City scale and nationwide LoRa network:

deployment challenges, best operating practices, outlook

Alexander TrubitsinHead Of Business Development Lartech Telecom

ITU Regional Workshop for CIS on The Internet of Things (IoT) and Future Networks Saint Petersburg, Russia, 19-20 June 2017

Idea: LoRa, LPWAN, LoRaWAN

LPWAN (Low-Power Wide-Area Network) is a type of wireless telecommunication wide area network designed to allow long range communications at a low bit rate among things (connected objects), such as sensors operated on a battery.

2G3G 4G

2G, 3G, 4G strategy LPWAN strategy

Increasebandwidth

Reduceconsumption

and cost

LoRa is a unique modulation technique from Semtech.

LoRa modulation lead to very low receiver sensitivity (down to -134 dBm), which combined to an output power of +14 dBm means extremely large link budgets: up to 148 dB.

VSAT

LPWAN

5G

4G

2G/3G

ZigBee

RFID

BlueTooth

Wi-Fi

meters hundreds of meters kilometers

Bandwidth

Range

COMBINING THE BEST

NetID 28

LARTECH TELECOM is connectivity provider in Internet of Thins area.

Lartech’s business is based on:

• Base stations network

• Telecom platform including Network Server Platform and service lar.cloud

• R&D department (includes 25 SW/HW engineers and analysts)

Our main goal is high quality communication service and to be #1 IoT connectivity

provider in Russia.

At the moment, our company is actively expanding the geography of presence,

constantly extending the network coverage, establishing new partnerships with

manufacturers, integrators, service and utility companies.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Wireless connection

Low power consumption up to 10

years from AA battery

Minimal OPEX

Range up to 15 km

Wide coverage area

Robust communication

Network Server Platform AMR

Secure connection

Storage

Data processing

Web applications

BASESTATIONS

USERSDEVICESCLOUDMETERS, SENSORS, ETC.

ELECTRICITYWATER/GAS/HEAT

METERS

SECURITYSYSTEMS

LIGHTING

IoT OperatorLARTECH TELECOM

COVERAGE

Telecom infrastructure of partners which includes more than 4500 objects is adopted fornetwork deployment.

Lartech Telecom installs its equipment by establishing partnership for LPWANdeployment.

Partners provide protection of equipment, uninterrupted electricity, round-the-clockaccess for Lartech’s service team.

Lartech Telecom provides commercial network installation within 30 days for customersprojects.

Lartech Telecom coverageQ2 2017

Saint Petersburgcoverage map

NetworkUser node

Onlineservice

INFRASTRUCTURE: BASE STATIONS

INFRASTRUCTURE: NETWORK PLATFORM

JOIN SERVERLoRaWAN 1.1

(End-point device connection)

SOPHROSYNEnetwork platform

DEVICE PROVISIONING

LoRaWAN 1.1

LoRaWAN CORE NETWORK

SERVERLoRaWAN 1.1

DATA STORAGE & PROCESSING

LoRaWAN 1.1

PUBLIC APIs

Key storage

DEVICE MANUFACTURER

USER SPACELoRaWAN 1.1

REST

gRPC

Web socket

NETWORK MONITORING AND TECHNICAL SUPPORT

1. Applications control

• status tracking• processing control• reports• analytics

2. Network monitoring

• status tracking• BS geolocation control• BS traffic control• analytics

3. Technical support service

LoRaWAN RANGE TESTING IN URBAN AND RURAL AREAS

4,3 km, 45 meters height of BS installation

28 km, 46 meters height of BS installationRural area: tester in the parking

Urban area: tester in the IoT laboratory

BS – IoT lab4,3 km

LRTX-868-XXX LoRaWAN RF MODULES

General features

• Comply with LoRaWAN Class A, C• Over-The-Air Programming• Command interface over UART• Compact size• SMT or through hole mounting• Class C RF modules with LDO• PCB antenna• u. FL connector for external antenna

Operational

• Power supply +5…24V Class C, +3,3V Class A• Temperature range -40…+85°C• UART level converter• MCU ARM Cortex-M0+• Interfaces: GPIO, SPI, SWD, ADC, I2C

RF features

• 868MHz frequency range• TX power 25mW• LoRa modulation• Receiver sensitivity down to -148dBm• Up to 15km coverage

Antenna Class A Class C

u.FLconnector

LRTX-868-UFL-A LRTX-868-UFL-C

PCBantenna

LRTX-868-PCB-A LRTX-868-PCB-C

Product range

Networkplatform

CloudLartech TelecomBS infrastructure

lar.cloud SERVICE FOR HW AND SW DEVELOPERS

Lartech’s Public API is tool that software developers use to receive data in IoT application from end LoRaWAN devices. Cloud service lar.cloud allows to store data and includes analytics and visual dashboards.

Lartech Telecom provides free access to lar.cloud for developers.

web/API

Cloud

LoRa Geolocation

LoRa Geolocation algorithm:

• Base stations determine timestamps, RSSI, SNR for every Uplink from end nodes

• At least three base stations receive signal, geosolver calculates coordinates using TDoA algorithm

• Algorithm doesn’t require to calculate radio signal’s time of flight from end nodes

• Any Uplink from end nodes will use for coordinates calculation

LoRa Geolocation

• LoRaWAN only

• 10 years from AA battery

• Low cost

• Indoor and outdoor

• Immunities to GSM jammers

• Low accuracy

GPS

• GPS+RF channel (GSM)

• High power consumption

• High cost

• Outdoor only

• Block by GSM jammers

• High accuracy

LoRaWAN base station with TDoA

Lartech’s LoRa geolocation pilot zone

LoRaWAN 1.1 SPECIFIACATION – ROAMING

RejoinReq*NetAID, DevUID

RejoinReqDevUIDDevAddrB, NetBID, Channels, RX param

JoinRespNetSKey

Operator BLartech Telecom

JoinRespDevAddrB,NetBID,Channels,RX param

JoinReqDevUIDDevAddrB, NetBID, Channels, RX param

JoinRespNetSKey

Network Server

Endnode

Network B authenticates the Uplinkand forward to Lartech Telecom

Operator BLartech Telecom

Lartech Telecom authenticates the frame,deduplicates and forwards the applicativepayload to customer

Application server

Uplinksigned with NetSKey**

Endnode

Passive Roaming

Uplinks received by multiple networks simultaneously, Downlinks sent via selected GW. Totally transparent to the device.

Handover Roaming

Device is handed-over to another network operator.Data-plane is still routed through the home network.

* Periodic broadcast request.** Network Session Key for Uplink.

OUTLOOK AND FORECAST

The European Commission predicts that the EU market value of the IoT is expected to exceed EUR 1 trillion in 2020.

Cisco predicts that IoT will generate USD 8 trillion worldwide in Value at Stake1) over the next decade (2015-2024).

Machina Research estimates the total IoT revenue opportunity at USD 3 trillion in 2025 (up from USD 750 billion in 2015).

IoT SEMICONDUCTOR MARKET

SCHEDULED

DATE

COVERAGE NUMBER

of SUBSCRIBERS

NUMBER

of BSs

Q1 2018 7 regions >500 000 >500

Q4 2019 Federal network >1 000 000 >2000

LARTECH TELECOM NETWORK DEPLOYMENT PLAN

Source: IC Insights, June 2017

Source: Roland Berger, March 2017

Q&A