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After the read, you will learn about what are the differences between Lora vs Zigbee.

What is the result of Lora vs ZigBee?

ZigBee is a low-power local area network protocol based on the IEEE802.15.4 standard. Lora is one of the LPWAN communication technologies. Lora vs ZigBee, Which one is better?

In the following, we will discuss the LoRa vs ZigBee differences, Comprehensive analysis of the technology of LoRa vs ZigBee.

LoRa technology in Lora vs ZigBee

Introduction to LoRa

There are many kinds of wireless technologies in the application of the Internet of Things, which can form a local area network or a wide area network. The wireless technologies that make up the local area network mainly include 2.4GHz WiFi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, etc., and the wireless technologies that make up the wide-area network mainly include 2G/3G/4G, etc.

These wireless technologies have obvious advantages and disadvantages, which can be summarized in the following figure. Before the Low Power, Wide Area Network (LPWAN) came into being, it seemed that there was only one choice between long-distance and low-power consumption. After adopting LPWAN technology, designers can do both, maximizing the realization of longer-distance communication and lower power consumption, while also saving additional repeater costs.

Lora is a kind of LPWAN communication technology, and it is an ultra-long-distance wireless transmission scheme based on spread spectrum technology adopted and promoted by Semtech. This solution changes the previous compromise between transmission distance and power consumption and provides users with a simple system that can achieve long distance, long battery life, and large capacity, and expand the sensor network.

LoRa technology has the characteristics of long-distance, low power consumption (long battery life), multiple nodes, and low cost.

At present, LoRa mainly operates in free frequency bands around the world, including 433MHz, 868MHz, 915MHz, and so on. The main frequency band in China is 470MHz, 902-928MHz in other parts of Asia, 868 MHz in Europe, and 915 MHz in America.

Lora advantages

Long communication distance (suitable for a radius of 500m~2km, and a communication distance greater than 7000 kilometers, which solves the problems:

Low power consumption and long distance), long battery life optimized for low power consumption (connect only when the Aloha method has data, battery Working for several years);

low cost (unlicensed spectrum, the lowest cost in long-distance communication, outdoor without network), centralized low frequency, a small number (non-video);

long-distance data transmission (and sensor integration), networking Convenient and stable (compared to 2.4GHz and Bluetooth, WiFi, and other technologies);

Anti-interference (there is the function of LBT in the protocol, based on the aloha method, there is an automatic frequency jump and rate adaptation function).

Disadvantages of LoRa module

Spectrum interference

The development momentum of LoRa is very good. With the increase of LoRa equipment and network deployment, there will be a certain amount of spectrum interference between each other.

A new network is needed

During the LoRa deployment process, it is necessary to build new signal towers, industrial base stations, and even portable home gateways (to solve the problem of high concurrency, a strong ability to receive information is required to meet the requirements of a large number of nodes. Gateways often use multiple simultaneous transmitters and receivers. Meet the requirements of the star network structure).

Base station under construction

Low rate, LoRAWAN current domestic standard supports 292bps-5.4kbps

If Lorawan is certified, it will cost more than 3,000 dollars.

Application scenarios & suitable fields

Applications in the field of smart cities include energy management, smart buildings, smart production, smart agriculture, etc.

Agricultural Information

Smart meter reading

Logistics

ZigBee technology in Lora vs ZigBee

What is Zigbee?

ZigBee is a low-power local area network protocol based on the IEEE802.15.4 standard.

ZigBee technology is a short-distance, low-complexity, low-power, low-speed, and low-cost two-way wireless communication technology.

It is mainly used for data transmission between various electronic devices with short distances, low power consumption, and low transmission rates, as well as typical applications with periodic data, intermittent data, and low response time data transmission.

ZigBee is a wireless connection that can work on three frequency bands: 2.4GHz (popular in the world), 868 MHz (popular in Europe), and 915 MHz (popular in the United States), with transmissions of up to 250kbit/s, 20kbit/s, and 40kbit/s respectively Speed, its transmission distance is in the range of 10-75m, but it can continue to increase.

Zigbee features

As a wireless communication technology, ZigBee has the following characteristics.

Low power consumption

Due to the low transmission rate of ZigBee, the transmission power is only 1mW, and the sleep mode is adopted, and the power consumption is low, so ZigBee devices are very power-saving. It is estimated that the ZigBee device can last up to 6 months to 2 years with only two AA batteries, which are unmatched by other wireless devices.

Low cost

The initial cost of the ZigBee module is about US$6, and it is estimated that it will soon be reduced to US$1.5-2.5, and the ZigBee protocol is royalty-free. Low cost is also a key factor for ZigBee.

Short delay

The communication delay and the delay of activation from the dormant state are both very short. The typical search device delay is 30ms, the dormant activation delay is 15ms, and the active device channel access delay is 15ms. Therefore, ZigBee technology is suitable for wireless control (such as industrial control occasions, etc.) applications with demanding delay requirements.

Large network capacity

A star-shaped Zigbee network can accommodate up to 254.

With one slave device and one master device, up to 100 ZigBee networks can exist simultaneously in an area, and the network composition is flexible.

Reliability

A collision avoidance strategy is adopted, and a dedicated time slot is reserved for communication services that require a fixed bandwidth to avoid contention and conflicts in sending data. The MAC layer adopts a fully confirmed data transmission mode, and each data packet sent must wait for the receiver’s confirmation information. If there is a problem during transmission, it can be retransmitted.

Security

ZigBee provides a data packet integrity check function based on cyclic redundancy check (CRC), supports authentication and authentication, and adopts an AES-128 encryption algorithm. Each application can flexibly determine its security attributes.

After the read of the Lora vs Zigbee, do you get the difference between Lora vs Zigbee? If you still have any questions about Lora vs Zigbee, please write us.

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