Mouser Electronics Whitepaper

Keeping up with wireless protocols

Wi-Fi 6, Wi-Fi HaLow and LPWANs - all you need to know
By Mark Patrick, Mouser Electronics
 Mouser Electronics Whitepaper
The electronics industry never sleeps;
technical innovation and evolution drive the
global industry's beating heart and permeate
everything. One example of this is wireless
communication. Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cellular
communications may be familiar and trusted
methods; however, today's specifications and
performance capabilities have significantly
progressed since their initial development.
In this article, we investigate some recent
wireless innovations, including Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-
Fi HaLow, before investigating the LPWAN
developments Sigfox and LoRa.
Wireless communication;
essential in today's
connected society
It's hard to believe that Wi-Fi turns 30 this
year. It took six years before the IEEE ratified
Wi-Fi's first standard, IEEE 802.11. Bluetooth
research and development stems from a
similar era, although Bluetooth satisfies a
different use case of Wi-Fi.
Wireless communication is now ubiquitous.
We find it in our homes, our cars and in public
spaces. We probably have multiple tens of
devices in our home or attached to our body
that use wireless communication, everything
from smartwatches and fitness trackers to
laptops, tablets, and doorbells.
Over the years, most wireless protocols have
evolved to keep up with new use cases. The
most significant changes we experience as
consumers are in the bandwidth and range.
Other changes are for the more technically
minded and include mesh networking and use
case-based lower data rates.
As the number of different types of devices
grows, so do the particular use cases. In turn,
the standards authorities may modify the
wireless specifications or create new ones to
serve a new market segment or application's
needs.
Let's first look at the evolution of Wi-Fi. Wi-Fi
has become an essential utility service for
most homes and businesses. It provides fast
data communication sufficient to serve multiple
audio and video streams in most homes
without encountering the buffering errors we
experienced in the early days. Apart from our
smartphone and a few other device types,
most Wi-Fi devices are mains/line powered. In
the next section, we'll investigate how Wi-Fi is
evolving to serve two distinctly different use
cases.
Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi HaLow
Wi-Fi 6
On first mention, the term Wi-Fi 6 might
appear odd. The appearance of the '6' is the
first use of a version number to indicate a
specific Wi-Fi standard. You would have seen
mention of the supported standards in the
past, 802.11b/g/n, for example, on equipment
packaging. Before the ratification of Wi-Fi 6,
the last Wi-Fi standard, released in 2014, was
defined as 802.11ac, now termed Wi-Fi 5. It
operates on both the 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz
spectrum. 2.4 GHz still offers the best range
characteristic within the home, but with so
many devices and other protocols sharing the
2.4 GHz frequency, 5 GHz may provide a
better link in practice.
Figure 1 - Wi-Fi version numbers (source
Wi-Fi Alliance)
Wi-Fi 6, defined as IEEE 802.11ax, brings
several significant benefits. Firstly, the
maximum technically possible link rate
increases from 6,933 Mbits/s for Wi-Fi 5 to
9,608 Mbits/s, approximately 40 % faster for a
router to a single device connection. Multiple
antennas permitting multiple data stream
 Mouser Electronics Whitepaper

connections are required on both the router

and the connected device to achieve these
maximum data rates.

Wi-Fi 6 uses a different modulation technique

compared to previous versions, enabling
better Wi-Fi performance in busy public
spaces. Orthogonal Frequency Division
Multiple Access (OFDMA) and multi-user
multiple in/multiple out streams (MU-MIMO)
significantly increase the number of individual
devices that a single access point can serve. Figure 2 - Wi-Fi HaLow in context to high
bandwidth Wi-Fi versions (source Wi-Fi
Wi-Fi 6 also introduces a 'battery-saver’ Alliance)
feature for battery-powered devices. Rather
than continuously polling the router, the target
wakeup time (TWT) feature in Wi-Fi 6 can put Wi-Fi HaLow targets the specific technical
the wireless transceiver in and out of a sleep challenges associated with battery-powered
mode to conserve battery capacity. The embedded IoT devices such as remote
recently announced Wi-Fi 6E standard also sensors, with an emphasis on ultra-low power
introduces operation in the 6 GHz spectrum for consumption profiles, lower data rates, and an
the first time. extended communication range. Wi-Fi HaLow
also incorporates the TWT feature introduced
The availability of Wi-Fi 6 compliant devices is into Wi-Fi 6, further reducing power
slowly growing; examples include the NXP consumption and prolonging battery life.
WLAN8101H 2.4 GHz front end module
series, including a Tx/Rx antenna switch,
transmitter and receiver amplifiers, and
directional couplers.

Another example is the Qorvo QPF4551 5

GHz front end module, and a complete Wi-Fi 6
module has recently been launched by Intel –
the Intel AX.201.

