In a prior post, we showed that the Internet of Things (IoT) offers a simple and scalable business case that is best served by Low-Power Wide Area (LPWA) wireless connectivity. In this post we’ll discuss why LPWA is the foundation of the IoT as a technical and business solution.

The L in LPWA

Why all the fuss over LPWA? It helps to start with the ‘L’ (and ‘P’ really) in LPWA. ‘Low power’ reflects the fact that technologies qualifying for the designation are able to consume very little battery power over very long periods of time. As an example (and maybe tooting our own horn a little), Ingenu in partnership with WellAware, supports a digital oilfield application with a battery consumption level that yields performance over 20 years.

But ‘Low power’ is really a manifestation of a much broader and more universal problem wireless connectivity needs to solve for the IoT: longevity.

Longevity is defined as long life expectancy or in terms of technology: a long device life cycle. As applied to wireless technology, longevity means the wireless tech should allow for, and further, enable, a long device life cycle. And long means something different to IoT devices than it does to typical consumer handheld devices. If you have a smart phone older than two years, or even one year, your device is often seen as “old” technology. But for most IoT applications, like those enabling the smart city, the device life cycle is 10 to 20 years or more. For instance, it doesn’t make sense to replace the wireless module in smart streetlights every few years. Once placed, devices supporting infrastructure and enterprise assets need to be left alone in order to gain the cost efficiencies they offer. It simply costs too much to send someone out in a truck every couple of years to tinker with the things.

RPMA is the only viable wireless technology for providing the truck-roll-eliminating benefits of LPWA. Find out what makes it so great, attend our webinar, How RPMA Works.