What happened to LoRa?
Latest update time：2019-12-06
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It has been a long time since we heard about LoRa. Just when people had forgotten about it, an announcement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology once again brought it to the forefront.
Here’s what’s going on:
A few days ago, on November 28, 2019, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued Announcement No. 52. The main content of the announcement involves the definition of the scope of micro-power equipment, restrictions on the use of wireless frequencies, and some management regulations and measures, a total of 10 items.
Article 7 is very important. The original text is a bit long, but in short, the state clearly stipulates that
433MHz does not belong to China's ISM frequency band
.
What is the ISM band? The ISM band is the (industrial, scientific and medical) band. In order to prevent some public equipment in the industrial, scientific and medical fields from having to apply for special frequency bands, countries around the world have set up some frequency bands as "frequency bands that can be used without authorization", which are the ISM bands, or what we often call free frequency bands. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth all use the ISM band.
What problems will the 433MHz frequency band be taken back by the government? What is its relationship with LoRa?
It's very simple. As an IoT communication technology, LoRa uses the 433MHz frequency band. LoRa does not have its own exclusive frequency band, so it has always used the free frequency band (ISM band). 433MHz belongs to the ISM band in some European countries.
If 433Mhz is not a free frequency band in China, it means that LoRa cannot use it. Does that mean that Announcement No. 52 has sentenced LoRa to death?
Before answering this question, let's review what kind of communication technology LoRa is.
Basic information of LoRa
LoRa
is an
ultra-long-distance wireless transmission solution
based on
spread spectrum technology
. It is a type of Internet of Things technology.
Its name comes from the abbreviation of "
Long Range
". As the name suggests, its biggest feature is its long distance.
At the beginning, the prototype technology of LoRa was developed by a French company, Cycleo. In 2012, the company was acquired by the American
company Semtech
for about 5 million US dollars. Semtech launched the current LoRa based on this technology.
In August 2013, Semtech released a new chip to the industry based on ultra-long-distance, low-power data transmission technology below 1GHz, which is our LoRa chip.
Once launched, LoRa has won wide attention with its amazing sensitivity (-148dbm), strong anti-interference ability and excellent system capacity performance.
It can well achieve
long-distance communication, long battery life, large system capacity, and low hardware cost.
These are exactly what the Internet of Things (IoT) needs.
Table source: Global Internet of Things Observation
After launching LoRa, Semtech has spared no effort to promote LoRa technology.
In 2015, Semtech took the lead in establishing
the LoRa Alliance
. The founding members include heavyweight giants such as IBM and Cisco, as well as the well-known semiconductor manufacturer MicroChip. In addition, the alliance has also attracted many telecom operators, such as: Singapore Telecom SingTel, Royal Dutch Telecom KPN, Swisscom Swisscom, and Belgian telecom operator Belgacom.
Whether a technology can become popular depends mainly on whether its ecological camp is strong.
Since its establishment, the International LoRa Alliance has paid special attention to the construction of the ecosystem. Driven by the alliance, the LoRa industry chain has become quite mature, with relevant manufacturers from the underlying chips and modules to equipment manufacturing and system integration.
Source: LoRa Alliance official website
On this basis, LoRa has developed rapidly.
According to the latest data, the number of global LoRa Alliance members has grown to more than 500, 121 operators have deployed LoRa networks, and there are nearly 100 million LoRa nodes worldwide. Countries like the United States, France, Germany, Australia, India, etc. all have LoRa. As early as the first half of 2016, KPN Telecom of the Netherlands and SK Telecom of South Korea deployed LoRa networks covering the whole country and provided LoRa-based IoT services.
Main member representatives of LoRa Alliance
In China, in January 2016, ZTE took the lead and initiated the establishment of the "China LoRa Application Alliance (CLAA)" to promote the application and development of the LoRa industry chain in China. At present, the alliance has more than 1,200 members. In 2018, the shipment of LoRa chips in the Chinese market accounted for more than half of the world's shipments, and China has become the largest market for the LoRa industry ecosystem.
The network architecture of LoRa is relatively simple: the terminal node collects data, then sends the data to the gateway base station, which is then aggregated to the network server and finally sent to the application server.
As shown in the figure below:
Simple diagram of LoRa network
LoRa Gateway (Image from CLAA official website)
The ill-fated LoRa
Back to the original question.
Is the ban on 433MHz equivalent to a death sentence for LoRa?
The answer is – no.
Because LoRa uses more than just 433MHz. To be precise, 433, 470, 868, and 915MHz bands can all be LoRa frequency bands.
What frequency band does LoRa use in China? 470-510MHz.
Notice No. 52 states: "470-510MHz" is "limited to networking applications in small areas such as buildings, residential areas and villages, and only a single channel is allowed to transmit at any time."
Although there are restrictions, there is no prohibition on its use. Therefore,
Announcement No. 52 does not sentence LoRa to death
.
If we really want to talk about a death sentence, another announcement from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology in December 2017 was the one that almost completely banned LoRa.
