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LoRa Alliance®

The leading open global standard for secure, carrier-grade IoT LPWAN connectivity.

Certification

Certifying LoRaWAN® Products

There are many benefits of using LoRaWAN CertifiedCM products:

  • Certified devices provide end-users with confidence that the device is reliable and compliant with the LoRaWAN® specification
  • Ensures correct LoRaWAN® behaviour of end-devices and reduces support costs, preventing product failure “later” when it is more expensive to correct
  • Allows end-device manufacturers to carry the LoRaWAN CertifiedCM mark of quality, only afforded to LoRa Alliance® members
  • LoRaWAN CertifiedCM devices will be given priority focus in LoRa Alliance® promotional marketing
  • Access to the LoRaWAN® Certification Test Tool (LCTT)
  • There is no cost to LoRa Alliance® members to receive the Certification Certificate(s) for your device(s) or for the device(s) to be promoted in the LoRaWAN® Showcase

Jump to the Certification Test Houses tab for details about estimated time and costs for LoRaWAN® Certification.

Check out these videos for more information about becoming LoRaWAN Certified and the LCTT:

                    

      Thank you to Derek Hunt from LoRa Alliance and Yavuz Turan from IMST for their video contributions

    Certification Process

    The LoRaWAN Certification Program provides assurance to end customers that their application-specific end devices will operate on any LoRaWAN® network. The scope of the Certification Program confirms that the end device meets the functional requirements of the LoRaWAN® specification.

    LoRaWAN Specification v1.0.1 Deprecation

    • Please note that with the release of LoRaWAN Specification 1.0.4 on October 28, 2020, device manufacturers requesting certification will no longer be able to certify against LoRaWAN Specification v1.0.1 after October 28, 2021. The only exception to this is Certification by Similarity by the original manufacturer to certify their end-device for a period of upto 2 years after the deprecation.

    The program includes a suite of regional tests that are specified in the following documents:

    LoRaWAN Specification 1.0.2:

    • LoRa Alliance® European EU 863-870MHz Region End Device Certification Requirements document*
    • LoRa Alliance® US + Canada US902-928MHz Region End Device Certification Requirements document*
    • LoRa Alliance® Asia AS 923MHz Region End Device Certification Requirements document*
    • LoRa Alliance® South Korea 920-923MHz Region End Device Certification Requirements document*
    • LoRa Alliance® India IN865-867MHz Region End Device Certification Requirements document*

    LoRaWAN Specification 1.0.4:

    • LoRaWAN 1.0.4 End Device Certification Requirements for All Regions*
    • LoRaWAN 1.0.4 End Device RF Performance for All regions V1.0*

    *documents available exclusively to members via the Member Portal

    End-device manufacturers must be a member of the LoRa Alliance® in order to submit their products to become LoRaWAN CertifiedCM. They must also use an LoRa Alliance® Authorised Test House (ATH) to do the functional protocol testing. Upon successful completion of the tests, the product will be listed on the LoRa Alliance® website, and a certificate of LoRaWAN® Certification will be issued by the LoRa Alliance®. Additionally, products which successfully complete the Alliance Certification Program are able to use the LoRaWAN CertifiedCM logo on their product and packaging subject to compliance with the LoRa Alliance® Marks & Logo Usage Policy and Guidelines*.

    Certification-by-Similarity Process

    This section provides an overview of the Certification-by-Similarity process, as described in detail in the LoRa Alliance® Process Description Certification for LoRaWAN Devices* document.

    LoRaWAN Specification v1.0.1 Deprecation

    • Please note that with the release of LoRaWAN Specification 1.0.4 on October 28, 2020, device manufacturers requesting certification will no longer be able to certify against LoRaWAN Specification v1.0.1 after October 28, 2021. The only exception to this is Certification by Similarity by the original manufacturer to certify their end-device for a period of upto 2 years after the deprecation.

    A device or module manufacturer who wishes to have its device certified based on similarity to an existing certified device should:

    • Contact a LoRa Alliance® Authorized Test House (ATH) for a quote.
    • Complete the certification questionnaire* available on the LoRa Alliance® website Members Area or from the ATH, and complete the Certification-by-Similarity Declaration form.
    • The ATH will review the details of the new device against the details of the device offered for Certification-by-Similarity as stated in the Certification-by-Similarity Declaration form.
    • If the responses to the questionnaire and declaration meet the Certification-by-Similarity requirements defined in the Certification Process for LoRaWAN® Devices then the ATH will issue a statement to the LoRa Alliance® requesting LoRa Alliance® Certification for the device.
    • LoRa Alliance® will review the ATH statement and issue a certificate of LoRa Alliance® Certification.
    • If there are any areas of doubt that the device does not meet the stated requirements, then the ATH will do a full or partial Certification test.
    • The ATH fees for Certification-by-Similarity are expected to be less than the fees for full product testing.
    • False statements on the Certification-by-Similarity Declaration form will result in immediate withdrawal of device certification.

