LoRa Alliance® and Wireless Broadband Alliance Demonstrate Increase in Market Opportunity and ROI for IoT Deployments that Combine LoRaWAN® and Wi-Fi
Fremont, CA – November 17, 2020 – Selecting an intelligent multi-radio strategy is becoming increasingly important to succeed in a connected world, as illustrated in a new whitepaper released today by the LoRa Alliance® and Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA). The paper, “Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN® Trials - An Overview of Use Cases Across Regions Combining Two Technologies” provides details on practical trials and proof of concept deployments (POCs), representing a variety of uses cases implemented across different geographies and verticals.
It builds on the two organizations’ earlier work, “Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN Deployment Synergies: Expanding Addressable Use Cases for the Internet of Things,” which compared the two technologies theoretically and sought to demonstrate how they could be utilized to effectively support a vast array of use cases.
The proof of concepts explored in this new white paper conclude that hybrid Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN connectivity increases market opportunity, provides a strong ROI, and offers enhanced network solutions. Adding LoRaWAN to Wi-Fi using network mutualization is a cost-effective approach to deployment using the existing base of Wi-Fi access points. This offers a significant opportunity for Wi-Fi providers to expand their addressable business on complementary use cases and cover both broadband applications and massive IoT leveraging the license-exempt spectrum.
The work is the result of a collaboration between members of the WBA and the LoRa Alliance. Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN are two of the most widely adopted unlicensed technologies and together they address a large proportion of current IoT use cases. Both technologies are disrupting private-public business models and enable participation in the 5G ecosystem and developing capabilities for IoT roaming, using OpenRoaming models. 11 companies representing both Alliances from all global regions contributed to this work: Actility, Abeeway, Boingo Wireless, Charter Communications, Cisco, Kerlink, Lacuna Space, Nesten, Simplycity, Skyhook, and Semtech.
Covered use cases include:
- Smart Buildings: Multi-Family Dwellings (Boingo Wireless, United States)
- Smart City: Smart Light Pole (Charter Communications, United States)
- Smart City: Energy Management and People Attendance Monitoring (Simplycity, Australia)
- Smart City: Interoperability between Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN at the Network Level (Nesten, Skyhook, United States)
- Smart Interconnection: OpenRoaming™ & LoRaWAN (ORL) (Cisco, Switzerland)
- Smart Retail: Wi-Fi & LoRaWAN In-Store Retail Analytics (Kerlink, Smart Traffik, The Netherlands)
- Smart Tracking: Tracking with Semtech LoRa Edge™ and Lacuna Satellites to Resolve Human-Wildlife Conflict (Lacuna Space, IRNAS and Smart Parks, South Africa)
- Smart Transportation: Asset Tracking for the Automotive Industry (Actility, Abeeway, Volvo, France)
The featured use cases are expected to give existing market players who have deployed both technologies new ideas for how to leverage their networks to support innovative applications. Additionally, network operators, enterprises, or communities that have deployed either Wi-Fi or LoRaWAN networks are shown ways they might consider extending their offerings by deploying the other complementary technology.
“2020 has been a turning point for IoT adoption and unlicensed wireless technologies are a key driver supporting the rapidly accelerating digital transformation,” said Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance. “This latest collaboration between our Alliances clearly shows Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN can deliver real business advantages and improved ROI.”
Tiago Rodrigues, CEO of WBA commented: “Homes, cities, transport systems and retailers all stand to benefit from these findings. In proving this large variety of use cases, we are able to demonstrate how Wi-Fi and LoRaWAN can work together to augment capacity, coverage and increase ROI, and we start to see real commercial drivers for the two technologies working side by side and resolving interoperability through OpenRoaming.”
Related Links: Download the full white paper
From the LoRa Alliance - https://lora-alliance.org/resource-hub/wi-fi-lorawanr-trials-overview-use-cases-across-regions-combining-two-powerful
From the WBA - https://wballiance.com/wi-fi-lorawan-trials
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About the LoRa Alliance
The LoRa Alliance® is an open, nonprofit association that has become one of the largest and fastest-growing alliances in the technology sector since its inception in 2015. Its members collaborate closely and share expertise to develop and promote the LoRaWAN® standard, which is the de facto global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWAN connectivity. LoRaWAN has the technical flexibility to address a broad range of IoT applications, both static and mobile, and a robust LoRaWAN Certification program to guarantee that devices perform as specified. The LoRaWAN standard is deployed by more than 140 major mobile network operators globally, and connectivity is available in more than 160 countries, with continual expansion.
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LoRa Alliance® and LoRaWAN® are registered trademarks, used with permission.
About the Wireless Broadband Alliance
Founded in 2003, the vision of the Wireless Broadband Alliance (WBA) is to drive seamless, interoperable service experiences via Wi-Fi within the global wireless ecosystem. WBA’s mission is to enable collaboration between service providers, technology companies and organizations to achieve that vision. WBA undertakes programs and activities to address business and technical issues, as well as opportunities, for member companies.
WBA work areas include advocacy, industry guidelines, trials and certification. Its key programs include NextGen Wi-Fi, 5G, IoT, Testing & Interoperability, Roaming and Policy & Regulatory Affairs, with member-led Work Groups dedicated to resolving standards and technical issues to promote end-to-end services and accelerate business opportunities. WBA’s membership is comprised of major operators, identity providers and leading technology companies, including BAI Communications, Commscope. Facebook, HPE Aruba, Nokia, Orange, Qualcomm, Rogers, Samsung, Shaw, Swisscom, Softbank, Telstra, Telus and T-Mobile US.
The WBA Board includes AT&T, Boingo Wireless, Broadcom, BT, Cisco Systems, Comcast, Deutsche Telekom, GlobalReach Technology, Google, Intel, KT Corporation, Reliance Jio and SK Telecom. For a complete list of current WBA members, click here.
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