LoRaWAN™ for Smart Cities
Munich, May 2015
Jonathan Pearce
Wireless Marketing Manager
www.LoRa-Alliance.org
IoT Context … by Range
• IoT is all encompassing, with ranges scaling
from wearables to the wide-area
• Data becomes valuable when connected to
the cloud
Personal
Area
BT / NFC
Building
Area
WiFi / ZigBee
€ Value $ £
Wide
Area
Cellular / Satellite
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LoRaWAN™ Use-Cases:
Monitoring/ Control
Light Control
Smart Energy
Smart Agriculture
Smart City
Smart Home and Security
4
Essential Requirements
✓ #1 - Long Range, greater than existing infrastructure
✓ #2 - Long battery autonomy, 10 years or more
✓ #3 - Low cost: infrastructure, nodes, service
✓ #4 - Scalable & robust infrastructure
✓ #5 - Secure and trusted
✓ #6 - Simple commissioning
✓ #7 - Open & interoperable standard
✓ #8 - “Killer-App” features
✗High data rate – not needed in most IoT systems
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What is LoRaTM Technology?
A combination of two major concepts:
• LoRaTM spread spectrum modulation
• Provides the core long range capability
Up to 5km range in urban environment, up to 15km suburban
• Developed by Cycleo, acquired by Semtech
• Powerful gateway baseband allows multiple receive channels
• LoRaWANTM network protocol stack
• Provides the cellular network (aka large-star topology)
• Defined by IBM & Actility, made open by the LoRaTM Alliance
• Flat & modern “software defined” architecture:
• Routing complexity is centralized in the cloud data center
• Gateways are relatively basic RF-to-IP packet forwarders
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#1 – Long-Range Modulation
LoRaTM uses ‘Chirp’ spread spectrum modulation
-138dBm
145
LoR
a
140
135
sensitivity (dBm)
130
125
120
115
110
GFSK
105
100
95
3
10
4
10
bits/sec
5
10
Innovative & cost sensitive transceiver implementation
 Demodulate signals below the noise floor, improving sensitivity by ~20dB
 Robust against interference, noise, and jamming from WiFi, BT, GSM, 3G, LTE
 Multiples signals can occupy the same channel (CDMA)
 Tolerant to frequency offsets (unlike DSSS or narrow-band)

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LoRaWAN™ Coverage Test
Smart City Coverage !
• 1000 node demo during
Electronica trade-show
• 6 gateways, giving full
coverage of NW quarter of
Munich City
• 15km between suburban GWs
• 5km between urban GWs
• Excellent robust comms and
indoor penetration
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#2 – Long Battery Autonomy
Typ. 40mA
@+14dBm
Typ.
1uA
Typ.
11mA
1 second
Tx Packet
End device sleeps
Rx slot 1
Rx slot 2
End Device
1 second


Rx slots 1 & 2 are optional for ACK or DL
Fast Rx sync means unused Rx slots use
negligible energy compared to Tx
5 Symbols:
5.1 ms @ SF7
10.2 ms @ SF8
…
164 ms SF12
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#2 – Long Battery Autonomy

Assumptions:






20 transactions / day
Sleep current ~1uA (including the MCU)
MCU is mostly Off during Tx
ACK not used
The energy usage of the 2 unused Rx windows is negligible (<1%)
Pout = +14 dBm, IDDTX = 40 mA
Tx Payload
size (Bytes)

290 bps
SF12
1 kbps
SF10
5.4 kbps
SF7
4
~5.3 uA
~2.3 uA
~1.2 uA
16
~8.4 uA
~3.2 uA
~1.4 uA
32
~12.5 uA
~4.4 uA
~1.6 uA
Typical solution using a 16 byte payload and mostly
SF10 needs only 300mAh battery for 10 year autonomy
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LoRaTM Modulation Benefits
(#3 – Low Cost & #4 – Scalable)
Key Features
162dBm link budget
(-148dBm sensitivity, +14dBm Tx @ 868MHz)
Application Benefit
Longest range
Jamming resistant – tolerant to burst
interference
>100dB blocking
Robust links and network
efficiency
Simultaneous transmissions on same channel
Insensitive to XTAL offsets (no TCXO)
Lower system cost
Eliminates need for repeaters
10mA RX current, nA sleep current
Extended battery lifetime
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What is LoRaWANTM Protocol?
(WAN = Wide Area Network)
 A Large-Scale,
Bi-directional, Secured, Cellular Network
 Designed for low data-rate (~1kbps), low duty-cycle (~100mins),
high capacity (~100k nodes) & long battery life (~10yrs)
 Developed, maintained and promoted by the LoRaTM Alliance
 Microchip is a founder member and sits on Strategic, Marketing
& Technical committees
 Deployable as both public or private networks
 Scalable from a single gateway to national coverage
Multi-Usage
Bidirectional
Low Cost
Security