    Cases for Certification-by-Similarity:

    • Case 1 – Module Integration: the variant device to be certified embeds a LoRaWAN CertifiedCM module.
    • Case 2 – Module Family: the variant device to be certified is a module from the same family of LoRaWAN CertifiedCM modules.
    • Case 3 – Device Certification-by-Similarity: the variant device to be certified uses the same module as another LoRaWAN CertifiedCM device.

    *documents available exclusively to members via the Member Portal

    LoRa Alliance® Certification by Similarity Process Flowchart

    Resources

    The documents below are available to all LoRa Alliance® Members and can be found in the All Members/Certification folder within the Member Portal:

    Please note that with the release of LoRaWAN Specification 1.0.4 on October 28, 2020, device manufacturers requesting certification will no longer be able to certify against LoRaWAN Specification 1.0.1 after October 28, 2021.

    General resource documents for all regions and specifications:

    LoRaWAN Specification 1.0.2 Resources:

    LoRaWAN Specification 1.0.4 Resources:

    Gateways: There is currently no LoRaWAN Certification program for Gateways; however, we recommend following the LoRaWAN Gateway documents as best practices and for guidelines to measure the performance of your gateway. 

    *Documents are available to LoRa Alliance® Members via the Member Portal.  Non-members can access any of the above reference documents by emailing cert-test@lora-alliance.org.  Non-members will be asked to sign an NDA prior to receipt of any reference material.

    RF Performance Testing

    The RF Performance of a device is also critical for the successful deployment of LoRaWAN® networks to maximize the use of the Radio Spectrum available to the device. New optional extended RF tests will provide a full 3D radiated power scan, and a sensitivity figure of the devices ability to receive LoRaWAN® packets. 

    The ability to demonstrate a satisfactory level of RF performance is important as most operators require a minimum RF performance for the devices they allow onto their networks.

    LCTT

    The LoRa Alliance® has developed a LoRaWAN® Certification Test Tool (LCTT)* for all LoRa Alliance® device manufactures to pre-test their devices before sending them to the Authorised Test Houses (ATHs) for LoRaWAN® Certification testing. Benefits to LoRa Alliance® members include:

    • An accelerated certification process
    • Time and money savings allowing devices to debug and finalize design prior to starting the formal certification process

    The LCTT is a pre-certification and regression testing tool for protocol testing against the LoRaWAN® L2 Specification 1.0.2 and EU868, US915, KR920, AS923 and IN865 bands. For the LoRaWAN L2 Specification 1.0.4, the LCTT supports EU863-870, US 902-928, AS923-1, AS923-2, AS923-3, KR920-923, IN865-867, AU915-928, and RU864-870.

    Some of the features of the LCTT include:

    • Device manufactures can prove the device design before shipping it for formal certification testing
    • Pre-certification mode and a debug mode
    • Run on a local PC with a local LoRaWAN® Gateway connected at a device manufacturer’s own facility

    Prior to installing the LCTT please review the Read Me file. After reviewing the Read Me file, you can access both the LCTT and the LCTT Installation and Usage Overview. 

    *Available exclusively to members via the Member Portal

    All LoRa Alliance® member companies are allowed one free LCTT license.  Each additional license can be purchased for a $2000 USD annual fee per license.  Please contact cert-test@lora-alliance.org for license purchasing information.

    EU Operators Guidance

    Public operators have experienced a large amount of issues with devices on both the LoRaWAN® communication protocol (MAC layer) and the RF emission properties. These two aspects are crucial for a successful IoT application. Incompatibilities of the device with the LoRaWAN® pro­tocol could result in unwanted behavior on the network and inefficient energy management. Due to suboptimal antenna designs and sizes, insufficient RF emission power will cause the device to only use a small part of the network’s full coverage, causing the coverage to seem a lot worse than it really is.

    To ensure adequate performance of a device on a LoRaWAN® network, each network operator distributes their own device qualification trademark after testing the applied hardware. Currently a hardware manufacturer must follow separate approval procedures at every public operator to obtain these network specific qualification trademarks. Therefore, the public operators listed below have agreed to use a common qualification process to approve devices on their networks. This process clarifies what must be done for a device to perform on a public network. The decision to approve a device remains with each network operator itself.

    Documents to hand in to your operator:

    *Only tests made by an official LoRa Alliance approved test house will be accepted.
    **This replaces all questions of the former CLDQP v1.x intake form.

    Operator contacts

    If you are not listing the above test reports publicly on the LoRa Alliance website, all the documents still must be sent to the LoRaWAN operators you want to get approved by.

    Each operator will decide individually if your product will be accepted on their network.

