Complementary

Technologies:
LoRaWAN® &
Bluetooth

M AY 2 0 2 2

INTRODUCTION TO COMPLEMENTARY TECHNOLOGIES

There is a misconception that LoRaWAN ® is a connectivity replacement. Companies look at

LoRaWAN and think they are being asked to replace their existing network, which sounds very
expensive. Further contemplating the cost of migrations, hardware redesigns, and firmware
changes scares many people off unnecessarily. The truth is that LoRaWAN® enhances and
improves solutions alongside other technologies and increases ROI.
Ashley Pope, Vice President of Business Operations at OXIT
& LoRa Alliance Marketing Committee Chair

IoT Needs Multiple Technologies LoRaWAN Reduces Total Cost of Ownership

Experience has shown that the average IoT solution
requires more than one wireless technology in its
architecture. LoRaWAN ® is a powerful radio technology
with an open standard that offers companies flexibility to
innovate IoT solutions that seamlessly supports multiple
wireless technologies. LoRaWAN can elevate and improve
connectivity using existing protocols; effectively partnering
with them to create multi-protocol solutions. A key benefit
to using multi-protocol devices is that they are compatible
with many types of radios and therefore can evolve as
customers’ needs do.
Integrating LoRaWAN into existing technology also
reduces the total cost of ownership of IoT communication
systems. LoRaWAN hardware is less costly than most,
and LoRaWAN solutions generally require fewer hardware
components. When there is less hardware, there are lower
deployment and maintenance costs. Employing FUOTA
(firmware updates over the air) decreases maintenance
costs even further. When partnered with LoRaWAN,
devices consume less power, the range of transmissions
expands, and capabilities of partner protocols continue to
be leveraged and even amplified.

For example, an IoT solution may initially have range as

Expand the Addressable Use Cases
its top priority, but as time passes, signal penetration into
difficult spaces may become critical, or perhaps reduced Combining technologies also creates more opportunities for
battery consumption, commonly seen in solutions nearing new applications; certain use cases could not be supported
their useful lifetime. Multi-protocol solutions are future-proof by an individual technology. When technologies work
because they are not limited to a single environment or data together, they expand the number of IoT use cases possible.
transmission format. By integrating LoRaWAN into existing
solutions, their connectivity challenges are eliminated and
the investment in that technology is protected.

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 COMPLEMENTARY TECHNOLOGIES: LoRaWAN® & BLUETOOTH

When integrating with Bluetooth, for instance, LoRaWAN

Feature Bluetooth LoRaWAN
builds Bluetooth’s strengths by mitigating the challenges
Widely understood by
of Bluetooth technology’s short range, high capital costs, X
non-technical users
and dependency on cloud networking, thereby enabling
User-friendly via app-based
massive, affordable scaling that incorporates preferred X
management
Bluetooth features. Field operators can use applications on
Low latency X
their phones to connect to meters and other measurement
Supports high bandwidth needed
tools. LoRaWAN-BLE bridges dramatically expand the X
for configuration & application
range of sensing devices as well as their battery life.
Able to withstand RF interference X X
Network servers connected to a LoRaWAN gateway can
Secure X X
upload data locally without relying upon the internet.
Long-range X
Bluetooth sensors become an even more feasible solution
Low capital expense X
when LoRaWAN capabilities are added to them.
Low operational expense X

The diagram below illustrates how LoRaWAN can complement Bluetooth

using bridges between the technologies. The case studies that follow
demonstrate real-life implementations of these solutions.

How can you affordably scale

Bluetooth (BLE) IoT solutions?
NEEDS

Extend Expand # Expand

Battery Life of Devices Range

Typical Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) Solution

CAPEX
BLE Sensors $
BLE Gateway $$$$

BATTERY

RANGE
Short
BLE SENSORS BLE GATEWAYS

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 COMPLEMENTARY TECHNOLOGIES: LoRaWAN® & BLUETOOTH

LoRaWAN delivers cost-effective scaling

The LoRaWAN open standard is a low power, wide area networking (LPWAN) protocol designed
to wirelessly connect battery operated ‘things’ to the internet. LoRaWAN is cost-effective to
implement and easy to scale; adding LoRaWAN to other technologies can protect earlier
investments and create new possibilities for scalable solutions.