In December 2017, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the "Technical Requirements for Micro-Power Short-Range Radio Transmitter Equipment (Draft for Comments)". In the draft, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology limited the 470-510MHz frequency band used for civil radio metering instruments, which is the frequency band used by LoRa for networking, to single-frequency use and cannot be used for networking applications.
If this draft opinion becomes a formal document, LoRa will really be doomed.
In order to save LoRa, all LoRa-related companies at home and abroad worked together to communicate and negotiate with the Radio Management Bureau of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. Finally, after a year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, based on careful analysis of feedback and suggestions, improved and revised the draft for comments on November 28, 2018, relaxed restrictions, and allowed 470-510MHz to be used for networking applications.
On April 2, 2019, the Radio Administration Bureau also hosted a small-scale seminar (with more than 20 companies participating) to discuss the industry's opinions on how to deal with the information feedback after the second "Draft for Comments" at the end of 2018.
Since then, LoRa has finally breathed a sigh of relief and survived tenaciously.
This Announcement No. 52 is actually consistent with the previous documents of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and still gives LoRa a way out.
The Future of LoRa
The reason why LoRa has such a tortuous fate has a lot to do with its own positioning and its competitors.
As one of the LPWAN (low-power wide coverage Internet of Things) technologies, LoRa's biggest rival is, of course, NB-IoT.
Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are short-range, which are WLAN Internet of Things.
LoRa, NB-IoT, etc. are LPWAN Internet of Things
The technical features of NB-IoT and LoRa are very similar, both of which are low power consumption, wide coverage, and suitable for massive connection scenarios. However, NB-IoT is built by operators and provides services, while LoRa is a self-built network.
Table source: Global Internet of Things Observation
Many people think that building a network by yourself is too troublesome, so wouldn’t it be better to just use the operator’s network?
maybe.
Many companies do not want to hand over their data to operators. Moreover, if they deploy the network within the factory area themselves, they will obviously have autonomy, more flexibility, and peace of mind.
Precisely because of user demand, LoRa has gained support from many companies after its launch, and the industrial chain has also developed rapidly.
In China, Alibaba and ZTE are the most loyal supporters and promoters of LoRa. Tencent later joined the LoRa camp, and even China Unicom, as an operator, also supports LoRa and released the first national LoRa platform in 2018.
The strategy of the LoRa camp is simple - work hard, build and use the network, and let the facts speak for themselves. If the LoRa network forms a scale effect and the industrial chain is strong enough, it will naturally increase its policy survival space.
There is another main reason why LoRa is controversial, which is also its fatal weakness, that is, the chip.
LoRa chips are the starting point and core of the entire LoRa industry chain. The core patents of the underlying technology of LoRa chips are in the hands of Semtech. Chip or module companies develop LoRa chips through Semtech's licensed IP or directly use Semtech chips for SIP-level chip development. At present, only STMicroelectronics (STM) and Alibaba Cloud IOT (chips are implemented by ASR) have obtained LoRa IP licenses. Others such as Microchip, Shenzhen Huapu, National Electronics, and Qundeng Technology have launched SIP-level chips or modules by obtaining LoRa wafers.
And this Semtech company happens to be an American company.
Need I say more? In short, this issue is very sensitive.
However, supporters of the LoRa camp believe that Semtech's control over LoRa is not as arbitrary as imagined, and it is impossible for Semtech to cut off supply or ban LoRa. I carefully studied their reasons and found them unconvincing. I have reservations here.
In response to Semtech's situation, companies like Shanghai Panqi Microelectronics are working on related alternatives, which I think may be a good way. If it can be autonomous and controllable, self-organizing network solutions like LoRa should be more promising. At least the chances of survival in terms of policy are much greater.
In comparison, the situation on NB-IoT is much better.
Today is different from the past. NB
-
IoT has now transformed itself into a real standard for 5G mMTC scenarios. In fact, NB-IoT is 5G. With its legitimate roots, 3GPP’s own product, open ecosystem, flexible evolution, national promotion, and operator support, NB-IoT has advantages that LoRa cannot match.
The two have actually evolved from a competitive relationship to a relationship of common development. In the final analysis, it is still the same as the relationship between data services and Wi-Fi.
It is difficult for NB
-IoT
to completely eliminate LoRa, and LoRa cannot shake the position of NB
-IoT
. So there is no choice but to develop separately and coexist for a long time.
Regarding the Notice No. 52 event, different parties have different interpretations. Those who support LoRa believe that "the shoe has finally fallen" and that the country is supporting LoRa because it has not been banned. Those who oppose LoRa believe that the notice further restricts the survival space of LoRa, but it is just a leniency to leave some room for it.
Everyone has their own reasons. In short, I personally think that the policy prospects of LoRa are still unclear, and this situation is likely to continue. For the LoRa camp, it is not time to open the champagne. For the survival of LoRa, it will take a long time of persistence and hard work.
Well, that’s all for today. Thank you for your patience in reading. See you next time!
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