LoRa, the abbreviation of Long Range, is a kind of Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) communication technology. Before LPWAN came out, there could only be a trade-off between long-distance transmission and low power consumption. The LoRa wireless technology has changed the trade-off way between the transmission distance and power consumption. It not only achieves long-distance transmission, but also has the advantages of low power consumption.

The network of LoRa is shown in the figure below. Remote nodes can connect to the network server through multiple gateways and upload data to the cloud server. In the LoRa network, each node is not connected to each other, but must be connected to the gateway before being connected back to the central host or data can be transmitted to another node through the central host. The message of the terminal node can be transmitted to multiple gateways at the same time, and the message can also be bridged between the gateways to further extend the transmission distance. LoRa can be used in various scenarios, such as smart industry, smart agriculture, smart city, etc. Due to its long-distance transmission and low power consumption characteristics, it can meet the transmission application of small data volume. LoRa can usually be used for transmission of less than 10 kilometers. 

LoRaWAN is a low-power wide area network standard launched by the LoRa Alliance for defining the communication protocol and system architecture based on LoRa technology. It can effectively realize the LoRa physical layer to support long-distance communication. This protocol and architecture has a profound impact on the battery life, network capacity, service quality, security of the terminal nodes for suitable application scenarios. LoRaWAN is actually a kind of WAN (Wide Area Network).

Nuvoton provides the LoRa sensor device development platform which integrates a low-power M252 microprocessor, a LoRa RF module, and an easy-to-expand Arduino interface. Because different countries and regions use different frequency bands, the development board is also divided into three types according to the frequency band. On the development board, the LoRa module is from Reyax (https://reyax.com/). The LoRa module number are RYLR890 and RYLR400 which are built with Semtech SX1276 chip.

Here list the development boards support for common LoRa bands on countries and regions

If you are looking for another module that use other Semtech chips, such as SX1262, etc. Please contact nuvoton@reyax.com

Features of Nuvoton NuMaker-LoRaD-M252 Platform for LoRaWAN Sensor Device:

Hardware

• Nuvoton M252KG6AE MCU
• Cortex-M23 core
• Runs up to 48MHz
• 256 Kbytes Flash, 32 Kbytes SRAM
• Reyax RYLR890 / RYLR400 module
• Arduino UNO compatible interface
• Full-Speed USB
• LED
• Nu-Link2-Me (ICE)

Software

• Based on Arm Mbed OS v5 and v6
• Supports LoRaWAN stack v1.0.2, v1.0.3, and v1.1.0
• Supports LoRaWAN Class A and Class C

For more information, please contact us.

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