Experimental Characterization of a Low Power Device for IoT Applications: Micro.sp©

Abstract

The paper investigates the transmission characteristics of a low power device, named micro.sp©, patented by STE Industries, to be used for Internet of Things (IoT) applications where battery duration is a critical aspect and the transmitted information is organized in messages composed by a limited number of bits. The technical characteristics of micro. $\text{sp}^{\bigcirc\!\!\!\!\!\text{C}}$ are compared with those of Bluetooth low energy (BLE) devices, which appears as the main competing short range wireless technology. Experimental results show that micro $\text{sp}^{\bigcirc\!\!\!\!\!\text{C}}$ can be considered an enabling technology for the implementation of very low consumption short-range devices (according to ETSI definition). To give some examples, measurements have revealed that assuming to transmit few bytes every 30 seconds, a micro.sp© device can work for more than 30 years with the same coin battery, more than double the time of the BLE devices.