Modelling the energy consumption for over-the-air software updates in LPWAN networks: SigFox, LoRa and IEEE 802.15.4g

The recent trend towards the use of low-power wide-area-networks (LPWAN) communication technologies in the Internet of Things such as SigFox, Lora and Weightless gives rise to promising applications in smart grids, smart city, smart logistics, etc. where tens of thousands of sensors in a large area are connected to a single gateway. However, to manage such a sheer number of deployed devices, solutions to provide over-the-air firmware updates are required. This paper analyses the feasibility of over-the-air (partial) software updates for three LPWAN technologies (LoRa, SigFox and IEEE-802.15.4g) and discusses the best suited update method for different scenarios: full system updates, application updates and network stack updates.