LoRa and LoRaWAN

LPWAN also include technologies that are proprietary and not sponsored by 3GPP. It can be argued that some IEEE802.11 protocols should also be classified in LPWAN, but the next two sections will highlight LoRa and Sigfox. LoRa is a physical layer for a long-range and low-power IoT protocol while LoRaWAN represents the MAC layer.

These proprietary LPWAN technologies and carriers have the advantage of using the unlicensed spectrum and that, simply, is data plan cost. Typically, technologies like Sigfox and LoRaWAN will be 5x to 10x lower in their data rates compared to traditional 3G or LTE connections for large volume deployments (>100,000 units). That may change with more competition from Cat-M1, Cat-NB, and Cat-5 but it is too early to tell.

The architecture was originally developed by Cycleo in France but then acquired by the Semtech Corporation (a French mixed-signal electronics manufacturer) in 2012 for $5 million in cash. The LoRa Alliance was formed in March of 2015. The alliance is the standard body for the LoRaWAN specification and technology. They also have a compliance and certification process to ensure interoperability and conformity to the standard. The alliance is supported by IBM, Cisco, and over 160 other members.

LoRaWAN has gained traction in Europe with network deployments by KPN, Proximus, Orange, Bouygues, Senet, Tata, and Swisscom. Other areas have sparse coverage to date.

One reason for the price difference, besides being in the unlicensed spectrum, is that a single LoRaWAN gateway has the potential to cover a significant amount of area. Belgium, with a land area of 30,500 km², is completely covered by seven LoRaWAN gateways. Typical range is 2 to 5 km in urban areas and 15 km in suburban areas. This reduction in infrastructure cost is very different than 4G-LTE with much smaller cells.

Since LoRa is the bottom of the stack, it has been adopted in competing architectures to LoRaWAN. Symphony Link, for example, is Link Labs's LPWAN solution based on the LoRa PHY, using an eight-channel, sub-GHz base station for industrial and municipal IoT deployments. Another competitor using LoRa is Haystack, who produces the DASH7 system. DASH7 is a full network stack on the LoRa PHY (not just the MAC layer).

The next section will focus exclusively on LoRaWAN.

Table of Contents for LoRa and LoRaWAN

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Table of Contents for
LoRa and LoRaWAN