Introduction to LoRa and LoRaWAN

A Wide Area Network (WAN) can be loosely defined as any technology that can connect devices across a large geographical area, and in some cases, even across the world. Working backward, we see that LoRaWAN is a WAN that we can set up using LoRA, which is a long-range, low-power technology. LoRaWAN is a type of Low-Power WAN (LPWAN) connectivity protocol. LoRa is the physical communication layer that powers LoRaWAN.

LPWAN setups do not provide a large bandwidth, meaning that devices can only send small amounts of data at any point in time, and usually at a periodic interval, such as hourly. It is important to note that you cannot send a continuous stream of data on a LoRaWAN network. You can’t send accelerometer data, for example. You also can’t send images and videos on the network. If you wish to conserve power, you will need to use a fire-and-forget methodology where you program devices to send messages without waiting for confirmation...