Building a Private LoRaWAN Platform

LoRaWAN technology has been here for several years as one of LPWAN technologies. It consists of various components such as end nodes, a gateway, a network server, and an application server at the minimum. The servers have been exclusive products of commercial companies, and not many experimental or academic ones are available. Recently one such software has been developed. However, few fully functional academic ones have been reported. In this study, we implement a fully functional private independent LoRaWAN platform for the academic research of LPWAN Internet of Things (IoT) and demonstrate that our platform can support not only end-to-end LoRaWAN communication but also graphical user interface on an embedded and limited computing power system

Survey on wireless technology trade-offs for the industrial internet of things

Aside from vast deployment cost reduction, Industrial Wireless Sensor and Actuator Networks (IWSAN) introduce a new level of industrial connectivity. Wireless connection of sensors and actuators in industrial environments not only enables wireless monitoring and actuation, it also enables coordination of production stages, connecting mobile robots and autonomous transport vehicles, as well as localization and tracking of assets. All these opportunities already inspired the development of many wireless technologies in an effort to fully enable Industry 4.0. However, different technologies significantly differ in performance and capabilities, none being capable of supporting all industrial use cases. When designing a network solution, one must be aware of the capabilities and the trade-offs that prospective technologies have. This paper evaluates the technologies potentially suitable for IWSAN solutions covering an entire industrial site with limited infrastructure cost and discusses their trade-offs in an effort to provide information for choosing the most suitable technology for the use case of interest. The comparative discussion presented in this paper aims to enable engineers to choose the most suitable wireless technology for their specific IWSAN deployment

The search for a convergent option to deploy smart grids on IoT scenario

Smart city projects are quickly evolving in several countries as a feasible solution to the urban organization to provide sustainable socioeconomic growth and solve problems that arise as the populations of these cities grow. In this sense, technology application plays an important role in enabling automation of processes, improving the citizen’s quality of life and reducing the costs of public services for municipalities and enterprises. However, automation initiatives of services such as electricity, water, and gas which materialize by the so-called smart grids, have emerged earlier than smart city projects, and are consolidating in several countries. Although smart grid initiatives have arisen earlier to projects of smart cities it represents a subset of the great scenario of IoT that is the vision in which the smart city projects are based. The time difference from developments between these two initiatives made the alternatives of communication technologies for infrastructures construction of communication followed different paths. However, in view of the great scenery of IoT is desirable to determine technologies that provide convergence of a single urban communication infrastructure capable of supporting all applications, whether they are typically IoT or traditional smart grid applications. This work is a review which presents and discusses the two main technologies which are currently best positioned to play this role of convergence that is RF Mesh and LoRaWAN. The strengths and weaknesses of each one of them are also presented and propose that in actuality LoRaWAN is a promising option to offer the required conditions to take on this convergent position2356957

LoRaWAN communication implementation platforms

A key role in the development of smart Internet of Things (IoT) solutions is played by wireless communication technologies, especially LPWAN (Low-Power Wide-Area Network), which are becoming increasingly popular due to their advantages: long range, low power consumption and the ability to connect multiple edge devices. However, in addition to the advantages of communication and low power consumption, the security of transmitted data is also important. End devices very often have a small amount of memory, which makes it impossible to implement advanced cryptographic algorithms on them. The article analyzes the advantages and disadvantages of solutions based on LPWAN communication and reviews platforms for IoT device communication in the LoRaWAN (LoRa Wide Area Network) standard in terms of configuration complexity. It describes how to configure an experimental LPWAN system being built at the Department of Computer Science and Telecommunications at Poznan University of Technology for research related to smart buildings

LoRa Enabled Smart Inverters for Microgrid Scenarios with Widespread Elements

The introduction of low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs) has changed the image of smart systems, due to their wide coverage and low-power characteristics. This category of communication technologies is the perfect candidate to be integrated into smart inverter control architectures for remote microgrid (MG) applications. LoRaWAN is one of the leading LPWAN technologies, with some appealing features such as ease of implementation and the possibility of creating private networks. This study is devoted to analyze and evaluate the aforementioned integration. Initially, the characteristics of different LPWAN technologies are introduced, followed by an in-depth analysis of LoRa and LoRaWAN. Next, the role of communication in MGs with widespread elements is explained. A point-by-point LoRa architecture is proposed to be implemented in the grid-feeding control structure of smart inverters. This architecture is experimentally evaluated in terms of latency analysis and externally generated power setpoint, following smart inverters in different LoRa settings. The results demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed LoRa architecture, while the settings are optimally configured. Finally, a hybrid communication system is proposed that can be effectively implemented for remote residential MG management

Power utility remote device communications using a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) based on the LoRa communications standard

Electricity distributors currently face heavily reduced operating and capital investment budgets in an effort to reduce household power bills. With the predicated high growth rate of the Internet of Things the following project has researched the possibility of sing this wireless technology for use in an electrical distribution network. The low cost and long range ability of LoRaWAN system provides numerous opportunities to provide distributors and customer’s information about power usage as well as provide access to once un‐financially viable communications. The project researches the LoRaWAN specification and where the technology currently sits in Australia. It will define possible uses for the technology in the electrical distribution industry and also examine the types of devices to establish a LoRaWAN network. Most of the objects and devices that will connect to the LoRaWAN network will only require low data rates/response times and small packet data. After conducting a literature review which details the LoRaWAN specification, LoRa modulation techniques and system architecture the project methodology then identified possible devices to use for the design and implementation of a LoRaWAN network. Theoretical analysis of coverage plots and expected range was completed which was then used for testing the live system. Lab testing of the LoRaWAN system was completed together with line of sight drive testing using various data rates in urban and rural environments. Data rates were chosen from some typical devices that may be used in the network such as smart meters. The system functioned in line of sight applications as specified with objects having a range of 20km. Lastly limitations and recommendations have been made for the system to be used in a real life application