## 3 State of the Art
### Financial Viability of Selected IoT Communication Technologies
The prototype was evaluated to ensure that it met the needs of the stakeholders, which included IoT device manufacturers, system integrators, and end-users. The prototype was evaluated based on its functionality, usability, and usefulness using methods such as user testing, expert reviews, and other forms of feedback [13]. Based on the feedback received, the prototype was refined and improved through an iterative process until it met the needs of the stakeholders. This iterative process of refinement and improvement is a hallmark of DSR. The final product was reliable, user-friendly, and met the needs of the stakeholders [13]. The development of the tool involved problem identification, model creation, implementation, evaluation, refinement, and communication of the results. The proposed tool \begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c} \hline \hline
**Aspect** & **NB-IoT** & **LoRaWAN** \\ \hline \multirow{4}{*}{Cost Structures} & Higher initial equipment costs & Lower initial equipment costs \\  & Lower operating costs & Higher operating costs \\  & Lower maintenance costs & Higher maintenance costs \\  & Higher subscription fees & Lower subscription fees \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Revenue Potential} & Limited revenue opportunities & Diverse revenue opportunities \\  & Lower potential for direct revenue & Potential for direct and indirect revenue streams \\ \hline Total Cost of Ownership & Relatively higher & Relatively lower \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Cost Savings Opportunities} & Potential for savings in equipment costs & Potential for savings in maintenance costs and \\  & and subscription fees through economies & subscription fees through \\ \hline \multirow{2}{*}{Decision-making Support} & Requires careful evaluation of long-term & Requires consideration of application \\  & operational costs and revenue potential & requirements, \\ \multicolumn{2}{c}{long-term operational costs and} & scalability, and specific needs \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table} 
Table 2: Important aspects of the financial viability of NB-IoT and LoRaWAN technologies for IoT applications. fills a significant research gap and provides a customizable, user-friendly, and reliable way to calculate the life cycle costs of IoT devices [13; 14; 15]. Constructing the Scientific Artifact \"Pragmatic Computational Tool\" for Calculating the Life Cycle Costs of IoT Devices  
The \"Pragmatic Computational Tool\" for calculating the lifetime of IoT devices was built using Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets. These programs are commonly used tools for data analysis, financial modeling, and cost calculations. Decision-makers are likely to already have the necessary skills and familiarity, making the cost calculator more accessible and intuitive for them to use. By using a tool that decision-makers are already familiar with, the learning curve associated with adopting a new software or tool is minimized. The spreadsheet format lends itself well to organizing and structuring the various cost categories and tasks involved in calculating the lifecycle costs of IoT devices. The tool was designed to provide a practical and user-friendly way to estimate the life cycle costs of IoT devices. The tool uses different categories of costs, including procurement costs, training and usage costs, maintenance costs, disposal costs, and external project costs, to estimate the total cost of ownership (TCO) of an IoT device over its lifetime. To construct the tool, the first step was to create a worksheet in Excel with different categories of costs as column headers. Formally, a section consists of a heading, a finer subdivision of the costs, fields for entries, and fields for the calculated costs (c.f. Figure 3). The columns are labeled as procurement costs, training and usage costs, maintenance costs, disposal costs, and external project costs. The rows were labeled with specific tasks that are required to maintain and operate the IoT devices.