Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/1386104
July/August/September 2021 I 41 smoke alarm trash container gas monitoring 3G/ Ethernet Backhaul pet tracking water meter vending machine FIGURE 3: Overview of a LoRaWan system as an option for IoT communications. Source: LoRa Alliance. End Nodes Concentrator /Gateway Network Server Application Server IoT Communications For IoT communications and precision agriculture, LoRaWAN provides a long range (LoRa) option for low power wide area networks (LPWANs). These devices are not designed to carry internet browsing traffic. Instead, they are designed and optimized for IoT and the battery life of the end device, frugality over network capacity, range, cost, security, and robustness to interference. Multitudes of end devices can communicate via a single gateway. Some examples of LoRaWAN technology include smart sensors on water, power and gas meters, leak detec- tion, emission detection, and soil water level detection. The variety of devices and applications continues to grow. Certified device listngs are available on the LoRa Alliance website. LoRa networks are deploying globally. These sensors and end devices provide an excellent option for various smart city application deployments. Often an entire city can communicate over a single gateway. The state of Nebraska is implementing a statewide LoRaWAN network. Figure 3 shows an example of a LoRaWAN system. SIGFOX is suited for the very lowest bandwidth appli- cations and is designed with energy efficiency in mind. It operates in the sub-GHz frequency bands (868 MHz in Europe and 900 MHz in the U.S.). Narrowband IoT is another option that utilizes LTE and Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) providers' existing infrastructure for low band-width IoT devices, as the name would imply. LTE-M, part of the 3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) standard, shows promise for locations deep inside buildings and is designed to improve on the NB-IoT standard regarding bandwidth. Security is at the design forefront of this technology. Optical Fiber Fiber is critical to any smart city rollout. Fiber planning should include inspection of all trenches/routes, attached pathways and spaces, counts of dark fiber and locations of termination points, and all other OSP design consid- erations. In some cases, the community will want to own the fiber; others prefer to have outside providers handle the fiber, leasing, company and municipal connections, and dark strands. Others prefer a hybrid approach that allows third-party companies to pull through the com- munity while providing some fiber directly to and for city services. The owner of those strands depends on the relationship, but hybrid ownership offers the best of both worlds. While the city pays for their owned strand installation out of the fiber group, they do not have to pay recurring lease and/or management costs. AES Secured Payload Application Data LoRa ® RF LoRaWAN ™ TCP/IP SSL LoRaWAN ™ TCP/IP SSL Secure Payload