LoRa Alliance® Unveils LoRaWAN® Development Roadmap

The LoRa Alliance^®, the global association of companies backing the open LoRaWAN^® standard for the internet of things (IoT) low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), today launched its formal roadmap, which highlights LoRaWAN’s evolution from building and interconnecting networks through its focus on making the technology faster and easier to deploy, work that has successfully made LoRaWAN the leading LPWAN with the most deployments supporting IoT’s active scaling across numerous end markets. The roadmap also showcases the planned development of the LoRaWAN open standard for IoT communications.

“LoRaWAN is a purpose-built networking technology to support massive IoT,” said Donna Moore, CEO and chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance. “The members of the LoRa Alliance have been diligent in their work to lay the foundation strategically evolving LoRaWAN to achieve the significant scaling that is taking place in IoT. Not only is our technology best of breed and proven across multiple multimillion-sensor deployments, but it is also backed by the largest ecosystem with the greatest number and diversity of certified devices. Further, it offers the widest variety of deployment options across terrestrial networks and satellite NTNs, including hybrid networking approaches. As such, it is the only LPWAN that can address the requirements of any organization looking to deploy large-scale, low-power IoT solutions today.”

The roadmap outlines the planned enhancements of several critical features already incorporated in the LoRaWAN standard:

As IoT moves from millions to billions of connections, as is forecast in the next few years, network scalability is a key consideration that is addressed in the current standard and slated for future enhancements. Smart metering is one key market where LoRaWAN has established a market-leading position with the current specification delivering abundant network capacity to address market requirements. Recognizing the growth in IoT connections that will be enabled by satellite and other NTNs, the Alliance developed LR-FHSS for massive, global LoRaWAN connectivity. As part of its planned roadmap, the LoRa Alliance will continue to enhance and expand the standard based on market needs and new use cases.

One example that illustrates LoRaWAN’s existing high-capacity capability is the ZENNER network, with nearly 7.5 million sensors running on more than 100,000 gateways in 15 countries to support energy providers, the housing industry, cities and municipalities, municipal utilities and industrial operations. As this example shows, the LoRaWAN standard easily addresses today’s IoT capacity requirements.

–– Rich Sanders, president, ZENNER USA, and treasurer, LoRa Alliance Board of Directors

–– Ove Anebygd, CEO, Netmore Group AB, and LoRa Alliance Board Member

“It is tremendously validating to look at the future of the LoRaWAN standard and know that we are building from an exceptionally broad and solid foundation,” continued Moore. “Time after time, our members share their real-world deployments that are successfully using LoRaWAN at scale to improve the well-being of people and the planet while running profitable enterprises. This truly exemplifies the strength, breadth and depth of the LoRaWAN standard today and the unlimited potential of LoRaWAN as we continue to evolve and enhance its features.”