Advantages of LoRaWAN Star-on-Star vs. LTE, GSM, NB-IoT, CAT-M1 and others

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QUESTION: What are the drawbacks and advantages of LoRaWAN over competing wireless technologies?

ANSWER: Advantages of LoRaWAN Star-on-Star vs. LTE, GSM, NB-IoT, CAT-M1 and other wireless and mesh networks can be summarized by the following:

  • Extend wireless network coverage 10+ km past existing LTE, GSM, NB-IoT, CAT-M1 coverage with LoRaWAN LTE gateways

  • LoRaWAN Star-on-Star network topology enables creation of double and triple-redundant wireless networks affordably due the node and gateway simplicity inherent to its Star-on-Star approach vs. mesh networking.

  • Meteorological sensor nodes communicate with multiple gateways, ensuring reliability of wireless data transmission and interference resistance. In case of a gateway failure, data is automatically rerouted via other gateways.

  • LoRaWAN networks allow the addition of unlimited nodes without rebuilding the wireless infrastructure.

  • LoRaWAN networks naturally permit network expansion and do not require trained personnel in the field to support network operation since gateways act as only message forwarders (data pass-through) and sensor nodes do not join/pair with gateways, but directly with the application running at the Met Department.

  • Affordability of LoRaWAN gateways ranges from $60 for 0.5 Watt radiated Tx power with -139.5 dBm Rx sensitivity to $2500 for 1 Watt 30 dBm Tx radiated power with -142 dBm Rx sensitivity and capacity for aggregating data from thousands of LoRaWAN sensor nodes.

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Advantage of Star-on-Star network over a Mesh topology is in node simplicity and costs. Additionally, gateway base stations provide multiple redundant paths for data to flow to the internet based data brokers and cloud servers.

Advantage of Star-on-Star network over a Mesh topology is in node simplicity and costs. Additionally, gateway base stations provide multiple redundant paths for data to flow to the internet based data brokers and cloud servers.