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Reference Manual
ETH-LORA-M-AX-01
GETTING STARTED
This section gives a general overview about LoRa communication and the module ETH-LORA-M-AX-01. LoRa part focuses more on the LoRa end
devices since it is the core subject of this document.
INTRODUCING LORA COMMUNICATION
The Internet of Things is a network of connected objects able to collect and exchange information with each other through wireless networks. These
objects embed electronics, firmware, sensors, and wireless connectivity protocols to execute its task. The Internet of Things (IoT) has been labeled
as "the next Industrial Revolution" because of the way it will impact the way people live, work, entertain, and travel, as well as the interaction between
governments and businesses with the world. Business Insider has predicted that there will be 24 billion IoT devices installed by 2020. The common
wireless protocols such as Wifi, Bluetooth, Zigbee, Z-Wave etc, are well suited for short range application where and battery life is not a major issue.
Hence more suitable protocols are needed and LoRa is one of them. [1]
LoRa (Long Range) is an innovation of Semtech which offers an impressive mix of long range, low power consumption and secure data transmission.
Many legacy wireless systems use frequency shifting keying (FSK) modulation as the physical layer because it is a very efficient modulation for
achieving low power. LoRa is based on chirp spread spectrum (CSS) modulation, which maintains the same low power characteristics as FSK
modulation but significantly increases the communication range. CSS has been used in military and space communication for decades due to the long
communication distances that can be achieved and robustness to interference, but LoRa is the first low cost implementation for commercial usage.
INTRODUCING LORA COMMUNICATION (CONTINUED)
Its low consumption makes it the best solution for a battery powered IoT applications. LoRa offers also a secured network with embedded end-to-end
AES128 encryption. The MAC layer called LoRaWAN has been added to standardize and extend the LoRa physical layer onto internet networks. This
specification is open sourced and supported by LoRa Alliance. LoRaWAN can be mapped in the 2nd and 3rd layer of the OSI model. [2]
LPWAN COMPARE TO TRADITIONAL NETWORK
Figure 1
GLOBAL LORAWAN NETWORK
Figure 2
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