• 1
    Introduction

    Hey, what's up, Guys! Akarsh here from CETech.

    If you have a lot of questions in your mind related to LoRa, LoRaWAN, LoRaWAN Gateways, etc. then you should give this a read because today we are going to get an insight into LoRaWAN Gateways, their purposes, their working, types, etc.

    Some of our previous projects were related to LoRaWAN Gateways like setting up LoRaWAN Gateway with TheThingsNetwork and LoRaWAN based GPS Trackerbut today we are not going to do any of the things like these. We will discuss about the LoRaWAN Gateway in detail which will also clear some of your doubts related to the use of LoRaWAN Gateway. So do give it a go if you are interested in LoRaWAN Gateways.

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  • 3
    What Is LoRa?

    Before we head over to LoRaWAN or LoRaWAN Gateway, we need to know what LoRa is because LoRaWAN is an enhanced or in other words more advanced version of LoRa. So basically, LoRa is the short form for Long Range. As its name suggests, LoRa is a radio frequency-based communication protocol that is used to transfer data over large distances to be specific over hundreds of kilometers by consuming very little power. The Longest range of data transmission using LoRa is recorded to be approx. 700 km but in that experiment, it was tried to make the conditions closer to the ideal conditions. You can read about that experiment from here. In normal conditions, I have observed a range of somewhere around 8 km comfortably which is still very high. Low power and Long Range, these two properties are the ones that make LoRa special. As mentioned above it works on the frequency bands which come under the radio frequency range. It uses license-free sub-gigahertz radio frequency bands like 433 MHz, 868 MHz, 915 MHz, and 923 MHz based on the location where we are using it.

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    It is based on spread spectrum modulation techniques derived from chirp spread spectrum (CSS) technology and is not a paid network like the cellular network. There are a lot of LoRa modules that we can use to transmit and receive data using LoRa they can work in either point-to-point mode or in the broadcast mode as well but the data will only remain within those LoRa nodes and the network consisting of those nodes. If we want to get data somewhere outside of the network, we can't do that by just using LoRa alone. That's where we need LoRaWAN. In LoRaWAN we connect the LoRa technology with any other technology such as Wi-Fi, Internet, etc through a Gateway. This enhances the capability of LoRa a lot. Some Advantages and Disadvantages of LoRa are:-

    Advantages:

    • Long Range: LoRa devices can transmit signals over distances from 1km — 10km.
    • Low Power: LoRa end nodes wake up only at a fixed time, which can extend battery life. End node batteries can last for 5-10 years.
    • Security: Data encryption using AES128 between end nodes and network servers/ Data encryption using AES128 at the application level.
    • Low Cost: Work in free frequencies and no upfront licensing cost to use the technology. 6) Easy Deployment: Simple network architecture and easy to deploy by yourself.

    Disadvantages:

    • Not for large data transmission.
    • Not for continuous monitoring.
    • Wake up only at a fixed time, so you can’t communicate with end nodes at any time.
    • The transmission rate is slow and easy to get interference because of using free frequencies.

    So these were some details about LoRa. Now in the next step, we are going to check what LoRaWAN is.