Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) are the new phenomenon in IoT. By providing long-range communication on small, inexpensive batteries that last for years, this family of technologies is purpose-built to support large-scale IoT networks sprawling over vast industrial and commercial campuses.
LPWANs can literally connect all types of [IoT sensors] facilitating numerous applications from asset tracking, environmental monitoring and facility management to occupancy detection and consumables monitoring . Nevertheless, LPWANs can only send small blocks of data at a low rate, and therefore are better suited for use cases that don’t require high bandwidth and are not time-sensitive.
Also, not all LPWANs are created equal. Today, there exist technologies operating in both the licensed (NB-IoT, LTE-M) and unlicensed.