Global Direct-to-Satellite LoRaWAN IoT Connectivity is Up

IoT has grown significantly in response to the growing demand for real-time data monitoring. Companies have already begun to integrate IoT devices into their network infrastructure for real-time data collecting, as connectivity is at the heart of any business or organisation. However, there are some isolated regions where gadgets can’t simply connect to the internet, but still need it for functions like remote sensing and position monitoring.

Satellite communication, which provides almost complete worldwide coverage, can be advantageous for connectivity at such remote places. Traditional satellite communication solutions, on the other hand, are prohibitively expensive for IoT network nodes. This situation is where LoRa comes into the picture. With that in mind, this post will go through the LoRa protocol, its merits, and how Lacuna Space and Omnispace are keeping the LoRa connection momentum going.

LoRa is a communication protocol and system architecture developed by Semtech for long-range communication lines. This protocol, in general, allows for long-range communications with minimal power consumption because it operates at a lower bandwidth than other technologies like Wi-Fi, but it has a greater range. Many additional protocols, such as LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network), define the network layer, while the LoRa protocol defines the physical layer.

LoRaWAN is a network that controls communication between nodes and gateways. When data is available, a node broadcasts it to several gateways, which then pass it to a network server. For satellite-based IoT devices, LoRaWAN can be a simple, efficient, and dependable technology. New regional parameters to support long-range-frequency hopping spread spectrum (LR-FHSS) parameters were introduced by the LoRa Alliance in 2020.