Presentation from i2cat speaking at the procomuns conference in Barcelona on the 11th of March 2016 in a session on IoT.

1. Josep Paradells, Daniel Camps, Joaquim Oller, Artur Serra,
11/03/2016
A peering node for improving LoRa
networks

2. Outline
• The I2CAT Foundation
• Some key aspects about Low Power Wide Area
Networks (LPWAN)
• LoRa Technology Overview
• Peering in networks
• Peering with LoRa
• Some comments
• Some conclusions

3. I2CAT Foundation
• A private non profit organisation
• Created by several research groups of UPF, UPC
and URL more than 15 years ago and moved to
a foundation 12 years ago
• Devoted to the research and development of
the Internet for (to) Catalonia (I2CAT)
• More that 50 people working in the project
• With a multiplicative factor (total budget /
government contribution) of 8

4. I2CAT Foundation
• Promoting the living labs in Europe
•
Involvement of the user from the initial steps of the
development of a new application/service
•
Participation on the Barcelona Laboratori and the
EU project Open4Citizens
• Development of video streaming platforms on open
source
• Development of Internet of Things protocols
contributing to Contiki os
• Usage of LoRa for elevator maintenance at the UPC

5. I2CAT Foundation
• Contribution to Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF)

6. I2CAT Foundation
• Contribution to Internet Engineering Task Force
(IETF)

7. 7
Low Power WAN (LPWAN) Motivation
LPWAN features:
•
Long Range
•
Low Data Rate
•
Low Power
Consumption
•
Scalability
RANGE
CAPABILITY
BANDWID
TH
LPWAN
LoRa Technology Overview

8. 8
Low Power WAN (LPWAN) Technologies
LPWAN
IEEE 802.11ah
NB-LTE
EC-GSM
LoRa Technology Overview

9. 9
LoRa and the LoRa Alliance (1/2)
• LoRa is a novel radio modulation patented by
•
The LoRa modulation is based on Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS)
technology and the main benefit is a very high sensitivity
•
The LoRa modulation defines only the PHY level of the
communications stack
Technology Rx sensitivity Data rates
Wi-Fi -84 dBm < 54 Mbps
BLE -90 dBm < 1Mbps
-109 dBm < 80 Kbps
LoRa -135 dBm 300 bps – 10 Kbps
LoRa Technology Overview

10. 10
LoRa and the LoRa Alliance (2/2)
• The LoRa Alliance is an industry consortium launched at MWC’15 with the
following Sponsor Members:
• The LoRa Alliance has defined the LoRaWAN comprising MAC and network
stack around the LoRa modulation. LoRaWAN is open !
• The LoRa Alliance has recently launched a certification program
LoRa Technology Overview

11. •
LoRa Spreading Factors
11
LoRa Channels and Spreading Factors (SFs)
• Sub-GHz: ETSI ERC 70-03
•
What does the duty cyle mean?
•
I just transmitted a 0.5 s long frame on the g1 sub-band. I have to be silent during
the following 49.5 s (some freedom in computing the total time)
Sub-band Freq. Range (MHz) Conditions (Pwr/DC)
g1 868 – 868.6 14 dBm @ 1%
g2 868.7 – 869.2 14 dBm @ 0.1%
g3 869.4 – 869.65 27 dBm @ 10%
g4 869.7 - 870 14 dBm @ 1%
Spreading
Factor (SF)
Bit Rate
SF=12 250 bps
SF=11 440 bps
SF=10 980 bps
SF=9 1.7 Kbps
SF=8 3.1 Kbps
SF=7 5.4 Kbps
Range
LoRa:: 10 channels of 125 KHz
LoRa Technology Overview

12. Multi-Channel and Multi-Rate operation
Channel 1
Channel 2
Channel 3
SF 7
SF 9
SF 12
SF 7
SF 9
SF 12
SF 7
SF 9
SF 12
SF7
--SF8
--SF9
--SF1
0 --SF1
1 --SF1
2 --
SF7
--SF8
--SF9
--SF1
0 --SF1
1 --SF1
2 --
SF7
--SF8
--SF9
--SF1
0 --SF1
1 --SF1
2 --
0
s
1
s
2
s
3
s
4
s
Channel1Channel2Channel3
Time
Note: End devices may have a set of configured
channels and will use the one available at any moment
LoRa Technology Overview

13. 13
LoRaWAN Network Architecture
•
LoRa Server:
•
Maintains association with end node
•
Configures data rates
•
Removes duplicates
•
Handles security and access control
•
Interfaces with applications
Gatewa
y
End
Device
End
Device
End
Device
End
Device
End
Device
Gatewa
y End
Device
NetServer
End
Device
IP
connectionIP
connection
•
LoRa Gateway:
•
Maintains radio connectivity
•
Acts as transparent bridge
•
More than one gateway per end device
posible
•
Enables seamless network updgrade
LoRa Technology Overview

14. Peering in networks
• Peer to peer exchange of data
•
Used in Internet as a way to skip transit traffic

15. Peering in LoRa
• A end device
transmission may
be received by
more gateway
(from the same
organisation or
from different
organisation)
NetServer
NetServer
Peering
node

16. 16
• Peering results in:
•
Better coverage
•
Overlapping may be common
•
Lower traffic
•
Less application retransmissions
•
Supports mobility in a more efficient manner
• Peering agreement between private or public organization
•
Mapping LoRa network ID with organization
•
No specific connection is needed, just be connected to
Internet
• Technological aspects
•
Is better if Gateways are listening in all 10 channels
Some comments

17. 17
• LPWAN is here to stay
•
Is a key technology for IoT
• In the unlicensed band actors are taking positions:
SIGFOX, LoRa, and … 802.11ah
•
Performance will depend on interference patterns
•
Can die from its success
• Collaboration is always better than competition
•
Peering is an example
Some conclusions

18. Josep Paradells, Daniel Camps,
Joaquim Oller, Artur Serra,