Ingenu’s RPMA vs Licensed LPWANs
The cellular industry is built for human interface. RPMA was built from the ground up to provide connectivity exclusively for machines.
It is no secret that the Internet of Things is still very much a fragmented industry. I am constantly asked “why RPMA?” and “what about the new cellular standards for IoT?” Just to be clear, in the little over a year since Ingenu announced it would be rolling out a nationwide RPMA network in the United States, the cellular industry has discussed LTE Cat-0, LTE Cat-1, LTE Cat-M1, LTE Cat-M2, and NB-IoT each as being the answer to the IoT connectivity conundrum. Good thing machines don’t move as fast as the typical human consumer, or Mr. Machine would have already dumped his soon to be dead 2G phone for a variety of new non-working phones powered by non-existent networks. While the cellular industry does “seem” to be settling around LTE Cat-M1 and NB-IoT, we still have yet to see their networks, radio modules, devices, or applications in the real world. On the contrary, RPMA has been real world tested, and used in a variety of applications over the past eight years. It is real. It is now. It is here to stay. In stating my case for RPMA over the proposed cellular IoT networks, I will claim that RPMA is technically better, creates an easy global application, and prioritizes machines.
Technically Better. RPMA has the highest link budget in the wireless industry, which means greater coverage and penetration than any cellular IoT network. RPMA has proven applications with 20 battery life, a true broadcast, and supports mobility across its network. RPMA has 100 percent message acknowledgement across its network making it as robust as possible. Add in the fact that a device will never be sunsetted from an RPMA network, and Mr. Machine is feeling very comfortable and ready to provide a quick and lasting return on investment.
Easy Global Application. How often do the words “easy” and “global” find themselves in the same sentence? With RPMA, a single radio in a single device can communicate from anywhere in the world on a single network. Much thanks is owed to the 2.4 GHz spectrum, which is the only spectrum available in every country on the planet. Let’s contrast that to either the single device with 16 different radios, or the 16 different devices it would take for an NB-IoT or LTE Cat-M1 powered solution to function across the globe – much more to manage, much more expense. Ingenu’s global solution with RPMA is simple, genius, and cost effective.
Machine Priority. NB-IoT and LTE Cat-M1 are Band-Aids for machines to work on a human network. During rush hour, emergency, or highly congested events it’s hard for us as humans to even get a call through. If the $80 a month device is not able to connect, you can be certain the $1 a month device is not connecting. That can be unacceptable for machines, especially if they are communicating financial, safety, or critical information back to the cloud. At the end of the day, all NB-IoT and LTE Cat-M1 devices will be sharing network infrastructure with millions of data hungry consumer devices. RPMA powered devices will never deal with this congestion because RPMA was built specifically and exclusively for the machine, and the machine will always be RPMA’s only priority.