Arduino, developer of educational microcontroller boards, has teamed up with semiconductor provider Semtech to offer Internet of Things (IoT) developers new tools for the LoRaWAN wireless protocol. In addition, Arduino has joined the LoRa Alliance of over 450 IoT companies supporting the LoRaWAN standard.
LoRaWAN is a low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) specification made for the IoT and maintained by the LoRa Alliance, of which Semtech is a sponsoring member. Operating in sub-GHz bands (915 MHz in North America and 868 MHz in Europe) and using chirp spread spectrum modulation, LoRa technology allows for long-range, low-power communication tailored for the IoT.
Now Arduino is making it easier for IoT developers to utilize this technology, announcing an IoT Developer Kit for LoRa developers. LoRa development with Arduino utilizes an Arduino TIAN board paired with a LoRa-enabled Gateway Shield and Arduino PRIMO boards paired with LoRa-enabled Node Shields (which can be up to 10 km from the gateway) as the gateway and nodes of the LoRa network, respectively. These shields are configured by default to connect to different LoRaWAN networks including the Senet public network, The Things Network and more.
“We want to help professionals and makers get started with LoRa, so, we joined the LoRaAlliance, made a gateway and node kit and hope to offer this curriculum as professional development for organizations in the near future,” reads a blog post from Arduino discussing the new tools.
“As more industries adopt IoT applications to improve their organizations, developers need open-source hardware and software that is easy to deploy and cost-effective,” said Semtech’s Mike Wong. “Arduino’s developer tools will help increase the adoption of LoRa technology in multiple industries, including the Industrial IoT, metering, digital cities, agriculture and environment, healthcare and smart buildings.”