Procomuns 2016

Josep Paradells, Daniel Camps, Joaquim Oller, Artur Serra, 11/03/2016

A peering node for improving LoRa networks

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

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

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

I2CAT Foundation

• Contribution to Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

I2CAT Foundation

• Contribution to Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF)

7

Low Power WAN (LPWAN) Motivation

LPWAN features:

• Long Range

• Low Data Rate

• Low Power Consumption

• Scalability

RANGE CAPABILITY

BA

ND

WID

TH

LPWAN

LoRa Technology Overview

8

Low Power WAN (LPWAN) Technologies

LPWAN

IEEE 802.11ah

NB-LTE

EC-GSM


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


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 Spreading Factors

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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


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 --SF11 --SF12 --

SF7 --SF8 --SF9 --SF1

0 --SF11 --SF12 --

SF7 --SF8 --SF9 --SF1

0 --SF11 --SF12 --

0s

1s

2s

3s

4s

Cha

nnel

1C

hann

el 2

Cha

nnel

3

Time Note: End devices may have a set of configured channels and will use the one available at any moment


13

LoRaWAN Network Architecture

• LoRa Server: • Maintains association with end node• Configures data rates• Removes duplicates• Handles security and access control• Interfaces with applications

Gateway

End Device

End Device

End Device

End Device

End Device

Gateway End

Device

NetServer

End Device

IP connecti

onIP connection

• LoRa Gateway: • Maintains radio connectivity• Acts as transparent bridge• More than one gateway per end device

posible• Enables seamless network updgrade


Peering in networks

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

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

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• 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

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• 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

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