Introduction
LoRa is a recently developed wireless data communication technology maintained by Semtech. It offers solutions to real data communication problems in the form of long range transmission, low power consumption on end-system devices and secure data transmission.
Creation and Development
The point of creating this new technology is to solve some common issues in the Internet of Things Network.
Some of the problems that LoRa attacks are:
- The devices connected to the IoT Network should be able to work continuously for long periods of time. The devices are usually sensors that must send data to a gateway or server at a specific rate. This usually leads to a low battery life on the sensors that are getting continously smaller.
- The devices must be located within range of the network to trustly send data. For common apllications of IoT devices such as farming, medical appliances and, the distance between the device and the gateway can range from meters to kilometers.
LoRa solves both of these issues by providing low power devices and long range communication.
Approach
There is a direct correlation between signal range and signal power.
There is also an inverse correlation between signal range and frequency.
There is also a direct correlation between bandwidth and data throughput.
Since the extended signal range is needed when operating with most IoT devices, the LoRa technology uses a limited frequency range and lower frequency to transmit data.
The lower operating frequency leads to a boost on signal range while decreasing the power consumption of the devices.
The smaller bandwidth equates to not being able to transmit as much data, but since most IoT devices only need to transmit a few readings every few seconds, it's a good trade.