Wireless technology selection : Which wireless band to use ?

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Building wireless devices is one of the most interesting task within the Maker community. It feels magical when we can control device wirelessly, in fact most of the IOT applications utilize a wireless protocol in the IOT ecosystem.

So, if you want to make a wireless device, how do you begin ?

The first question would be which frequency I can use  ? Well, to answer this query you need to choose one of the unlicensed ISM band as you do not want to select a licensed frequency and seek approvals from the Telecom regulatory and end up paying high fees.

Now that you have selected the frequency band, you need to select which wireless protocol to use ? There are many protocols like Wi Fi, Bluetooth, RFID, NFC, Zigbee, Thread, LoRA etc…

To help you select the wireless protocol, I have made the below table which can provide you a quick reference guide.

FreQuency

Distance

Data Rate

Protocol

Applications

2.4Ghz

100m

3Mbps

Bluetooth Classic

Wireless headsets, Speakers, Soundbars etc.

2.4Ghz

200m-400m

2Mbps

Bluetooth Low energy

Heath monitor, wearables, personal electronics, asset tracking etc.

2.4Ghz

10m-100m

250Kbps

Zigbee

Zigbee smart energy, Home energy monitors, Embedded sensors etc.

2.4Ghz

20m-30m

250Kbps

Thread

Home automation, electronic locks, Connected home over IP etc.

2.4Ghz/5Ghz

200m

72Mbps

WiFi

Laptops, Smartphones, Tablets, etc.

2.4Ghz

100m

250kbps

LoWPAN

Smart grid, Industrial monitoring, Home automation etc.

Sub 1Ghz

1600m

500Kbps

Proprietary

Wireless Remote Controls, metering, smoke detectors etc.

2.4Ghz

30m

60kbps

ANT/ANT+

Sports and fitness wearables etc.

2.4Ghz

1600m

2Mbps

Proprietary

Drone Remote Control.

Sub 1Ghz

10Km

27Kbps

LoRa

Utility meter, Smart parking, IOT sensors, Disaster prediction etc.

125 Khz

3 - 5 feet

8 kbps

RFID

Access control, Inventory control, animal tagging, car immobilizer.

13.56 Mhz

< 30 cm

848 kbps

RFID,NFC

Smart cards, proximity cards, payment.

433 Mhz

300m

High read speed - large data

RFID

Asset tracking, Container tracking.

860 Mhz - 960 Mhz

10m

High read speed- small data

RFID

Pallet tracking or case tracking.

2.4 Ghz - 5.4 Ghz

100m

High read speed-medium data

RFID

Container Rail Car, Auto Road Tolls, Pallet tracking.

Which frequency to use ?

The choice of frequency depends upon various factors however one basic approach is to select based on the Telecom regulatory directives which may vary for each country.

The below table shows an example of the unlicensed frequencies under the ISM band :

 

Frequency Range

Bandwidth

Center frequency

region

6.765 - 6.975 MHz

0.03 MHz

6.78 MHz

Local

13.553 - 13.567 MHz

0.014 MHz

13.56 MHz

Global

26.957 - 27.283 MHz

0.326 MHz

27.18 MHz

Global

40.66 - 40.7 MHz

0.04 MHz

40.68 MHz

Global

433.05 - 434.79 MHz

1.74 MHz

433.92 MHz

Europe, Africa, Russia

902 - 928 MHz

26 MHz

915 MHz

Americas

2400 - 2500 MHz

100 MHz

2450 MHz

Global

5725 - 5875 MHz

150 MHz

5800 MHz

Global

24 - 24.250 GHz

250 MHz

24.125 GHz

Global

61 - 61.5 GHz

500 MHz

61.250 GHz

Local

122 - 123 GHz

1000 MHz

122.5 GHz

Local

244 - 246 GHz

2000 MHz

245 GHz

Local

Terminology

RFID : Radio frequency identification (RFID) is used as a reference to a system that uses Radio frequency to transmit the identity of an object or a person in the form of a unique serial number.

NFC : Near field communication (NFC) is a technology that operates at a short range using the 13.56Mhz frequency. The communication between two NFC compatible device can be activated when they are placed in proximity of less than 3 cm.

LoRa : Low power wide area network protocol

IOT : Internet of things

ISM band: Industrial, Scientific and Medical frequency band

6LoWPAN : IPv6 over low power wireless personal area network

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Farees Ahmed

The aim of this blog is to serve as a quick reference guide for the Curious. Appreciate your feedback and comments !