Sigfox based Internet of Things: Technology, Measurements and Development

Nowadays, Internet of Things (IoT) has emerged as a powerful platform for solving everyday problems. In order to make our life easier and more efficient, the physical objects which surround us have to become smarter. Also, due to saving of valuable economic and human resources when IoT is used, it becomes important for both household and industrial sectors to incorporate IoT products one way or another in their applications. In the new global economy, IoT is expected to save billions of dollars in the near future. The concept of IoT was developed to connect billions of low power devices over a large area commonly referred as low power wide area network (LPWAN). Because of its scalability, low cost, and high security, IoT is becoming a highly popular technology nowadays. LPWAN has various technologies, and the most leading ones are: Sigfox, NB-IoT, and LoRa. Sigfox was first developed as a proprietary standard IoT protocol in Toulouse, France in the year 2009. The first part of the thesis addresses the concept of IoT and why is it so important in the present world. In addition, the first part encompasses the most common IoT protocols and their features. Furthermore, first part describes some IoT applications and its impact on global economy. The second part of the thesis concentrates in depth on Sigfox-based IoT protocol. Also, the second part comprises technical details of Sigfox protocol, systems architecture, and most importantly issues related to Sigfox radio network planning and implementation. The third part of the thesis describes the Thinxtra Xkit device which is a prototyping platform for Sigfox network. In the third part, the Xkit device was used to evaluate Sigfox network performance in Tampere University (TAU), Hervanta campus area. All measurements presented in the third part were evaluated with the help of MATLAB, also they were illustrated through heat maps for further performance analysis. Finally, this thesis proposes a way to integrate Sigfox network with other similar network technologies. Also, the final part suggests some possible ways to develop Sigfox network in terms of Quality of Service (QoS). Keywords: IoT, Low Power Wide Area Networks, Sigfox