If you take public transport, you’ve likely experienced a loss of cell phone service while underground on a subway train or waiting in a concrete-enclosed bus terminal. Although many facilities try to overcome the loss of mobile connectivity with Wi-Fi, and more work is being done with 5G to tackle the issue, most networks continue to be slow and unreliable due to the large volume of connected devices. As a result, many people are resigned to consuming downloaded media or accept that they cannot use their devices during these travel times.

But underground subways are not the only challenge facing our current networks. According to the LoRa Alliance, we are facing an Internet of Things (IoT) crisis as most network operators predict they can only support about 10 to 15 percent of the expected volume of IoT devices with conventional cellular technologies. With millions of devices needing to work together within network architectures, alternative solutions need to be explored to meet the demand for increased connectivity.

The LoRa Alliance envisions that Low Power, Wide Area Network (LPWAN) architecture will be the best solution to support the future of IoT and help companies take advantage of real-time data analytics.

Since 2015, the LoRa Alliance has supported the adoption of the LoRaWAN standard for secure, reliable network connectivity. Recently, LoRaWAN was also approved as an official standard by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with information and communication technologies.

“LoRaWAN was developed as an open standard from the very beginning, which was recognized by the LPWAN community and demonstrated by its rapid global adoption as the LPWAN for IoT,” said Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance. “We undertook this endeavor with ITU-T to have LoRaWAN formally documented as an international standard by an independent authority because of our commitment to openness and standardization—which are critical to achieving the interoperability needed for massive scaling. The transposition as an ITU-T Recommendation validates the market’s decision to adopt LoRaWAN as an internationally recognized standard and sets the stage for even more growth.”

Why LPWAN?

So why are companies interested in LPWAN? Won’t 5G cellular networks be enough to support IoT? 5G will be necessary for video streaming, autonomous driving, and other applications that require high-throughput data. But not all IoT devices need that level of speed, which can drain battery life and reduce energy efficiency. In contrast, many smart buildings and industrial IoT applications will not require the same reduction in latency. Instead, long battery life and long-range communications will be more important for IoT scaling. With the ability to penetrate through dense materials, LPWAN, and according to the LoRa Alliance, LoRaWAN in particular, is ideally suited for communication in locations such as parking garages, basements, and underground areas or across large areas to support IoT sensors and devices.

With LoRaWAN, a single gateway can cover an entire city or hundreds of square kilometers of land to support everything from telecommunications to industrial agriculture and mining. LoRaWAN can cover a large area and support advanced IoT without requiring extensive infrastructure.

The LoRa Alliance explains that if you consider France as an example, to set up a conventional 4G cellular network, a company would need more than 10,000 antennae. However, LoRaWAN covering the same area would require about 2,500 gateways, significantly reducing the deployment and maintenance costs for infrastructure to support the network.

Why Do We Need a Standard?

When it comes to technology, proprietary products can be challenging to scale. This is especially true with IoT applications. For example, consider a smart home that utilizes a smart thermostat, smart lighting, smart waste collection and other intelligent devices. If all the devices work separately, it becomes increasingly difficult to scale the system as homeowners juggle multiple operating systems. The problem becomes exacerbated when IoT is scaled for manufacturing facilities, agricultural centers and other industrial applications. To gain the benefits promised by Industrial IoT, a standard is required to ensure interoperability.

With this in mind, the goal of the LoRa Alliance is to standardize LPWAN with LoRaWAN to support the widespread adoption of LPWAN and enable massive IoT.

The LoRa Alliance Defines and Supports LoRaWAN Standardization

The LoRa Alliance is a nonprofit organization that aims to standardize global adoption and deployment of LoRaWAN. An open, global standard for wireless communications, LoRaWAN offers a solution for companies looking to incorporate real-time data analytics into their operations. The alliance says it allows companies to digitize operations and make the most of IoT without the technical barriers and high cost of adopting similar technologies with traditional networks.

The LoRa Alliance comprises more than 500 members from across the technology sector, including industry leaders like Amazon Web Services, Microsoft, Orange, Alibaba, Tencent, Cisco, Bosch and more. Members, which range from large corporations to start-up companies, work together to support the adoption of the LoRaWAN standard. The member ecosystem makes collaborative innovations and shares technology and best practices. The LoRa Alliance also oversees a certification program to support the interoperability of devices meeting the LoRaWAN standard and claims to have the most certified devices in the LPWAN market.

