During the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic, many people excitedly analyzed positive environmental changes caused by the lockdowns associated with it. For example, air and water quality improved due to decreases in car and boat traffic. Environmental conservationists and green tech experts wondered if the pandemic could signal a remarkable improvement in sustainability.
LoRaWAN® News
LoRa developments add to IoT momentum
Already one of the most widespread of the low-power, wide-area protocols, LoRa has seen some recent developments that promise to further the protocol’s adoption. A new link-layer specification aims to help facilitate worldwide deployments and an innovation in the packaging of passive components promises to help reduce implementation size. Together they can help increase the momentum of LoRa adoption.
Senet, CNIguard and Semtech deliver LoRaWAN natural gas leak detection and utility monitoring solutions
Senet, Inc., a provider of cloud-based software and services platforms that enable global connectivity and on-demand network build-outs for the Internet of Things (IoT), is collaborating with CNIguard and Semtech Corporation to deliver natural gas monitoring solutions to utilities across the United States.
LoRaWAN will temporarily replace 5G networks for IoT
5G networks will revolutionize the Internet of Things (IoT). But it will take several years for the technology to cover most of the planet. Thanks to LoRaWAN, you don’t need to wait. According to Gartner, around 5.8 billion enterprise and automotive IoT endpoints will be used throughout 2020, which is 21% more than in 2019. Telecom networks will soon struggle to handle the load.
IoT experts put hopes into 5G as the IoT connectivity standard of the future that will replace physical networks and enable real-time responsiveness. The keyword here is ‘future’. Ericsson predicts that 5G technology will only be available to two-thirds of the global population by 2025.
With so much hype around 5G at the moment, people frequently neglect an alternative that has been there for five years: low-range wide-area networks (LoRaWAN). In many instances, LoRaWAN can replace 5G, at least until 5G becomes available worldwide.
Advanced Networks and IoT: Optimizing Agile, Efficient Operations
IoT platforms are becoming key to operational agility, with global spending on IoT is forecast to reach $1.1 trillion in 2022, up from $726 billion 2019. Taken together, IoT sensors, process automation, and the integration of LoRaWAN® with existing ethernet and broadband connectivity offer the opportunity to maximize efficiency and security in today’s operational environments—particularly in hard-to-reach places and spaces.
“Advanced Networks and IoT: Optimizing Agile, Efficient Operations,” a webinar from Comcast Business Services, explores the comparative benefits of LoRaWAN connectivity with Wi-Fi across a variety of IoT use cases. Our panelists discuss the complementary nature of these two network technologies to extend network coverage power IoT use cases that drive business results.
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LoRaWAN® Investment Unlocked in Italy
LoRa Alliance® members A2A Smart City, Everynet and Unidata supported the new “Decreto Semplificazioni” law and the amendments of Senator Maria Laura Mantovani that now enable permanent low power wide area network (LPWAN) Internet of Things (IoT) deployments in Italy.
The LoRa Alliance is thrilled by the recent decision of the Italian government to turbocharge the advancement of IoT in Italy by opening commercial LoRaWAN® deployments and enabling large variety of new IoT applications. With this new ruling on September 15, 2020, Italy enabled business where LoRaWAN is concerned. After years of strong effort by the LoRa Alliance alongside member companies A2A Smart City, Everynet, and Unidata, Italy recently removed constraints on the full deployment of LoRaWAN networks.
The three LoRa Alliance member companies driving this effort in Italy expressed great satisfaction for the passage into law of the “Decreto Semplificazioni,” which contains the amendment presented in the Italian Senate by Senator Mantovani. The amendment removes the temporal restrictions to LoRaWAN and allows the transition to a permanent authorization model, finally unblocking investments in the IoT.
A bit of history is informative
Although part of the European Union (EU) greenlighted use of the EU868 frequency for LoRaWAN back in 2018, Italy put limitations in place while it examined potential issues around interference with defense and other existing networks using the same spectrum. While LoRaWAN networks were permitted, they were subject to regulations imposed by the Ministry of Defense, which wanted to understand whether there were any potential interference issues before allowing unlimited use. All licenses were restricted to 6-months, making risky major investments in infrastructure and slowing down deployment of LoRaWAN in the country. The experiments and studies carried out since 2016 have demonstrated the coexistence of low power wide area network (LPWAN) technologies with other systems (including military/defense, public/private uses) in the 863-870 MHz frequency band.
Accelerating the IoT in Italy
As A2A Smart City, Unidata, and Everynet explain, this change in regulation definitively provides administrative simplification in the IoT sector and opens the market for the massive adoption of IoT LPWAN applications. The new law will accelerate the investments in innovation and the implementations of new IoT solutions. Before multinational companies had looked at the Italian IoT market with trepidation. Now, they can focus on business IoT services for manufacturing, tourism, healthcare, agriculture, and, above all, the energy, gas, and water supply service sector. These markets are expected to be the first markets for LoRaWAN, with billions of Euro ready to be invested. Proven global success stories, such as asset tracking and gas and water metering implemented in Brazil, electricity metering in Indonesia, and smart waste management in Iceland, can be replicated cost-effectively across the whole country.
