In this tutorial, we will explain the difference between LoRa and LoRaWAN.

LoRa is an acronym for Long Range, and it is a wireless technology where a low-powered sender transmits small data packages (0.3 kbps to 5.5 kbps) to a receiver over a long distance. A LoRa gateway can handle hundreds of devices at the same.

LoRa End Node Overview

LoRa end node consists of two parts:

• A radio module with an antenna.
• A microprocessor to process, like the sensor data

You can see the printed antenna, radio module, and microprocessor in this photo:

Often battery-powered

A LoRa device has a wireless transceiver. If this device also has sensors, this device acts as a remote sensor. Such a device is called a Mote, short for Remote.

Here’s an example of a LoRa development board.

And here’s an example of a LoRa End Node.

The Dragino SW3L is a LoRaWAN Flow Sensor. It detects water flow volume and uplinks to the IoT server via the LoRaWAN network. Users can use this to monitor the water usage for buildings.

LoRa Gateway Overview

• A LoRa gateway consists of two parts:
• A radio module with an antenna.
• A microprocessor to process the data
• The gateways are mainly powered on and connected to the internet.
• Multiple gateways can receive data from the same ed note.
• The gateways can listen to multiple frequencies simultaneously in every spreading factor at each frequency.

Here’s an example of a LoRa gateway (Dragino LPS8v2 Indoor LoRaWAN Gateway).

This LoRa Gateway allows IoT Users to bridge LoRa wireless network to an IP network via WiFi or Ethernet. The LoRa wireless Lets users send data and reach extremely long ranges at low data rates.

LoRaWAN Network Architecture and Communication

Network architecture is deployed in a star topology that includes end nodes, gateways or concentrators, network servers, and application servers. The communication between the end nodes and gateways is bi-directional, which means the end node can send data to the gateway but also receive data from the gateway.

The end node can send data to the gateway, the network server, and the application server, but you can also send data from the application server to the network server, gateway, and the end node.

• When an end node transmits data to the gateway, it is called an uplink
• When the gateway transmits data to the end node, it is called a downlink.

An end node broadcasts its data to every gateway in its facility. The gateways forward this package to the network server, the network server collects the messages from all the gateways and filters out the duplicate data, and determines the gateway that has the best reception; the network server forwards this package to the correct application server, where the end-user can process the sensor data. When the response is sent, the network server receives the response and determines which gateway to broadcast the response back to the end node.

Direct Device Communication and Alternatives

The LoRaWAN protocol does not support direct communication between endnotes.

If you want direct communication between LoRa devices without gateways, use the RadioHead Packet Radio library for embedded microprocessors. It provides a complete object-oriented library for sending and receiving packet-size messages via various radios, such as LoRa, on the range of embedded microprocessors.

Radiohead does not have an official GitHub repo, but several people have cloned the Radiohead library on GitHub.

LoRa Protocol Stack

Here is the LoRa protocol stack that includes the Application layer, Media Access Control (MAC) Layer, Fiscal (PHY) layer, and radio-frequency (RF) layer.

The difference between LoRa and LoRaWAN:

When LoRa is the physical layer, meaning the radio and the modulation part, LoRaWAN is the media excess control layer specified in class A, B, and C devices and the application layer.

LoRa Alliance and Standardization

LoRa Alliance defines The LoRaWAN protocols. It is a non-profit organization of more than 500 member companies committed to enabling large-scale development of LPWAN IoT through the development and promotion of the LoRaWAN open standard.