Ingredient
LoRaWAN
Also known as: LoRa, Long Range Wide-Area Network
Low-power wide-area wireless protocol — sub-GHz radio (915 MHz US, 868 MHz EU, 433 MHz Asia) with a chirp-spread-spectrum modulation that trades data rate for range. Typical range: 2–5 km in dense suburban, 10–15 km rural, up to 40 km with line-of-sight. The right ingredient for distributed-sensor networks across farm-scale or watershed-scale acreage where WiFi or cell coverage is incomplete. Network architecture: end-devices → gateways → network server → application server. The Things Network (TTN) operates a free public LoRaWAN network globally; private networks are also straightforward to deploy.
Inputs / outputs
- Frequency: 902–928 MHz (US ISM), 863–870 MHz (EU)
- Data rate: 0.3–50 kbps (typically <1 kbps for small payloads)
- Payload: ≤256 bytes per uplink; design for 11–51 bytes for reliable delivery
- Power: end-devices ~120 mA TX, ~10 mA RX, µA in deep-sleep
- Range: 2–5 km suburban, 10–15 km rural, 40+ km LoS
Solves / unlocks
- Farm-scale soil-moisture sensor mesh (50+ nodes per gateway)
- Cattle / sheep tracking with GPS+LoRa collars
- Watershed-scale water-quality monitoring (nitrate, EC, pH at multiple sites)
- Greenhouse / barn environmental telemetry without WiFi extension
- Remote pump / valve commands (small, infrequent payloads only)
Constraints
- Duty cycle limits — regional regulations cap airtime (1% in EU868, more permissive in US915); not suitable for continuous streaming.
- Bandwidth is tiny — design for small infrequent payloads (single sensor reading every 10 min, not 10 Hz video).
- Gateway required — at least one LoRaWAN gateway needed; ~$200 for a basic outdoor model, or use TTN community gateways.
- Latency — typical round-trip 1–10 seconds; not for real-time control.
- Encryption — LoRaWAN encrypts payloads but key management is your job.
Source
- The Things Network: https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/ (free public network)
- ChirpStack: https://www.chirpstack.io/ (open-source private network server, MIT)
- LoRaWAN spec: https://lora-alliance.org/resource_hub/lorawan-specification-v1-1/
- Heltec hardware: https://heltec.org/
See also
Auto-generated from this entry’s typed relations: frontmatter, grouped by relation type so the editorial signal isn’t flattened.
- Member of: [[ingredient]]
- Combines with: [[esp32]] · [[arduino-uno]] · [[capacitive-soil-moisture-sensor]] · [[bme280-environmental-sensor]] · [[leaf-wetness-sensor]]
What links here, and how
Inbound connections from across the wiki, grouped by lens and by relationship. These appear automatically — every entity page declares what it links to, and that data populates here on the targets.
Practical
combines with
- Arduino Uno via RFM95 or RAK4200 modules; long-range field telemetry
- BME280 environmental sensor remote weather telemetry across 5–15 km without cell or WiFi
- Capacitive soil moisture sensor long-range wireless soil-moisture mesh across acres without WiFi
- ESP32 Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 boards bundle ESP32 + RFM95; native LoRaWAN field telemetry
- GPS-RTK RTK + LoRa = cattle / equipment tracking with sub-meter accuracy at low data rate
- Leaf wetness sensor remote multi-tree sensor mesh across orchards
- MQTT LoRaWAN gateway → network server → MQTT bridge → application server is the standard pipeline
contains
- Farm-tech toolkit comms / long-range low-power wireless protocol
parallels
- Meshtastic same physical layer (LoRa) but mesh-routing instead of star-via-gateway; complementary off-grid ingredient
combines
- Recipe: orchard disease-prediction station telemetry path back to the farm hub across orchard distances
- Recipe: off-grid soil-moisture mesh Architecture A: LoRaWAN star with one gateway and many low-power end-nodes
11 inbound links · 6 outbound