How LPWAN Technologies Are Expanding the Reach of IoT Sensors

Operating on bandwidths below 5 MHz, protocols like NarrowBand-IoT (NB-IoT), Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN), and LTE for Machines (LTE-M) can handle data packets between 10 and 1000 bytes, with speeds topping out around 200 Kbps. This lean design significantly lowers power consumption, enabling some devices to last up to a decade on a single battery. That’s a major advantage for sensors located in hard-to-access places, like underground water meters or remote farmland.^1,2,3

LPWANs also incorporate advanced power-saving features. Modes like Power Saving Mode (PSM) and extended Discontinuous Reception (eDRX) allow devices to remain in low-power sleep states for hours or even days, dramatically reducing average current consumption.

LPWAN also has a technical edge when it comes to coverage. Operating on sub-1 GHz frequencies, LPWAN signals penetrate obstacles like concrete and soil far more effectively than higher-frequency cellular signals. This means reliable connectivity even in tough locations like basements, utility tunnels, or underground parking structures. The combination of long range, low power draw, and resilience makes LPWAN a compelling choice for scalable, distributed sensor networks.^2,3

Real-World Applications of LPWAN

LPWAN technologies are transforming various sectors by facilitating sensor deployments that were once considered impractical or economically unfeasible.

1. Large-Scale Utility Management

The utility industry has embraced LPWAN more than any other, accounting for over a third of all global LPWAN deployments. It solves a key problem: utility meters are often located in basements, pits, or remote areas where connectivity is tough.

• Japan: NICIGAS upgraded 850,000 gas meters using Sigfox
• France: Birdz connected 3 million water meters with LoRaWAN
• Sweden: Over 2 million electricity meters now run on NB-IoT and LTE-M⁴

These deployments don’t just improve billing accuracy; they enable leak detection, load forecasting, and remote diagnostics, feeding into broader energy and water efficiency strategies..⁴

2. Smart Infrastructure

In urban environments, LPWAN brings scalability without the density costs of traditional wireless. It’s more than just about connecting one smart device—it’s about managing thousands of them citywide.

Take street lighting as an example. With LPWAN-connected nodes, cities can dynamically dim lights based on traffic or weather conditions and pinpoint faults instantly. This slashes energy costs by 30–60 % and removes the guesswork from maintenance scheduling.³

Similarly, NB-IoT-based water meters buried in basements now send daily data without needing a technician to physically access them, transforming how cities monitor usage, detect anomalies, and plan infrastructure improvements.³

3. Industrial IoT (IIoT)

Manufacturing plants are full of moving parts, and unplanned downtime is expensive. LPWAN, particularly LTE-M, enables predictive maintenance by providing low-latency telemetry on critical variables like:

• Vibration (bearing wear)
• Temperature (overheating risks)
• Power draw (mechanical strain)

Unlike LoRa or Sigfox, LTE-M can support two-way communication and real-time thresholds, making it suitable for responsive industrial applications. These sensors can flag problems hours or even days before they cascade into failures.⁵

The means decision-making precision. LPWAN gives operators the right signals, at the right time, without needing an Ethernet cable or a Wi-Fi overhaul.

4. Precision Agriculture

Agriculture presents a unique challenge for connectivity: vast, open areas with limited infrastructure, where power and cellular coverage are inconsistent. That’s where LPWAN technologies, particularly LoRaWAN, have become a key enabler.

Farmers are now deploying sensor networks across fields to track real-time environmental conditions—soil moisture, temperature, nutrient levels, and even microclimates. These sensors are often powered by small solar panels or high-efficiency batteries, requiring no maintenance for years at a time. Because LoRaWAN supports long-range transmission—up to 15 kilometers in rural environments—data can be relayed to a single gateway for aggregation and analysis.

What makes this approach effective is its scalability and autonomy. Instead of sending technicians to monitor conditions or irrigate manually, farms can now automate those decisions based on data, resulting in better yields, lower water usage, and fewer inputs overall. It’s a low-bandwidth network solving a high-impact problem.⁵

5. Emergency Response

Reliability isn’t optional when safety is involved—and that’s where LPWAN’s long-range and high-penetration signal characteristics become critical.

