A Study on LoRa SX1276 Performance in IoT Health Monitoring

Table 2

Technical specifications of LoRaWAN, Sigfox, NB-IoT, and LTE-M technologies [21].

Standard	LoRaWAN	Sigfox	NB-IoT 3GPP	LTE-M 3GPP
Spectrum (MHz)	Unlicensed; 868 in EU; 915 in USA; 433 in Asia	Unlicensed; 868 in EU; 915 in USA; 433 in Asia	Licensed LTE frequency bands	Licensed LTE frequency bands
Tx power (dBm)	13 in EU; 20 in USA	14 in EU; 21.5 in USA	23	23
Link budget	154 dB	159 dB	151 dB	146 dB
Modulation	CSS	UL: DBPSK; DL: GFSK	UL: GFSK; DL: BPSK	UL: SC-FDMA, 16 QAM; DL: OFDMA, 16 QAM
Channel bandwidth (kHz)	125 – 500	0.6 in USA	180	1.4-20 MHz
Max payload (bytes)	243	Up: 12; Down: 8	1600	1000
Power consumption	Very low	Low	Medium low	Medium
Battery lifetime (2000 mAh)	105 months	150 months	90 months	18 months
Topology	Star of stars	Star	Star	Star
Security	AES CCM 128	Key generation, message encryption, and sequence	NAS/AES 256	AES 256
Coverage (km)	~5 in urban; ~20 in rural	~10 in urban; ~40 in rural	~1 in urban; ~10 in rural	~5
Max data rate	~50 kbps in UL; ~290 bps in DL	~100 bps in UL; ~600 bps in DL	~220 kbps	Up to 1 Mbps
Transmission technique	FHSS (ALOHA)	UNB	FDD	FDD/TDD