# Low Power Wide Area Network, Cognitive Radio and the Internet of Things: Potentials for Integration
## 3 Low Power Wide Area Network
### Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)
#### 3.3.2 Special Interest Groups (SIGs)  
This section updates the discussion on SIGs as presented in [4]. We include newer alliances such as the IQRF Alliance and the Wi-SUN Alliance. We summarize these SIGs in Table 4 according to their respective areas of focus and constituting members. We also examine whether they are inclined towards integrating CR technologies or not. They are discussed as follows:  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c c c c} \hline \hline
**S/N** & **SIGs** & **Focus** & **Open** & **Non-Profit based** & **Number of Members** &
\begin{tabular}{c} **Support** \\ **for Cognitive** \\ **Radio** \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline
1 & LoRa Alliance &
\begin{tabular}{c} To standardize LPWAN for IoT applications, and also \\ to drive the global success of LoRa protocol for \\ interoperability between operators \\ \end{tabular} & ✓ & ✓ & \textgreater{}130 (mainly companies) & Not Yet \\ \hline
2 & Weightless SIG &
\begin{tabular}{c} To coordinate and enable all activities required to ensured \\ interoperable standards for wide area IoT connectivity \\ \end{tabular} & ✓ & ✓ & \textgreater{}4752 Individual members & Yes \\ \hline
3 & Dash Alliance & \begin{tabular}{c} Development and enhancement of DASH7 protocol \\ specification and other DASH7 technologies for global \\ adoption by national and international standard \\ bodies/agencies \\ \end{tabular} & ✓ & ✓ & \
\begin{tabular}{c} 9 (These are mainly \\ companies \\ the \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} Not Yet \\ companies \\ the \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline
4 & IQRF Alliance & \begin{tabular}{c} Deliver interoperable wireless IoT devices and solutions \\ for fast realization of wide range of IoT projects \\ \end{tabular} & ✓ & ✓ & \
\begin{tabular}{c} \textgreater{}98 (Including 45 Adopters, \\ and \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} Not Yet \\ Contributor \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline
5 & Wi-SUN Alliance & \begin{tabular}{c} To drive the global proliferation of interoperable wireless \\ solutions for IoT applications using global open standards \\ \end{tabular} & ✓ & ✓ & \
\begin{tabular}{c} 176 (Including 87 contributor \\ companies, 79 Adopter \\ companies) \\ \end{tabular} &
\begin{tabular}{c} Not Yet \\ companies \\ \end{tabular} \\ \hline
6 & IoT World Alliance &
\begin{tabular}{c} To deploy IoT solutions seamlessly worldwide through \\ a single point of contact. Ensure the use of a Single SIM \\ world wide while reducing the cost of data connectivity \\ \end{tabular} & x & x & \textgreater{}70 (mainly companies) & Not Yet \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 4: Summary of the different special interest groups.  
LoRa Alliance is an industry-based standard currently promoting LoRa proprietary PHY layer technologies for LPWAN connectivity [4; 55]. It is an open, non-profit association of members with a mission to standardize LPWAN on a global scale for IoT applications. It strives to ensure the success of its proprietary LoRaWAN technology by sharing knowledge and experience required for interoperability between operators. It was launched in April, 2015. The alliance adopts ALOHA scheme at the MAC layer and spread spectrum technologies at the PHY layer to accommodate additional end-users [49]. It establishes different classes of users such as the Class A devices that require the longest lifetime with the highest latency, the Class B devices that can schedule downlink receptions from base stations at certain time intervals, and the Class C devices that are mains-powered to continuously listen and receive downlink transmissions. There are a number of technical documents, which detail the development of LoRa and LoRaWAN technologies/standards, some of which can be found in [4; 9; 10; 56; 57].