Low Throughput Networks for the IoT: Lessons Learned From Industrial Implementations

The emerging Internet of Things (IoT) is getting closer to reality every day, with standards and protocols that seek to cater to specific applications. Although some of the technologies follow a ``make once, fit all'' approach, others are designed for specific applications like smart-metering where the devices are often stationary with low jitter and throughput requirements. ETSI is already working towards a new standard for such applications, having specified a Specification Group to study what they call Low Throughput Networks (LTN) and propose a standard. Although these protocols may lead to fragmentation of the IoT, they are worth examining to gain insights on their innovations and approaches to solving problems that are common in IoT technologies, specifically security, energy management and resource constrains. This paper examines the wireless technologies of Sigfox and OnRamp Wireless, two of the emerging leaders in IoT smart metering applications and so far not studied in any peer-reviewed paper. Furthermore we discuss the suitability of Low Throughput Networks for certain applications and how the above would work in such scenarios.