Cables, LoRA or LoRAWAN?
What is LoRAWAN?
As a brief recap, LoRa (Long Range) is a patented digital wireless data communications technology that modulates data into EM waves using "Chirp Spread Spectrum". This allows transmission of as far as 15km with clear line-of-sight and a typical range in urban area is 2 - 3 km. The typical network topology follows a Star network and operates at a data rate of 250bps to 50kbps.
LoRAWAN on the other hand, simply put is the application of LoRA Technologies onto a WAN type deployment. This meant that we no longer do a simple point to point but stack on additional features such as gateway security, over the air updates and many more.
LoRa > Wires
LoRa uses its wireless data communications technology to send and receive data, allowing the replacem ent of wires to send and receive data from one device to another over a really long range. This is suitable in many factories or warehouses that needs to monitor their machines or building asset.
The key advantage is the valuable trunk space that is often challenging to deploy especially in a brownfield environment also translating to a lower cost of deployment. The reduction of cabling mess is also something much appreciated by engineers who have used them in Singapore.
LoRA or LoRAWAN
For simple small networks, LoRA will be our recommendation. It is simple to deploy, typically a pair of terminals or a gateway with a bunch of terminals. They are typically deployed for:
Machine to machine connectivity
Serial Replacement
Converting serial based assets to LoRA based systems
LoRAWAN on the other hand is used if you have LoRAWAN devices such as LoRAWAN based sensors. Typically, you will deploy a LoRAWAN Gateway in conjunction with a Network server. The data is then fed from the LoRAWAN device > LoRAWAN Gateway > Network Server and consumed as base64 encoded data using MQTT. They are typically deployed for:
Wide area monitoring
Asset Tracking
Wide area sensor network
What about Wifi?
Traditionally, wireless standards which for most of us are Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and 3G/4G cellular data. The key difference is that LoRA based devices are designed to consume low power and transmit the data in a long range. That means that LoRA is purpose built for sensors and transmitting of data without the complex additional layers such as IP networking. A closer comparison to LoRA will be serial comms where it maintains its value because of the low cost and easy deployment for engineers.
LoRa Application in Singapore
In Singapore, L33Tech has worked with government agencies and system integrators on LoRA and LoRAWAN based projects. Some of the application are :
Smart Buildings – to detect the status of a parking space whether a vehicle has parked in that parking lot, temp rh monitoring, bin capacity monitoring
Production offline wireless systems – to monitor the humidity level to ensure the humidity environment is ideal for the plantations, electricity lines –
Power Monitoring - to monitor state of operation of the electricity lines, water/gas/power meters – to record the meter readings without the need of a staff to be on-site and record data at each and every meter
Serial Replacement - Sending of data between PLCs
Speak to our friendly sales via our chatbot or drop an email to sales@l33tech.com should you be interested to find out more!