Cellular data and Wi-Fi has always been an option for long range data transfer. But what if you need to transfer the data from a sensor node which is out of range. Moreover Wi-Fi and cellular data consume more power even when you are transferring small bit of data. In such situation LoRaWAN which can transfer small amount of data over long range(several kilometres) can be used. Long Range Wide Area Network is abbreviated as LoRaWAN. LoRaWAN is one of the LPWAN technologies.

What is LoRa?
LoRa is a wireless technology which enables low data rate communication over low power and long range between remote sensors and gateways connected to the network. It uses unlicensed spread spectrum technology with wider band. The key features of LoRa is it covers a long range of 15-20 Km, it can connect to millions of nodes and its battery life lasts long for more than 10 years.

LoRa and LoRaWAN

Both the word LoRa and LoRaWAN are closely related but have totally different meaning. LoRa is a wireless modulation that enables communication with very low power consumption whereas LoRaWAN is a network protocol with LoRa chips for communication. You can use the LoRa modulation as a network without LoRaWAN and you can use LoRaWAN as a network with other radio links, but this wouldn’t be really practical.

LoRa versus other LPWAN
There are other LPWAN technology like sigfox, NB-IoT(Narrow Band IoT). Sigfox is the most basic of all the three technologies ,but the major drawbacks of sigfox is it sends very small amount of data very slowly with low power whereas NB-IoT is faster than LoRa but uses licensed spectrum. LoRa overcomes both these drawbacks.

  1. LoRaWAN uses unlicensed spectrum.
  2. LoRa devices have longer battery life (15 yrs)than NB-IoT devices(10 yrs).
  3. High capacity of up to 1 million nodes.
  4. Secured and efficient network.

LoRa Module
The RN2483 module is a revolutionary end-node IoT solution for the new LoRa technology network, enabling extremely long-range, bidirectional communication with significant battery life. With its scalability, robust communication, mobility and the ability to operate in harsh outdoor environments, the RN2483 is well suited for a broad range of low-data-rate wireless monitoring and control designs.

It is clear that LoRa wireless technology is going to play a big role by interconnecting devices to create smart cities, industrial and commercial solutions, with reducing the limitations like power consumption from other wireless technologies.

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