The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to rapidly escalate, with some 500 billion devices expected to connect to the internet over the next decade. Most of those devices will be subject to asset management, which requires geolocation technology that enables accounting for these IoT devices. To that end, Semtech’s LoRa Edge platform, a portfolio of devices for indoor and outdoor asset management, is poised to rapidly expand the use of such technology in the IoT arena while simplifying design-in and reducing power consumption (up to 10X lower than existing solutions).
The first product from this family, the LR1110, is an all-in-one geolocation chipset that integrates an ultra-low-power LoRa transceiver, multi-constellation GNSS, and Wi-Fi scanning technologies. The device features low power Wi-Fi and GNSS sniffing capabilities combined with simple-to-use and cost-effective LoRa Cloud geolocation and device-management services to significantly reduce the cost and complexity of locating and monitoring IoT assets. Applications abound in the industrial, building, home, agriculture, transportation, and logistics markets.
By removing the need for incremental GNSS and Wi-Fi components, LoRa Edge lowers the bill-of-materials (BOM) costs of devices and considerably reduces design and procurement complexity.
The addition of LoRa Cloud geolocation services provides easy-to-use and cost-effective TDOA (time difference of arrival), GNSS, and Wi-Fi-based location calculation in the cloud to dramatically curtail device power requirements and improve asset management efficiency.
LoRa Edge enables customers to further manage total cost of ownership (TCO), paying only when they need an asset to be located. The best-in-class key provisioning at point of manufacture and a secure join process further simplifies the development of IoT solutions, which adhere to customers exacting expectations of security.
The chipset’s multi-purpose radio front end offers a 150- to 2700-MHz continuous frequency synthesizer range, GPS/BeiDou scanning, and passive Wi-Fi scanning. A low-power LoRa/(G)FSK transceiver provides worldwide frequency band support from 150 to 960 MHz. The transceiver’s high-power power amplifier path delivers +22 dBm, while its high-efficiency power amplifier path puts out +15 dBm. It’s fully compatible with the LoRaWAN standard.
On the security front, the chipset’s cryptographic engine includes hardware support for AES-128 encryption/decryption-based algorithms, handling device parameters such as DevEUI and JoinEUI. It protects confidential information such as encryption keys, storing NwkKey and AppKey as defined in the LoRaWAN standard.
The LR1110 LoRa Edge chipset is available today; more products from this portfolio will be released in the first half of 2020.
Semtech Corp., https://www.semtech.com/lora