IoT

LoRa – long range protocol

LoRa

This post answers the question “What is LoRa wireless?”. LoRa stands for long range. This technology is a spread spectrum modulation technique, and a long range, low power wireless platform. It is widely used as an IoT technology, and the silicon chips can be delivered by SemTech.

This technology can be used by public, private or hybrid networks, offering greater range than cellular networks. The frequency bands utilised by LoRa are 868MHz in the EU, 433MHz and 915 MHz in the US and 430MHz in Australia. This technology belongs to the LPWAN protocol.

The main applications for the LoRa wireless technique are energy management, natural resource reduction, pollution control, industrial and scientific applications. The LoRa Alliance pushes forward the standardisation and wide utilisation of the LoRa protocol.

The LoRa wireless ecosystem is depicted below. LoRa consists of:

  • Devices physical layer:
    • LoRa modulation devices;
    • Transceivers;
    • End-nodes;
    • Gateways.
  • Network server layer;
  •  Application server and cloud IoT services.

LoRa

 LoRa ecosystem. Image is a property of SemTech, LoRa.

LoRa technology advantages:
• Long range (up to 30 miles);
• Low power (up to ten years of battery lifetime);
• Security (end-to-end AES128 encryption, confidentiality, mutual authentication);
• Capacity (a few millions of messages per base station);
• Cost (low cost of infrastructure and operating expenses);
• Enables geolocation applications.
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