitor machine health to reduce downtime, view asset utilization, and
study overall operational efficiency. Industrial IoT applications benefit from
LoRaWAN’s low network TCO and flexibility to operate private networks
to deploy wireless sensors to collect additional data points to deliver new
insights. Industrial solutions from Ineo-Sense and ADVEEZ have witnessed early adoption in the automo-
tive and aerospace industry.

Smart Agriculture
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Na-
tions, the agriculture industry will need to increase its production growth
by 70% by 2050 to meet the demand of the forecasted population growth.
IoT technologies will contribute to better use of resources to meet this
forecasted food demand. However, falling commodity prices have made
it difficult for a large block of producers, small- and medium-sized farm
owners, to afford IoT technologies. LPWA network technologies enable the
adoption of affordable IoT solutions in two ways: first, the availability of low-cost devices for monitoring
soil moisture or livestock condition to improve crop yield or dairy yield; and second, the creation of af-
fordable WAN networks to collect sensor data from LoRaWAN-certified devices in place of cellular net-
works that may not be available. As noted earlier, there are multiple vendors offering gateways to build
private LoRaWAN networks.

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Finally, in addition to LoRaWAN’s early success in enterprise applications, ABI Research also foresees sig-
nificant adoption in consumer applications, like in the smart home. LoRaWAN supports both deep indoor
and long-range outdoor connectivity for devices located in the perimeter of the property. Furthermore,
LoRaWAN’s battery efficiency is essential for many battery-operated sensor devices used in applications
such as smoke detectors, water leak detection, smart locks, monitoring environmental conditions, elder
care, and outdoor smart lighting. ABI Research also believes that B2B use cases will benefit from smart
home-based LoRaWAN networks because this extension of network availability into the home supports
a wide range of use cases relevant to enterprise customers including shipment delivery verification, se-
curity, and safety monitoring.

Opportunities for LoRaWAN and NB-IoT

to Co-Exist
As the IoT market continues to evolve, LoRaWAN and NB-IoT will co-exist in the market by competing in
some vertical markets and complementing in other verticals based on cost, coverage, and bandwidth
requirements of various IoT use cases. Using unlicensed spectrum, LoRaWAN will remain differentiated
among LPWA network technologies and will play a leading role in enterprise private networks where
enterprises want complete control over their infrastructure and devices. However, there are three use
cases that could create the need for hybrid applications using both LoRaWAN and NB-IoT.

The first use case is tracking mobile assets. As LoRaWAN and NB-IoT network footprints con-
tinue to grow globally, the networks can also be complementary, delivering the ubiquitous
connectivity necessary to track assets across multiple locations and regions.

The second use case is in utilities smart metering and grid monitoring applications. In Eu-
rope, Wireless M-Bus, an ETSI standard for smart metering applications, has been predomi-
nantly used in smart gas and water metering. However, Wireless M-Bus faces a shrinking
supply chain of solution vendors that support the standard. This puts LoRaWAN as a poten-
tial replacement for WAN connectivity to battery-operated smart meters. Additionally, for metering im-
plementations that use a gateway architecture, as seen in the United Kingdom and Germany, LoRaWAN
can connect meters and other end points.

Finally, industrial equipment OEMs implementing remote monitoring solutions can greatly
benefit from a combo LoRaWAN/NB-IoT connectivity solution to increase both functionality
and flexibility for diverse industrial monitoring and control applications. LoRaWAN technol-
ogy, optimized for longer battery life, can be used as the primary connectivity solution when sensors
are required to send monitoring data more frequently. NB-IoT technology, with its lower latency and
guaranteed QoS but greater cost, can be used less frequently for specific remote-control applications.

Summary
The network rollouts for both LoRaWAN and NB-IoT are relatively recent but are witnessing rapid growth
at a global scale. There will be a place for both LoRaWAN and NB-IoT for massive IoT applications based
on the benefits of lower costs for devices, network infrastructure, and network access; deep in-building
coverage; and low power consumption. In the near term, however, LoRaWAN has a clear advantage over
NB-IoT, with a mature ecosystem of vendors, certified IoT devices, and end-to-end solutions that are
ready for implementation today.

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 Published June 10, 2019
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