LoRa, Sigfox, and NB-IoT: An Empirical Comparison for IoT LPWAN Technologies in the Agribusiness

• Published in: IEEE embedded systems letters Vol. 16; no. 3; pp. 283 - 286
• Main Authors: Pablo Becoea, Juan, Grane, Marcel, Miguez, Matias, Arnaud, Alfredo
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: IEEE 01-09-2024
• Subjects: Agribusiness; Agriculture; Batteries; Cows; Current measurement; Internet of Things (IoT); Low-power wide area networks; low-power wide-area network (LPWAN); Power measurement; sensor network; Temperature measurement
• ISSN: 1943-0663; 1943-0671
• DOI: 10.1109/LES.2024.3394446

In this letter, three battery-powered, custom Internet of Things (IoT) sensor nodes for the agribusiness, are presented: first, a Sigfox-based temperature-humidity index (THI) sensor to monitor the impact of heat stress in livestock, then a LoRaWAN version of an estrus detection collar for dairy farms, and finally a NB-IoT low-power A-GPS geolocation device for animals. Detailed power consumption measurements are presented and compared to highlight the benefits of each low-power wide-area network technology for the industry. The measured energy to transmit a single 10Byte payload packet was 90, 20, and 90 mJ for Sigfox, LoRa, and NB-IoT, respectively. With an adequate power management strategy, the nodes could operate up to 10 years in the case of the THI and estrus detector, and >1 yr in the case of the GPS tracker, powered by a single 1900 mA<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">\cdot \mathrm {h}~\mathrm {LiSOCl}_{2} </tex-math></inline-formula> battery.