This document provides an overview of Sigfox and how to get started using Sigfox connectivity. Sigfox is a global LPWA network that uses ultra narrow band technology to provide low power, long range connectivity for IoT devices. The document discusses Sigfox's network coverage, technical specifications including low data rate transmission and random access protocol. It also provides examples of how Sigfox connectivity has been used in applications like home alarm systems, package pickup services, and electricity metering. Finally, it gives guidance on testing tools, hardware options, and code examples for connecting devices to Sigfox using an Arduino MKRFOX1200 board.

1. Getting started with Sigfox
Makers Day Total – Nov 2017
aurelien.lequertier@sigfox.com
@aureleq

2. What is Sigfox?

3. Sigfox: Global LPWA network
Low power,
to provide autonomy
Global,
to be used everywhere
Low cost,
to address everything
Easy to use,
and adopted quickly

4. LPWA Market size

5. Home Alarm
System
CONFIDENTIAL 5
Alarms are traditionally connected through GSM to central system and
burglar intrusion can be facilitated by GSM jammers. There is a need for
effective backup connectivity to ensure more robust alarm transmissions.
▪ Robustness of solution is a
commercial differentiator
▪ Continuity of service
▪ Soft deployment via over the
air update - no HW swap. No
user impact
▪ Network available to handle
millions of devices
Sigfox has upgraded Securitas
Direct’s alarm systems to provide a
back-up connectivity in case
jamming is detected.
The upgrade was possible over the
air as a Sub-GHz chip was already
inside.
Challenge
BenefitsSolution
Alternative partners for this application
LIVE

6. Package Pick-up
Service
CONFIDENTIAL 6
Allow customers to send packages from home.
▪ Improved effectiveness :
decrease the waiting line
at the Post Office
▪ Increase the customer
satisfaction
▪ Differentiation vs.
competitors (DHL,
Chronopost)
The smart button placed inside the
mailbox notifies the mailman that a
package has been placed in it and
should be picked up for delivery.
Challenge
BenefitsSolution
Proto

7. Remote monitoring for LPG,
fuel oil and industrial gas
applications
CONFIDENTIAL 7
Increase the margin on the service which was using cellular connectivity
▪ Efficient delivery (route
planning)
▪ Monthly billing
▪ Effective maintenance
▪ Eliminates run-outs
▪ Remote monitoring for
under $3 per month
▪ Plug and play
The data recorded is used to track
and forecast gas or liquid levels,
usage and to monitor field equipment
status. This allows you to optimise
scheduling and routing of tank refilling
and cylinder delivery, to prepare
invoices based on meter readings or
level changes, and notify
maintenance staff of onsite repair
requirements.
Challenge
BenefitsSolution
Pilot

8. Electricity
Metering
CONFIDENTIAL 8
Creating a device that would make any existing electric meter readable and
connected.
▪ First intelligent electric
meter B2C solution
▪ Reduce operating cost
▪ Diagnosis of
abnormalities
▪ Removable battery for
easy maintenance
The Live Yellow Electricity captures
the consumption or production of
electricity remotely and helps
optimizing it.
It periodically sends the value to the
Connit’s M2M platform.
Challenge
BenefitsSolution
Alternative partners on this application
LIVE

9. CONFIDENTIAL 9
Oil & Gas: critical process
applications monitoring
Self contained and APEX
compliant range of sensors.
data for measurement
variables such as pressure,
flow, temperature, level,
moisture, etc.
Problem solved
Automate measurements in remote areas
BenefitsDevices
• Huge cost savings vs manual
measurements as workforce
should often travel very far to
remote areas
• More data to get a more accurate
insight
• Works in hazardous areas
PILOT

10. CONFIDENTIAL 10
Preventive maintenance of beer
equipment
Alizent’s predictive
maintenance solution
combined with Sigfox
connectivity allows beer
brewers to monitor beer
coolers and dispensers’
temperature.
Problem solved
Ensure that beer brewers maintain a correct
temperature for draft beer or cider
BenefitsSolution
• Prevent beer taps breakdown
• Prevent expensive repairs
• Avoid waste of time and money
due to unusable beer taps
• Optimize the routing of the
technician
• Maintain the high image of the
beer’s brand
• Increase customer satisfaction
LIVE

