The difference between NB-IOT and Lora

The difference between NB-IOT and Lora

In the current context of the Internet of Things, NB-IoT and LoRa are highly complementary, but in projects that require industry and enterprise-level private networks, the NB-IoT private network solution is obviously comparable to other technologies such as LoRa, Weightless, and ZETA. alternative relationship.

NB-IoT has become the only choice for the Internet of Things public network, but it has not formed a unified pattern in the private network market. For industry-level and enterprise-level Internet of Things private networks, the optional technologies are more abundant. In addition to the fast LoRa, the NB-IoT private network solution has also entered the market. Although the industrial ecosystem of Weightless and ZETA is not large, they have also found their own place in some vertical fields.

LoRa is developing very rapidly, but these LoRa projects that have been implemented are more in the form of industry and enterprise private networks. Although the users of many of these projects do not have a strong demand for an autonomous and controllable network, most of which can meet their needs by using NB-IoT, but in the early stage either due to insufficient NB-IoT network coverage, or because NB -The relatively high cost of IoT makes it choose the LoRa solution, and the LoRa supplier also provides it with end-to-end communication solution delivery.

In some smart city and smart park projects, there is often a third-party operator who will build and operate a LoRa network to provide network services to relevant application parties in the city and park, but this form is more for the operator to cover the industry application. The self-built and self-operated network can be regarded as a network in the form of a "quasi-private network".

It can be seen that the NB-IoT private network solution has been developed for a long time. As the NB-IoT industry chain matures, the private network industry chain is also ready. Previously, the Mexican Electric Power Company adopted the eLTE-IoT solution and deployed a special network for the Internet of Things in the ISM frequency band to carry out the application of electricity consumption information collection. The NB-IoT narrowband private network and broadband private network cooperate with each other, which can cover most of the scenarios where users need wireless communication.

The electric power industry is a relatively closed field, and there is a demand for the Internet of Things private network, and the electric power industry has a large number of meters, assets and equipment, making it a potential large-scale Internet of Things market. In the face of such a large-scale market, NB-IoT can do customized development from chips, modules to final network deployment, such as special development of chips and base station equipment supporting 230M. If such projects can be implemented, a private network with hundreds of millions of connections may be formed within a few years, which will promote the NB-IoT industry chain as much as the deployment of operators’ networks in depth and breadth. Of course, if such a model is formed and replicated, it will have a certain impact on the operator's NB-IoT public network. Of course, compared with the public network, the cost of the private network is higher, so the NB-IoT private network is more used in industries with low cost sensitivity.