A 2023 study published in Sensors detailed an LPWAN-based emergency system for visually impaired users in smart buildings.⁶ Each user wears a device with a panic button; when pressed, it sends an alert including the user’s ID and location via LoRa to a gateway, which then relays it to caregivers or family members.

What stands out isn’t just the simplicity; it’s the performance. The system demonstrated a 98 % success rate, even in dense indoor environments with heavy signal interference. For life-critical systems that can’t afford dead zones or battery failure, LPWAN offers both reach and reliability.

6. Logistics and Asset Tracking

Asset tracking often means managing devices that move across countries, oceans, and networks. LPWAN’s long battery life and low data requirements make it ideal for tracking high-value assets without frequent charging or maintenance.

For instance, DHL has deployed Sigfox-based trackers on 250,000 roll cages in Germany. MaxTrack in Brazil uses LoRa to monitor nearly a million vehicles.⁴ These devices track location, but also detect tampering, delays, and environmental conditions like temperature or shock.

In this context, LPWAN increases accountability, reduces losses, and tightens control over distributed operations.

7. Campus and Infrastructure Management

For large institutions like universities, ports, or industrial parks, public wireless infrastructure may not be flexible or secure enough. That’s why some are turning to private LPWAN networks to build their own low-power backbones.

At the National University of Misiones in Argentina, for example, a LoRaWAN testbed was deployed across the campus in Posadas to manage infrastructure, monitor environmental conditions, and test real-world IoT applications.⁷

Private LPWAN networks allow organizations to control data access, customize network parameters, and avoid monthly connectivity fees, while supporting years-long deployments that don’t require constant upkeep.

Beyond Reach: How LPWAN Thrives in Challenging Environments

The wide range of LPWAN applications relies on one key characteristic: the ability to maintain reliable connectivity in places where other networks simply can’t.

Whether it’s a water meter buried beneath a city sidewalk or a structural sensor embedded deep inside a bridge, LPWAN’s physical signal characteristics are what make these deployments possible. This is where the technology’s design advantages come into sharp focus.

Urban and Indoor Penetration

One of LPWAN’s defining strengths is its ability to maintain connections in dense, complex, or obstructed environments. Traditional wireless systems, especially Wi-Fi and cellular, often degrade rapidly when signals encounter concrete, steel, or underground placement. This leads to dead zones in precisely the kinds of locations where sensors are most needed: parking garages, basements, utility tunnels, and underground vaults.

LPWAN’s approach is fundamentally different. By operating at sub-GHz frequencies and using highly efficient modulation schemes, technologies like Sigfox and LoRa can achieve link budgets up to 160 dB, far surpassing what 4G or Wi-Fi can manage.^2,3 This allows signals to penetrate multiple layers of dense material or travel several meters below ground without significant loss.

That level of resilience enables critical urban IoT functions:

• Structural health monitoring, where sensors inside bridges or tunnels continuously transmit data on stress, load, and corrosion
• Underground utility metering, where traditional network access is impractical
• Smart parking systems, with embedded sensors that help drivers locate open spots, easing traffic congestion and cutting idle emissions

Rather than building connectivity workarounds, LPWAN makes it possible to embed connectivity directly into the infrastructure, no matter how buried or shielded it may be.⁵

Security Challenges and Evolving Protections

As LPWAN deployments scale, so do the risks. Security has become a central concern, especially given the limited processing power and memory of many IoT edge devices. These constraints can prevent the use of robust encryption, leaving some systems open to attack.

Several vulnerabilities have already been documented. For instance:

• In some Sigfox-based systems, unencrypted downlink messages have allowed for command injection.
• Early versions of LoRaWAN were found to reuse session keys, increasing exposure to spoofing attacks.

