IoT is developing rapidly all over the world, and how to provide long-term stable connection for battery powered device is being challenged. LoRaWAN developed for long-distance and low-power connection has become the key technology of IoT. This text will introduce LoRaWAN technology development and the functional characteristics of Murata LoRaWAN for you.
Provide low-power characteristics for battery powered IoT device
IoT applications have become widespread and various connection technologies have been launched in succession. In order to satisfy the low-power requirement of battery powered device, all kinds of LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Network) technology have been appeared on the market, such as Sigfox, LoRa, NB-IoT, Wi-SUN, DASH7, ZigBee and Z-Wave. Sigfox, LoRa and NB-IoT are the technologies to dominate the field. Licensing band (ISM band) is not needed for the usage of Sigfox and LoRa, but NB-IoT requires the licensing cellular network band.
Sigfox and LoRa do not require licensing band, thus they can be treated as competitors or complementary relationship. The policy of Sigfox is that only one company can be operated in each country/region. Thus, the coverage area depends on the efforts of the specific company. On the other hand, it can easily provide connection for wide-range moving objects (such as long-distance trucks).
LoRa (Long Range) allows each company to build coverage area, but it is very difficult to conduct deployment in the entire country/region. Distribution companies carrying out nationwide business may choose Sigfox, but companies with the business concentrated at a specific position may choose LoRa.
LoRa belongs to the physical layer (PHY) which can achieve extra long distance communication and has optimized energy efficiency and reliable signals. LoRaWAN is the global de-factor standard of IoT and also the foundation of LoRa Alliance™. LoRa PHY and LoRaWAN protocols have conducted optimization for battery life and the low cost of end devices in order to achieve volume deployment for applications like asset tracking, supply chains, agriculture, smart cities, intelligent buildings, smart home and smart metering etc. At present, LoRa and LoRaWAN are increasingly popular in multiple European countries. Among them, the popularity of LoRa shows an increasing trend in other parts of the world (such as American and Asia-Pacific regions).
The main feature of LoRa technology and LoRaWAN protocol is long-distance transmission, which can connect the equipment 30 miles away from rural areas and urban or deep indoor environment. LoRa has the characteristics of low power, minimum energy required, the battery life up to 10 years and maximum reduction of battery replacement cost. In the aspect of safety, it has end-to-end AES128 encryption that can conduct mutual authentication with integrity protection and confidentiality.
In addition, LoRa has standardized specifications that can provide device interoperability and global availability of LoRaWAN network in order to rapidly deploy IoT applications in any place, supporting geolocation and the start of GPS-free tracking application. Providing unique low power advantage beyond the reach of other technology, it possesses the characteristics of mobility and communication with mobile device without reducing power consumption. Each base station can support millions of message, of which the high capacity can satisfy the requirement of public network operators serving mass markets. The advantage of low cost can reduce infrastructure investment, battery replacement cost and the ultimately operating expenses.
Murata, the electronic components manufacturer, makes people think of components including ceramic materials, such as multilayer ceramic capacitors, surface acoustic wave filters and ceramic resonators. However, this company also manages wireless communication devices using Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, and the smartphone module markets that occupy a large portion all over the world, which enables it to become the near-field communication devices expert.
At present, Murata is participating in LoRaWAN all over the world and has joined LoRa Alliance™. It has also cooperated with STMicroelectronics and Semtech to design a kind of economic and efficient small-size LoRaWAN™ module which can support various kind of sensors and long-distance wireless protocol. Murata CMWX1ZZABZ module has been given pre-certification by radio regulatory approvals, which can operate at the industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) frequency spectrum from 860 MHz to 930 MHz in most geographic areas in the world, and provide hardware and software verified by developers on the LoRa platform.
The size of Murata CMWX1ZZABZ module is 12.5 x 11.6 x 1.76mm, which is the smallest size of similar products on the market. The chipset adopts Semtech SX1276 extra long distance spread spectrum wireless transceiver, STMicro STM32L0 series of ARM Cortex M0+ 32-bit microcontroller with built-in 192Kbytes flash memory and external antenna configuration, supporting UART/SPI/I2C host interface and GPIO/ADC interface with the operating temperature range from -40℃ to +85℃, which has passed FCC/IC certified, CE compliant and LoRa Alliance certified.
Murata also cooperates with STMicroelectronics, the business partner of LoRa, to provide the “Evaluation Kit” --- STMicro B-L072Z-LRWAN1 including Murata LoRa CMWX1ZZABZ-091 module, which has ST-LINK/V2-1 embedded debugging tool interface, LED, push-buttons and antenna as well as Arduino™ Uno V3 connectors and Micro-B type USB OTG connectors.
LoRa and LoRaWAN protocols are specially designed for IoT communication, which can achieve the connection between devices used in long-distance points and LPWAN. At present, LoRa technology has enabled 105 million pieces of device from over 100 countries / regions to connect to the network. The number is still gradually increasing because LoRa is the DNA of IoT and it has created a smarter planet. The best time for you to invest in this vast market is now.
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