LoRaWAN Expands the Scale and

Number of BLE IoT Use Cases
BENEFITS

Reduce Efficient Network

Protect BLE CAPEX
Investments where New Use
Cost to Cases Can be Added
Scale

LoRaWAN Complements Bluetooth

CAPEX
BLE Sensors $
LoRaWAN Sensors $
LoRaWAN Gateway $

BATTERY
Up to 10 years

RANGE
Long (15km)
BLE LoRaWAN/ LoRaWAN LoRaWAN
SENSORS BLE BRIDGES DEVICES GATEWAY Able to penetrate concrete, underground

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 COMPLEMENTARY TECHNOLOGIES: LoRaWAN® & BLUETOOTH
MachineQ Leverages LoRaWAN and BLE for Real-Time Asset Tracking
SITUATION: A global pharmaceutical biotech company
needed to track high-value, portable lab assets in real-time
across a campus spanning 1,000+ labs and 850,000
square feet.
PROBLEM: Despite having an inventory record-keeping
process in place, the company struggled with tracking
assets in real-time and began looking for a solution to
augment and enhance their existing process. The customer
explored an RFID solution because the technology is
ubiquitous, has low tag cost and ultra-thin form factor, and
is easy to deploy. However, the company discovered that
an RFID solution wasn’t ideal for their use case because
it could only provide room-level accuracy and they wanted
to track assets with greater precision. Plus, the trade-off—
low tag costs for high OPEX costs to manage an RFID
solution—made it the wrong option for their needs.
SOLUTION: Working with MachineQ, a Comcast
Company, the customer implemented MachineQ for Asset
Management, an IoT-enabled asset tracking solution that
combines BLE and LoRaWAN technologies to provide
precise, real-time visibility into the location of assets at a
fraction of the cost of RFID solutions. The solution included:
• UL-certified hardware components
- BLE Location Bridges that support sophisticated edge
processing, reducing latency and bandwidth use and
improving location accuracy Asset tags with custom-
designed hardware and firmware enabling a 10-year
battery-life
- LoRaWAN gateways offering long range data
transmission
• A dedicated and secure network infrastructure that’s
independent of the corporate internet network
MACHINEQ SOLUTION COMPONENTS
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• A progressive web application for visualization on web
and mobile and APIs for third-party platform integration
• Professional installation and continued support provided
by Comcast Business technicians
BUSINESS IMPACT: Thanks to a rapid deployment,
low startup costs, and low total cost of ownership,
the company expects to realize ROI by:
• Reducing annual asset repurchasing costs,
enabling finance to redirect and optimize the use
of working capital
• Creating more efficient processes by integrating
with their ERP, which allows other departments to
reuse the same location data for cost allocations,
inventory management, asset management and
maintenance, and compliance tracking
• Eliminating costly maintenance contracts on lost
and decommissioned assets
• Increasing lab staff productivity by saving time
spent searching for assets
• Expanding upon the LoRaWAN network
infrastructure and looking to add more use cases,
such as leak detection, temperature monitoring,
occupancy monitoring, and predictive maintenance.
By complementing BLE with LoRaWAN, this real-
time asset tracking solution was able to hone in on
the precise location of an asset, within a room.
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 COMPLEMENTARY TECHNOLOGIES: LoRaWAN® & BLUETOOTH

MultiTech SiteXTender Works with DeWalt Tool Connect

SITUATION: On construction sites, there are covetable,

shared tools that often become misplaced, hoarded or
even stolen. DeWalt, a division of Stanley Black & Decker,
recognized this issue and now provides its customers asset
tracking capabilities by adding Bluetooth sensors to tools so
that workers can easily locate assets using their smart phones.
PROBLEM: The signal strength of Bluetooth sensors varies
depending on where a worker is on a construction site and
the number of Bluetooth gateways that have been installed.
While people know and understand how Bluetooth works—
making it user-friendly—it is cost prohibitive for construction
companies to create an adequate network of Bluetooth
gateways for successful asset management. If a tool is far
from a Bluetooth gateway, it is impossible to discover.
SOLUTION: MultiTech’s SiteXtender connects BLE enabled
tools, tags, and sensors to transmit over LoRaWAN ®
networks, providing extended connectivity. This solution
works with DEWALT’s Tool Connect Site Manager. The
SiteXtender network elements audit tool status and deliver
useful information to DEWALT’s Site Manager, including
battery level, usage, and location information (proximity).
By using LoRaWAN to aggregate data on job sites,
construction companies can quickly scale from small to
large campus deployment and track tools across multiple
job sites.
BUSINESS IMPACT: LoRaWAN ® is an excellent
technology for the construction industry as the radio
technology can penetrate concrete and metal and
is an optimized for battery powered devices. The
technology is secure and flexible and supports a
wide range of back haul connectivity types (Cellular,
Ethernet, or Wi-Fi). SiteXtender allows companies
to move from smart to connected devices while
maximizing return on investments of the existing
BLE embedded tools. Adopting a LoRaWAN ®
infrastructure opens up options to connect more
assets with extended range and battery life while
helping to eliminate “dead spots” that trouble
Bluetooth networks.
Adopting a LoRaWAN infrastructure opens up
options to connect more assets with extended
range and battery life while helping to eliminate
“dead spots” that trouble Bluetooth networks.

