Episode 7
Primer: LoRa vs LoRaWAN & How To Use It
Let’s break down the essentials of LoRa and LoRaWAN, two key players in the IoT landscape, and how you can leverage them for your business. At the heart of our discussion is the distinction between LoRa, the radio signal, and LoRaWAN, the comprehensive system that governs data transmission and structure. Think of LoRa as the car and LoRaWAN as the entire road network – it’s all about how these components work together.
We’ll also explore the four primary ways to utilize LoRaWAN: through public networks, community networks, private networks, and managed services.
In general, there are 4 different ways you could use a LoRaWAN.
They are Public, Community, Private, or Managed.
Public
You could subscribe to a public network operator or PNO, like Orange or Bouygues in France, Everynet in the U.S (and around the world), or AWS IoT Core or other PNOs.
PNOs install gateways across the city and offer the IoT connectivity as a service, so they’ll charge you a subscription to use their LoRaWAN.
Community
You could use a community network like TTN (the Things Network), where volunteers and organizations deploy gateways and share coverage for free. There is TTN coverage in most cities.
If there is TTN coverage where you are, you could just use it.
If you don't have coverage where you are, you would need to buy and install and set up a gateway, which would share your coverage with others.
Another community option is Helium. Helium has coverage almost everywhere in the developed world, and is how I got into LoRaWAN.
If there’s coverage where you are, you can use it for a very small fee. As an example, if you were to use the MeteoScientific LNS on Helium, you’d pay about $0.88/year to send a packet of data every hour.
You can also buy and deploy a Helium gateway, called a Hotspot, to provide coverage, earning cryptocurrency in return.
The difference between Helium & TTN is the cryptocurrency aspect, which drives the difference in gateways (and therefore, overall coverage.)
TTN has 21k gateways worldwide. Helium has 296,000. Cryptocurrency incentives are powerful.
Private
The third way to use a LoRaWAN is to stand up your own private network. You can buy your own gateways, buy a block of addresses from the LoRa Alliance and set up your own LNS where you’re the only one using it.
Managed
Finally, you can just hire companies to do the whole thing for you.
- My recommendation? Choose if you’re doing this for business or pleasure, then do the thing that’s best for that. If you’re geeky, running your own isn’t that hard. If you want someone else to do the tech lifting, reach out to me, I’m happy to make recommendations.
Links referenced in this episode:
Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Orange
- Bouygues
- Everynet
- AWS
- TTN
- Helium
- MeteoScientific
Support the show! https://support.metsci.show
Transcript
Welcome to
2
:the Business of LoRaWAN,
where we dive into this long range,
3
:low power, wide area network
and its impact on your bottom line,
4
:the latest sensors and proven real world
solutions.
5
:I'm your host, Nik Hawks.
6
:Since 2020,
7
:when I stumbled into LoRaWAN via Helium
while hunting for a lost paraglider,
8
:I've helped thousands
understand how it works and how to use it,
9
:and I'm psyched to do the same for you.
10
:I've installed everything
from soil sensors
11
:to weather stations to retail foot
traffic counters.
12
:Coming to the conclusion
that LoRaWAN is rad,
13
:so I built the only show on the internet
fully dedicated to unlocking its potential
14
:for your business.
15
:Let's dig in on this short primer.
16
:We'll talk about the difference
between Lora and LoRaWAN,
17
:as well as describe the various ways
to use LoRaWAN.
18
:Let's start with Lora versus LoRaWAN,
which is a common and confusing piece.
19
:Lora is the radio signal
and it stands for long range.
20
:Laura.
21
:Laura,
when is the whole system defining how data
22
:is structured,
transmitted, authenticated and received?
23
:LoRaWAN stands for long
range wide area network.
24
:Think of it this way.
25
:Lora is the car
26
:and LoRaWAN is the entire road system
from Interstate to your driveway.
27
:That's it. It's pretty simple, right?
28
:In general, there
29
:are four different ways
you can use a LoRaWAN.
30
:They are public, community,
private and managed.
31
:We'll start with public.
32
:You could subscribe to a public network
operator or piano
33
:like Orange or Big in France
every night in the US
34
:and around the world,
or AWS IoT core or other pianos.
35
:Pianos install gateways across the city
and offer IoT connectivity as a service,
36
:so they'll charge you a subscription
to use their LoRaWAN.
37
:The second way is via a community network.
38
:You could use a community network
like TTN, the Things Network,
39
:where volunteers
40
:and organizations deploy gateways
and share that gateway coverage for free.
41
:There's TTN coverage in most cities.
42
:If there is TTN coverage where you are,
you could just use it.
43
:If you don't have coverage where you are,
you would need to buy and install
44
:and set up a gateway which would share
your coverage with others.
45
:Another community option is helium.
46
:Helium has coverage
47
:almost everywhere in the developed world,
and it's how I got into law when
48
:if there's helium coverage where you are,
you can use it for a very small fee.
49
:As an example, if you were to use
the medio scientific LNS on helium,
50
:you'd pay about $0.88 a year
to send a packet of data every hour.
51
:You could also buy and deploy a helium
gateway called a hotspot
52
:to provide coverage,
earning cryptocurrency in return.
53
:The difference between helium
and TTN is the cryptocurrency aspect,
54
:which drives the difference in gateways
deployed and therefore overall coverage.
55
:TTN has about 21,000 gateways
deployed worldwide.
56
:Helium has 296,000 at last count.
57
:Cryptocurrency
incentives are pretty powerful.
58
:The third way to use a LoRaWAN
is to stand up your own private network.
59
:You would buy your own gateways
by a block of addresses
60
:from the Lora Alliance,
and set up your own lines
61
:where you're the only one using it.
62
:It's private.
63
:Finally, you could just hire a company
to do the whole thing for you and manage
64
:everything to do with LoRaWAN
so that all you do is get the data
65
:and send back the commands that you want
to send based on the data you get.
66
:My recommendation choose if you're doing
this for business or pleasure,
67
:and then do the thing
that is best for that.
68
:If you're geeky, running
your own isn't that hard.
69
:If you want someone else to do the tech
lifting, reach out to me.
70
:I'm happy to make recommendations.
71
:That's it for the business of LoRaWAN.
72
:Thanks for listening.
73
:If you enjoyed the show
74
:and want to learn more, the podcast home
on the web is metsci.show.
75
:That's metsci.show
76
:There you'll find calculators to estimate
the impact of IoT usage on your business.
77
:Be able to make guest suggestions.
78
:If you know someone who
79
:you think should come on the show
and easily get in touch with me.
80
:If you think the show is useful
for LoRaWAN, please leave a review
81
:wherever you listen to this.
82
:Ratings
interviews really help podcast grow.
83
:Finally, an enormous
thanks to our sponsor at the IoT
84
:Working Group at the Helium Foundation
for supporting the show.
85
:If you want to try one out for yourself
without asking anyone permission,
86
:you can sign up for a MeteoScientific
account console.meteoscientific.com
87
:and get your first 400 data credits
for free.
88
:That's enough to run a sensor for
about a year if you're sensing once a day.
89
:Right on. See you on the next show.
