. Author manuscript; available in PMC: 2024 Jul 4.

Published in final edited form as: ACS Nano. 2023 Mar 9;17(6):5211–5295. doi: 10.1021/acsnano.2c12606

Table 5.

Radio-Frequency Wireless Communication Protocols Commonly Used in Wireless Sensor Networks^a

Technology	Range	Frequency	Data rate	Network topology and transceiver type	Power consumption	Existing applications	Examples relevant to flexible sensors
NFC	5–25 cm	13.56 MHz	106, 212, 424 kbps	Peer-to-peer	3–15 mW	Contactless payment, ticketing, medicine and healthcare (e.g., patient charts tagging)	445,502,802
				Passive, semi-passive
RFID	25 cm-100 m (frequency-dependent)	LF: 120–140 kHz	10–640 kbps	Peer-to-peer (unidirectional)	10 nW–200 mW (frequency-dependent)	Manufacturing parts, retail items (apparel, footwear)	293,803
		HF: 13.56 MHz		Passive, active
		UHF: 865–956 MHz (far field)
		Microwave: 2.45–5.8 GHz (far field)
RuBee	15–30 m	131 kHz	1.2 kbps	Peer-to-peer	40 nW⁸⁰⁴	Real-time asset visibility in harsh environments, defense and industrial IoT⁸⁰⁵	–
				Active
UWB	1–1000 m	3.1–10.6 GHz	22–600 Mbps	Peer-to-peer, star, mesh	<50 mW	Radar imaging	492
				Active
Bluetooth	10–300 m	2.4 GHz	780 kbps–3 Mbps, up to 25 Mbps	Peer-to-peer, star (seven slaves)	10–100 mW	Earphones, smartphones, smartwatches	63,661,806,807
				Active
Wi-Fi	70–250 m	2.4 and 5 GHz	11–54 and 150 Mbps	Infrastructure-based	835 mW	Smart home, wearables, streaming	63,657
				Active
ZigBee	10–100 m	868 and 915 MHz, 2.4 GHz	20, 40, 250 kbps	Peer-to-peer, star, mesh, cluster tree	36.9 mW	Home automation, traffic management	808,809
				Active
LoRa	Urban: 2–5 km	869 and 915 MHz	290 bps–50 kbps	Peer-to-peer, star	1.5–100 mW	Smart cities, logistics and transportation management, smart buildings	810,811
	Suburban: 15 km			Active
NB-IoT	Urban: 1–8 km	LTE frequencies (several bands within 0.41–5.9 GHz)	160–250 kbps	N.A.	106 mW	Asset tracking, sensor networks, smart cities, industrial monitoring	812
	Suburban: 35 km
Cellular network (e.g., GSM, GPRS, LTE)	1–10 km	4G: 2–8 GHz	4G: 100 Mbps	N.A.	High	Cell phones, tablets, IoT	–
		5G: 450 MHz–6 GHz, 24–53 GHz	5G: 20 Gbps

NFC, near-field communication. RFID, radio-frequency identification. LF, low frequency. HF, high frequency. UHF, ultrahigh frequency. UWB, ultra-wideband. LoRa, long range. NB-IoT, narrowband-Internet of Things. GSM, global system for mobile communications. GPRS, general packet radio service. LTE, long-term evolution.