- School safety, oil and gas safety, restaurant conditions, are just some of the applications where LoRaWAN deployments have brought a view into what is happening at remote sites.
- Expansion of satellite connectivity will make LoRa-based visibility more accurate going forward, serving as gateways to capture sensor data
Several technologies are surging ahead in the Internet of Things (IoT) community when it comes to affordability and low power.
Among the Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) IoT category, LoRaWAN and narrowband (NB)-IoT serve as an alternative to power hungry 5G cellular systems, Bluetooth Low Energy and Ultra-Wide Band (UWB). The amount of data being transmitted is minimal, but companies argue that IoT systems don’t require the kind of data streaming used in video for instance.
LoRa is the name for the radio technology, LoRa is the open networking standard using that technology. LoRaWAN allows IoT devices to communicate wirelessly.
In the commercial sector over the past quarter, LoRa technology and LoRaWAN technology have been enabling growth in IoT deployments from millions of sensors providing condition monitoring in stores, for pest detection, oil and gas safety and most critically—and most importantly—keeping students safe in the case of an active shooter.
LoRa Alliance Report
A recent report by LoRa Alliance found that LPWAN connections consist mostly of NB-IoT and LoRa, accounting for 87 percent of total connections. This dominance is expected to continue, according to the Alliance’s report, with these two technologies projected to maintain 86 percent of all LPWAN connections by 2030. While NB-IoT’s significant growth is driven by its popularity in China, LoRaWAN leads in most other regions.
These details are included in a report from LoRa Alliance that evaluated how 2024 went for technology deployments, worldwide.
School Safety
Transmitting an alert may be the most critical application for the technology.
In September, a Georgia school demonstrated how the technology can help summon aid. When a shooter entered the Apalachee High School in Georgia the district had installed their LoRaWAN alerting system several weeks before which included “panic buttons” that could be pressed to summon emergency support. The system, known as the CENTEGIX Safety Platform and installed by the company, was adopted during the summer break.
Centegix includes a digital mapping feature with real-time locating capabilities. Staff members took advantage of their battery powered, wireless badge devices to press the LoRaWAN button multiple times, which prompted an immediate call to 911.
In classrooms, students were warned to remain in their rooms, with doors locked, lights off, and out of view from the door window.
Enabling Rapid Emergency Response
The alert data included location coordinates of where the panic button was pressed. By the time the Sheriff’s office arrived on the scene, there were already hundreds of law enforcement officers there.
Tragically, a total of four students and teachers were killed in the attack on the Atlanta-area school, and seven others were injured. Officials predicted that the death toll and injuries would have been higher without the rapid emergency response.
“Thanks to those buttons the police enforcement could reach the school in under two minutes,” recalled Alper Yegin, LoRa Alliance’s CEO.
The concept of a wireless panic button is not new, but the use of LoRaWAN to transmit emergency calls is still relatively recent. “Any other technology that you would use with the panic buttons could consume so much battery power and it will be impractical to use because of the battery drain,” Yegin said. For users then, the system could be a labor-demand to keep those batteries up to date on users, he added.
The technology is not only in operation in schools but also in hospitals and hotels. LoRaWAN signals can also penetrate walls, which is key to providing full coverage to a wide area with only a few LoRaWAN gateways.
Oil and Gas Safety, Maintenance
With that long range functionality, the technology is in use by the oil and gas industry. One of Europe’s largest biofuels refineries—Shell Energy and Chemicals Park Rotterdam—has employed the technology for visibility into its refineries, by tracking details about its older equipment. In 2022, the site rolled out a system with LoRaWAN NEON vibration sensors on equipment. These approximately 5,000 sensors are tracking anomalies in equipment conditions and transmitting data related to those anomalies.
Dutch IoT company TWTG provided the sensors and connectivity. The sensors can be attached to equipment to monitor conditions changes. TWTG also provides spare parts and equipment life cycle recommendations. Additionally, the sensors are ATEX certified to be used in potentially explosive environments.
The oil and gas industry poses a uniquely challenging environment for the IoT. Refineries are highly metallic and metal can compromise RF transmissions. However, wireless products are important for the sites too, where installing wires would be too expensive and risk averse.
LoRaWAN is emerging as a solution for these sites, said Yegin, for applications such as monitoring rotating equipment, with AI built into the system to identify when there is a deviation, what it indicates based on the learned pattern.
Extending the Network
Worldwide over 350 million LoRa end nodes, and 6.9 million gateways have been deployed. The technology is in use by restaurants and industrial sites. Just where the sensor data can be routed is the next challenge. LoRaWAN companies may be solving that challenge as well with terrestrial connectivity via satellite. There are three satellite companies now providing connectivity from space.
The presence of satellites over Europe is bringing LoRaWAN sensors within range of a network, even in a very remote location. That means, Yegin said, the technology can be deployed in more high-growth areas, such as smart buildings and in smart homes as well as for asset tracking in remote outdoor areas.
Non-terrestrial network (NTN) LoRaWAN connectivity is available from three commercial service providers, putting LoRaWAN ahead of competitive technologies in terms of NTN coverage. One NTN satellite company—EchoStar—has built a satellite network of devices that can capture transmissions from low earth orbit via LoRaWAN.
EchoStar Mobile has its Pan-European, GEO satellite based, LoRaWAN-enabled IoT network.
