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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