Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1423232
Report Title: Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN ® deployment synergies Issue Date: September 2019 Version: 1.0. final version 2 LoRa Alliance & Wireless Broadband Alliance Confidential & Proprietary Copyright © 2019 Some IoT Connectivity technologies are based on cellular networks and use licensed spectrum (LTE- M, NB-IoT, 2G, 3G, 4G, 5G) that can only be deployed by Mobile Network Operators (MNO's). Recent advancements in 3GPP (LTE LAA, and 5G NR Standalone) and Multi-Fire have made it possible for non-MNOs to deploy cellular networks in the unlicensed spectrums, commonly known as Private LTE networks. Examples include the 2.6 GHz Time Division Duplex (TDD) band available in France for local PMR like services and the CBRS in the US. While there are certain advantages to Private LTE Networks, they commonly rely upon significant investments in infrastructure, support and administration. Other IoT connectivity technologies operating in the unlicensed spectrum (Wi-Fi, LoRaWAN ® , Zigbee, Zwave, and Bluetooth) can be potentially deployed by any type of actor: MNO's, Internet Service Providers (ISP), Multi-Service Operators (MSO), enterprises, cities, and/or developer communities. Some are predominant on the consumer market (mostly short-range technologies including Wi-Fi), others are more predominant on enterprise market (including LoRaWAN ® and Wi-Fi). As stated earlier the primary focus of this paper is centered upon Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN ® . Recent IoT market developments and analysis prove that unlicensed and licensed spectrum band technologies are not only complementary but that it is essential to leverage both. Two leading unlicensed technologies in IoT are Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN ® . Wi-Fi is the unprecedented leader in broadband connectivity and LoRaWAN ® is the leader in long-range, low power connectivity. With over 20 years of history and advancements, Wi-Fi has become the world's most common radio network for consumers and IoT. For example, today most MNOs around the world rely upon Wi-Fi networks to offload data generated by devices (voice, internet) located in buildings or in dense urban environments such as malls or venues. In 2018, Wi-Fi carried 67% of all mobile traffic in the US and 83% in Japan [1]. Likewise, LoRaWAN ® has enjoyed similar rapid success. In just 3 years LoRaWAN ® has been adopted by more than 100 network operators, including leading MNOs such as Objenious, Orange, Proximus, KPN, NTT Docomo, SKT, KDDI, Swisscom [2] and Tata Communications, a digital infrastructure provider. As a reminder, the objective of this Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN ® Deployment Synergies white paper is NOT to make a comparison of all IoT Connectivity technologies. The purpose of the paper is to focus on: • Demonstrating Wi-Fi's complementary role with a globally adopted unlicensed technology: LoRaWAN ® , driven by similarities of go to market structures. The combination of these unlicensed technologies allows covering the large majority and diversity of most IoT use cases, rolled out by any type of market actor. Looking at the market structure, Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN ® market proponents show great similarities. All kinds of market actors exist and may interconnect with each other: MNOs, MSOs, Enterprises, Cities, Open Developer communities, etc. Organic growth from enterprise and private networks is currently supplementing targeted network growth from MNOs. As mentioned below (GSMA[3]), IoT covers typically two main categories of use cases which can apply to any IoT Connectivity technology: