Welcome to the October 2019 edition of our Crossword Corner.

Last month we focused on one of Semtech’s new tools: LoRa Basics™ MAC. This month we want to turn your attention to another: LoRa Basics™ Station.

LoRa Basics Station is a LoRa® packet forwarder, that is, a program that runs on the host of a LoRa-based gateway (with or without GPS), forwarding RF packets received by the concentrator (uplinks) to a LoRaWAN® Network Server (LNS) through a secured IP link. It also transmits RF packets sent by the LNS (downlinks) through the same secured IP to some device. Furthermore, it may transmit (potentially network-wide) GPS-synchronous beacon signals used for time coordinating devices within the network.

It is no secret that there are a great many ways that businesses can benefit from connecting to the Internet of Things (IoT). Already, there are a number of solutions deployed in the real world that are making a difference in such diverse fields as smart agriculture, smart cities, smart buildings, and the tracking of both domestic and wild animals.

Need a quick break from delving deep into building your LoRa®-based IoT solutions? We have just the thing for you. This month we are introducing the LoRa Developers’ Crossword Corner. Each month we will offer a diversion in the form of a quick crossword puzzle. The solutions will be published with the following month’s puzzle.

This week we’re exploring some of the ways that LoRa-based devices and LoRaWAN® networks are at work in the food chain.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is constantly expanding its reach. We’re getting accustomed to the notion of smart buildings and smart cities, but smart agriculture may not be top of mind when we think of the IoT. Nevertheless, farmers are quickly adopting IoT and LPWAN technologies – particularly solutions based on the LoRaWAN protocol – to great effect.

LoRa Basics™ MAC and LoRa Basics™ Station are tools designed for developers creating LoRaWAN®-based solutions. LoRa Basics MAC is a portable implementation of the LoRa Alliance® LoRaWAN specification in the C programming language. LoRa Basics MAC supports multiple regions, selectable at compile and/or run-time, and supports Class A, Class B and Class C devices. LoRa Basics Station is an implementation of a LoRa® packet forwarder, which can be remotely managed by a Configuration and Update Server (CUPS) at regular intervals to obtain configuration, system and firmware updates.

Hardy Schmidbauer, Semtech Corporation

Most people in the Internet of Things (IoT) market have identified Smart Building applications as an attractive, high-volume vertical market segment with significant value or savings when using Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technology. There are many use cases within the smart building realm which are already demonstrating a strong return on investment (ROI) for many solution providers and volume enterprise clients including space optimization (square footage reduction), indoor/outdoor security, energy consumption, water consumption, water leak detection, and improvements for operation processes, such as cleaning and regulatory compliance (food, pest, safety). The new LoRa® Smart Building Kit from Semtech allows companies and solution providers to easily test, validate and determine the ROI of using LoRaWAN® technology for Smart Building applications. The kit includes more than 20 sensors, two gateways and a web-based smart-building-focused user interface, all for less than $1,000.

The Semtech Developer Ecosystem team is always looking for new ways to help enrich the developer community. It is with this in mind that we are getting ready to launch a new facet of our LoRa® Developer Portal, the Developer Showcase.

The Developer Showcase will be an area where developers can submit tips, tricks and best practices on how to solve LoRaWAN® application and deployment issues. We will back this launch with a marketing campaign, and share these ideas with the world.

by Laurens Slats, LoRaWAN Solutions Architect, The Things Industries

Images courtesy of The Things Industries

After almost two years, the world record for distance traveled by a data packet based on the LoRaWAN® protocol – 702 kilometers (436 miles) – has been broken. Set in 2017, this record was regarded by many as nearly impossible to break; that is, until the recent Servet IV mission. On July 13, 2019, the previous record was exceeded by 64 kilometers for an astonishing distance of 766 kilometers (476 miles).

On Saturday, July 13, 2019, seven balloons of different sizes launched from Alfamen in Zaragoza, Spain. The balloons carried 20 experiments from developers, ranging from young talents to veteran makers. The balloons were tracked using The Things Network, LoRaWAN-based networking infrastructure by APRS and by satellite using Spot.

At the Annual Members Meeting of the LoRa Alliance® in Berlin, Germany, Semtech’s David Hoover demonstrated a closed-loop control system, showing just one of the possibilities of how it can be used, in this case, for the water utility sector.