Both Lora and WIFI are commonly used communication technologies in IoT applications. LoRa, known as Long Range Radio, is an ultra-long-range, low-power wireless standard proposed by Semtech LoRa. It mainly operates on global free frequency bands such as 433, 868, 915 MHZ, etc. While WIFI, also known as “Mobile Hotspot”, is a trademark of the WiFi Alliance manufacturer, and is a wireless LAN technology based on the IEEE802.11 standard. The main differences between the two features can be seen in transmission rate, range, power consumption, security, and usage scenarios.
1. Transmission rate
LoRa has a low transmission rate, mainly affected by the frequency bandwidth, up to 50 Kbps. WIFI achieves very high data rates, usually between 100 Mbps and 1 Gbps. If you need to transmit a large amount of data or at high speeds, WIFI will be more appropriate.
2. Transmission range
LoRa can realize long-distance transmission, and the actual communication distance can easily reach more than 10 kilometers. It has a maximum communication distance of up to 15 kilometers in an optimal environment without barriers. Compared to LoRa, WIFI has a much shorter transmission range. Indoor WIFI transmission distance is between 10-100 meters, and outdoor can reach hundreds of meters.
3. Power consumption
LoRa adopts spread spectrum modulation technology, which reduces the signal-to-noise ratio requirement at the receiving end by expanding the signal bandwidth, thus realizing low-power communication. The current of LoRa in the receiving state is 12mA, and when the transmitting power is 14dBm, the current is about 32mA. When it enters into the Sleep state, the current consumption is less than 1μA, and the power consumption of LoRa is usually up to about 1 W. WIFI is relatively more power-consuming, and when it is not connected to the Internet, the power consumption of WIFI can reach hundreds of meters outdoors. WIFI is relatively more power consuming, with a power consumption of 2.6W when no device is connected, and up to about 30 W. LoRa has a considerable advantage over WIFI in terms of power consumption.
4. Security
LoRa provides data integrity checking and authentication, supports AES-128 encryption and two independent security layers, a network session secret key (NwkSKey) and a session secret key (AppSKey), which gives it an advantage in security.
Although Wifi helps us to access the Internet and have unlimited resources on the Internet, it also brings many security risks. One is from network attacks and the other is from network traps. For example, malicious phishing websites, access attacks, DoS and DDoS attacks, etc., which need to rely on other security measures to guarantee its security.
5. Application Scenarios
LoRa technology is designed for low power consumption and long-distance transmission and can be used in private networks. It is mainly used in large-area sensor application scenarios and outdoor scenarios, such as smart cities, smart firefighting, smart agriculture, and other scenarios.
WIFI wireless technology is mainly designed for mobile devices to access LAN and WAN and the Internet. The links and settings between devices are quite complex and are usually used in high-speed data transmission scenarios. Such as smart homes, wearable devices, public places, and other scenes.
In conclusion, LoRa and WIFI are both mature wireless connection technologies with their own advantages and disadvantages. Enterprises can choose the most suitable technology for networking according to their own business needs and scenario requirements to enhance the development level of industry intelligence and wisdom.