Sigfox: A Low-Cost, Low-Power Network for IoT Applications

In the last three decades, the significance of data has grown manifolds for businesses to run their operations efficiently. Consequently, there is a deluge of Internet of Things (IoT) devices for the real-time collection and sharing of data over the networks. However, the current networks fail to keep up with the resource demands of the exploding IoT device market. This is where a French company, Sigfox, comes to the picture with a low-cost, low-power wireless networking solution for the IoT and M2M communications. The company offers its indigenous 0G network to mobile operators that allows their IoT devices and applications to communicate independently and securely. The network meets the requirements of mass IoT applications such as long device battery life cycle, low device cost, low connectivity fee, high network capacity, and long-range.

Established in 2010 by Ludovic Le Moan and Christophe Fourtet in 2010 with a vision to connect every object in the physical world to the digital universe, the company has built the largest IoT ecosystem in the world with its presence in more than 70 countries. The software-based network communications solution of the company helps to manage all the networking and computing complexity in the cloud rather than the devices, reducing energy consumption and costs of connected devices to a large extent. The 0G network of Sigfox uses an Ultra Narrow Band modulation that helps the company to operate in the 200 kHz of the publicly available band to exchange radio messages over the air. Each message is 100 Hz wide and transferred with a data rate of 100 or 600 bits per second, depending on the region.

This allows transmission of messages over long distances while being very robust against the noise. Besides, the network can send up to 140 messages a day, which helps to keep the costs and power consumption as low as possible.

The 0G network of Sigfox is also extremely secure with less susceptibility to network attacks as it allows only one-way communication between the device and the base station. Once the exchange of information is complete, the device goes into sleep mode, which gives a very narrow window for hackers to break into the network and take control. In addition, the data transmissions in the network are random that makes it immune to distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.

Several companies across industries such as manufacturing, agriculture, insurance, supply chain and logistics, retail, and others have leveraged Sigfox's networking solution. An instance is the success story of the An Post, the leading mails, parcels, and ecommerce logistics company in Ireland. The logistics company wanted to transform from the traditional letters to the new world of ecommerce parcel logistics and B2B services for Irish and international businesses. Sigfox helped the An Post revolutionize its supply chain with IoT tracking devices to monitor the location of assets nationwide, even outside its supply chain. Besides, the 0G network helped them eliminate the barriers associated with traditional tracking technologies— price, battery life, and coverage, by providing low cost, low power connectivity over a single global network.

Since its inception, Sigfox has raised nearly €300 million from strategic and financial investors in Europe, the U.S. and Asia to support the expansion of the Global 0G Network. Also, at the heart of the Sigfox Foundation is a mission to help protect the planet and inhabitants through innovative and inexpensive technologies. To facilitate that, the company aims to create a global 0G telecommunication standard dedicated to the transfer of small messages – to give everyone access to a minimum communication service.