IS LoRaWAN A VIABLE OPTION FOR CRITICAL MESSAGING?
LOW POWER, WIDE AREA IN A TWO-WAY MESSAGING PLATFORM Brad Welch, General Manager TPL Systems Asia-Pacific
What can take up the slack and replace closed paging networks?
W
ith the shutdown of commercial paging networks in Australia and New Zealand, individuals, companies and emergency responders that have relied on these networks to deliver their critical messaging have been forced to look at other technologies to fill the gap. In most cases they have moved to cellular technologies such as SMS or messaging apps to receive these timecritical alerts. Although there have been vast improvements in cellular network capacity, SMS is a store-and-forward technology with no message delivery time guarantees. On occasions messages arrive late, which affects critical response times. The use of cellular data via messaging platforms and apps delivers messages in real time. However, if the device is out
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of coverage or there is a network outage, time-critical messages can be missed. Most mobile devices need to be charged daily, which can also become an issue in major disasters where power outages can last for many days. There are still private and government-run paging networks in Australia and New Zealand with continued investment in the maintenance and expansion of the networks for healthcare workers and emergency responders. There is a deep understanding amongst these organisations that mission-critical paging infrastructure is at the forefront of how they respond to time-critical emergencies such as cardiac arrests or fire response. As these networks are private or government run, they are not available on a subscriber basis so, other than cellular technologies, is there another option available? LoRaWAN is certainly a technology that can be considered.
What is LoRaWAN? When LoRaWAN is mentioned there are often blank looks and mixed responses, so what is LoRaWAN? This is best described on the LoRa Alliance website as: a low power, wide area (LPWA) networking protocol designed to wirelessly connect battery-operated ‘things’ to the internet in regional, national or global networks, and targets key Internet of Things (IoT) requirements such as bi-directional communication, end-to-end security, mobility and localisation services. In essence LoRaWAN is a low power, wide area, radio-based technology designed to monitor and control battery-operated devices in urban and rural locations. Some key features include long battery life for devices in the field, open standards so device developers are not subject to paying licence fees, flexible carrier-grade network models, easily scalable and with end-to-end encryption.
www.CriticalComms.com.au
