www.nibec.ulster.ac.uk

IoT & LoRa:

An introduction

12th Dec. 2017

“Those who aren’t excited by IoT

don’t understand IoT” (circa 2015)

IoT – What is it?IoT is coming whether we like it or not, we should at least understand the waveof change and see how we can exploit it for our own good

IoT in a nutshell – electronic devices & sensors connected together via theinternet.

To achieve this we neednew services such ascloud computing, Bigdata, Data miningalgorithms, Micro-payment systems,Analytics “engines”, etc.

Describing IoT

IoT is often categorised around the data’s transmission medium andincludes Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cell-phone network, and the newer “IoT-specific” technologies such as LoRa, Sigfox, NB-IoT, etc., etc.

Additionally some connections are wired such as cables and opticfibres.

Brief survey of IoT Technology

LoRa 868/915MHz 50kbps 25Km 14dBm

Sigfox 868/915MHz 300bps 50Km 14dBm

Bluetooth 4 2.4GHz 1Mbps 01Km 0/4/10dBm

Bluetooth 5 2.4GHz 54Mbps 025Km 0/4/10/20dBm

ZigBee 2.4GHz 250kbps 10-100m 12dBm

4G 800, 1800, 2600MHz 12Mbps 10Km 23dBm

5G Multiband 3.6Gbps 1-10Km 23dBm

NB-IoT 900MHz 250 kbps 35km 20/23dBm

Z-Wave Alliance 900MHz 9.6/40/100kbps  30m 0dBm

Wi-Fi 2.4GHz and 5GHz 802.11(b) 11; (g) 54; (n) 600, (ac) 0.5-1Gbps  50m 15dBm

NFC 13.56MHz 100–420kbps 10cm 23dBm (NF)

EC-GSM 900MHz 140kbps 100Km 20/23dBm

LTE-M multiband: 700, 1450 - 2200, 5400MHz 0.144Mbps 35km 20/23dBm

Typical transmit powerFrequency of operation (EU/US)IoT technology Data rate Upper operating range

This Digital Catapult programme utilises

LoRa?

LoRaWAN™ - Long Range Wide Area Network operating in the licence-free

Industrial Scientific and Medical (ISM) radio band (868MHz in EU).

• Long range connections

• Highly secure data communications (beware the standard keys!)

• Easy set-up for end users

• Low power = longer battery life

• Small data rates

• Highly cost effective wireless solution

• Up to 64,000 devices per gateway with no device-to-device interference

• High receive sensitivity (down to -137 dBm)

In practical tests rural transmission ranges of 15-20 km and urban transmission

ranges of 3-5 km [source: RFproximity].

LoRa w.r.t. other technologies

Ulster University - Recent activities

Institutional member of the global “LoRa Alliance” (other

members include IBM, Orange, CISCO, ARM, Microchip,

Bosch, Three, Semtech, Anritsu, Honeywell, etc.).

Is it like Broadband?

No, it is at the opposite end of the scale, think “Twitter”versus “the entire works of Shakespeare”

Designed for small packets of data so that thousands andthousands of little low-power devices can ubiquitouslyexist in the background gathering sensor data oneverything from room temperature to remote care bloodresults.

These devices should …“…. send outcome, not output”

(Dr Patrick Dunlop, circa 2016)

Is it better than Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, 4G,

etc?

LoRa terminologyLoRa - The term LoRa stands for Long Range.

Lora Node – the sensors or devices in the environment. Nodes occasionally transmit small amounts of data to a central Cloud server which stores received data in a database.

LoRa Gateways – these are the base stations that the nodes (devices) talk to, this is how they get their data onto the WWW. Gateways must have a network connection like an Ethernet cable. A LoRa Gateway is around the same size of a WiFi router and does a similar function.

LoRa Server - A LoRaWAN Server controls all aspects of a LoRa network including network security, access control and data output.

LoRaWAN - It is possible to transmit point to point data using two identically configured LoRa devices but if LoRa devices are to be networked then a Wide Area Network protocol and network server are required. The only network protocol recommended by the LoRa Alliance is called LoRaWAN.

Result of “179” sent from the cuvette

diagnostics device via the

LoRaWAN radio to the LoRa

network, which then passes the data

to a secure server. Plotting this on

our calibration curve yields a

percentage concentration.

Examples of Point of Care devices

LoRa cuvette diagnostic tester

Examples of Point of Care devices

LoRa cuvette diagnostic tester

Examples of Point of Care devices

LoRa lateral flow diagnostic tester

Result in Base64 sent from the

lateral flow reader via the

LoRaWAN radio to the data to a

secure server. This is read using

MQTT and decoded to confirm a

“RESULT NEGATIVE”.

