# LoRaWAN

*Long Range Wide Area Network* · IoT

> LoRaWAN is an LPWAN protocol that lets battery-powered sensors send small amounts of data to gateways kilometres away using very little energy.

LoRa and LoRaWAN are often confused. LoRa is Semtech's physical-layer modulation based on chirp spread spectrum (CSS). LoRaWAN is the network protocol running on top of it, published by the LoRa Alliance and also recognised as ITU-T Y.4480. The architecture is a star of stars. Every gateway in range receives a device's packet and forwards it over IP to the network server, which removes duplicates and passes the data to the application server. A join server handles device activation.

Türkiye uses the EU868 (863–870 MHz) regional parameters, aligned with Europe. This unlicensed band has duty-cycle limits. On the common sub-bands a device may transmit only 1% of the time. The spreading factor ranges from SF7 to SF12. Higher values extend range but lower the data rate and lengthen airtime. On a 125 kHz channel the data rate is roughly 0.3–5.5 kbit/s and the payload per message ranges from a few tens of bytes to about 220 bytes. Typical range is 2–5 km in urban areas and can exceed 15 km in open rural terrain.

Device classes set the balance between energy and reachability. Class A uses the least energy and listens only in two short windows after each uplink. Class B opens scheduled receive windows synchronised by beacons. Class C listens continuously and is usually mains-powered. For activation, OTAA should be preferred over ABP with its fixed keys, because OTAA generates session keys anew at every join. Data is encrypted with AES-128 at both network and application layers.

LoRaWAN suits applications that send small amounts of data infrequently, such as meter reading, environmental and soil-moisture sensors, smart irrigation, cold-chain monitoring and occupancy detection. Organisations can run private networks independent of any operator by installing their own gateways. Because of duty-cycle limits it is not suited to frequent messaging, heavy downlink or real-time control. Placing gateways at high, open locations noticeably improves coverage. Data from the network server is most often delivered to applications via MQTT.

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Canonical: https://internetten.com.tr/en/glossary/lorawan