THERE ARE 3 NETWORK ELEMENTS:

1 2 3

LoRaWAN Network Outdoor DEWALT iBeacons

Battery Power DCE042 Internal Tags &
BLE – LoRaWAN Bridge DCE041 External Tags

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 COMPLEMENTARY TECHNOLOGIES: LoRaWAN® & BLUETOOTH
Oxit Shopper Tracker
The Shopper Tracker (ST) utilizes LoRaWAN to solve
a connectivity coverage problem in a large store while
keeping infrastructure costs low. Due to the short range of
the Bluetooth Personal Area Network (PAN), multiple ST
devices may be placed throughout a store to monitor foot
traffic and product activity and connected using one or two
LoRaWAN cellular-enabled gateways rather than larger
number of cellular hotspots that do the same thing. with a retail store to develop a solution for CPG
SITUATION: Consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies
develop strategies for in-store product placement with
hopes of encouraging customers to purchase their products
over others. For instance, they might invest in premium shelf
space where a product sits at eye-level or on an endcap.
They also consider foot traffic and relative placement of
competing items sold in the same category in order to
create the optimal sales plan.
PROBLEM: Variables beyond shelf placement can impact
sales volume, but CPG companies have not had the means
to influence them. If a product is presented on a shelf that
is in a corner of the store that no customer visits—it won’t
sell. If a product is out of stock and not re-stocked in a
timely manner, it can’t sell. However, beyond paying for
product placement that looks like premium space according
to a store planogram, it is difficult for product managers to
analyze the customer sales experience.
To get the feedback necessary to remedy these issues,
retail stores need a technical solution that uses sensors to
detect current stock of products and foot traffic in a certain
area. One possible solution is to use Bluetooth devices to
track traffic, but the pitfalls there are the high infrastructure
costs of implementing multiple BLE gateways and poor
transmission quality due to the short-range capabilities of
Bluetooth and the Bluetooth Personal Area Network (PAN).
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SOLUTION & BUSINESS IMPACT: OXIT partnered
companies called the Shopper Tracker (ST), which
uses existing Bluetooth enabled motion detectors and
expands their capability with LoRaWAN to transmit
and store data. ST takes the best parts of LoRaWAN
and BLE and configures them to complement each
other, eliminating need for multiple BLE gateways,
and using one or two LoRaWAN gateways, thereby
greatly reducing monthly cellular charges.
Twice daily, Bluetooth cameras photograph the shelf
where a product sits to mark the quantity of product
available. Using simple artificial intelligence that
connects a Bluetooth camera to a Bluetooth motion
detector, the cameras also anonymously track the
activity of passersby, including when customers pass
a shelf, pause to look at a product, and ultimately
purchase a product. This information is then
seamlessly integrated into a CPG firm’s database
for analysis. Due to the simplicity of LoRaWAN
configuration, non-technical field agents who manage
the actual placement of product on the shelves are
easily able install the Shopper Tracker.
LoRaWAN expands the range of Bluetooth
devices with low-cost infrastructure that is readily
configured by non-technical staff in the field.
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 COMPLEMENTARY TECHNOLOGIES: LoRaWAN® & BLUETOOTH

GetWireless Deploys Option Bluetooth Badge Solution to Create

Contact Tracing

SITUATION: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic,

Digi-Key, an electronic component distributor, has managed
the unexpected surges of the disease and has committed to
maintaining a safe and clean work environment. To balance
the need to quarantine with the need to continue work
processes, Digi-Key sought a means to create more
precise contact tracing. BUSINESS IMPACT:
PROBLEM: While Bluetooth badge solutions seemed to be an • Rapid deployment: 2,500 active badges deployed
obvious choice for contact tracing management, a few issues to employees and visitors over a 2-week period
made it not exactly the right solution. The size of the Digi-Key
• Reduced the number of employees requiring
facilities, plus the layout incorporating both office space as
quarantine from 23 to 4 (83% reduction) in one
well as warehouse spaces made the use of Bluetooth quite
case and 19 to 3 (85% reduction) in another
problematic. First, the warehouse had lots of metal racks that
interfered with the Bluetooth signal if used as a backhaul. • Results kept 35 additional employees performing
Second, the sheer number of Bluetooth devices that would critical functions in shipping and warehouse
need to be mounted around the facility was logistically operations, thereby shipping 20,000 additional
prohibitive both from an initial deployment perspective as well orders
as the ongoing battery changing perspective. • Safe Distancing solution paid for itself after only 5
positive test results
SOLUTION: GetWireless deployed the Option Safe Distancing
solution that partners Bluetooth badges with a LoRaWAN
network. By using LoRaWAN, Digi-Key was able to use just a
few gateways to cover the entire set of facilities and still have Bluetooth was still used between badges to
badges be able to communicate proximity events back to detect proximity, but it was the LoRaWAN
the cloud. Bluetooth was still used between badges to detect capability that allowed employees to roam freely
proximity, but it was the LoRaWAN capability that allowed and do their normal jobs without concern for
employees to roam freely and do their normal jobs without being near a Bluetooth access point.
concern for being near a Bluetooth access point.

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