Low-power, wide-area networks (LPWAN) are rapidly growing, as enterprises and industrial operations seek to manage ever more complex network needs.
Market reports predict that the worldwide LPWAN market – measured at 982.9 million USD in 2019 – is expected to grow 84.3% between 2021 and 2029. The diverse use cases for LPWAN include asset tracking, precision agriculture, remote equipment monitoring, water and wastewater management, and “green tech” deployments such as solar, wind and smart city lighting.
One of the fastest-growing, most agile and easy-to-deploy LPWAN technologies is LoRaWAN®, globally standardized by the LoRa Alliance®. To serve the needs of this rapidly growing market, Digi recently acquired Haxiot Inc., a provider of complete, end-to-end LoRaWAN solutions. We are thrilled to announce the launch of the first Digi LoRaWAN starter kit. Read on to learn more about the kit and the exciting technology behind it.
What Are LoRa and LoRaWAN?
LoRa stands for “long range,” and LoRaWAN means “long-range, wide-area network.” LoRaWAN is a secure, wireless media protocol for wide area networking using LoRa radio. This protocol enables low-powered devices to communicate with Internet-connected applications over long-range wireless connections. Acting like a star network, LoRaWAN uses a centralized gateway to communicate with connection points or “nodes” across the network.
Components of the Digi LoRaWAN Kit
The Digi LoRaWAN development kit is designed to support rapid prototyping for fast time-to-market. The kit provides everything needed to set up LoRaWAN quickly and securely, including uplink/downlink, temperature sensor, LED light and digital input, and embedded developer API.
The kit includes:
- Digi 8-channel LoRaWAN HXG3000 Indoor Ethernet Gateway
- A client shield, compatible with ST Nucleo/Arduino, with Digi LoRaWAN module, LED, digital input and temperature sensors
- Digi X-ON cloud platform 30-day free trial account with scan-and-go mobile provisioning
For more information, see the Digi LoRaWAN page and the kit datasheet. If you need development, testing, certification and go-to-market support, Digi Wireless Design Services can help.
Key Benefits of the Digi LoRaWAN Solution
LoRaWAN is for enterprises, OEMs and systems integrators who want agile, quick-to-deploy and economical LPWAN solutions for low-power devices. Whether you are deploying a network across agricultural acreage, a solar farm or smart city lighting, you can be assured of reliable, secure connectivity.
Let’s look at the key benefits businesses seeking IoT solutions should consider Digi LoRaWAN for their IoT deployment.
LoRaWAN is Ubiquitous
LoRaWAN uses free, unlicensed radio frequencies across the entire globe that can be utilized anywhere in the world. The LoRaWAN protocol is standardized and widely available, and the technology is now operable across an interconnected worldwide ecosystem managed by the LoRa Alliance®.
It Provides Great Range and Penetration
Using the low power usage and long range reach, LoRaWAN connections penetrate structures like concrete buildings, giving it a huge advantage over other protocols, such as Wi-Fi. The cloud-ready network can seamlessly transmit and receive data for up to 15 km in suburban and 5 km in urban areas. What’s more, a single gateway can support thousands of IoT devices.
It’s Highly Cost Effective
Using this kit, Digi seeks to address the barriers to adoption in the current LoRaWAN ecosystem, which include prohibitive costs due to vendor margin stacking and integration. Digi’s end-to-end solution dramatically reduces integration cost and supply chain complexity and accelerates development time. Customers can also benefit from a lower total cost of ownership (TCO) with faster time-to-market.
It’s Cloud-ready for Real-Time Measurement
A key concern for LPWAN deployments is the amount and frequency of data transmissions. While maintaining its low power consumption capabilities, LoRaWAN offers multiple configuration options for low latency or long battery life. An event driven network that leverages intelligent sensors providing real time monitoring & control. For example, these can include data from HVAC systems, ambient temperature and lighting. Sensors located in hard-to-reach locations can be used for real-time measurement and can be turned on or off at a distance.
It Has Excellent Control Capabilities
With its downlink and multicast functionality, long range capacity and centralized architecture, LoRaWAN is optimal for control-centric IoT projects. LoRaWAN is engineered so the network’s two-way communication maximizes the performance of its sensor and command functions. A single gateway can connect thousands of sensors within a large building, campus or several city blocks. Our system configurations not only support real-time, low-latency applications, but also support battery-optimized, high-latency control options.
It’s Easy to Deploy
LoRaWAN’s layered architecture does not mean the network has to be complex to set up. Digi’s end-to-end LoRaWAN solution offers automated provisioning tools. The X-ON “scan & go” app can be customized for enterprise customers to simplify a manual installation processes on a secure and reliable network, with our full suite of management and control tools.
Digi offers low integration cost and an end-to-end fully managed service to help enterprises that require large scale connectivity to enter the IoT market quickly and painlessly.
With Digi, you can be up and running fast! Contact us to start the conversation.