Throughout 2021, the LoRa Alliance worked closely with ITU to complete the qualification process for the LoRaWAN standard.

LoRaWAN Offers Optimized Battery Life and Long-Range Capabilities for IoT Applications

Long range (LoRa) is based on chirp spread spectrum (CSS) modulation and maintains the same low power as traditional frequency-shift keying (FSK) modulation while extending the network’s communication range. Military and space applications have used CSS for decades due to its long-range communication capabilities. However, the LoRa Alliance points out that LoRaWAN is the first low-cost solution for commercial applications.

Most networks currently use a mesh architecture, where end nodes send information to other nodes within the network to increase their range. But this also increases complexity and reduces both capacity and battery life. The LoRa Alliance explains that LoRaWAN nodes do not rely on any individual gateway unless they are specifically directed to via traffic management capabilities within the LoRaWAN Network Server. Instead, each gateway forwards information to the LoRaWAN Network Server, which can be in the cloud or on the gateway, from any end node using a backhaul such as satellite, cellular or Wi-Fi. Therefore, complexity is transferred to the LoRaWAN Network Server to filter redundant end node information and then send the packets to the cloud where advanced data analytics can be performed.

One challenge faced by LoRaWAN is the ability for gateways to receive information from multiple nodes. To achieve a high network capacity and ensure network resiliency, a multi-modem transceiver with multiple channels is used to receive information from nodes simultaneously. In addition, LoRaWAN features adaptative data rates, allowing information to be sent at different rates depending on the node’s distance from the gateway. This enables networks to be deployed with minimal infrastructure and also makes it possible for more gateways to be added as capacity demand increases.

To optimize battery usage, nodes are asynchronous and communicate data to gateways using the Aloha method. The LoRa Alliance says that this means data is sent only when ready (LoRaWAN Class A), either based on specific events (LoRaWAN Class B) or a predefined schedule (LoRaWAN Class A or B). LoRaWAN can also send data whenever it is ready or requested/directed to by the rules of the application (LoRaWAN Class C). This flexibility allows for a myriad of IoT use cases to be enabled using LoRaWAN.

The alliance continues noting that LoRaWAN has the most public and private networks deployed globally compared to all LPWANs. With LoRaWAN sensors, any company can collect and analyze real-time data to improve efficiency and ultimately increase their bottom line. To utilize a network, a company needs only a gateway, sensors and a location to send and analyze data.

Firmware and software updates occur over the air to reduce maintenance costs and improve the long-term operation of networks. Remote updates also facilitate reliable security, and end-to-end encryption in the network follows the industry AES-128 standard.

The architecture of a LoRaWAN network. (Image courtesy of LoRa Alliance.)

Realizing the “Smart” Future with LoRaWAN

Smart buildings, cities, utilities, agriculture, asset tracking and more will soon be ubiquitous with increased IoT and network connectivity. Intelligent buildings, for example, will improve safety and security while reducing the cost of operations and minimizing environmental impacts. But, for smart buildings to become a reality, real-time data analytics need to be integrated into all levels of building operations. Big data can optimize energy usage, reduce waste, and decrease the environmental impact of future infrastructure.

A suite of sensors can support the scaled IoT needed to operate an intelligent building. For example, sensors can detect a water leak before it causes extensive damage, reducing water losses and preventing expensive, time-consuming repairs. Other sensors can detect building occupancy to adjust lighting, temperature and other factors to save energy. Plus, proximity sensors and geolocators can support crowd control, parking, manufacturing operations and more. All these sensors can be optimized for LoRaWAN as they use low throughput communication and can generate data for cloud-based analytics that support building sustainability.

The LoRa Alliance via the LoRaWAN standard and its member companies fully supports the United Nations’ 17 Sustainable Development Goals to support everything from energy efficiency to water conservation and health and safety across diverse industries. Over the next decade, real-time data analytics enabled by millions of sensors will help companies increase their bottom line while reducing their environmental impact. LPWAN may be one way that Industrial IoT can become a reality for companies in the future.