LoRa Transceivers Solve Range vs. Data Rate Tradeoff Conundrum
In augmenting its lineup of LoRa Plus transceivers, Semtech now addresses a full range of IoT application requirements from sub-GHz deployments to multiband global tracking with satellite connectivity.
The introduction of the LR2022 and LR2012 transceivers, which, like the earlier LR2021 device, are based on the company’s fourth-generation LoRa IP, offer backward compatibility with LoRaWAN; long-range, frequency-hopping spread spectrum (LR-FHSS); and legacy on-off-keying (OOK) devices.
The new transceivers deliver radio performance with best-in-class sensitivity featuring extended data rates up to 125 kb/s for LoRa and 2 Mb/s for frequency-shift-keying (FSK) applications. This throughput enables high-speed burst data transmissions within a low-power envelope to support large file transfers, including images, audio, and firmware-update-over-the-air (FUOTA) updates. The devices also support use cases requiring very low latency in proprietary wireless protocols.
Historically, wireless data communication runs up against a tradeoff between long transmission ranges and high data rates. The LR2021 is a multi-band, multi-protocol transceiver with a high-speed burst mode that Semtech calls Fast Long-Range Communications modulation. It supports data rates up to 2.6 Mb/s for edge-AI applications on both sub-GHz and 2.4-GHz ISM bands.
For its part, the LR2022 is a multi-band, single-hardware-design transceiver for global terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks (NTNs). It operates in the sub-GHz and 2.4-GHz ISM bands, too, as well as the licensed S-band. The older LR2012 is a sub-GHz-only transceiver optimized for traditional low-power wireless and LPWAN applications.
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David Maliniak
Executive Editor, Microwaves & RF
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In his long career in the B2B electronics-industry media, David Maliniak has held editorial roles as both generalist and specialist. As Components Editor and, later, as Editor in Chief of EE Product News, David gained breadth of experience in covering the industry at large. In serving as EDA/Test and Measurement Technology Editor at Electronic Design, he developed deep insight into those complex areas of technology. Most recently, David worked in technical marketing communications at Teledyne LeCroy, leaving to rejoin the EOEM B2B publishing world in January 2020. David earned a B.A. in journalism at New York University.