Palomar Amateur Radio Club STEM Experimentation Lab

LoRa (from Long Range) is a proprietary radio communication protocol technology. It was developed by the Semtech Corporation. They are the primary source of LoRa and LoRaWAN chips and modules. Other companies also produce LoRa devices, mainly Microchip and STMicroelectronics.

LoRa uses a spread spectrum modulation scheme to achieve a wide area communication capability using very low transmitted power. LoRa often achieves much longer ranges than one would usually expect. Devices using LoRa modems are typically used in point-to-point or mesh network scenarios.

LoRaWAN is a wide-area network specification that uses LoRa as its network backbone. LoRaWAN is defined by an ITU specification. The achievable data rates are fairly low ranging from 300 to 50k bits per second per channel. LoRaWAN is aimed more at supporting commercial networks that serve wider purposes, like Smart City automation or sensor networks for Agricultural and Farming surveillance.

LoRA & LoRAWAN Frequency Usage

LoRa uses the sub-GHz frequencies of the unlicensed ISM bands. The actual frequency bands depend on the region.

• North America 902-928MHz (US915)
• South America 915-928MHz (AU915/AS923-1)
• Europe 862-870MHz & 873MHz (EU868)
• Asia 915-928MHz (AS923)
• India 865-867MHz (IN865)

Who else uses LoRa and/or LoraWAN?

• The LoRa Alliance  🔗 The LoRa Alliance Home
• The Things Network  🔗 The Things Network Home
• Smart Cities -- Utility Meters, Water Meters, Street Lighting, Environmental Monitoring
• The Meshtastic and MeshCore open-source mesh network projects are of particular interest for amateur radio.
    Meshtastic  ⓘ Meshtastic Information
  Meshcore  ⓘ MeshCore Information

References:

• Semtech  🔗 Semtech LoRa
• LoRa Alliance Resource Hub  📑 What is LoraWAN?
• LoRaWAN v1.0.4 Specification (PDF)  📑 LoRaWAN v1.0.4 Specification