102
E. Fraccaroli and D. Quaglia
PAN
LAN
MAN
WAN
Fig. 3.3 View of an IoT network at different physical sizes
If we observe communications from node’s perspective, the physical bitrate is the
number of bits injected into the physical link in the time unit. Instead, the amount
of data transferred in the time unit from the user’s perspective is named throughput
or data rate and is usually lower because of the overhead of protocols. The physical
bitrate is also known as wire speed even if in wireless communications, there is no
wire.
3.2.1.4 Network Size
The traditional classification among personal area network (PAN), local area
network (LAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), and wide area network (WAN)
should be specialized in case of IoT applications (Fig. 3.3). PAN involves nodes
less than one meter apart and can be deployed around a body or a machine. LAN
involves nodes spanning a private premise over a maximum range of 2–3 km; it is
used for ambient intelligence or factory automation. MAN regards nodes spanning
over a public city area and can be used to implement smart city applications.
WAN regards nodes distance of several kilometers in a public area. Usually PAN
and LAN use protocols optimized for short-range communications and exploiting
unlicensed radio frequencies, while MAN and WAN use protocols allowing longrange communications, most of them exploiting cellular network standards. In the
specific context of IoT, some special names have been derived from the previously
described acronyms. Low rate wireless PAN (LR-WPAN) is a term used in the
specific context of IEEE 802.15.4 3.3.4. Low-power WAN (LP-WAN) is a term
used in the context of LoRaWAN 3.3.9, LTE-M 3.3.17.5, and Sigfox 3.3.10.
E. Fraccaroli and D. Quaglia
PAN
LAN
MAN
WAN
Fig. 3.3 View of an IoT network at different physical sizes
If we observe communications from node’s perspective, the physical bitrate is the
number of bits injected into the physical link in the time unit. Instead, the amount
of data transferred in the time unit from the user’s perspective is named throughput
or data rate and is usually lower because of the overhead of protocols. The physical
bitrate is also known as wire speed even if in wireless communications, there is no
wire.
3.2.1.4 Network Size
The traditional classification among personal area network (PAN), local area
network (LAN), metropolitan area network (MAN), and wide area network (WAN)
should be specialized in case of IoT applications (Fig. 3.3). PAN involves nodes
less than one meter apart and can be deployed around a body or a machine. LAN
involves nodes spanning a private premise over a maximum range of 2–3 km; it is
used for ambient intelligence or factory automation. MAN regards nodes spanning
over a public city area and can be used to implement smart city applications.
WAN regards nodes distance of several kilometers in a public area. Usually PAN
and LAN use protocols optimized for short-range communications and exploiting
unlicensed radio frequencies, while MAN and WAN use protocols allowing longrange communications, most of them exploiting cellular network standards. In the
specific context of IoT, some special names have been derived from the previously
described acronyms. Low rate wireless PAN (LR-WPAN) is a term used in the
specific context of IEEE 802.15.4 3.3.4. Low-power WAN (LP-WAN) is a term
used in the context of LoRaWAN 3.3.9, LTE-M 3.3.17.5, and Sigfox 3.3.10.