LoRaWAN is the communication protocol and system architecture for the network while LoRa is the physical radio layer enabling the long-range communication link\u200b. LoRaWAN is a media access control (MAC)-layer protocol built on top of LoRa. \u200bLoRa Alliance developed it for use by mobile network operators who want to use unlicensed spectrum to communicate with IoT devices in their network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LoRaWAN is rarely used for industrial (private network) applications. It is a better fit for public wide-area networks because all the channels are tuned to the same frequencies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All the gateways in a network are tied back to the same server, it\u2019s the server\u2019s job to decide which gateway should respond to a transmission. In a large network, any given transmission is typically heard by multiple receivers; the server then tells one gateway to respond and the others to ignore the transmission. This helps avoid downlink and uplink collisions because a single gateway is transmitting, and the gateways that are overlapping can simply listen for other transmissions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
15 – 20km for suburban is quoted, as is >10km.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In reality it will depends on lots factors such as indoor\/outdoor gateways, payload of the message, antenna used, etc. On average, in an urban environment with an outdoor gateway, you can expect up to 2- to 3-km-wide coverage, while in the rural areas it can reach beyond 5 to 7 km. \u200bRange depends on radio line-of-sight with 400MHz to 900MHz radio waves passing through some obstructions \/ materials but being absorbed or reflected by others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The speed at which you can send data over LoRaWAN is extremely low<\/p>\n\n\n\n
LoRaWAN defines a specific set of data rates: raw maximum data rate of 27 kbps (50 kbps when using FSK instead of LoRa) <\/p>\n\n\n\n