TYPES OF IOT INFRASTRUCTURE

• Public IoT

  Radio infrastructure owned and run by telecoms carriers or a 3rd-party operator. Open to the public regionally or nationwide. The operator determines which type (indoor/outdoor) and area (rural, suburban, urban) of coverage to support. Service is sold by subscription and other fees may be charged for example volume of data, number of messages, amount of devices. Examples are: Swisscom, Sigfox, etc

• Private

  A private company, joint project or consortium that builds and manages its own IoT network. The network is not offered to the public. The IoT use case and location of its users define the type and area of coverage. The network is expanded according to the plans of the business. Examples are: Utilities, cities and other businesses.

• Open Community

  Also known as Viral networks, are open-community networks aimed to provide free IoT access to everyone. Usually driven by groups of developers and enthusiasts, IoT infrastructure is built by member-donated gateways. Members contribute to providing operations support and also software development. An example is: The Things Network.

• Hybrid

  Usually a mix of Private and Community models. Hybrid models are a union of multiple private networks joined to form a large IoT network. Each new gateway extends connectivity for all members. This levers the benefit of shared IoT infrastructure, as each member at times may use a foreign gateway to transport data. An example is: The Switzercloud.