A Review of Link Layer Protocols For Int
A Review of Link Layer Protocols For Int
A Review of Link Layer Protocols For Int
Raja Abdelmoumen
Higher Institute of Technological Studies of Sousse
ISET of Sousse, Tunisia
ABSTRACT this study, link layer protocols are classified into two groups
Internet of Things (IoT) consists of smart objects that defined according to their range coverage: short and long
communicate together, collect and exchange data. IoT has range following the work in [6].
now a wide range of domain applications such as industry, The rest of this paper is organized as follows. Section 2
logistics, healthcare, smart environment, as well as personal, expands a study of short range link layer protocols. A study of
social gaming robot, and smart city. The characteristics long range link layer protocols is presented in Section 3.
required by applications, such as coverage area, transmission Section 4 gives a comparison about short and long range IoT
data rate, and applicability, refer to the link layer designs of link layer protocols arising from their main characteristics.
protocols. This paper presents a study of proposed link layer Finally, Section 5 concludes this study.
protocols that are used in IoT grouped by short and long
distance coverage. For short range protocols, this article study 2. SHORT RANGE LINK LAYER
the following: Radio Frequency Identification (RFID), Near
Field Communication (NFC), Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE),
PROTOCOLS
Low-Rate Wireless Personal Area Networks (LR-WPANs), 2.1 RFID
Z-Wave and IEEE 802.11 a/b/g/n/ah. For the long range RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a radio frequency
protocols, Narrow Band IoT (NB-IoT), Long Term Evolution identification technology that allows identifying objects when
(LTE), Long Range Protocol (LoRa), and SigFox protocols they pass near a detector (antenna, terminal, smartphone,
are considered. A comparative study is performed for each tablet, etc.). An RFID system is basically composed of two
group of protocols, considering their characteristics in order to types of devices: the identified devices called RFID tags and
provide a guideline for researchers and application developers the device identifiers or readers. The RFID reader transmits a
to select the right communication protocol for different query signal to the tag and receives a reflected signal which in
applications. turn is passed to a specific computer application called the
Object-Naming Services (ONS) as is shown in Figure 1. An
General Terms ONS looks up the tag details from a database to identify
Internet and Distributed Computer Systems, Computer objects based on the reflected signals within a 10 cm to 200 m
Networks, Communication Protocols. range [7].
Keywords
IoT, communication protocols, short range protocols, long
range protocols, RFID, NFC, BLE, LR-WPANs, Z-Wave,
IEEE 802.11 ah, NB-IoT, LTE/LTE-A, LoRaWAN, Sigfox.
1. INTRODUCTION
With an accelerated rate, a large number of physical objects
are being connected to the Internet realizing the concept of the
Internet of Things (IoT) [1] [2]. Physical objects are smart and
they can connect, transfer information and make decisions on
behalf of the people. This new technology is called Fig 1: RFID system
connectivity for anything and it can connect anywhere,
anytime and anything. Different classifications of RFID systems can be made
according to the operating frequency, radio interface,
IoT communication technologies connect heterogeneous communication range or tag autonomy (completely passive,
objects to provide specific smart services. Typically, IoT semi-passive, and active).
applications include transport tracking, smart healthcare,
industrial automation, smart city and emergency. To provide There are two types of RFID standards: standards that manage
specific smart services, IoT objects should operate in different communications between tags, readers and information
environments with many constraints. Processing capability, systems and standards that manage the coding of information
lossy and noisy communication links and low power are in the tag memory. There are two international organizations
among these constraints. Therefore, the IoT implementation that are working on these standards: the joint ISO / IEC
requires communication protocols that can efficiently manage working group and GS1 Global. These independent
these constraints [3], [4], [5]. organizations work together and published standards are fully
compatible. The main standards produced are ISO/IEC 15961,
This article reviews and compares IoT link layer protocols in ISO/IEC 18000, ISO/IEC22000, etc.
order to provide a guideline for researchers and application
developers to select the right communication protocol without Evolution of smart UHF (Ultra High Frequencies) RFID tags
having to go through RFCs and the standard specifications. with embedded sensors and miniaturization of readers
Indeed, features such as range, date rate, power consumption, promotes this technology for high pervasive IoT ecosystems
license and security are important issues in the definition or [8]. Some of IoT applications using RFID include smart
the choice of a certain technology for a particular solution. In shopping, health care, national security and agriculture.
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Volume 182 – No. 46, March 2019
2.2 NFC build a complete network protocol stack for WSNs. Figure 2
NFC (Near Field Communication) is based on the ISO/IEC shows 6LowPAN and ZigBee protocol stack.
18092:2004 standard and this technology is created on the
RFID to enable a short-range communication (no more than
some centimeters). While NFC uses similar technology
principles in RFID, it is not only used for identification but
also for more elaborate two-way communication [9].
