Simplify IoT applications with LoRa-based solution accelerators

In today’s fast moving technology world, the ability to rapidly identify and respond to customers’ needs for the operational, process and return on investment (ROI) improvements that IoT solutions can deliver is critical to the success of both solution developers and systems integrators. Recent advances in IoT Cloud platforms have done much to simplify the process of building IoT applications and advanced analytics once the data needed is ‘in the Cloud’, but the process of connecting both legacy and new edge devices to securely ingest that data remains challenging.

In addition, IoT innovators face problems bridging the gap to a mature solution with a variety of choices for edge connectivity, complicated by fragmented ecosystems and solutions that target only the most battle-hardened hardware design teams.

Semtech recognises that the technological strengths of the LoRaWAN protocol (low power, long range and flexible public or private deployment) combined with the fact that LoRaWAN is available to implement today means that solution providers can already build and deploy secure, scalable and manageable LoRaWAN based IoT solutions that deliver rapid ROI.

Further simplifying the process of developing solutions based on LoRaWAN will free up these innovators to develop solutions that meet the needs of their customers more quickly and with lower development overhead.

Alistair Fulton, Vice President and General Manager of Semtech’s Wireless and Sensing Products Group, stated: “IoT solutions have the potential to change the world by delivering analytical insights which modify the ways in which we live, work and consume natural resources. Many developers and system integrators want to grasp this opportunity, but need easy to use accelerators that help them develop IoT applications more quickly.

“At Semtech, we believe that we can simplify the IoT solution development process by providing new products and services which make LoRa the easiest way to build and manage IoT solutions, enabling our customers to deliver higher value, more rapidly to the market.”

This LoRa-based platform focuses on three key areas for rapid IoT application design and deployment in support of the open LoRaWAN standard from the LoRa Alliance and in collaboration with its ecosystem.

LoRa basics: Basic code building blocks to assist solution developers in quickly realising the ROI their customers want. The first of these building blocks, LoRa Basics Station (LoRaWAN gateway firmware), was announced and simultaneously released on GitHub in January 2019. Future areas of focus include device firmware, firmware updates over the air (FUOTA) and network performance analytics.

To make accessing these tools easy, Semtech is revamping and evolving its LoRa Community into an open developer ecosystem portal to provide access to a comprehensive suite of developer training, technical resources and community tools.

LoRa Cloud services: Cloud services which deliver easy to use ‘ingredients’ that solution providers can leverage to deliver value more rapidly with less development overhead. Announced today, LoRa Cloud Geolocation is the first of several of these services expected to be introduced this year.

This service enables developers to quickly build IoT solutions which leverage multi-modal location capabilities (including WiFi, GNSS and LoRaWAN-based geolocation) without taking on the development complexity (and repetition) involved in building a solution from scratch. 

The service is designed from the outset to support flexibility in deployment options, cost effectiveness and ease of use.

Modem-based, LoRa hardware: Hardware platforms which simplify the deployment and management of IoT solutions. Semtech will be launching a new flexible modem-based hardware platform along with a Cloud-based device provisioning and management service, which will dramatically simplify the full life cycle management of LoRa-based devices and accelerate both the development and deployment of secure fully-managed IoT solutions.

As we continue to evolve these tools and services, Semtech is focused on understanding the needs of our customers, the solution providers and systems integrators who work every day to make the promise of the IoT a reality for their many customers across consumer, enterprise and Industrial segments, by providing easy to use, accessible tools, which they can use to more rapidly innovate.

All products will be available by the end of 2019.