[HH] Long range wide-area networks (LoRaWAN)

[Stephen Ronan]

We've had some previous communication on this list re LoRaWAN networks
suitable for IoT... very small amounts of information can be sent from
devices with very long battery life (>1 year) for distances
considerably greater than WiFi. I was on top of a building near Back
Bay station recently and a sensor I had with me with a PCB antenna
transmitted signals successfully through gateways in Dudley Square and
Southie.

There are commercial networks starting to deploy these networks,
including Senet and Comcast in the Boston area, that charge users.

Those can be quite inexpensive and likely will have quite strong
coverage throughout our region (Comcast may include LoRaWAN gateways
in routers/modems and/or set top boxes).

Meanwhile, The Things Network, which originated in Amsterdam has been
working to develop a corresponding network that is free and that
relies as much as possible on open source software and hardware. Their
kickstarter video is a good introduction to their effort:
https://ksr-video.imgix.net/projects/2020604/video-591413-h264_high.mp4

Here in the Boston metro area there's a small, gradually growing group
that has been meeting recently, developing and aiming to greatly
further expand, LoRaWAN networks in this area; most of us relying on
The Things Network infrastructure. Some of us will be meeting at
GreenTown Labs (https://www.greentownlabs.com/) at 444 Somerville
Ave., Somerville, MA 02143 this Thursday at 2pm.

Newcomers from this list are invited/encouraged to attend... it'll be
informal discussion about progress this far and future plans. Kurt
Keville will discuss some Linux-based gateways he and other folks with
his assistance have been building using Pandaboards donated by Mozilla
and radio gateway concentrator cards provided at a deep discount by
MultiTech. And Peter Owens (steamiq.com) will discuss his experience
using ultrasonic sensors to detect steam trap defects and communicate
data about them from steam tunnels/boiler rooms all around town (and
NYC) via LoRaWAN.

Also a chance to learn more about GreenTown labs... Come on by....
Thursday at 2pm. Or, if you can't make it, but would like to be
notified of similar future events, please drop me a line at
sronan at gmail.com

 - Stephen Ronan