    Involved Operators

    Digita iot.services@digita.fi
    EveryNet Jonathan Pearce  jdp@everynet.com
    KPN iothardware@kpn.com
    Levikom iotcert@levikom.ee
    Objenious spouillot@objenious.com
    Orange iot_technology@list.orange.com
    Proximus philippe.soutaer.ext@proximus.com
    Sens make@sens.at
    Swisscom support.lpn@swisscom.com

    Certification Process Overview

    This section provides an overview of the standard LoRa Alliance® Certification Process, as described in detail in the LoRa Alliance® Certification Policies, Processes and Procedures*  document and the LoRa Alliance® Process Description Certification for LoRaWAN Devices* document.

    • Contact a LoRa Alliance® Authorised Test House (ATH) for a quote
    • Complete the certification questionnaire* available in the LoRa Alliance® Members Area or from the ATH
    • Prepare your product(s) for certification
    • Products must fulfill the referenced LoRaWAN® Specification and Regional Parameters Document
    • Products must fulfill relevant regional LoRa Alliance® End Device Certification Requirement Document (see Certification Resources tab)
    • Deliver your product to the ATH. Device should be prepared for Over the Air Activation (OTAA) or already Activated By Personalized (ABP)
    • The ATH will perform the certification tests and provide you and/or the Alliance with the results
    • The “Pass” test results are provided to you and/or the LoRa Alliance®
    • LoRa Alliance® will review the test results and issue a LoRaWAN CertifiedCM certificate
    • Results and basic product information are released on the LoRa Alliance® website. The release date can be customized to align with a product launch date, if requested. Data from the questionnaire that should not appear on the website can be marked as confidential

    *documents available exclusively to members via the Member Portal

    LoRa Alliance® Product Certification Process Flowchart

    Certifications FAQs

    LoRaWAN® certification ensures interoperability and compliance on any LoRaWAN® network.  The scope of the Certification Program confirms that the end device meets the functional requirements of the LoRaWAN protocol specification. It also entitles your product to use the LoRaWAN CertifiedCM logo. You will also receive a product listing on the LoRa Alliance® website, as well as product promotion in other LoRa Alliance® collateral.

    Yes, device manufacturers must be a member of the LoRa Alliance® in order to submit their products to become LoRaWAN CertifiedCM and only LoRa Alliance® members are entitled to use LoRaWAN CertifiedCM logo.

    Currently the certification program is for Class A devices in:
    Europe: EU863-870 MHz, North America: US 902-928 MHz, Asia: AS923 MHz, Korea: KR920-923 MHz, India: IN865-867 MHz, Russia: RU864-870, and Australia: AU915-928

    The certification program and the LCTT for regions that do not use the above bands are under development. You may contact LoRa Alliance® authorized test-service providers if you are interested in pre-certification testing for devices that do not yet have a certification program.

    There is currently no certification program for Gateway devices. However, we recommend following the LoRaWAN Gateway documents as best practices and for guidelines to measure the performance of your gateway under the “Resources” tab above.

    This section provides an overview of the standard LoRa Alliance Certification Process, as described in detail in the LoRa Alliance Certification Policies and Procedures* document and the LoRa Alliance Process Description Certification for LoRaWAN Devices*.

    • Contact a LoRa Alliance Authorized Test House (ATH) for a quote.
    • Complete the certification questionnaire* available on the LoRa Alliance website Members Area or from the ATH.
    • Prepare your product(s) for certification.
    • Products must fulfill the latest LoRaWAN Specification and Regional Parameters Document.
    • Products must fulfill relevant regional LoRa Alliance® End Device Certification Requirement Document (see suite of regional tests listed above).
    • Deliver your product to the ATH. Device should be ready for Over the Air activation or already personalized.
    • The ATH will perform the certification tests and provide you and/or the Alliance with the results.
    • The “Pass” test results are provided to you and/or the LoRa Alliance®.
    • LoRa Alliance® will review the test results and issue a certificate of LoRa Alliance® Certification.
    • Results and basic product information are released on the LoRa Alliance® website. The release date can be customized to align with a product launch date, if requested. Data from the questionnaire that should not appear on the website should be marked as confidential.

    The LoRaWAN® certification tests for end node functionality, in other words it tests that node’s LoRaWAN protocol stack and application are compliant with the LoRaWAN specification. The certification optionally covers radio performance. Radio performance includes things such as the radiated power, radio sensitivity etc. These are key parameters for good performance when signal strength is weak.

    The expected time and cost to certify is mainly determined by the time needed for the Certification tests or reviewing documents for Certification by Similarity by the Authorized Test House. It also depends on which Regional Parameters Band(s) you are testing against. Jump to the Certification Test Houses webpage to see a full table of the expected minimum and maximum hours to certify per each regional band and for Certification by Similarity.

    No, regulatory testing can take place before, after or at the same time with the LoRaWAN® certification testing.

    LoRa Alliance® Authorized Test Houses

    Contact one of the LoRa Alliance® Authorized Test Houses for questions about certifying your product.