Welcome, once again, to the LoRa Developer Crossword Corner. Last month we focused on the LoRa Basics™ Station. This month, the Crossword Corner takes a step back to review the fundamentals of LoRa® and LoRaWAN.

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.

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.