Issue link: https://read.uberflip.com/i/1423235
5 CONNECTING UTILITY ASSETS USING LORAWAN www.abiresearch.com 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.