11. Sensolus offers an end-to-
end tracking solution.
It notifies Airbus about its
assets’ trips and give insights
on supply chain optimization.
The device embeds an
internal memory to record
data when outside of
coverage.
Problem solved
Track spare parts between the headquarters and the
sites of its suppliers
BenefitsSolution
▪ Cross country tracking
without high roaming fees
▪ Real-time visibility on the
asset during transportation
▪ Automation of the supply
chain
Industrial asset management
GPS + BLE tracker for indoor
and outdoor geolocation
LIVE

12. Global Reach: ONE Network
36 countries  60 countries by 2018

13. WHAT DO WE PROVIDE?
A network for connected objects transporting the data from your device to your IT systems
CONFIDENTIAL 13
Customer ITBig Data
analytics
platforms
Object data
Partners with
specific
applications for
your business
Data storage
and
intelligence for
verticals
Identification
and
authentication
integrity
0 to 12-byte
messages
optimized for
sensor data
High capacity
network: over 1
million messages
per Base station
per day
0 to 140
messages per
day per device
Transmitted
through its radio
protocol on the
public spectrum
Global
network
SIGFOX
cloud

14. CONFIDENTIAL
14
1 % duty cycle for Objects
Up to 6 messages/hour
UPLINK
12-Byte payload
- Sensor data
- Event status
- GPS fix
- Application data
DOWNLINK
8-Byte payload
- Action / actuator trigger
- Device management
- Application parameter setting
10 % duty cycle for Base Stations
4 guaranteed downlink msg/day
SIGFOX
CLOUD
SMALL MESSAGES
to answer the cost & autonomy constraints of remote objects

15. ULTRA NARROW BAND
CONFIDENTIAL 15
868.034 868.226
f (MHz)
192 KHz wide
100 Hz
Currently spreads on a 200KHz part of the spectrum
High spectrum efficiency 1bit/s = 1Hz of bandwidth
Each message is ~100Hz wide
✓
✓
✓

16. RANDOM ACCESS
CONFIDENTIAL 16
Unsynchronized transmission between the network and the device
The device transfers a small amount of energy on a random frequency with no protocol overhead
(frequency hopping)
SIGFOX Base stations permanently listen to the spectrum and interpret received UNB signals
The same frame is sent 3 times enabling time and frequency diversity
Frame1 @F1
Frame2 @F2
Frame3 @F3
Uplink message
t1
t2
t3
2.08s for 12B payload
Frequency
Time
✓
✓
✓
✓

17. CONFIDENTIAL 17
Anti-jamming capabilities due to UNB intrinsic ruggedness coupled with spatial diversity of the base stations (+20dB)
HIGH RESILIENCE TO INTERFERERS
robust to operate in the public ism band
For the same technical reasons as above, UNB is extremely robust in an environment with other spread spectrum signals.
However, Spread spectrum networks are affected by UNB signals. Ultra Narrow Band is therefore the best choice to
operate in the public ISM band
8 dB needed for
the signal to be
received
Jamming signal
✓
✓
Interference
impact

18. CONFIDENTIAL 18
PLATFORM INTEGRATION

19. Hardware
• Sigfox is not a hardware vendor
• Components sourcing from multiple
partners

20. Different Sigfox solutions
20
Modules
➢ Sigfox only
➢ Multi-connectivity
➢ Sigfox certified and type approved
Ref Design
➢ eBOM and PCB layout Sigfox certified
Transceiver / SoC components
➢ Used for reference designs, modules,
Default choice (except
existing design with
specific transceiver)

21. Radio zones
• RZ1: Europe, MEA
868 MHz, +14 dBm
• RZ2: North America, Brazil
902 MHz, +22 dBm
• RZ3: Japan, Korea
920 MHz, +14 dBm, LBT
• RZ4: South America
920 MHz, +22 dBm

22. Testing tools
• SDR Dongle
• End to End testing (not for prod)
• RSA (Radio Signal Analyzer)
• Included in SDR dongle
• Test radio compliance
• Litepoint analyzer IQxel-M
• RF testing (WiFi, BLE, Sigfox)
• Manufacturing tests
• Pre-certification

23. Let’s play !

24. Download the slides
http://bit.ly/2jiDTEN

25. Useful Resources
• Build : http://build.sigfox.com
• Board info: https://www.arduino.cc/en/Main.ArduinoBoardMKRFox1200
• Questions? : http://ask.sigfox.com

26. About the MKRFOX
Arduino+Sigfox starter kit

27. Overview
Product released spring 2017
Full sigfox service included
Cortex M0 MCU
Sigfox chipset : Atmel/Microchip ATA8520

