What is LoRa? What Are the Differences Between LoRa and WiFi

What is LoRa? What Are the Differences Between LoRa and WiFi? WiFi is limited in range, consume huge battery. LoRa is specially designed for the IoT devices. LoRa stands for Long Range. LoRa gives long-range transmissions of more than 10 km in rural areas with low power consumption. It is a patented wireless data communication technology developed in 2012. LoRa is a wireless communication standard like Bluetooth and WiFi. Other low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) wireless exists beside LoRa such as narrowband IoT (NB IoT) or LTE Cat M1. Many of the IoT devices across large areas and have limited battery life. LoRa particularly fit for these devices.

LoRa uses license-free sub-gigahertz radio frequency bands like 169 MHz, 433 MHz, 868 MHz and 915 MHz. [4] The technology is presented in two parts: LoRa, the physical layer and LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network), the upper layers. LoRa devices have geolocation capabilities via timestamps from gateways. The LoRa physical layer protocol is proprietary, uses a proprietary spread spectrum modulation. LoRa uses Forward Error Correction coding to improve reselience against interference. LoRaWAN was developed to define the upper layers of the network. LoRaWAN is a media access control (MAC) layer protocol but acts mainly as a network layer protocol for managing communication between LPWAN gateways and end-node devices as a routing protocol.

WiFi has wider bandwidth enabling to easily watch 4K videos but it has low range. LoRa’s bandwidth is so low, it is so low that sending an MP3 file over LoRa is a joke. LoRa is not a substitute to WiFi.

LoRaWAN gateways based on Semtech SX1301 concentrator are expensive, even a DIY LoRa gateway based on Raspberry Pi for indoor costs around $200. Thankfully there is cheaper solution like ESP32 LoRa board. These boards has WiFi, Bluetooth 4.2 LE via ESP32-WROOM-32 module and LoRa @ 868 / 915 MHz with Hope RFM95W LoRa modem. LoRa gateways are for internet connectivity (like WiFi hotspots), device to device communication also possible using LoRa.

Device to device communication with LoRa is safer or using LoRaWAN of some service provider. RFM95 LoRa Transceiver Module for ESP32 is cheap and there are Arduino libraries.

LoRa frequency band depends on country :

For corrupted developing countries like India still LoRa not widely known, so you should have personally talked with field expert blogger like :

It is not easy to maintain the specified frequency. Also join local area’s community to be on safer side :

Also, Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT) may become more popular in future. LoRA has support from Telecom providers in Europe. In India telcom likely to push deployment and NB-IOT as part of it.