Each NFC tag has a unique identifier and can contain small
amount of data. This tag can be read only (similar to RFID
tags for identification purposes) or can be changed later by the
device .There are three main operating modes for NFC: card
emulation mode (passive mode), reader/writer mode (active
mode) and peer-to peer mode. NFC technology is extensively
used in mobile phones, industrial applications and contactless
payment systems. In the same way, NFC makes it easier to
connect, commission, and control IoT devices in different
environments like home, factory and the work.
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Volume 182 – No. 46, March 2019
frequency band, IEEE 802.11b and IEEE 802.11g for the 2.4 [35]. It operates on the 433MHz, 868MHz or 915MHz ISM
GHz frequency band. bands, depending on the region in which it is deployed. The
payload of each transmission can range from 2–255 octets,
IEEE 802.11ah standard [23], ratified in May 2017. 802.11ah and the data rate can reach up to 50 Kbps when channel
also called Low-Power Wi-Fi specifies a throughput up to 4 aggregation is employed. The modulation technique is a
Mbit/s in the ISM frequency band of 900 MHz. This new proprietary technology from Semtech.
standard supports a wide range of IoT applications while
being able to provide more energy efficiency, QoS, scalability LoRaWAN provides a medium access control mechanism,
(a large number of devices) and cost-effective solutions [24] enabling many end devices to communicate with a gateway
[25]. using the LoRa modulation. While the LoRa modulation is
proprietary, the LoRaWAN is an open standard being
3. LONG RANGE LINK LAYER developed by the LoRa Alliance.
PROTOCOLS The LoRaWAN specification defines three device types: class
3.1 Nb-IoT A, class B and class C. All LoRaWAN devices must
NB-IoT (Narrow Band Internet of Things) is a low-cost, low- implement Class A, whereas Class B and Class C are
power, wide-area cellular connectivity for the Internet of extensions to the specification of Class A devices. Figure 3
Things [26]. NB-IoT is developed by 3GPP (3rd Generation presents a representation of LoRa and LoRaWAN protocol
Partnership Project) to enable a wide range of cellular devices stacks as given in [6].
and services [27]. The 3GPP Rel-13, published in June 2016,
introduces NB-IoT. This system, based on Long Term
Evolution (LTE) technology, supports most LTE
functionalities, although with essential simplifications to
reduce device complexity. Further optimizations to increase
coverage, reduce overhead and reduce power consumption
while increasing capacity have been introduced as well. The
design objectives of NB-IoT include low complexity devices,
high coverage, long device battery life, and massive capacity.
Latency is relaxed although a delay budget of 10 seconds is
the target for exception reports [28]. Figure 3. LoRa and LoRaWAN protocol stack [6]
3.3 LoRa/LoRaWAN
LoRa (Long Range) is a long-range wireless communications
system, promoted by the LoRa Alliance. This system aims at
being used in long-lived battery-powered devices, where the
energy consumption is of paramount importance [32]. LoRa
refers to two distinct layers:
• A physical layer using the Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS)
[33] radio modulation technique
• A MAC layer protocol LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide-Area
Network) [34].
Figure 4. Sigfox and OSI stack
The LoRa physical layer, developed by Semtech, allows for
long-range, low-power and low-throughput communications
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Volume 182 – No. 46, March 2019
IEEE
RFID NFC BLE LR-WPANs Z-Wave
802.11 ah
ISO/IEC
ISO/IEC 14443, IEEE ITU G.9959 IEEE 802.11
Standard 15961,18000, IEEE 802.15.4
18092 802.15.1 ah
22000
106 Kb/s or
4 Mb/s
Data rate 4 Mb/s 212 Kb/s or 1 Mb/s 250 kb/s 9 -40 kb/s
424 Kb/s
<10 mW -
Transmission
1.5 mW 23 dBm 0-10 dBm 0-20dBm 0 dBm <1W (local
power regulations)
BPSK, QPSK,
Proximity Field O-QPSK
Transmission GFSK FSK 16-QAM, 64-
Modulation ASK GFSK
Technique FHSS Star GFSK QAM, 256-
Induced Pulse BPSK
QAM, OFDM
Point to Point
Star – Bus
Topology Point to Peer-to-Peer Mesh Mesh Star
Network
Multipoint
8 to 47
Packet length 16-64 Kb Variable 100 bytes 255 bits 100 bytes
bytes
Clandestine
Encryption
Tracking and
Cryptographic,
Security Inventorying EPC AES-128 AES-128 AES-128 WPA
Secure Channel,
Discovery
Key Agreements
Service
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Volume 182 – No. 46, March 2019
Payment, Multimedia
Tracking,
Healthcare, data Home and M2M, V2V
Identification, Automation in
Common Smart exchange industry applications
Human residential and
Applications Environment, between monitoring and and smart
Implantation light commercial
Mobile Ticketing nearby controlling grids
and loyalty nodes
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Volume 182 – No. 46, March 2019
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International Journal of Computer Applications (0975 – 8887)
Volume 182 – No. 46, March 2019
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