LoRa

What is LoRa?

LoRa (Long Range) is a proprietary wireless radio technique based on chirp spread spectrum modulation that lets battery-powered devices send small data messages over distances of a few to tens of kilometres with very low energy consumption. LoRa is the physical layer: it defines how bits travel through the air as a radio signal. The network protocol that runs on top of it, with addressing, encryption and device management, is called LoRaWAN. Within IoT, the Industrial Internet of Things and OT environments, LoRa is used for remote monitoring, telemetry and predictive maintenance wherever cabling is too expensive or impractical.

🧠 Where does LoRa come from?

Contrary to popular belief, Semtech did not invent LoRa. In 2009 the French engineers Nicolas Sornin and Olivier Seller started work on a long-range, low-power modulation. In 2010 they founded the start-up Cycleo with François Sforza, initially aimed at reading gas, water and electricity meters. Chirp spread spectrum itself had been used in radar and sonar for decades; the innovation was applying it to cheap, frugal IoT radios.

The Dutch role is notable: alongside the KPN network, The Things Network was started in Amsterdam in 2015, an open community network of volunteer-hosted gateways initiated by Wienke Giezeman.

🔧 How does chirp spread spectrum work?

A LoRa transmitter encodes data in chirps: signals whose frequency sweeps evenly across the channel bandwidth. The information lies in the starting point of the chirp. Because the energy is spread over the whole bandwidth, a receiver can still decode a signal that is up to about 20 dB below the noise floor. That explains the long range and the robustness against narrowband interference and multipath.

The most important setting is the spreading factor (SF), from SF7 to SF12. Each step up doubles the symbol duration: range increases, but the data rate roughly halves and the time on air doubles. Bandwidth is usually 125 kHz, sometimes 250 or 500 kHz.

The time on air applies to 12 bytes of application data plus 13 bytes of LoRaWAN overhead at coding rate 4/5. With Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) the network server automatically tells well-connected sensors to step down to a lower SF, saving battery and airtime.

🏗️ What does a LoRa network look like?

In practice LoRa is almost always used in a LoRaWAN architecture with a star-of-stars topology. There is no mesh: devices never talk to each other, but transmit to every gateway that hears them.

Gateways are transparent relays, which makes scalability simple: an extra gateway improves coverage without reconfiguring the devices. LoRaWAN defines three device classes:

• Class A - only receives in two short windows after its own transmission; the most frugal, standard for battery sensors
• Class B - additionally opens scheduled receive windows, synchronised by gateway beacons
• Class C - listens almost continuously; suited to mains-powered actuators such as valves or lighting, but not to control loops

📶 Which frequencies and rules apply in Europe?

LoRa uses licence-exempt ISM and SRD bands. The LoRaWAN EU868 channel plan sits in 863-870 MHz, where European rules (ERC Recommendation 70-03 and the harmonised standard ETSI EN 300 220) impose a maximum transmit power and a duty cycle per sub-band. In the Netherlands the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure (RDI, formerly Agentschap Telecom) supervises spectrum use.

Other regions use other plans: US915 (902-928 MHz) has no duty cycle but does limit each transmission to 400 ms per channel; there are also AS923, KR920, IN865 and CN470, among others. A 2.4 GHz variant of LoRa works worldwide, but with shorter range.

The duty cycle is a hard design limit. A message at SF12 takes about 1.5 seconds; at 1% a device must then stay silent in that sub-band for roughly 147 seconds (99 times the airtime). In practice the ceiling is around 24 messages per hour at SF12, against hundreds at SF7.

🔄 How does LoRa compare with other wireless technologies?

5G and Zigbee fall outside this comparison because they serve different goals: 5G targets high bandwidth and low latency, Zigbee short range inside buildings. LoRa is optimised for small messages with minutes to hours in between, not for real-time control or motion control.

🏭 Where is LoRa used in industry and infrastructure?

Within industrial automation and the utility sector, LoRa is mainly about data that used to be collected manually or not at all:

• Condition monitoring and predictive maintenance - vibration and temperature sensors on pumps, motors, fans and transformers
• Water sector - tank levels, pump monitoring, pressure in distribution networks and overflow alerts at thousands of dispersed sites
• Energy - smart meters, monitoring of medium-voltage substations and transformer temperature
• Building automation - HVAC monitoring, occupancy, air quality and energy management
• Logistics and ports - asset tracking of containers, load carriers and other dispersed assets

Many organisations opt for a private LoRaWAN network with their own gateways and network server: full control, local data storage, OT segmentation and independence from a provider.

