Lorawan gateways are designed for outdoor coverage and indoor connectivity to support tens of thousands of IoT sensors and devices and enable both public and private IoT network deployment. Gateways in the LORA network (LORA) act as a transparent bridge and transmit messages between terminal devices and central network servers in the backend, ideal for public and national deployment. Gateways can connect to network servers via standard IP connections and can be monitored for private rollouts where security controls are critical. The combination of direct cloud connectivity, low operating and manufacturing costs, extremely low power consumption and the resulting longer battery life makes the LPWAN protocol an ideal solution for IoT applications. 

LORA is a term that refers to a system that supports radio modulation techniques, a method of manipulating radio waves to encode information with chirping chirps, disseminate spectral technologies and use multi-symbol formats for communication networks and IoT applications. LORA can be seen as a proprietary derivative of CSS that enables an IoT network operator to swap data rates for greater coverage and performance while optimizing its network performance based on its needs.      

One of its main competitors, Sigfox, has decided to work with carriers to keep most of its technology endpoints in public networks, while the LORA gateway enables the use of private networks as required for Iot applications. Lorawan technology enables the coexistence of public and private single and multi-tenant networks that connect multiple applications in the same space, enabling new IoT, M2M, Smart City, sensor networks and industrial automation applications. As countries and governments promote the adoption of new and innovative connectivity protocols, Lorawan public networks become a viable option for small-scale IoT operations that want to save initial cost and benefit from the sheer convenience of using existing infrastructure.    

The Lorawan protocol is defined by LORA Alliance, a non-profit technology alliance with more than 500 member companies. They are committed to enabling the large-scale deployment of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) for the IoT by developing and promoting Lorawan as an open standard. It is one of the fastest-growing technology alliances (with over 500 member companies as of 2018) committed to the widespread deployment of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANS) for the IoT through the development and promotion of the Lorawan Open Standard. LORA’s mission is to standardize how LPWAN can be used globally to enable the Internet of Things machines and Machine-to-Machine (M2M) for smart cities and industrial applications.    

The Lorawan network is a fast-growing wireless technology that is transforming the delivery of broadband IoT around the world. Lorawan acts as the star of the network by using a centralized gateway to communicate between connecting points and nodes and the DIGI Lorawan Development Kit is designed to support rapid prototyping and time-to-market. The Lorawan protocol is standardized, widely available and can be operated in a connected global ecosystem managed by the LORA Alliance. Low power consumption and wide range allow Lorawan connections to penetrate even structures such as concrete structures, giving it a huge advantage over other protocols such as Wi-Fi.    

Lora gateways is a physical device that houses the hardware and firmware used to connect IoT devices to the cloud – an integral task that forms the backbone of a functioning IoT network. A Lorawan Gateway is a box that connects a wireless Lorawan terminal device to the Internet like a sensor via a local network.    

Simply put, if you understand that LORA is a type of hardware that supports remote wireless communication, Lorawan refers to a network protocol based on Lora. Lorawan is a protocol that runs on the Lora modulation to manage the network connection. It is important to differentiate between Lorawan end nodes that communicate with the Lorawan gateway and low-power Lorawan gateways that communicate with network servers using high-bandwidth communication protocols such as WiFi, Ethernet and mobile communications.    

Here we meet LORA and Lorawan in the category of Wireless Wide Area Network technologies, which must cover large ranges with low power consumption and low bandwidth, also known as LPWA networks or LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network). 

LORA itself represents the physical level of network technology and is powered by wireless modulation, which is used to establish remote communication between devices. Lorawan’s communications layer is a vast network and the open-source communication protocol is defined by LORA Alliance, a consortium of Symphony Link, an open-source communication protocol used by a company called Link Labs. The gateway receives data from the end node (sensor) and receives Lora data packet from Lora and the data packet back to the Internet Protocol (IP) network server.    

LORA gateway modulation manages the network connection between the sensors and the radio bridge running on the Lorawan protocol, which is compatible with the industry-standard Lorawan Gateway.    

It connects devices to the Internet and manages communication between terminal devices and network gateways. The Lorawan Network Server (LNS) and the Base Station Controller (BSC) are additional features for operating LORA gateways, providing field settings, alerts, firmware and application updates, security and integrity. The Radio Network Controller (RNC) helps monitor and optimize radio performance, covering the entire spectrum of the IoT network, the scattering factor and current load. The Branch Packet Broker includes access to the Lorawan Community Network, which provides the gateways and collaborations needed to deploy your devices.