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What is LPWAN / LPN


Radio networks transporting small IoT data over long distances are referred to as Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) or Low Power Network (LPN). Such networks are well suited to meet the challenges of data transmission in a city, community or within a building. Sensors and actuators, usually battery operated, can transmit or receive IoT data over several years. LoRaWAN®, Sigfox or NB-IoT are all LPWAN / LPN protocols with similar characteristics.
LPWAN IoT
  • Range

    Compared to other radio-based technologies, LPWAN / LPN protocols are characterized by long range data transmission. Data can be transmitted over several kilometers. Additionally, better penetration into buildings is possible than with previously available equivalent technologies - reaching several floors into a building.
  • Data Volume

    When considering IoT data amounts, sensors transmit very small amounts of data. For example, the state of a door is transmitted with a binary 1 or 0. With this very small information the state of the door being open or closed can be processed further. Similarly a water meter has little data to transmit even if it has a reading of 6'972m3. Sensors for Level, GPS Position, Parking, Humidity, Temperature or People Counting are all in the low volume LPWAN category.