Utilities
He adds that one thing that needs to be considered is
that while in this trial, interference is unlikely to be an issue,
given its remote location, the same might not be true of
an urban environment. As Sigfox, LoRa and Wi-SUN use
licence-exempt spectrum, they offer no protection against
interference, in contrast to 3GPP LPWA technologies such as
NB-IoT and LTE-M.
Smye also notes that Vodafone is working with Scottish
Power to use NB-IoT to monitor link boxes. “Their trial is
using a temperature sensor in each link box to give Scottish
Power time to investigate and fix any problem before the
equipment gets damage.” As reported by Light Reading, Scott
Petty, Vodafone’s CTO, put the cost of each sensor at less than
€2 and these run on an AA battery for at least five years.
In addition to the applications above, it is also worth noting
the pressure on utilities to use digital technologies, especially
to help ensure resilience of supply in the context of increasing
use of intermittent renewable energy sources. Smye adds
that BEIS (the UK Department for Business, Energy and
Industrial Strategy) is pursuing an open data concept for the
country’s utilities – “they were talking massive numbers and
that’s driving the need for cost-effective measurement of more
and more points that wouldn’t previously be economic”. Smye
says Ofgem (the UK Office of Gas and Electricity Markets)
said the investigations into the power outages that occurred
on 9 August have highlighted the need for more monitoring
and logging in different parts of the network, given that power
generation is becoming more dynamic with greater numbers of
embedded generation and wind farms on the system.
The white paper evaluates the suitability of five LPWA
technologies – three 3GPP (EC-GSM, NB-IoT and LTE-M
– which would typically be provided by a mobile network
operator, using their spectrum) and two non-3GPP (Sigfox
and LoRa) for non-mission-critical SCADA (supervisory
control and data acquisition). Smye adds that Wi-SUN (an
LPWA technology with links to the utility sector) was initially
investigated but removed from the white paper’s scope due to
the lack of the SCADA Group’s direct experience with it and
the lack of independent information with which to verify that
on the Wi-SUN Alliance website.
The white paper concludes that all five of the LPWA
technologies that it analysed are potentially suitable for
generic non-mission-critical applications, the only caveat
The sensors are so sensitive that
they can detect a sheep rubbing
against the pole. That’s a really
interesting approach
being that in the case of Sigfox, “the suitability of the security
mechanisms will be very much application-dependent”. Smye
adds that “Sigfox is a closed cloud-based system, you have to
put in a system from Sigfox or one of its associate operators.
The beauty of LoRa is that you can build your own network
or use someone else’s service.”
The white paper adds: “In terms of longevity there is
a question as to whether all of the current IoT bearers/
operators will survive in the longer term given the likely fierce
competition from incumbent mobile network operators and
the price criticality of the IoT service for applications with
very large numbers of connected ‘things’.”
Finally, we turn to 5G – which will support one million
devices per square kilometre. Smye says that in the context of
non-mission-critical SCADA, the capacity offered by 4G is
acceptable, and that “5G is never going to provide ubiquitous
coverage, save possibly in the form of satellite connectivity
that will come in the future. 5G may be useful in urban areas
and it will support the natural growth of the market, rather
than cause an explosion in the volumes of IoT devices.”
Given the IoT concept revolves around small amounts of
data being delivered on a best-effort basis, he doesn’t expect
5G’s massive IoT capabilities to result in a huge growth
in data consumption per IoT in the short term, “unless it
becomes cheap and practical to increase the polling rate on
IoT devices from, say, once an hour to once a minute”.
“One of the interesting things about 5G when we’re talking
about lots of devices is how will SIMs and over-the-air SIM
management be handled? This will be addressed in 3GPP
Release 16 and, while it’s a challenge, I’m not sensing it
holding anyone back at the moment,” he adds.
We have seen that IoT can help address utilities’ practical
challenges as the world slowly transitions to a less carbonintensive
energy mix. With plenty of technology options and
business models to choose from, it will be interesting to see
which make the most headway in the years to come.
Comparison of IoT bearers
Metric LTE R8 NB-IoT LTE-M EC-GSM LoRa Sigfox
Battery life X ü ü ü ü ü
Device density X ü ü ü ü ü ü
Security ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ?
Throughput ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ?
QoS N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A N/A
Resilience ü ü ü ü ü ü
Spectrum ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü ü
Latency ü ü ü ü ü ü
Coverage X ü ü ü ü ü
Cost X ü ü ü ü ü ü
Longevity ü ü ü ? ? ?
October 2019 @CritCommsToday 33