LoRa Upgrade! Will it Support Satellite Communications, What New Applications will be Unlocked?

Editor: Ulink Media

In the second half of 2021, British space startup SpaceLacuna first used a radio telescope in Dwingeloo, the Netherlands, to reflect LoRa back from the moon. This was definitely an impressive experiment in terms of the quality of the data capture, as one of the messages even contained a complete LoRaWAN® frame.

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Lacuna Speed uses a set of low-Earth orbit satellites to receive information from sensors integrated with Semtech’s LoRa equipment and ground-based radio frequency technology. The satellite hovers over the earth’s poles every 100 minutes at an altitude of 500 kilometers. As the earth rotates, satellites cover the globe. LoRaWAN is used by satellites, which saves battery life, and messages are stored for a short time until they pass through a network of ground stations. The data is then relayed to an application on a terrestrial network or can be viewed on a Web-based application.

This time, the LoRa signal sent by lacuna Speed lasted for 2.44 seconds and was received by the same chip, with a propagation distance of about 730,360 kilometers, which may be the longest distance of LoRa message transmission so far.

When it comes to satellite-ground communication based on LoRa technology, a milestone was achieved at TTN(TheThings Network) conference in February 2018, proving the possibility of LoRa being applied in the satellite Internet of things. During a live demonstration, the receiver picked up LoRa signals from a low-orbit satellite.

Today, leveraging existing low-power long-range IoT technologies such as LoRa or NB-IoT to provide direct communication between IoT devices and satellites in orbit around the globe can be considered part of the low-power WAN market. These technologies are an interesting application until their commercial value is widely accepted.

Semtech has Launched LR-FHSS to Fill the Market Gap in IoT Connectivity

Semtech has been working on LR-FHSS for the past few years and officially announced the addition of LR-FHSS support to LoRa platform in late 2021.

LR-FHSS is called LongRange – Frequency Hopping SpreadSpectrum. Like LoRa, it is a physical layer modulation technology with most of the same performance as LoRa, such as sensitivity, bandwidth support, etc.

LR-FHSS is theoretically capable of supporting millions of end nodes, which significantly increases network capacity and solves the channel congestion problem that previously limited LoRaWAN’s growth. In addition, LR-FHSS has high anti-interference, alleviates packet collision by improving spectral efficiency, and has uplink frequency hopping modulation capability.

With the integration of LR-FHSS, LoRa is more suitable for applications with dense terminals and large data packets. Therefore, the LoRa satellite program with integrated LR-FHSS features has multiple advantages:

1. It can access ten times the terminal capacity of LoRa network.

2. The transmission distance is longer, up to 600-1600km;

3. Stronger anti-interference;

4. Lower costs have been achieved, including management and deployment costs (no additional hardware needs to be developed and its own satellite communications capabilities are available).

Semtech’s LoRaSX1261, SX1262 transceivers and LoRaEdgeTM platforms, as well as the V2.1 gateway reference design, are already supported by lr-fhss. Therefore, in practical applications, software upgrade and replacement of LoRa terminal and gateway can first improve network capacity and anti-interference capability. For LoRaWAN networks where V2.1 gateway has been deployed, operators can enable the new function through simple gateway firmware upgrade.

Integrated LR – FHSS
LoRa Continues to Expand its App Portfolio

BergInsight, an Internet of Things market research institute, released a research report on satellite iot. Data showed that despite the adverse impact of COVID-19, the number of global satellite iot users still grew to 3.4 million in 2020. Global satellite iot users are expected to grow at a cagR of 35.8% in the next few years, reaching 15.7 million in 2025.

Currently, only 10% of the world’s regions have access to satellite communication services, which provides a broad market space for the development of satellite iot as well as an opportunity for low-power satellite iot.

LR-FHSS will also drive the deployment of LoRa globally. The addition of SUPPORT for LR-FHSS to LoRa’s platform will not only help it provide more cost-effective, ubiquitous connectivity to remote areas, but also mark a significant step toward large-scale iot deployment in densely populated areas. Will further promote LoRa’s global deployment and further expand innovative applications:

  • Support Satellite Iot Services

LR-FHSS enables satellites to connect to vast remote areas of the globe, supporting the positioning and data transmission needs of areas without network coverage. LoRa use cases include tracking of wildlife, locating containers on ships at sea, locating livestock in pasture, intelligent agriculture solutions to improve crop yields, and tracking of global distribution assets to improve supply chain efficiency.

  • Support for more Frequent Data Exchange

In previous LoRa applications, such as logistics and asset tracking, smart buildings and parks, smart homes, and smart communities, the number of LoRa modulated semaphores in the air will increase significantly due to longer signals and more frequent signal exchanges in these applications. The resulting channel congestion problem with LoRaWAN development can also be solved by upgrading LoRa terminals and replacing gateways.

  • Enhance Indoor Depth Coverage

In addition to expanding network capacity, LR-FHSS enables deeper indoor end nodes within the same network infrastructure, increasing the scalability of large iot projects. LoRa, for example, is the technology of choice in the global smart meter market, and enhanced indoor coverage will further strengthen its position.

More and More Players in the Low-power Satellite Internet of Things

Overseas LoRa Satellite Projects Continue to Emerge

McKinsey has predicted that space-based iot could be worth $560 billion to $850 billion by 2025, which is probably the main reason why so many companies are chasing the market. At present, nearly dozens of manufacturers have proposed satellite iot networking plans.

From the perspective of overseas market, satellite iot is an important area of innovation in iot market. LoRa, as part of the low-power satellite Internet of Things, has seen a number of applications in overseas markets:

In 2019, Space Lacuna and Miromico began commercial trials of the LoRa Satellite iot project, which was successfully applied to agriculture, environmental monitoring or asset tracking the following year. By using LoRaWAN, battery-powered iot devices can extend their service life and save on operation and maintenance costs.

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IRNAS partnered with Space Lacuna to explore new uses for LoRaWAN technology, including tracking wildlife in Antarctica and buoys using LoRaWAN’s network to deploy dense networks of sensors in the Marine environment to support mooring applications and rafting.

Swarm (acquired by Space X) has integrated Semtech’s LoRa devices into its connectivity solutions to enable two-way communication between low-Earth orbit satellites. Opened up new Internet of Things (IoT) usage scenarios for Swarm in areas such as logistics, agriculture, connected cars and energy.

Inmarsat has partnered with Actility to form the Inmarsat LoRaWAN network, a platform based on the Inmarsat ELERA backbone network that will provide a wealth of solutions for iot customers in sectors including agriculture, power, oil and gas, mining and logistics.

In the End

Throughout the overseas market, there are not only many mature applications of the project. Omnispace, EchoStarMobile, Lunark and many others are trying to leverage LoRaWAN’s network to offer iot services at a lower cost, with larger capacity and wider coverage.

Although LoRa technology can also be used to fill gaps in rural areas and oceans that lack traditional Internet coverage, it is a great way to address the “Internet of everything.”

However, from the perspective of the domestic market, LoRa’s development in this aspect is still in its infancy. Compared with overseas, it faces more difficulties: on the demand side, inmarsat network coverage is already very good and data can be transmitted in both directions, so it is not strong; In terms of application, China is still relatively limited, mainly focusing on container projects. In view of the above reasons, it is difficult for domestic satellite enterprises to promote the application of LR-FHSS. In terms of capital, projects of this type are largely dependent on capital input due to large uncertainties, large or small projects and long cycles.

 


Post time: Apr-18-2022

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