LoRaWAN is cost-efficient, low-power and long-range, which make it suitable for various applications. How can the technology be used in smart buildings, smart cities, smart homes and the Industrial IoT fields? And what else can also adopt LoRaWAN? LoRaWAN’s cost-efficient, low-power and long-range characteristics have facilitated numerous use cases in the smart building, smart city, smart home and the Industrial IoT fields.
Smart building
As the construction sector has increasing usage of structural health monitoring systems to gain insights about various safety indicators in real-time, LoRa technology has been gaining momentum in smart building applications. By deploying LoRa - enabled gateways and sensors, the building management companies can connect several buildings in a short time. Thus, minimizing the dependency on expensive power wiring installation.
Advantech, for example, has helped a South Korean IT firm Kolon Benit with its Private LoRa solution on a smart building project, which ensures security building monitoring and cement quality for construction. For safety in buildings, LoRa technology enables real - time monitoring on several factors, such as environmental conditions, luminosity and opening/closing gates. LoRa’s advanced security features such as private VPN has made it a favored network option in smart buildings. Advantech, in this case, offers the cloud server powered by ARM Pelion as well as the private cloud server WISE-Paas/Device-on.
“A combination of long-range wireless connectivity and long-battery life allows operators to deploy a LoRa-based network quickly while reducing huge operational costs. Compared to other LPWA technologies, LoRa eliminates the need for expensive building installers to deploy the network,” said Preeti Wadhwani, Assistant Manager of ICT at Global Market Insights.
Smart city
LoRa and LoRaWAN technology can be used in a multitude of smart city applications, including smart parking, smart water systems, smart lighting and smart transportation. “The technology is becoming the preferred choice for developing IoT-enabled applications as smart city planners and designers are looking for cost-effective IoT solutions to provide better services,” said Wadhwani. “The technology also provides unrivaled simplicity for the deployment of IoT networks and enables secure communication through smart city ecosystems.”
In a smart city full of smart sensors, LoRa technology helps the city gather and analyze streamlined heterogeneous data from a wide range of connected devices. Investment in smart cities is rising considerably in the Asia Pacific region, suggested Wadhwani, especially in countries like China, South Korea, Japan and Singapore that are witnessing an increasing adoption of smart lighting, smart buildings and smart transportation. This trend will also lift the importance of LoRa and LoRaWAN solutions in the region.
Smart home
A smart home requires shorter distance coverage compared to other IoT applications. In this case, LoRa technology has the advantage of low energy consumption while transmitting small amounts of data. For instance, LoRa-based home security systems are broadly used to provide security protection for residents. The system connects with doors and alarm sensors that incorporate smart door locks and security cameras, enabling real-time analytics and geolocation.
“One of the significant benefits offered by LoRa and LoRaWAN technology is its ability to be deployed either privately or connecting to a public LoRaWAN network. By deploying LoRa-based smart home products, customers can enhance connectivity between smart home devices to improve user experience,” said Wadhwani.
Industrial IoT
LoRa and LoRaWAN technology has been adopted in
Industrial IoT applications due to its low-power capability, cost effectiveness and wide-area coverage. It also saves the need for specialized wiring systems in harsh environments due to its wireless networks.
In this setting, constant and stable monitoring on automated systems and mechanical processes is crucial for working process and efficiency. For example,
LoRa technology can be used to track several assets with parameters such as location, humidity and temperature, in order to monitor industrial assets and notify the site-manager when abnormal working process happens. “The technology i s becoming a preferable option for deploying private IoT networks due to the ability of various modules from manufacturers and LoRa Alliance leading the development of standard documents,” said Wadhwani.
Smart agriculture
Kerlink has worked on a smart agriculture project in Lebanon. Its technology has customized various solutions to help a vineyard owner optimize water usage by tracking and responding to soil-moisture levels in different parcels. Pollution control is also a possible application in the field. “You see the benefits of LoRa technology in many major sectors, such as smart farming,
smart buildings and even smart harbors. The LoRaWAN solution can be implemented almost everywhere, and its variety of deployments will keep growing,” said Stéphane Dejean, CMO, Kerlink.