When deploying and maintaining an IoT fleet, one of the most important decisions you'll make is your choice in connectivity. It impacts the battery life, roaming location, and overall reliability of your devices.

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MV provide two of the most popular IoT connectivity options, LoRaWAN and NB-IoT. 

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LoRaWAN

LoRaWAN is an IoT connectivity solution built to keep battery-powered devices connected to the internet. Rather than concentrating high-bandwidth connectivity in a smaller range, it covers a larger range at the cost of smaller data packets.

Since IoT devices generally only need to send small packets of data periodically, it is well suited to this purpose.

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Users can take advantage of LoRaWAN's long-lasting battery life to set-and-forget outdoor IoT devices, as it will help reduce the maintenance involved. And while it can work in some indoor settings, it's best not to use LoRaWAN in dense environments.

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LoRaWAN consumes less energy overall

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LoRaWAN is better in terms of power consumption. Users can get up to 15+ years of battery life from devices connected to a LoRaWAN network. NB-IoT, on the other hand, only offers 10+.

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This reduced power consumption also makes LoRaWAN ideal for devices that require higher refresh rates, as it will minimise the impact these higher refresh rates have on your battery usage.

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NB-IoT

Short for Narrow-Band IoT, NB-IoT is another connectivity solution specifically designed for the IoT sector. It helps keep small, low-power, short-range, low-data devices connected to the internet

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NB-IoT provides better coverage and lower latency

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While NB-IoT doesn't fare as well with battery life, it does provide better coverage and latency overall. You'll be able to deploy in more areas with less effort.

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And thanks to NB-IoT's low latency, you can send larger packets of data faster. So for devices that need to transmit a larger or more consistent data stream, NB-IoT is the way to go.

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