Exciting times for LoRaWAN...

The LoRaWAN® Live Show and Market Place in Berlin, organised by the LoRa Alliance™, highlighted the exciting developments in LoRaWAN-based applications. Does LoRaWAN® technology form part of your product development strategy?

After extensive research into LoRaWAN, we launched our ultra-miniature ISP4520 Smart Combo RF module, which has LoRa, BLE and NFC capabilities and includes dual integrated antennas.

What is LoRaWAN?

The LoRaWAN® specification uses a Low Power, Wide Area (LPWA) networking protocol to wirelessly connect battery-powered IoT devices to the internet via the networks provided by major telco infrastructure providers.

LoRaWAN-compatible IoT devices provide bi-directional communication, end-to-end security, mobility and localization services. For these functions to operate, these IoT devices using the LPWA protocol need to include a long-life battery, a low-cost sensor or end-device BOM and long-range connectivity. (source: LoRA Alliance™)

Great potential market

According to analysts Global Market Insights, Inc., the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) market, which includes LoRa, NB-IoT, and LTE-M technologies, will be worth US$65bn by 2025. “Among all the platforms, LoRaWAN® platforms held the highest market share of over 50% in 2018 as they use unlicensed spectrum and are best suited for applications that generate low traffic and require low-cost sensors.”

The manufacturing, healthcare utilities, logistics, agricultural, smart building and smart cities are among sectors where the potential for deployment of LoRaWAN-enabled IoT applications are the greatest.

LoRaWAN® use cases

There are many interesting use cases based on LoRa technology, some of which the LoRaWAN® Live Show showcased, including:

• French water utility Veolia and its Birdz IoT subsidiary used the network operator Orange’s LoRa network to connect more than three million Smart Water Meters in the city of Toulouse, initially for a year’s trial. This is a first step to digitising water services across France. (source: SmartCitiesWorld)
• Swiss IT services company Axino Solutions originally developed its IoT fresh food temperature-monitoring technology, IoT.FoodSafety with Swiss retailer Migros for its refrigerated food sections. This IoT technology uses specially developed sensors powered by a battery with a 10-year life. Its low-power network, LoRaWAN-based technology enables employees to monitor the temperatures of individual food products and obtain data in real time, from up to 18km away,  independently of the power grid, or of local and mobile networks. (source: ESMMagazine)
• Technology company LHIRR has collaborated with ACCORINVEST, owner and operator of 800+ hotels, as part of the latter’s “connected asset” strategy. With 30,000 people employed in ACCORINVEST hotels around the world, LHIRR and ACCORINVEST  developed and implemented their own IoT solution using a LoRaWAN private network. LHIRR says that this solution provided a higher level of service for ACCORINVEST’s guests and higher asset performance, thanks to well-designed tools and simplified procedures. (source: IdTechEx)
• Swiss technology company Loriot has worked on the Digitalstadt Darmstadt smart city project with the German city of Darmstadt and its IT supplier Entega, to roll-out a LoRaWAN network across Darmstadt to give it the opportunity of providing new digital services to local people and businesses. These new applications range from smart parking to lead drivers on the shortest way to the next available parking space, to waste container monitoring for route optimization of the disposal vehicles and to smart street lighting. (source: Digitalstadt Darmstadt)
• New Zealand company IoT Ventures and entrepreneur John McDermott have created BoatSecure, a boat monitoring Owners can keep an eye on their boats remotely and in real time thanks to information relayed to their smartphones over a LoRaWAN network from sensors connected to their vessel’s electrical system. These sensors are attached to components including the battery, bilge pump, geo location equipment and shore power supply. If the sensors detect activity which is out of the norm, the app notifies the owners who can then take the appropriate action. (source: New Zealand IoT Alliance)

Insight SiP and the LoRa Alliance™

Our interest and expertise in enabling long- and short-range wireless connectivity for IoT through developing ultra-miniature RF modules using SiP technology including integrated antennas led us to become one of the early members of the LoRA Alliance™ and contribute to discussions around creating new protocols and standards.

Insight SiP and LoRaWAN®

After significant R&D, we have a new ultra-miniature RF module with LoRa, BLE and NFC capabilities, the ISP4520, a Smart Combo module with dual integrated antennas. Both the LoRA and BLE antennas are integrated into an ultra-small device measuring just 9.8 x 17.2 x 1.7 mm, making it the smallest device on the market. The ISP4520 is rapidly being adopted by many of our customers who are incorporating it into new IoT devices which require Long Range Networking.

Hurrah for LoRa!

If LoRaWAN® forms part of your product development strategy and you want to find out more about how you can integrate ultra-miniature RF modules with dual LoRA and BLE antennas to enable wireless connectivity for your LoRaWAN®-based products, please contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..