Unabiz, the owner of Sigfox technology, claims that it has been able to reduce the energy consumption of Sigfox devices by 18 times. According to the report, Sigfox-based low-power wide area (LPWA) networks around the world now support faster and less data transmission, which reduces the amount of data consumed by Sigfox devices when sending messages over the network to the cloud. This means that less power is required. The paper noted that the trade-offs will be in terms of communication range and reliability.
Historically, the Sigfox infrastructure has supported data rates of 100bps and delivered data messages in three tranches (“N=3 repetition mode”). The new adjustment increases the transmission speed to 600bps and reduces message repetition to 2 or 1 transmission (N=2/N=1). Unabiz believes that faster transmission speeds will not only reduce energy consumption by a factor of six, but also “improve the quality of transmission when the device transmits on the move.”
N=1/N=2 reduction delivers additional energy savings of “33 percent to 66 percent” by sending two or just one frame of data instead of three standard data frames to convey a message will be done. Said. The company claims that the combination of the two innovations will result in significant energy savings. As a result, Unabiz reasoned, his Sigfox-based IoT devices will last longer in the field, business cases will expand, and new use cases will emerge.
The Singapore-based company, which acquired Sigfox in early 2022 and has since opened up the Sigfox model and also adopted parallel LPWA network technologies such as LoRaWAN, said: “Both innovations enable the device to operate at unprecedented levels of efficiency.” This innovative enhancement is aimed at significantly increasing the efficiency of Sigfox-based solutions and empowering developers, operators, and customers alike. ”
But there are also trade-offs. Transmitting at 600bps increases communication speed, reduces device power consumption, and optimizes spectrum usage, but it also reduces the transmit budget by 8dB and affects the range at which the Sigfox gateway receives messages. In other words, the wide area aspect of Sigfox may be affected, reducing the distance that messages can be sent.
On the other hand, reducing message repetition from N:3 to N:1 increases the likelihood that IoT messages will not always arrive due to incomplete data being delivered to areas with weak coverage. Unabiz said IoT developers implementing 600bps and/or N=1 configurations should verify the reliability of the networks on which they plan to deploy their solutions, and that Sigfox operators “will provide assistance and extend coverage.” I warned you that you would have to wait.
Nicolas Chalbos, Head of Sigfox Innovation at Unabiz, said: “This technology update provides more flexibility for partners to optimize their solutions. Battery requirements can vary widely… [for] Facility management, metrology and asset tracking. With our latest network and device library updates, solution architects can now easily balance device longevity and network performance for specific use cases. ”
Alexis Susset, Chief Technology Officer at Unabiz, said: “The new enhancements aim to improve Unabiz’s technical capabilities to address the needs of IoT solutions that rely on the key strengths of our Sigfox technology. Releasing an open source device library with options to control repetition not only improves energy management for devices, but also improves reliability in use cases such as logistics where devices are transmitting while on the move.”
Unabiz has published technical information regarding both new data rates and recurrence schedules. It also guides developers through “benefits and considerations” on its Github page.