Differences between LoRaWAN gateway module and LoRa wireless technology

Many people can't tell what is the difference between the LORAWAN gateway module and the LoRA gateway wireless transmission technology, and what they are used in the Internet of Things field.

LoRaWAN refers to the networking protocol at the MAC layer, while LoRa is a protocol at the physical layer. Although existing LoRaWAN networks basically use LoRa as the physical layer, the LoRaWAN protocol also lists the use of GFSK as the physical layer in certain frequency bands. From the perspective of network layer, LoRaWAN can use any physical layer protocol, LoRa can also be used as the physical layer of other networking technologies.

LoRa Gateway wireless communication technology

LoRa is one of LPWAN communication technologies. It is an ultra-long distance wireless transmission scheme based on spread spectrum technology adopted and promoted by Semtech. This scheme changes the previous compromise of transmission distance and power consumption to provide users with a simple system that can achieve long distance, long battery life, large capacity, and then expand the sensor network. Currently, LoRa mainly operates in free frequency bands worldwide, including 433/868/915MHz, etc.

LoRaWAN gateway module

LoRaWAN Wireless Communication is an open standard that defines a communication protocol based on LoRa chip's LPWAN technology. LoRaWAN defines media access control (MAC) at the data link layer, which is maintained by the LoRa consortium. This distinction between LoRa and LoRaWAN is important because other companies such as Link Labs use a proprietary MAC layer on top of their LoRa chips to create a better hybrid design, called Symphony Link in the Link Labs case.

LoRaWAN is a star or star-to-star topology that is generally considered better than mesh networks because of its advantages in preserving battery power and increasing communication range. Specifically, the star topology relays messages to a central server through gateways, and each end node transmits data to multiple gateways. The gateway then forwards the data to a network server where it performs redundancy detection, security checking, and message scheduling.

In general, LoRa only contains link layer protocols and is very suitable for P2P communication between nodes. LoRaWAN also includes a network layer, so information can be sent to any base station that is connected to the cloud platform. The LoRaWAN gateway module can operate at different frequencies simply by connecting the correct antenna to its socket.