Power Consumption of IoT Access Network Technologies

Over the past couple of years, many commentators have hailed the "Internet of Things" (IoT) as the next step in the evolution of the internet. This paper examines, from an energy consumption viewpoint, some options for deploying a network of "Things" and connecting them through their gateway into the Internet or a corporate network. It focuses specifically on the access network from the customer premises to the central office and the implications for this network of carrying uplink-dominant IoT traffic. The power consumption of a number of potential access network technologies and architectures is modelled for a range of IoT traffic and background network traffic levels. It is shown that shared corporate Wi-Fi network with PON backhaul can be the most energy efficient option if the Wi-Fi background traffic level is modest. Otherwise, a 4G Wireless (LTE) access is also very efficient if the site IoT traffic level is low -up to around 100 kb/s. At higher rates a GPON access provides the most energy efficient solution.