LoRaWAN and how the large-scale Internet of Things can reshape business and society

 In the past few years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has reached new heights. We now find ourselves on the cusp of the era of "large-scale Internet of Things," where the technology is reaching an almost unimaginable scale due to the number of sensors and devices entering the market. Then came new possibilities for running a business and meeting global challenges, none of which were viable five years ago.

 Various industries have created valuable use cases, creating new ways to monitor resources, optimize processes, and save costs. Sensor devices provide data on the asset location, condition, and other time-sensitive operating states, helping to prevent costly losses or potential liability.

 However, in order for the Internet of Things to function properly as it evolves, its expansion ability depends on the expansion of a low-power wide area network (LPWAN), which is designed to support the large-scale deployment of sensors that work seamlessly for decades at a time. Furthermore, these networks need to be able to support different public and private deployment models, simplify the management of network tasks, and expand on demand based on changes in needs and priorities.

 LoRaWAN With its unique combination of cost efficiency, low power consumption, remote and non-proprietary models, it is far ahead of other LPWAN solutions in meeting these requirements. According to the LoRa Alliance, due to its capabilities, it now leads the global mass LPWAN deployment in all metrics, including the most available solutions, deployed devices, sent messages, and network availability, covering over 76,000 cities and 188 countries.

Large-scale IoT sensor deployments provide value far beyond the cost of moving away from traditional technologies and manual processes that require networks that rely on device requirements that do not fit for their support and lack flexibility. To this end, the following three examples illustrate how IoT connectivity using LPWAN networks like LoRaWAN can improve public security, conserve resources, and provide other unprecedented benefits by enabling businesses to do more than ever before.

 Smart buildings and campus —— improve air quality

 Smoke, wildfires, and other sources of pollution produce unhealthy air that affects health. According to the study, 40 percent of the country lives in areas with particulate pollution or substandard ozone levels. But poor air quality also extends to buildings and inside campuses. For example, COVID-19 tells us the importance of proper ventilation and good indoor air quality. Sensor monitoring can help in both environments, not only providing the government with a simple way to monitor environmental safety conditions such as wildfire smoke or other air pollution, but also enabling building owners to monitor indoor air quality.

 Indoor air quality (IAQ) monitoring is designed to measure and reduce indoor pollutants to ensure the health and comfort of building occupants and to ensure proper ventilation, air handling, and filtration. The use of sensors to monitor indoor air quality in smart buildings and campus environments helps to identify and reduce air pollution, viruses, and pollution that cause resident discomfort and breathing problems.

 Once deployed, the IoT sensors can provide building managers with data on temperature, humidity, and carbon dioxide levels. If a potential danger is detected, managers can perform remote commands and alerts to alert anyone in the building. These sensors also help collect data to optimize the use of heating or air conditioning, bringing the added benefit of energy cost savings to property owners.

To effectively monitor air quality, IoT devices require a network connection to share the data. To do so, their signals need to be able to unimpeded through building materials, never power, and send small packets regularly. LoRaWaN Supports this function and communication. Once building owners and operators have access to the data, they can further analyze the data to identify places where ventilation needs to be improved or where responsibility exists.

 Natural gas —— protects against hazardous leakage

 Like carbon dioxide and poor air quality, methane and natural gas leaks are common and can be more dangerous. Outside the built environment, pipes and other associated infrastructure may leak. The amount of methane leakage in urban areas is more than twice higher than EPA estimates, which is why many natural gas utilities are implementing sensing and alarm systems with valve closing functions to provide much visibility as possible and improve public safety.

 As sensors cover all of its infrastructure, natural gas companies can fully understand and control their gas distribution systems, including automatic safe closure of single or multiple valves.In the past, gas companies did not realize the leak until long after the leak, when most of the damage had been done.

These automated systems can detect hazards and cut off gas flows, thereby improving safety and reducing the risk of life-threatening events for both residential and commercial construction owners. Because of the dispersion of the infrastructure, their connectivity needs to always be able to work and communicate over long distances. Furthermore, using the LoRaWAN to connect these sensors can access additional property management sensor data to prevent water leakage, rodents, HVAC failures, etc.

 Water conservancy facilities —— Save the increasingly scarce resources

 As we have seen in recent years, drought is becoming more common. Municipal departments, water companies and residents must work together to save water and distribute water.

 Smart water meters in residential and commercial real estate enable the water sector to measure trends in water supply without human intervention. It is predicted that the global shipments of smart water meters will reach nearly 50 million units in 2023, about four times more than in 2017.

  Advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) is not limited to automated meter reading (AMR), it allows utilities to charge directly to customers based on their usage data. The collected data collected can also help reduce water losses by improving leak detection, simplifying billing by enhancing flow monitoring, and implementing new rate structures to motivate customers to conserve water. In addition, two-way communication between utilities and their metering equipment can improve infrastructure diagnostics, provide advanced data analysis, and enhance field operations, while providing tenants with more detailed information on water use.

Perhaps best placed for water utilities, the wireless communications networks deployed by modern AMI systems are well suited to support multiple water metering and management applications. Establishing a shared LoRaWAN network infrastructure enables municipalities to support a variety of commercial and citizen-oriented applications other than water AMI.

 Why choose LoRaWAN

  For large-scale IoT deployments with relatively low data load and rarely requiring low latency, such as water metering and infrastructure monitoring, LoRaWAN has proven to be a cost-effective new technology investment and a long-term alternative to traditional systems. For critical infrastructure and important enterprise IoT projects, LoRaWAN remains the leading option due to its open standards, propagation features, extended end-device battery life, ease of deployment, and low cost.

 Since its inception, LoRaWAN has been dedicated to long-distance wireless connections to low-cost, battery-powered sensors. Once established, the LoRaWAN network will be designed to support broader resource conservation and sustainability initiatives, currently prioritized at municipal levels nationally and worldwide.

 Moreover, LoRaWAN's open standard means that end users can deploy a growing number of LoRaWAN-enabled devices on the network, providing greater flexibility in deployment than proprietary connectivity solutions and providing more devices that work with the network.

While businesses and municipalities consider how to use data to optimize their operations and services, they must also consider the IoT devices and the networks on which their data depends. With LoRaWAN, organizations in various industries can realize the cost, security and resource saving advantages of the Internet of Things.