“The legal green light is finally also in Italy,” underscored Patrizio Pisani, Head of R&D at Unidata. “It introduces a fundamental administrative simplification in the IoT sector for LPWAN technology solutions that require the frequency ranges 863-870 and 915-921 MHz. The simplification removes the six-month time limit and its related regulatory uncertainty. It enables investments in LoRaWAN technology in strategic sectors such as smart metering by water utilities, a potential driving force for economic recovery and development of the country, as well as smart cities and smart agriculture.”
“The build-out and management of a LoRaWAN network on a national level enable a consistent number of services and solutions to be provided by national and international companies, which will help to overcome the digital divide that still relegates Italy below the European average,” explained Antonio Terlizzi, Senior Vice President of Everynet BV. “With the ‘Decreto Legge Semplificazioni’ law, the Italian government is enabling a system for international innovation that we already support in seven countries worldwide with our national networks. That ranges from smart meters for water, electricity, and gas, to smart city and smart building solutions, tracking of goods and people, and even to the latest social distancing and sanitization solutions related to the recent Covid-19 pandemic.”
“Having achieved the end of such an important path after four intense years of work with these Institutions gives us renewed strength to meet market requirements here. We have the opportunity to address the business challenges that LoRaWAN solutions can unlock for our customers all over the country,” said Marco Turchini, CEO A2A Smart City. “It is an amazing time to invest in IoT and provide LoRaWAN solutions to help advance the Italian market.”
With LoRaWAN now supported by the appropriate regulatory framework, Italy provides a secure environment for LoRaWAN investments and offers a new great market for LoRaWAN. Users can deploy LoRaWAN knowing their investments are safe, which has greatly strengthened its prospects here.
LoRa Alliance® and LoRaWAN® are registered trademarks, used with permission.
Welsh farms install smart sensors to capture crucial data
Numerous Welsh farms have installed low-powered smart sensors that exploit wireless technology, helping capture important data for their businesses.
LoRaWAN (Low Power Long Range Wide Area Access Network) radio frequency is not new – it is used globally in a multitude of situations. It is especially beneficial in rural areas where communications infrastructure can fall short but it hasn’t been used extensively in Wales until now. The Welsh government’s Farming Connect scheme is funding the installation of LoRaWAN gateway devices on eighteen farms across Wales.
Smart Parks solution deployment for Wildlife Protection in Mkomazi National Park, Tanzania.
First black rhinos protected by sensor-implants in horns
The Internet of Life and the ShadowView Foundation have successfully implanted LoRaWAN -equipped sensors directly into the horns of critically endangered black rhinos. The sensors give park rangers the ability to accurately monitor the whereabouts and activities of the large mammals and keep them safe from poachers.
Microland and Microshare Sign Global Sales Agreement for Smart Facilities Solutions that Enable Safe Return to Work Amid the Pandemic
PHILADELPHIA, Sept. 15, 2020 /CNW/ — Microshare Inc., a pioneer in workplace and Smart Facilities data capabilities, has signed a global sales and system integration alliance with leading IT infrastructure services company Microland Ltd. Through this partnership, Microland will provide solutions for businesses, governments and other institutions seeking to return to work safely amid the global pandemic.
Senet and Frost Control Systems Partner to Deliver LoRaWAN® Road Weather Information Systems and Services
Senet, Inc. today announced a partnership with Frost Control Systems, a U.S. based manufacturer and service provider of non-invasive, non-contact, Road Weather Information Systems (RWIS).
Through this partnership, Frost Control Systems has integrated Senet LoRaWAN™ network connectivity with its turnkey RWIS service to deliver remote monitoring of atmospheric and surface temperature for winter road condition monitoring.
Semtech’s LoRaWAN® Devices Boost Crop Yield on Connected Avocado Farms
CAMARILLO, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Semtech Corporation (Nasdaq: SMTC), a leading supplier of high performance analog and mixed-signal semiconductors and advanced algorithms, announced that ICT International, an Internet of Things (IoT) solution provider for environmental applications, and Definium Technologies (Definium), a developer and manufacturer of IoT gateways and devices, are leveraging an advanced array of products based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol to improve crop yield in Australian avocado plantations with a data-centric approach to farming.
How Smart Technologies Can Transform Rural Communities
The use of smart and connected technology has the potential to boost rural communities, according to a new report published by BT.