Wearable body temperature and patient location measurements

Example of body-centric devices

AM 35.5 -63.0 7.8 21.4 61 54°41′15.08″N, 5°52′41.37″W

PM 34.9 -55.0 8.6 20.5 60 54°41′15.78″N, 5°52′42.91″W

AM 35.8 -47.6 7.1 20.5 60 54°41′15.38″N, 5°52′41.66″W

PM 35.1 -76.7 11.2 7.5 58 54°41'09.81"N 5°53'04.92"W

AM 35.0 -37.1 12.4 18.6 58 54°41′15.25″N, 5°52′41.32″W

PM 35.7 -41.4 10.6 21.9 56 54°41′15.66″N, 5°52′41.48″W

AM 36.1 -83.8 5.2 14.2 56 54°37'47.43"N 5°55'04.39"W

PM 35.4 -52.9 9.0 20.7 55 54°41'16.01"N 5°52'43.16"W

AM 34.8 -86.2 6.2 8.3 54 54°41'49.31"N 5°57'08.64"W

PM 35.9 -68.4 9.4 21.5 54 54°41'13.87"N 5°52'46.09"W

AM 35.8 -77.7 8.7 23.1 51 54°41'17.45"N 5°52'50.25"W

PM 35.4 -82.3 6.8 21.8 50 54°42'02.91"N 5°53'11.14"W

AM 34.8 -47.7 10.1 18.3 49 54°41'14.68"N 5°52'42.65"W

PM 35.1 -86.4 5.4 6.9 49 54°37'47.21"N 5°55'03.54"W

Location

Body

temp.

(degC)

Ambient

temp.

(degC)

15/02/2017

16/02/2017

Battery

level (%)

20/02/2017

21/02/2017

RecordingRSSI

(dBm)SNR

17/02/2017

18/02/2017

19/02/2017 • Patient’s body temperature

• Received signal strength at

the base station

• Signal to Noise ratio

• Ambient temperature

• Battery level of the device• Patient location (GPS)

Temperature results from Apr.17

Principles of use

Gateway (Base station)

Power: 240v, 13A (same as

computer or Sky box)

Devices (Things)

Devices (Things)

Selection of applications & Impact [1]

Smart Cities - Smart parking, Building surveillance, Sound monitoring, People detection, Traffic

management, Street lighting management, Domestic waste management, Billboard displays.

Smart Environment - Fire detection, Air pollution, Snowfall measurement, Flood and drought

monitoring, Earthquake detection, etc.

eHealth - Fall detection, Medicine storage, Sports performance, Patient monitoring, Medical

equipment location and usage monitoring, Remote (rural) healthcare, etc.

Smart Water - Drinking water monitoring, Chemical contamination detection, Swimming pool

monitoring, Seawater pollution measurement, Leak detection, Tide monitoring, etc.

Smart metering/smart Grid - Smart electricity/water/gas meters, Highway tolls, Measurement

of liquid levels/water flow, Monitoring of photovoltaic installations, Calculation of silo stock, etc.

Tracking – Hire vehicles, Bicycles, Objects of value, Animals, People, Lost commercial drones.

Safety and Rescue services - Analysis of intruders into forbidden zones, Presence of

dangerous liquids or explosive substances, radiation levels, Emergency location beacon

(mountaineering, skiing, water sports), Lone worker/SOS alarm on large sites (e.g. oil workers).

Selection of applications & Impact [2]Commerce - Supply chain control, Mobile payments, Smart shopping, Shelf stock rotation,

Vending machine monitoring.

Logistics - Monitoring of transport conditions, Parcel localisation, Detection of stock

incompatibility, Fleet traceability.

Industrial monitoring - Monitoring of machines/equipment, Indoor air quality, Temperature

control, Ozone level detection, Localisation of equipment/products indoors.

Smart Agriculture - Monitoring of greenhouses/vineyards, Golf course irrigation management,

Weather stations, Compost, Animal Tracking (multiple acres).

Smart Livestock Care - Pasture feeding traceability , Toxic gas level monitoring, Animal

progress monitoring, etc.

Marine/boating - Man Overboard locator, Marine piracy, Boat security, Lost diver locator.

Smart Buildings & Homes – Water/electricity consumption, Remote control,

Intruder detection, Smoke/CO detection, Surveillance of valuables.

Shooting - Long range target actuator. [Source: RFproximity]