🧭 How do you set up a LoRa application step by step?

1. Test the use case - does the data fit in tens of bytes per message, and is a delay of seconds to minutes acceptable? If not, choose another technology.
2. Calculate the message volume - messages per hour times airtime per message, checked against the 1% duty cycle and, on public networks, the operator’s fair-use rules.
3. Choose public or private - an operator or community network is quick; a private network server fits critical OT data better.
4. Run a coverage survey - place gateways high and in the clear, and measure inside steel structures and basements where the signal is heavily attenuated.
5. Design the integration - connect the application server via MQTT or OPC UA to an edge platform, historian or SCADA, or directly to a cloud platform such as AWS IoT or Azure IoT.
6. Arrange security and management - unique keys per device, gateways in their own network zone and inclusion in the asset inventory and inventory management.
7. Plan the lifecycle - battery replacement, firmware updates and key management belong in lifecycle management, configuration management and patch management.

A battery sensor that transmits a few times per hour at a low SF often reaches 5 to 10 years on a lithium cell; frequent transmissions at SF12 can cut that to a few years.

🔐 How secure is LoRa?

The LoRa radio layer has no security of its own; that lives in LoRaWAN. There, two AES-128 session keys provide authentication of messages (network key) and end-to-end encryption of the payload (application key). Version 1.1 splits the network keys further and improves protection against replayed messages.

Treat gateways and the network server as OT assets: place them in their own zone in line with IEC 62443 and NIST SP 800-82, apply network segmentation and add logging and security monitoring. For governance this ties in with ISO 27001. Manufacturers of internet-connected LoRa devices have had to meet the cybersecurity requirements of the Radio Equipment Directive since 1 August 2025, and the Cyber Resilience Act applies in full from 11 December 2027. That way LoRa becomes part of the wider cybersecurity and security architecture instead of a separate shadow infrastructure.

❓ Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between LoRa and LoRaWAN?

LoRa is the physical radio technique that defines how data travels through the air using chirp spread spectrum. LoRaWAN is the LoRa Alliance network protocol on top of it, with addressing, device classes, Adaptive Data Rate and AES-128 security. A LoRa radio can also be used without LoRaWAN, for example in a proprietary point-to-point link.

What is the range of LoRa?

The range of LoRa is usually 2 to 5 kilometres in urban areas and 10 to 15 kilometres or more in open rural areas. The actual range depends on antenna height, spreading factor, buildings and steel structures. With line of sight from high altitude, links of hundreds of kilometres have been measured.

How much data can LoRa send?

In the European channel plan LoRa achieves about 250 bit/s at SF12 up to roughly 5.5 kbit/s at SF7 with 125 kHz, and about 11 kbit/s at SF7 with 250 kHz bandwidth. The maximum payload per message ranges from about 51 to 222 bytes, depending on the data rate. That makes LoRa suitable for measurements and status messages, not for files or video.

Is LoRa suitable for process control?

LoRa is not suitable for time-critical process control or safety functions, because latency can be several seconds, the duty cycle limits traffic and jamming cannot be ruled out. LoRa does work well for monitoring, non-safety alarms and occasionally switching non-critical actuators. For wireless process instrumentation, WirelessHART or ISA100.11a is the more usual choice.

Do you need a licence for LoRa in Europe?

You do not need a licence for LoRa at 868 MHz in the Netherlands or elsewhere in the EU, as long as the equipment stays within the European limits for transmit power and duty cycle. Those limits are usually 25 mW ERP and 1% airtime per sub-band. In the Netherlands the Dutch Authority for Digital Infrastructure supervises the correct use of these frequencies.

How long does the battery of a LoRa sensor last?

A LoRa sensor that sends a small message a few times per hour often reaches 5 to 10 years on a lithium battery. Battery life drops sharply with a high spreading factor, frequent messages or many downlinks. Adaptive Data Rate and good gateway coverage extend the battery life of LoRa devices.

📌 In summary

LoRa is the chirp spread spectrum radio technique that sends small messages over kilometres with years of battery life, and together with LoRaWAN it forms an affordable foundation for wireless OT telemetry. If you design the spreading factor, the European duty cycle and LoRaWAN security properly, you can connect thousands of dispersed sensors to edge, SCADA and analytics within IT OT Convergence, as long as LoRa is used for monitoring rather than real-time control.