Wi-Fi HaLow
The Wi-Fi Alliance introduced the Wi-Fi HaLow
standard in 2017 to meet the growing demand
for a reliable and robust wireless protocol for
the burgeoning internet of things (IoT). Based
on the IEEE 802.11 ah standard, Wi-Fi HaLow
goes in the oppo site direction to Wi-Fi 6 - see
Figure 2.
Figure 3 - The benefits of Wi-Fi HaLow
(source Wi-Fi Alliance)
Operating in the sub 1 GHz unlicensed
industrial, medical and scientific (ISM)
spectrum, Wi-Fi HaLow benefits from an
extended range capability up to 1 km together
with less signal attenuation from internal walls,
trees and buildings. A nominal data rate of 150
kbits/s is capable of extending up to tens of
Mbits/s through the use of multiple in/multiple
out (MIMO) and multiple subcarrier channels
provided by the orthogonal frequency division
multiplexing (OFDM) modulation with forward
error correction (FEC).
 Mouser Electronics Whitepaper
IIoT/IoT trends responsible
for driving continued
wireless innovations
Wi-Fi HaLow is not the only wireless protocol
explicitly designed for the industrial internet of
things (IIoT). Before Wi-Fi HaLow was
developed, two other competing protocols,
Sigfox and LoRa, came to market, both of
these operate in the unlicensed sub 1 GHz
ISM spectrum. Low power wide area networks
(LPWAN) such as LoRa and Sigfox are much
in demand for IIoT/IoT applications, from smart
metering, home automation and security, and
horticulture. Sigfox and LoRa differ from Wi-Fi
HaLow in that Wi-Fi HaLow, while suitable for
IoT use, does not provide the complete
LPWAN network infrastructure.
Sigfox
The Sigfox LPWAN occupies a 192 kHz ultra-
narrow bandwidth of the ISM band. Within
Europe, the spectrum Sigfox uses is 868 MHz
to 868.2 MHz, and for the rest of the world, a
regionally assigned portion of the 902 MHz to
928 MHz is used. The data communication
rate is exceptionally low, either 100 bits/s or
600 bits/s, and an uplink payload of up to 12-
bytes. The downlink packet size is fixed at 8-
bytes. Such low data rates demand very little
radio spectrum, typically occupying 100 Hz. A
12-byte payload might appear too small, but it
is sufficient for sending environmental sensor
measurements, GPS geolocation coordinates,
and device status messages. The Sigfox
network restricts sending no more than six 12-
byte messages per hour or 140 messages per
day. Download messages are limited to 4
messages per day.
Unlike cellular devices that communicate to a
single base station, a Sigfox device's signal is
available to all the base stations within range.
A Sigfox device first sends a message on a
random frequency within the given spectrum. It
then repeats it twice on different frequencies
and in separate time slots. This approach to
message reception and transmission achieves
time and frequency diversity, which, together
with the spatial diversity offered by multiple
base stations, creates exceptional quality of
service (QoS) levels.
Sigfox provides the complete network
infrastructure, from the base stations to
operational support (OSS) and business
support (BSS) systems (see Figure 4).
Figure 4 - High-level architecture of the
Sigfox network (source Sigfox)
Such low duty cycles enable Sigfox devices to
stay in their idle sleep mode most of the time
and maximize multi-year battery life. Using the
sub-GHz spectrum, Sigfox offers single-digit
kilometer range subject to topography and link
budget.
An example Sigfox transceiver module is the
eRIC-SIGFOX from LPRS.
The module's transmitter output power is
programmable in 1 dBm steps up to the
maximum Sigfox permitted power of +14 dBm.
The deep sleep mode current is 100 nA,
standby 0.5 mA, and transmitting at + 14 dBm,
49 mA.
For initial development and prototyping
purposes, the ON Semiconductor EU-Sigfox
provides a convenient evaluation board in an
Arduino Uno shield form-factor.
LoRa
LoRa has a slightly different approach to
Sigfox. Firstly, LoRa, an abbreviation of long-
range, defines the proprietary protocol and
modulation technique used to communicate.
Semiconductor vendor Semtech developed
LoRa and owns and licenses the LoRa IP. The
LoRa Alliance manages the LoRa LPWAN
infrastructure. Network infrastructure and
community operators are licensed by country -
there are typically multiple operators per
country. An example of a community operator
is the popular The Things Network.
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LoRa estimates a device-to-gateway range of

up to 15 km in rural areas with line-of-sight
and up to 5 km in densely populated urban
areas. The modulation used by LoRa is a
proprietary modified chirp spread spectrum
(CSS) technique. Two uplink channel
bandwidths are available, 125 kHz or 500 kHz,
and a fixed downlink of 500 kHz. The
modulation approach incorporates a spreading
code technique that defines how wide the
signal is spread from the nominal. The wider
the signal is spread, the bit rate throughput
increases, but the estimated range decreases.
There are six spreading codes. There are
trade-offs to be decided on channel width,
data rate, link budget, and the time-on-air. All
of these factors influence battery life and
range. Figure 5 highlights the fourteen
different uplink and downlink data rates
available.
Wireless communication
standards continue to
evolve
In this article, we've highlighted advances in
Wi-Fi and two LPWAN communication
methods. As we encounter more use cases,
wireless standards authorities and RF
architects will devise new innovative and
highly optimized wireless protocols that meet
the specific requirements the use cases need.
Some of these innovations may be based on
existing methods, such as Wi-Fi, while others
might introduce entirely new concepts. Ultra-
wideband (UWB) communication, for example,
first invented in the 1950s, is gathering
momentum. Initially just seen as a candidate
for vehicle key fobs and ranging tasks, the
ultra-low latency, low power consumption, and
link resilience characteristics make it suitable
for a wide range of consumer and automotive
applications.

Wireless communication standards evolution

is at the forefront of the electronics industry.

www.mouser.com

Figure 5 - LoRa data rates based on

spreading factor, channel bandwidth and
maximum payload size (source Semtech)

The number of 125 kHz and 500 kHz channels

available vary by region. Likewise, the country-
or region-specific LPWAN operator will
determine the number of connected devices
and messages sent/received. An example
LoRa transceiver is the Semtech LR1110. It
incorporates a LoRa transceiver, a GNSS
receiver, a digital front end, and a crypto
engine. The transmitter provides two output
stage options, a + 22 dBm and a high
efficiency +15 dBm.