LoRaWAN is a low power wide area network (LPWAN) specification intended for wireless battery operated things in a regional, national or global network.
According to the LoRa Alliance, LoRaWAN targets key requirements of the internet of things (IoT) such as secure bi-directional communication, mobility and localization services.
The LoRaWAN specification provides seamless interoperability among smart things without the need of complex local installations, enabling the roll out of IoT applications, according to the association.
In the LoRaWAN network architecture, gateways are connected to the network server via standard IP connections while end-devices use single-hop wireless communication to one or many gateways. All end-point communication is generally bi-directional, but also supports operation such as multicast, enabling software upgrades over the air or other mass distribution messages to reduce the on-air communication time.
“Analysts and telecoms operators believe that low power wide-area networks will make up a major portion of the growth of IoT devces in the coming years,” Hardy Schmidbauer, CEO and co-founder of TrackNet and member of the LoRa Alliance, said during a presentation at the Enteprise IoT Summit, which took place in Austin, Texas, earlier this year.
“The main benefits of LoRa are low range, low power and low cost connectivity. Another key feature of LoRa and LoRaWan is security for both devices and network,” the executive said.
Schmidbauer added that other key features of this technology are coverage, energy efficiency and location.
He added that there have already been 37 nationwide IoT deployments using LoRaWAN. “The initial traction of this technology was in Europe, followed by a number of deployments by Asian telcos and we are seeing a momentum for LoRaWAN in North America,” he added.
The LoRa Alliance highlighted that the LoRaWAN protocol offers a number of benefits in terms of bi-directionality, security, mobility and accurate localization that are not addressed by other LPWAN technologies. These benefits will enable the diverse use cases and business models that will grow deployments of LPWAN IoT networks globally, the entity said.
The LoRa Alliance is an open, non-profit association which seeks to standardize Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) being deployed around the world to enable Internet of Things (IoT), machine-to-machine (M2M), and smart city, and industrial applications.
