LoRa module application and advantages

LoRa module application and advantages

LoRa and NB-IoT are the two most promising low-power WAN communication technologies. LoRa was born earlier than NB-IoT, which uses chirp spread spectrum modulation technology.

LoRa Module

LoRa technology not only maintains the same low power consumption characteristics as FSK (frequency shift keying) modulation, but also significantly increases the communication distance, while improving network efficiency and eliminating interference, even if the terminals of different spread spectrum sequences use the same The frequencies sent at the same time will not interfere with each other, so the Concentrator/Gateway developed on this basis can receive and process data from multiple nodes in parallel, greatly expanding the system capacity.

LoRa mainly operates in free frequency bands around the world (ie, unlicensed frequency bands), including 433, 868, 915 MHz, etc. LoRa network is mainly composed of terminal (built-in LoRa module), gateway (or base station), server and cloud.

LoRa Technology

The advantages of LoRa are mainly reflected in the following aspects:

1、Greatly improve the receiving sensitivity and reduce the power consumption

A link budget of up to 157db enables communication distances up to 15km (depending on the environment). Its receiving current is only 10mA, and the sleep current is 200nA, which greatly delays the service life of the battery.

 2、The gateway/concentrator based on this technology supports parallel processing of multi-channel and multi-data rate, and the system capacity is large.

A gateway is a bridge between a node and an IP network (via 2G/3G/4G or Ethernet). Each gateway can handle 5 million communications between nodes every day (assuming 10Bytes are sent each time, the network occupancy rate is 10%). If the gateway is installed at the location of the existing mobile communication base station with a transmit power of 20dBm (100mW), it can cover about 2 kilometers in a densely built urban environment, and up to 10 kilometers in suburban areas with low density.

3、Terminal and concentrator/gateway based systems can support ranging and positioning.

The distance measurement of LoRa is based on the air transmission time of the signal rather than the traditional RSSI (Received Signal Sterngth Ind-ication), and the positioning is based on the measurement of the air transmission time difference between multiple points (gateways) to one point (node). Its positioning accuracy can reach 5m (assuming a range of 10km).

LoRa module in smart agriculture application

1. Collection of climate and environmental parameters

Through the Internet of Things system, sensors can be connected to collect ambient temperature and humidity, illuminance, wind speed, carbon dioxide concentration, etc.

2. Collection of soil environmental parameters

Through the Internet of Things system, sensors can be connected to collect soil temperature, soil moisture, soil salinity, PH value, etc.

3. Application of intelligent control system

Through the Internet of Things system, the operating environment conditions of various equipment in the greenhouse can be set. When the environmental information does not meet the pre-established conditions, the related equipment in the greenhouse can be automatically activated. Now it covers intelligent and precise control system for water valve, intelligent control system for precise ventilation, high-precision intelligent shutter machine control system, intelligent fill light control system, intelligent ventilation control system, intelligent sunshade control system, intelligent high-power control system, intelligent fusion system Wait.

4. Agricultural monitoring system

The monitoring system uses personal computers and smart phones to realize real-time monitoring of the weather, soil, and water source environment of agricultural production sites, and realize remote automatic control of agricultural facilities such as irrigation, ventilation, cooling, and warming in greenhouses. Combined with powerful functions such as live video and intelligent early warning. It can help the majority of agricultural workers to grasp the growth status of crops and the trend of environmental changes anytime and anywhere, and provide users with a set of efficient, convenient and powerful agricultural monitoring solutions.