Focusing on the agriculture and tourism sectors in rural Wales, rapidly growing technology such as “internet of things” (IOT) – internet-connected devices – could help these areas thrive in future, according to the report.
Datatopia podcast episode 2: LoRa Alliance
In this new Datatopia podcast episode, we discuss the ways in which IoT can improve our home life or our industrial performance, what is the need of industry certification programs for ensuring interoperability between devices and applications, as well as applications and markets that will benefit from the new profile of DLMS over LoRaWAN®.
Multi-Agent Approach Using LoRaWAN Devices: An Airport Case Study
The current situation with COVID-19 is changing our courses of action toward ensuring health security. This is particularly crucial in airports, which usually receive more than 300,000 travellers in one single day. In this work, we present an Internet of Things (IoT) network to monitor the status of toilets and improve their maintenance. The system is based on IoT networks with different sensors to control soap levels, room capacity, distances, temperature, and humidity. This information is processed by a multi-agent system that detects possible anomalies and makes decisions accordingly. A case study in a real environment is developed in order to demonstrate the usefulness of the system. The results show that the proposed method can be used to successfully manage and control airport toilets.
The case for a national IoT network
Everything from the farm gate to the factory production line is set to join the Internet of Things revolution. There’s only one problem – big gaps in connectivity are holding back our IoT aspirations. One engineer has floated a potential solution.
NNNCo Sustainable Cities Webinar
The Sustainable Cities and Communities: Scaling IoT for Resilience and Growth Webinar took place on 21 July 2020, held in conjunction with NNNCo, Enzen, Wellness TechGroup, the LoRa Alliance and City of Gold Coast.
Hackster.io, Smart Parks, and Key Industry Partners to Build World’s Most Advanced Elephant Tracker
In response to a growing crisis facing Africas diminishing elephant population, two technology leaders are coming together with leading technology and conservation partners to build the worlds most advanced tracker to protect elephants in their natural habitats.
Green Talk with LoRa Alliance
Watch Greenwave’s Green Talk with Derek Wallace, VP Marketing at the LoRa Alliance. In this interview, Derek presents the LoRa Alliance’s latest initiatives “connecting a smarter planet” and “LoRaWAN for good”. He then provides a high-level view of various use cases where LoRaWAN provides both economic and environmental benefits including:
- Smart & energy meters
- Smart agriculture
- Smart cities & buildings
Moore’s Lobby Podcast – Ep. 5 | LoRaWAN: The Things Network and LoRa Alliance Talk Open IoT
There are many IoT-enabling wireless protocols, but how many can lay claim to counting cars in smart cities while tracking cows in the fields of Australia? Let’s talk LoraWAN.
In this episode of Moore’s Lobby, host Dave Finch takes a look at wireless IoT technologies and comes away with the knowledge that there is definitely no such thing as a “one size fits all” solution.
Adopting IoT? Learn Why One-Off Solutions Can’t Compete with Platforms
The more data points you are measuring and processing, the more complex your system becomes. The key to simplification is integration, and the far more effective approach to IoT deployment is to build your network as a scalable, flexible platform.
Simplifying Wireless IoT Gateway Deployment With Secure Backhaul
While the LoRaWAN communication protocol provides AES-128 encryption of the data payload from the device through to the application, MachineQ goes a step beyond to provide secure backhaul transport between the gateway and the network server.
Introducing 10 New Ways to Use the MQ Platform to Scale Your IoT Solutions
Our mission is to improve how the world operates through the power of connected sensors. To that end, we are excited to announce that we are growing our catalog of LoRa solutions and releasing 10 new devices to support some of the most prominent use cases.
Smart Construction: More Than a Worthy Investment
Kwant.ai Sets the Industry Standard with Its Smart Construction Solution
With construction companies quickly adopting artificial intelligence, predictive analytics, and IoT networking, MachineQ’s secure LoRaWAN® platform is an easy and secure way to collect data in the field, in real time.
CareBand Launches COVID-19 People Safety Solutions
CHICAGO, IL — COVID-19 has proven that public health organizations and government institutions need a new approach when managing pandemics. The interconnected nature of the modern world poses difficulties for traditional methods of disease management and control.
Leveraging IoT Technology for Good
Global businesses and communities have consistently turned to the Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to increase efficiencies and deliver better services. Research supports this sentiment as Juniper predicts that IoT platform revenues will reach $66 billion in 2020, a 20 percent increase over last year’s figure.
Semtech’s LoRa Devices to Ensure Safety in Ultramarathon
Semtech Corporation SMTC recently announced that Everynet has used the geolocation and asset tracking capabilities of the company’s Low power, high Range (LoRa) devices.
The LoRaWAN technology and related devices have been used to track runners in real time over hundreds of kilometers. This enables the race organizers to get accurate data, which helps them prevent injuries among the runners and keep them safe, ensuring that the event turns out to be a successful one.