28. Atmel/Microchip ATA8520
Compatible with Sigfox RC1 (Europe + S.Africa)
Addressed using SPI
Datasheet: http://atmel.com

29. Setup the Arduino IDE
Select your board using the Tools > Port menu
Set the board as Arduino MKRFOX1200
If board not present, add it using Boards Manager =>
search for MKRFox and install Arduino SAMD boards

30. Setup the Arduino IDE
Install the following libraries (Sketch => Include Library =>
Manage Libraries)
• Arduino Sigfox for MKRFox1200
• Arduino Low Power
• RTCZero

31. Retrieve code examples
Download (or git clone) the files:
https://github.com/aureleq/MKRFoxMovementSensors
Open MKRFOX-init/MKRFOX-init.ino

32. Upload to your board & open the monitor

33. Online onboarding
http://backend.sigfox.com/activate/arduino/
Provider: Arduino
Country: France
ID/PAC: Retrieved before

34. Hello World

35. Hello World
MKRFOX-hello-world.ino
#include <SigFox.h>
void setup() {
SigFox.begin();
short valA = 7700;
float valB = 654.32;
SigFox.beginPacket();
SigFox.write(valA);
//SigFox.write(valB);
SigFox.endPacket();
}
void loop(){}
If COM port not visible: double click on RST
button to force bootloader mode

36. Message received ?
http://backend.sigfox.com (check your e-mails to get
credentials)
Navigate to the devices menu in the top bar
Click on the ID of your device
Enter the messages menu from the left navigation column

37. Check device messages

38. Callback setup
Device Type menu
Click on your device type name
Enter the Callbacks menu
Select new default callback

43. Callback status
In the Devices > Messages panel, you have a indicator of the
callback status (an arrow)
Black : in progress
Green : Callback OK
Red : Callback KO (at least one of the callbacks failed)
Click the arrow to display details.

45. Frame parsing

46. Sigfox payload display feature
Using a « simple » grammar, you can ask Sigfox to parse
your incoming data
This is done at the device type level

49. Parsing the Hello World sample
Modify the sketch to send 3 values in a same message
short valA = 7700;
short valB = 128;
float valC = 654.32;
SigFox.beginPacket();
SigFox.write(valA);
SigFox.write(valB);
SigFox.write(valC);
SigFox.endPacket();

50. Set a custom grammer
valA & valB are shorts : 16 bytes
valC is a 32 bytes float
valA::uint:16:little-endian
valB::uint:16:little-endian
valC::float:32:little-endian

51. Adding Sensors

52. Setup Arduino libraries
Add following libraries to
Arduino:
• DHT Sensor
• Adafruit MMA8451
• Adafruit Unified Sensor
https://www.adafruit.com/product/386
https://www.adafruit.com/product/2019

53. Movement detector
Wiring
• Connect wire between pin 0 and pin
13
• Add Accelerometer board (pin 10 to
VCC)
Upload SigfoxAccelAlarm sketch
To upload a new sketch: remove
accel board and double click RST
button

54. Movement and temperature report
Wiring
• Add DHT11 sensor
• Remove accel board
• Add wire DHT 4th pin to
GND (black)
• Add wire DHT 2nd pin to
Arduino pin 1 (yellow)
• Add remaining wires
• Add accel board

55. Movement and temperature report

56. Movement and temperature report
To change periodic report, modify SLEEPTIME variable

57. Get sensors data by email
Create an email callback
Add following custom
payload:
mvt::bool:0 UNUSED::int:8 temp::int:8
hum::uint:8

58. Geolocation

59. Geoloc callback
Simply create a SERVICE > GEOLOC callback,
and receive latitude + longitude + accuracy

60. Geolocation Callback
Create a new
Service > Geoloc
callback
Use following URL
to center the map:
https://maps.googleapis.com/map
s/api/staticmap?center={lat},{lng}
&zoom=13&scale=1&size=600x300
&maptype=roadmap&format=png
&visual_refresh=true

61. Event monitoring

62. Monitor break in sequence number
New Event: Device > Event Configuration > New
Select Event Type « Out of message sequence »
Select « EMAIL » as channel and enter your email address
and email content

63. Monitor break in sequence number
Remove the antenna to simulate a coverage issue
Send a message
Re-attach the antenna and send a new message
Check reception of email notification