LoRa's 7th Year in China: What's New in the Market?

In 2005, the International Telecommunication Union officially introduced the concept of the "Internet of Things" (IoT), which is considered the third wave of the world's information industry after computers and the internet.

With the commercial deployment of 5G and the phasing out of 2G, there is an increasing demand for low-rate, low-power wireless connectivity. The emergence of low-power wide-area networks represented by LoRa perfectly fills the gap in the market for low-power wireless connectivity.

Since 2014, the first batch of domestic companies in China started developing LoRa-related products. After 7 years of development, LoRa has evolved from a wireless technology used in a small range to a well-known standard in the field of IoT. Its application areas and scope have also expanded continuously.

So, what are the new changes in the market as LoRa enters its 7th year in China?

Introduction of a new LoRa private network protocol in China

This year, the global market for LoRa has been rapidly expanding. According to data released by Semtech at the 2021 LoRa Innovation Application Forum, over 2.2 million LoRa-based gateways and more than 280 million LoRa-based end nodes have been deployed worldwide. LoRa or LoRaWAN deployments have covered 171 countries and regions. It is estimated that by 2026, 50% of LPWAN IoT solutions will use LoRa.

Compared to the data from January 2020, global deployments of LoRa gateways have grown 1.75 times, and the number of LoRa-based end nodes has doubled from last year. Additionally, 14 more countries and regions have started deploying LoRa or LoRaWAN.

The rapid development of LoRa can also be seen from the financial performance of Semtech, the company that contributes the most to LoRa infrastructure. Semtech's financial report for the second quarter of the 2022 fiscal year showed a record-breaking net sales of $185 million, a 29% increase compared to the previous year. Signal integrity new products accounted for 39% of the revenue, wireless and sensing products accounted for 34%, and protection products accounted for 27%.

It is worth mentioning that due to the rapid development of LoRa in the Chinese market, surpassing other countries and regions, the existing LoRaWAN protocol is no longer able to meet the demands of the Chinese market for LoRa. In response to this, Semtech has developed a new LoRa private network protocol specifically for the Chinese market. "This protocol and solution will be provided free of charge to LoRa ecosystem partners to support everyone in achieving the best results and help projects land as soon as possible," said Zhang Hui, a representative from Semtech.

Furthermore, at the 2021 LoRa Innovation Application Forum, Semtech made commitments to the Chinese market, including strengthening research and development and technical support to meet the evolving needs of Chinese customers, introducing end-to-end solutions to reduce customer product development cycles and costs, and expanding the capabilities of the supply chain to ensure leading product quality and minimize risks and losses resulting from trade disputes.

Industrial market growth and increasing specialized application scenarios

LoRa is not the only dominant player in the field of low-power wide-area networks, but its rapid expansion in the Chinese market is mainly due to its self-organizing, secure, and controllable features, as well as its long-range, low-power, and anti-interference technical characteristics. These features have led to successful implementations in many new vertical domains during LoRa's 7th year of development in China.

According to Gan Quan, the Director of Market Strategy at Semtech, the three major characteristics of LoRa networks align with the Chinese context.

"Firstly, we can build our own network without relying on any operators or other technologies. We can establish a network ourselves and deploy it flexibly according to business models and requirements. Self-organizing networks can be combined with other networks, including 4G and 5G, to set up gateways wherever the signal is weak."

"The second characteristic is security. As a physical layer communication technology, we only discuss the security of physical data transmission. Among the wireless communication technologies that people have seen and heard of, LoRa is the most secure and least susceptible to eavesdropping due to its transmission signal extension beneath the entire noise floor."

"The third characteristic is the controllable low-power nature of LoRa, and chip supply and design are also controllable. In addition to Semtech, ST and Shanghai Aojie can also supply LoRa chips."

Based on these three major characteristics, LoRa has experienced rapid growth in the field of industrial control in the past year. It has also begun to venture into new areas such as wearable devices, delivery robots, satellite communications, and remote control devices.

One such example is delivery robots. For delivery robots in hotels and restaurants, both positioning technology and wake-up technology are essential. However, with numerous rooms in hotels and restaurants, relying solely on Wi-Fi connections makes it difficult to achieve seamless coverage. Moreover, the abundance of Wi-Fi devices can significantly impact the connectivity, making it challenging to maintain signal stability for delivery robots.

"We need a technology that ensures signal stability and anti-interference capabilities. This is where many robot manufacturers use LoRa for coverage. With just one gateway deployed, the entire area can be covered. Users or staff only need to press a LoRa transmitter or a small button to control the movement of the robot," explained Gan Quan.

In special environments like mountain marathons, LoRa technology is also applied in smart wearable devices. Mountain marathons often take place in areas without operator coverage, and setting up base stations can be time-consuming and labor-intensive. However, by simply installing an antenna on a control vehicle, LoRa networks can track athletes' physical condition and location within a range of tens of kilometers, ensuring their safety.

It is worth mentioning that the long-distance transmission feature of LoRa has found its latest application.

"People often ask me how far LoRa can transmit. I now answer this question by saying that, under policy conditions and compliance with national standards, LoRa can transmit at least to satellites. As a result, many satellite companies have approached us, hoping to deploy LoRa gateways on satellites," added Gan Quan.

To accommodate this, Semtech has introduced the new LoRa physical layer LR-FHSS to adapt to satellite or ultra-large-capacity environments. According to reports, LoRa satellite costs are low, network configuration is simple, and devices operating at normal frequencies and transmission power can communicate with LoRa low-earth-orbit satellites within a range of 600 to 1600 kilometers.

"We hope that the ecosystem will continue to develop, with an increasing number and variety of LoRa chip suppliers. For example, with the development of the Internet of Things, there may be more opportunities for integration, such as LoRa + Wi-Fi, LoRa + Bluetooth, and so on," said Zhang Hui.