IPA IP 2021 Question 92
A question IPA Japan published in 令和3年度 ITパスポート試験 公開問題 問92, translated into English. ITPEC is based on the same exams.
Same question on ITPEC: Apr 2026 Q32 +1 more
Which of the following is used for communication in activities such as the gathering of data from IoT devices, and has wide range and power saving characteristics that enable wireless communication over a distance of tens of kilometers?
Explanation
LPWA — Low Power Wide Area: wireless communication over distances of kilometres to tens of kilometres with very little power, for IoT devices.
LPWA gives up speed: it carries small amounts of data at low rates. In return a sensor can run for years on a battery and reach a base station far away, which suits devices that send a reading now and then, such as meters and environmental monitors. LoRaWAN, Sigfox and NB-IoT are examples.
Answer (b)
Why not others:
- •(a) BLE — Bluetooth Low Energy saves power too, but reaches only a few tens of metres
- •(c) MDM — mobile device management, a way to manage a company's smartphones centrally, not a communication method
- •(d) MVNO — a mobile virtual network operator, a carrier that offers mobile service over lines rented from another operator
Key rule: "IoT, low power, long range, little data" means LPWA; "low power, short range" means BLE.
Networks · AI-written, may contain errors
This question comes from the past questions IPA Japan publishes, translated into English by ITPEC Practice. ITPEC Practice is an independent study tool and is not affiliated with IPA or ITPEC. See the original paper (PDF) or Report an issue.