Custodian Project 6508016adb371

New LoRaWAN Distance World Record Set at 1,300 km

Sept. 18, 2023
The long-term LoRaWAN distance world record of 832 kilometers (517 miles) has been broken—it now stands at 1,336 kilometers, or 830 miles.

A new world record in LoRaWAN connection distance was set by trackers on the fishing boat Estrela de Sesimbra and buoys on the Sesimbra coast in Portugal. The tracker was able to contact a gateway in the Canary Islands, and multiple messages have been received by the “cablpa-pitilleros” gateway connected to The Things Stack Community Edition.

Nuno Cruz reports that the trackers were installed by the team of the Custodian project, led by Solvit with members including FIT/ISEL (where Nuno Cruz is a researcher), AirCentre DOCAPESCA, LOTAÇOR, NTNU, UAVISION, and TERINOV. The project is funded by the EEAGRANTS Blue Growth Programme. The program addresses Portuguese authorities' concerns that a major limitation of the current fishing monitoring system is the lack of tracking of small vessels.

The LoRaWAN-based project is an alternative to the Continuous Monitoring of Fishing Activities (MONICAP) system, which was piloted in Portugal, operating on satellite communications and the Global Positioning System (GPS). However, it's an expensive system to implement and run, and for several technical reasons, including energy consumption and size, MONICAP isn't practical on small vessels and not applicable to buoys.

According to Relatório Anual Frota de Pesca Portuguesa, in 2019, there were 7,768 fishing vessels registered, with 87% being small vessels. The tracking system is usable for small open vessels, allowing for monitoring of fishing gear and its retrieval while facilitating the process of notifying the authorities of lost gear.

With Custodian, fishermen have access to the data about their own assets, reaching extended distances with LoRaWAN at sea level. This in contrast to the majority of The Things Stack-operated devices, which range between 25 and 100 meters (75 to 300 feet) from the gateway. STMicroelectronics' STEVAL-STRKT01 LoRa IoT tracker was used, which implements the latest technologies in IoT tracker applications such as asset, people, and animal tracking, as well as fleet management.

Thanks to the STM32L072CZ embedded in the Murata CMWX1ZZABZ-091 LoRa module, the STEVAL-STRKT01V1 makes it possible to acquire position, managing geofence and data logging from Teseo-LIV3F GNSS module and monitoring motion (LIS2DW12) and environmental (HTS221 and LPS22HB) sensors. It also transmits and receives data, configurations, and events to and from the cloud over a LoRaWAN network, or stores data locally in the M95M02-DR EEPROM.

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About the Author

Alix Paultre | Editor-at-Large, Microwaves & RF

Alix is Editor-at-Large for Microwaves & RF

An Army veteran, Alix Paultre was a signals intelligence soldier on the East/West German border in the early ‘80s, and eventually wound up helping launch and run a publication on consumer electronics for the U.S. military stationed in Europe. Alix first began in this industry in 1998 at Electronic Products magazine, and since then has worked for a variety of publications, most recently as Editor-in-Chief of Power Systems Design.

Alix currently lives in Wiesbaden, Germany.

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