First public LoRa WAN in Kerala to be launched today 

The International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), promoted by the state government, is set to launch the first public LoRa WAN in Kerala for Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
LoRaWAN is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) specification intended for wireless battery operated things in a regional, national or global network. It is essentially a media access control (MAC) protocol for wide area networks designed to allow low-powered devices to communicate with Internet-connected applications over long-range wireless connections.

The LoRa network will be officially launched on Wednesday at 3 pm at Travancore Hall, Technopark, by State IT Secretary M Sivasankar.  The inauguration of the Thiruvananthapuram Chapter of The Things Network (TTN) will also be held on the occasion.A seminar led by the Open IoT research and the development wing of ICFOSS on the usage of LoRa network and its opportunities will also be organised. 
There will be a presentation on the smart parking solution and smart water meter, which function based on the LoRa network technology.    

The ICFOSS Proof of concept LPWAN will create opportunities for startups, researchers, students and professionals to realise ultra low power sensing nodes with lifespan of up to 10 years and with range of up to 15 km.The Open IoT lab of ICFOSS has enabled the demonstration of sensor nodes, including soil moisture, particle matter at various locations in Technopark to showcase the usage of LoRa wireless network. 

This technology, which is normally used in military purposes and space, is used for commercial purpose under the name LoRa, which offers thrice the benefits of mobile phone network.The sensor nodes in this network can function using very low energy so the battery will last around 10 years. The technology is implemented on top of LoRa (in most cases) or FSK modulation in industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) radio bands. So no licensing of radio spectrum is required for the operation of the network.

LoRaWAN network architecture is typically laid out in a star-of-stars topology in which gateways act as a transparent bridge relaying messages between LoRaWAN-enabled devices and a central network server in the back-end.ICFOSS implemented a fork of one such Open Source Network Architecture implemented by ‘The Things Network’ an Amsterdam-based open source global community working in Internet of Things.

The telemetry data transmission happening across internet freely through TTN, coupled with availability of Open Source hardware nodes and software back end for analytics and dash boarding, enables developers with a fast to market Open IoT platform. ICFOSS will be working closely with communities like TTN for evolving the free and open IoT ecosystem for developers and entrepreneurs in Kerala.

For IoT applications
LoRaWAN is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) specification intended for wireless battery operated things in a regional, national or global network. It is essentially a media access control (MAC) protocol for wide area networks designed to allow low-powered devices to communicate with Internet-connected applications over long-range wireless connections.