- LoRa Alliance steams ahead with new CEO Alper Yegin to expand low-power network deployments with the LoRaWAN network.
- Recent efforts include release of mobile gateways, relays and a PHY layer to retrofit existing systems with LoRaWAN functionality.
When new LoRa Alliance CEO Alper Yegin went to the Philippines in November, he spoke with officials there about the future for IoT technology in managing smart city deployments across the highly populated country.
New in his role at the helm of the industry group, Yegin is making it a personal and industry initiative to “bend the curve” as more cities and entities identify how they can use wireless IoT technology to improve lives of their citizens or customers.
Cities across Asia, North America and Europe have been adopting the technology for street lighting, smart parking and environmental monitoring to name a few applications. Yegin told the officials in Manilla how Tata Communications Transformation Services (TCTS) in India offers an example of how the technology is being rolled out across the country to support devices in cities and communities with streetlights and smart meter management. The technology captures sensor data and sends commands over the low power wide-area-network.
In fact, Yegin can name a long list of deployments that leverage the technology, which has taken the lead among wireless, low-power IoT options. Now the alliance has released new standards for members to build LoRa based relays and mobile gateways, while supporting expansion by low-orbit satellite companies—all with the goal to capture sensor readings in hard-to-reach, remote areas.
Yegin took the helm as the nine-year-old alliance’s CEO in October. But for him, the new role serves more as an extension of his existing efforts as vice chair of the alliance board and chair of its technical committee, as well as CTO of technology company Actility.
LoRa Alliance and Technology’s Networks are Growing
LoRa systems use the unlicensed LoRaWAN band to connect with sensors tracking conditions, and location of goods, assets or people—wirelessly. Use cases typically involve large numbers of end devices, that send small packets of data at a distance to LoRa base stations.
LoRaWAN technology serves very specific applications that require long read ranges, through potential obstacles such as walls. In fact, LoRa devices can transmit as far as 600 kilometers, when LoRaWAN gateways are placed on low earth orbit satellites. From the ground, with obstacles in the range—such as walls and foliage—that range decreases but is still longer than other IoT technologies such as Bluetooth or RFID.
Sectors seeing the most growth in this technology adoption include water and utility companies to manage meters due to the wide scale installation of meters and need to connect to small packets of data about meter reading across a wide area.
Extended Coverage through Satellites, Relays
The goal now is to extend a LoRaWAN coverage area further while driving the network cost further down. One way of doing so is already underway in the form of low orbit satellites. These satellites come close enough to earth to read LoRaWAN sensors and forward that data to customers. Already multiple alliance member-companies provide commercial service with satellite-based data, with several more are in the works.
The LoRa Alliance has released the specifications for a battery-operated device that can be mounted in an area with limited coverage, to extend the signal between a sensor and the gateway. “Last year we introduced the relay which is a coverage extender in places where the installed base stations cannot reach,” said Yegin, while pointing out that even with the long range nature of the technology “physics has its limits.”
Alliance members are in the process of approving a mobile gateway design, also known as “walk-by drive-by reading.” These are cases in which a LoRaWAN sensor device is outside the coverage of an installed base station and there is no place where relay nodes could be realistically installed.
Users could then employ the mobile device while passing through neighborhoods, or in remote locations. Such a device could be attached to a car, van or garbage truck.
Hybrid Deployments Ahead
The alliance is working on addressing how future networks can onboard a LoRaWAN based sensor to provide another communication option in a user’s existing system.
Yegin said the alliance is aiming at accelerating adoption of LoRaWAN in legacy IoT application domains by collaborating with other IoT standards groups. “We now are working with them to do the adaptations – without having to change any of their existing infrastructure,” he stated.
The efforts in part consist of an Internet Protocol (IP) layer to connect the management software used in an existing system, whether it uses Wi-Fi, wireless M-Bus (as commonly used for meter management) or Ethernet connectivity. With the addition of a plug-and-play layer, “everything just gets stacked up against each other,” he said.
With current technology constraints, Yegin said, the challenge for companies already using another technology is, “how do all these servers, whether they are an application server, network server, authentication server — how do they discover each other?”
Smart Building Controls
In the meantime, smart buildings are leveraging facility-wide LoRaWAN networks to access data such as indoor air quality, office or desk occupancy as well as sound, often helping with security and safety solutions.
Suntec City Office Towers in Singapore uses the technology in its integrated commercial development in the Marina Bay Precinct. Working with Milesight, Actility and IoT service provider and integrator UnaBiz, it has replaced its existing equipment to enhance the reliability of the air-conditioning and mechanical ventilation (ACMV) system with LoRaWAN-based indoor air quality (IAQ) sensors to measure conditions and enhance the comfort of tenants in the offices.
Once such systems are deployed, they can then leverage the existing network to expand to other applications. That, said Yegin, “further adds to their return on the investment.”
Consolidating Providers
The LoRaWAN industry has been consolidating recently, which Yegin points to as another indication of the maturity of the technology and its commercial value. Most recently, Netmore Group acquired EveryNet, and in February it bought network operator Senet. Automation company IMI Plc also announced the acquisition of industrial IoT company TWTG Group B.V.
“That consolidation is a sign of growth in the market and a typical trend among growing technologies,” said Yegin. “That’s how they feed innovation, that’s how they feed market growth and now we’re seeing the same effect on LoRaWAN as companies and investors are increasing their appetite to inject money and acquire others to keep growing.”
“We have a technology that is mature enough for companies to build products and services to fully commercialize.” In fact, more than 160 public operators and enterprises have deployed systems from alliance members, and some of the largest networks are seeing 50 percent year over year device growth in their networks.
Eyeing a Promising Future
As Yegin transitions into his new role, he added, “I’m excited about the future. This technology holds a tremendous amount of potential.
“What we want to see is this technology cover the whole planet,” he said. He calls it the fourth pillar of wireless communication technology: with Wi-Fi service as the wireless local area network, Bluetooth and Bluetooth Low Energy connecting personal data related to phone use for consumers, cellular as the wireless broadband. The fourth pillar is the low power WAN systems, of which LoRaWAN serves as a key enabler, to access data at low cost from a wide range.
“My expectation is to bend the curve in terms of adoption of LoRaWAN, and start accelerate the exponential growth… that’s what I will be focusing on,” Yegin said.
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