What is LoRaWAN?
LoRaWAN is the long-range, low-power radio network that carries readings from your CropWatch sensors to a gateway, and from there to the cloud.
LoRa is a radio technique designed to send small amounts of data over long distances using very little energy. That is why a sensor can run on a battery for a long time and still reach a gateway on the far side of a farm.
- Range: from hundreds of metres to several kilometres, depending on terrain and obstacles
- Data: small messages, such as one temperature reading, sent at intervals rather than continuously
Picture coming soon Diagram: sensor, radio link to gateway, internet, network server, CropWatch dashboard
- The sensor takes a reading and sends it by radio.
- Any gateway in range receives it and forwards it over the internet.
- The network server checks the message and passes it to CropWatch.
- CropWatch stores the reading and shows it on your dashboard.
Sensors do not connect to your Wi-Fi. They only talk to a LoRaWAN gateway.
Height, obstacles and distance matter most. Buildings, metal structures, hills and dense vegetation all shorten the range. A well-placed gateway makes the biggest difference: see Choosing a mounting location.