Axioma Metering, a developer of smart water and heat metering devices, has joined the international association LoRa Alliance. It is an open non-profit association of equipment manufacturers that produce and use the LoRa WAN technology.
‘A membership in this organisation will allow us to track technology trends, use the latest technical and methodical information and contribute with our experience in developing this technology. This way we can assure our clients that our ultrasonic water and heat meters are among the most advanced and efficient products in the market’, says Virgilijus Pamakštis, Head of Innovation and Technology Division.
LoRa WAN is the most promising and widely used technology of the so-called Internet of Things (IoT) – it is a secure, low energy consuming, wide area network (LPWAN) protocol for connecting a wireless internet of battery-powered things to regional, national or worldwide networks. The main advantage of the LoRa technology is data transfer over large distances without the need for any complex solutions. Various sensors can be connected to a LoRa module in order to track measured values online or through a wireless connection.
‘The LoRa technology makes it possible to transfer the data of water or energy meters over hundreds of kilometres. LoRa routers are installed in convenient locations in the city, through which data received from meters are distributed to data processing servers. Installing antennas in the staircase of every apartment building is no longer needed, for a medium-sized city it is enough to have a few routers’, Giedrius Vaitkūnas, Head of Product Development, has told.
Another advantage of the technology is that the LoRa communication is bidirectional. It can be used to transfer not only metering data (the amount of water consumed), but also fault reports, e.g. burst pipe or leakage in the water-supply system. Then the maintenance service can react quickly and fix the fault.
LoRa Alliance was established in 2015 and has been the most rapidly growing technology alliance. It currently comprises more than 500 members, including such technology leaders as IBM, Cisco, HP, Foxconn, Semtech and Sagemcom. Its members closely co-operate and share experience, furthering the success of the LoRa WAN protocol as the leading standard for the open and secure worldwide IoT LPWAN connection. The main goal of the LoRa Alliance is to standardise the LPWAN, enabling the expansion of the IoT network. According to Statista, in 2015 the number of devices connected to the Internet of Things was 15.41 billion, in 2018 – 23.14 billion, and it is predicted that in 2025 the network will comprise 75.44 billion devices.