Wireless RF Modules and dongles for IoT | Coral RF

Sigfox technology was developed by a French company, whose name is also SIGFOX. At present, it has implemented network deployment in 19 countries, including San Francisco in the United States. At present, the network coverage area is 1.2 million square kilometers, which is also the technical leader in this field. The company announced that it would continue to deploy this technology in the United States in May, involving as many as 100 cities. The frequency range of Sigfox network technology is 868 MHz or 915 MHz. It uses binary phase shift keying (BPSK) format to transmit very small data packets, and the transmission rate is also very low (300 b/s). Sigfox can realize long-distance network coverage and general functional features, and is suitable for various Internet of Things (IoT) application scenarios with small data volume.

Sigfox network technology uses ultra narrow band modulation technology. A single base station can transmit network messages as far as more than 1000 kilometers. Each base station allows up to 1 million IoT device terminals. Each data packet has only 12 bytes, and each terminal can only transmit 140 network messages per day, which is sufficient for many applications of this kind.

Sigfox basic information

Rate	100 bps
Frequency	868MHz, 915Mhz
Distance	1-50km
Output power	<100mW
Application	Smart home, Gas meter, Water meter

Sigfox technical features

From the perspective of access network, the licensing free ISM radio frequency band with Sigfox technology working below 1GHz has different frequencies according to national regulations. 868MHz is widely used in Europe, and 915MHz is used in the United States. Each carrier occupies 100Hz. Sigfox has two-way communication function. Communication is usually easy to be transmitted from the terminal to the base station. However, its performance is limited from the base station to the terminal, because the receiving sensitivity of the terminal is not as good as that of the base station

Technically, SigFox has the characteristics of low cost and low power consumption. When it comes to cost, we must consider the UNB technology adopted by Sigfox, which can only process 10 to 1000 bits of data per second and can support thousands of connections. The cost of the network based on this technology is far lower than that of the traditional cellular network, and the 900MHz wireless band occupied by the network does not need to be authorized in the United States. When telecom operators prefer to deploy short wave technology to maximize data carrying, SigFox goes the other way, using the longest wave band. Sigfox network devices consume only 50 microwatts to 100 microwatts of power. In comparison, mobile phone communication requires about 5000 microwatts. This means that the maximum length of each message of the device connected to the Sigfox network is about 12 bytes, and each device can not send more than 140 messages every day. In terms of coverage, the company hopes its network can cover 1000 kilometers and each base station can handle one million objects.