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Cool stuff, sure. But, in my opinion, IoT will be slow to take off until the security aspect is solved - and it is a tough one.
Security in the LoRaWAN standard is well thought-through, you might be surprised.
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The data rate is really low. So maybe, if you are patient and are not much more than a mile from home.
Data rate in the US is something like 11kbps. So you'd have to be really patient.
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Glad you agree. :) We're putting up a LoRa network here in SF, and plan to publish a bunch of our test data, including link error rates and throughput. Urban deployments are new so more data will help us all understand what's doable. (There are a few rural deployments in production; less uncertainty there.)
What tech are you using for the base station? I'd love to put one in our hackerspace out here :) -- a few offices of people working on IoT would probably think that was pretty cool.
LoRa basestation gateways are available off-the-shelf for from Kerlink, Multitech, and Link Labs. The gateways are actually quite simple, they just forward packets to the cloud network server, and back to the clients.
This is un. fucking. real. I work in the IoT space (specifically on health devices), and something like this would be absolutely a GOD SEND for the things that we're doing. The current "hottness" in our space is bluetooth low energy (BLE). This is super low power (or, rather: chips that are really good at going to deep sleep, and then coming online very quickly to burst some data out), but the range on BLE isn't grea…
Compromise is you'll get a few bits to 1kbps at best over a few Km of range. It would work for some applications but not for all of them.
LoRa radios that are close to a gateway can dynamically shift to a 300 Kbps mode, or down to a long-range mode that's ~10Kbps (but yes could also be degraded further by error rate if at edge-of-range).
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Glad you agree. :) We're putting up a LoRa network here in SF, and plan to publish a bunch of our test data, including link error rates and throughput. Urban deployments are new so more data will help us all understand what's doable. (There are a few rural deployments in production; less uncertainty there.)
Anything similar going on in Europe? London specifically? I would love to create some pocketable hardware that never needs recharging and sends text and (compact) vector-based graphical market updates to people.
Both LoRa and Sigfox came out of French companies, and several wireless carriers have announced plans to build networks. Also check out The Things Network guys in Amsterdam who are trying to crowdsource a network, very cool stuff.
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What tech are you using for the base station? I'd love to put one in our hackerspace out here :) -- a few offices of people working on IoT would probably think that was pretty cool.
Killer -- where's your hackerspace? LoRa basestation gateways are available off-the-shelf for from Kerlink, Multitech, and Link Labs. The gateways are actually quite simple, they just forward packets to the cloud network server, and back to the clients.
* Star networks are infrastructure heavy, requiring build-outs on part with cellular networks, and having low per-base density.
* LoRa's CSS (Chirp Spread Spectrum) approach doesn't promise to scale well, as devices start to interfere with each other over its very wide spectrum scattershot. There are other problems.
Disclaimer: I work for an IoT mesh company (SSNI/WiSun) and we're busy cranking out massive networks that actually work. Sadly you can't get a dev kit at Fry's yet.
Would this open possibilities for a direct machine to machine network that didn't go over the internet? (I.e. could I set up something to ssh to my home server from my laptop without needing wifi/cellular coverage?
The data rate is really low. So maybe, if you are patient and are not much more than a mile from home.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Glad you agree. :) We're putting up a LoRa network here in SF, and plan to publish a bunch of our test data, including link error rates and throughput. Urban deployments are new so more data will help us all understand what's doable. (There are a few rural deployments in production; less uncertainty there.)
Anything similar going on in Europe? London specifically? I would love to create some pocketable hardware that never needs recharging and sends text and (compact) vector-based graphical market updates to people.
Don't get too excited. Low-power devices get really interesting when they start to scale up in numbers. None of the technologies listed in this article have demonstrated that capability. The coming IoT shakedown is going to leave quite a few ebullient "visionaries" crying in their martini while they consider their next startup. * Star networks are infrastructure heavy, requiring build-outs on part with cellular netwo…
The counterpoint to mesh is that it's a) much more complex to implement b) uses more power since nodes need to relay each others' communications.
It will be interesting to see how it plays out, and who ends up crying in whose martinis as you say.