5G-Wi-SUN for Building Management System

With higher data rates and lower latency, 5G constitutes a mobile alternative to both wired networks and less capable wireless solutions. However, the performance of 5G requires expensive hardware and high energy consumption, making it less suitable for energy-constrained edge devices. Combining the capabilities of 5G for Wide Area Network (WAN) access, with the benefits of other wireless networks purpose-built for low-power embedded systems, a Building Management System (BMS) based on 5G can be deployed anywhere in a building with 5G coverage extended with a suitable LPWAN connectivity for IoT devices of the BMS. In this paper, the LPWAN of choice is the Wireless Smart Utility Network (Wi-SUN), a low-power sub-GHz connectivity based on IEEE 802.15.4g, offering mesh and multi-hop features for improved reliability and range, alongside competitive data rates. The performance of a 5G-Wi-SUN hybrid network was evaluated with a fibre-broadband hybrid network, a 5G-only network and a Wi-SUN-only network to determine the feasibility of 5G-Wi-SUN network. Test results show a significant performance of our 5G-WiSUN network, with a round-trip times below half a second in most cases, and a trimean of 115ms, only 27ms more than the fibre broadband-WiSUN network in our experiment. Consequently, the results have demonstrated the ability of a 5G-Wi-SUN network to provide a versatile alternative to fibre broadband-WiSUN, while maintaining a comparable performance