Additionally, jamming and replay attacks can be executed using inexpensive hardware, disrupting device communication and system integrity. The good news is that the security landscape is evolving.⁸

• NB-IoT and LTE-M, which operate over licensed spectrum, include cellular-grade encryption and SIM-based authentication.
• Newer LoRaWAN specifications support layered encryption and network-level protections.
• Trusted Platform Modules (TPMs) are being deployed to manage cryptographic keys securely on constrained devices.
• And ongoing research is developing lightweight intrusion detection systems tailored for LPWAN environments.

Securing LPWAN networks isn’t just about protecting data—it’s about ensuring the reliability of systems that may control infrastructure, safety devices, and environmental monitoring tools.

What’s Next: 5G RedCap and the Road to 6G

The future of LPWAN isn’t isolated—it’s converging with cellular technologies. One key development is 5G RedCap (Reduced Capability), a profile that offers a middle ground between the high throughput of full 5G and the efficiency of LPWAN.

RedCap supports download speeds up to 150 Mbps while maintaining low power usage, making it a strong fit for emerging use cases like high-resolution asset tracking, factory-based video monitoring, and situational awareness in mobile robotics.⁹

Looking further ahead, the evolution toward 6G includes the goal of unifying LPWAN protocols under a global framework. Nokia and other industry leaders are pushing for standards that will make LPWAN devices more interoperable, easier to deploy, and better equipped for global-scale challenges like disaster response, ecosystem monitoring, and smart infrastructure.¹

Conclusion

LPWAN has become one of the most important technologies enabling modern IoT. Its ability to operate efficiently across large areas, in hard-to-reach locations, and on minimal power makes it ideal for deploying the kinds of systems that cities, industries, and environmental initiatives increasingly rely on.

With nearly 19 billion IoT devices in use as of 2024—and projections reaching close to 40 billion by 2030—the role of LPWAN will only grow. From tracking glacier melt to managing water consumption to keeping autonomous systems connected, LPWAN will continue to be the invisible infrastructure behind smarter, more responsive systems.

Want to Explore Related Topics?

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References and Further Reading

1. Low Power Wide Area connectivity in 6G: Standardization sharpens the edge of IoT. (2025). Nokia.com. https://www.nokia.com/blog/low-power-wide-area-connectivity-in-6g-standardization-sharpens-the-edge-of-iot/
2. A Brief Guide to Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN). Velos. https://info.velosiot.com/a-brief-guide-to-low-power-wide-area-network
3. How Low Power Wide Area Networks Are Enabling IoT Systems. (2020). Altium. https://resources.altium.com/p/low-power-wide-area-networks-enabling-iot-systems
4. Pasqua, E. (2020). 5 things to know about the LPWAN market in 2020. IoT Analytics. https://iot-analytics.com/5-things-to-know-about-the-lpwan-market-in-2020/
5. Islam, M. et al. (2024). Future Industrial Applications: Exploring LPWAN-Driven IoT Protocols. Sensors, 24(8), 2509. DOI:10.3390/s24082509. https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/8/2509
6. Safi, H. et al. (2023). Design and Evaluation of a Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN)-Based Emergency Response System for Individuals with Special Needs in Smart Buildings. Sensors, 24(11), 3433. DOI:10.3390/s24113433. https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/24/11/3433
7. Sosa, E. O., & Sosa, M. E. (2023). Empowering IoT Development with LPWAN Technology: A Case Study at the National University of Misiones. Revista de Ciencia y Tecnología, (40), 57–65. DOI:10.36995/j.recyt.2023.40.007. https://www.redalyc.org/journal/3826/382679680007/html/
8. Stanco, G. et al. (2024). A comprehensive survey on the security of low power wide area networks for the Internet of Things. ICT Express, 10(3), 519-552. DOI:10.1016/j.icte.2024.03.003. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405959524000274
9. Sinha, S. (2024). State of IoT 2024: Number of connected IoT devices growing 13% to 18.8 billion globally. IoT Analytics. https://iot-analytics.com/number-connected-iot-devices/

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