National Connectivity Via LoRaWan In Just Eight Months

Google trends graph shows a rapid increase in the search for Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) since April 2015.

“Initial challenges have been in making the common person understand the use cases. Post that, public response has been overwhelming,” said Rishabh Chauhan, global community manager, The Things Network, in an earlier interaction with EFY. It seems to have turned into a global phenomenon ranging over some very interesting applications.

We were able to find one use case in the Indian subcontinent as well. Using LoRaWAN, engineers solved the problem of indication for chlorine gas leakage in power plants. Chauhan says, “A lot of people are using the technology and trying to evaluate which use case works for them, and eventually adopting the network.” Turns out, it makes a lot of sense to implement LoRA in real-life problems.

However, Krupa Shukla, CEO, Yups Tech solutions, highlights some issues, “LoRA is becoming popular because of its low cost and low power consumption, but its communication architecture is still at an evolving stage.”

Developments in LoRaWAN

Using frequencies lower than 2.4GHz or 5.8GHz enables much better coverage, especially when the nodes are inside buildings. Sub1GHz frequencies are normally used; however, the technology is frequency agnostic.

LoRa wireless system makes use of unlicensed frequencies available worldwide. Commonly-used bands include 868MHz for Europe, 915MHz for North America and 433MHz band for the Asian subcontinent. However, another classification could be spread spectrum versus narrow band system.

Spread spectrum through the years