High capacity

Bidirectional

Minimal infrastructure

Unique ID

Multi-tenant

Scalable Capacity

Simple gateways

Application Key

Public networks

Broadcast

Low cost end-nodes

Network Key
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TM
#4 - LoRaWAN

Private Network


Individually managed networks, total end-to-end ownership
Public Network


Infrastructure
Telco operator managed networks, servicing subscriber nodes
Hybrid Network


Enterprise deployment of Nodes & Gateways, for specific area coverage
Provisioned to a commercial LoRaWAN server product
End Users
Products with Microchip
LoRaWANTM Modem
Telco Operator
LoRaWANTM
Gateways
LoRaWAN
Network Server
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Case Study: Senet (USA)

A single business case was enough to justify building a
private LoRaWAN™ network






Heating fuel (propane) delivery to residential properties
Previously inefficient – were filling cautiously when still 50% full
Adding cloud-connected level sensor reduces 2 to 3 deliveries / year
Also creates customer interaction, fuel level data is viewable online
Looked at cellular (too power hungry) and Wi-Fi (intrusive to
customer’s network) but found LoRaWAN to be the best solution
Once established, Senet is able to open this LoRaWAN
network as a public service



Multi-tenant business model further improves revenue and ROI
Expands network, improves density & capacity
‘Almost instant’ availability of a public network
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#5 – End-to-end Security
Customer
Node App
Secure Payload Data - AES128 AppsKey
MCHP Modem
UART
Customer
Server App
Data
base
Logical connection - AES128 NwksKey
Parser
LoRaWAN
Slave
LoRaWAN
Master
Radio driver
Server IF
SPI
LoRa Radio
Gateway
Packet Forwarder
Coax
SPI
UART
GPS
Concentrator
LoRa Node
Coax
PPS
TCP/IP
Network
Controller
CLOUD
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#6 – Simple Commissioning






“No touch” out-of-the-box commissioning
Two activation methods available:
ABP
Activation-By-Personalization
Shared keys stored at production
Locked to a specific network




OTAA
Over-the-Air Activation
Based on Globally Unique ID
Flexible Channel Plan
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#7 – Open Standards
TM
& The LoRa Alliance

An open, non-profit association of members
that believes the Internet-of-Things era is now

Already more than 40 companies have joined
with over 400 requests for membership

Missionto standardize Low Power Wide Area
Networks (LPWAN) being deployed around
the world to enable Internet-of-Things
(IoT), Machine-to-Machine (M2M), smart
city and industrial applications

The Alliance members will collaborate
to drive the global success of the LoRaTM
protocol (LoRaWANTM), by sharing knowledge
and experience to guarantee interoperability
between operators and devices in one open
global standard
www.LoRa-Alliance.org
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#8 – The “Killer App”
Localization
• Node positioning to 10m
• No reception or computation
burden on the end-node
• Positioning functionality with
10 year battery life
X1,Y1,Z1
X2,Y2,Z2
ΔT2
Computation Performed
In the Cloud
ΔT1
ΔT3
X3,Y3,Z3
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Next Steps …
Visit us on the Mouser Stand
www.LoRa-Alliance.org
www.Microchip.com/LoRa
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Trademarks

The Microchip name and logo, the Microchip logo, dsPIC, KeeLoq, KeeLoq logo,
MPLAB, PIC, PICmicro, PICSTART, PIC32 logo, rfPIC and UNI/O are registered
trademarks of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A. and other countries.

FilterLab, Hampshire, HI-TECH C, Linear Active Thermistor, MXDEV, MXLAB,
SEEVAL and The Embedded Control Solutions Company are registered trademarks
of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A.

Analog-for-the-Digital Age, Application Maestro, chipKIT, chipKIT logo, CodeGuard,
dsPICDEM, dsPICDEM.net, dsPICworks, dsSPEAK, ECAN, ECONOMONITOR,
FanSense,
HI-TIDE, In-Circuit Serial Programming, ICSP, Mindi, MiWi, MPASM, MPLAB Certified
logo, MPLIB, MPLINK, mTouch, Omniscient Code Generation, PICC, PICC-18,
PICDEM, PICDEM.net, PICkit, PICtail, REAL ICE, rfLAB, Select Mode, Total
Endurance, TSHARC, UniWinDriver, WiperLock and ZENA are trademarks of
Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A. and other countries.

SQTP is a service mark of Microchip Technology Incorporated in the U.S.A.
All other trademarks mentioned herein are property of their respective companies.
© 2015, Microchip Technology Incorporated, All Rights Reserved.
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