LoRa Cloud™ Complements the LoRa® Ecosystem and Offers Unique Services

LoRa Cloud™ services enhance Semtech’s LoRa® devices by simplifying secure device onboarding with the LoRaWAN® standard, modem management and power optimized geolocation. The Internet of Things (IoT) is about connecting devices to the internet and LoRa Cloud services makes that process much easier and more cost-effective.

The LoRa Cloud portfolio offers three innovative services:

Join Server for Easy Onboarding Devices to the Cloud

Traditionally, manufacturers and solution providers have faced complexity when provisioning their keys into devices, then putting those keys into a network server operating with the LoRaWAN standard.

With our join server SaaS solution, we remove that complexity through pre-provisioning by injecting root keys into Semtech’s LoRa Edge™ (LR1110) chip directly from the factory. The streamlined process provides the highest level of security, as the root keys never leave the devices and are stored in Semtech-managed High Security Modules (HSM), connecting and communicating directly with the network server. The join server also offers the independence and flexibility for customers to change their network server provider in the future, if desired.

Geolocation Solver for Indoor (Wi-FI) and Outdoor (GNSS) Asset Tracking

Due to the need to store an entire almanac, scan the entire sky, then compute the location, standard GNSS chips typically require extensive power, memory and compute power. This is quite costly and reduces battery life to weeks or even days. Also, not every device is always located outdoors, e.g., when tracking a pallet which moves from an outdoor storage facility to indoor warehouse. In these cases, a traditional GNSS location solution will not suffice.

Semtech’s LoRa Edge™ (LR1110) chipset provides a comprehensive solution which solves for both indoor and outdoor location by incorporating both GNSS for outdoor and Wi-Fi scanning for indoor location. It is also able to achieve this with 10x lower power than traditional GNSS-based solutions using a combination of compute on the chip and Cloud. For GNSS, a partial almanac is automatically downloaded over the air and the balance is stored in the Cloud. The device looks only for the satellites in the approximate geographic area where it is located (e.g., County, State). The geolocation solver chip-to-cloud solution splits the functionality of calculating the device’s position by scanning and sending the data to the Cloud where it completes calculating the device location. For Wi-Fi, the LoRa Edge solution scans for Wi-Fi SSIDs and sends these to LoRa Cloud which returns a latitude/longitude value telling you where you are or resolves to a table of private indoor Wi-Fi SSIDs.

This results in an increase in battery life from weeks to months or years compared to traditional GNSS-based solutions.

Modem Services for Full Visibility and Control

LoRa Cloud modem services offers customers a simple, transparent way to manage Semtech LoRa transceiver devices by providing critical modem status information and the ability to control the modem from the Cloud. Users access a detailed control dashboard for the modem to assess battery life, charge status, downlink signal quality, and to configure any necessary changes.

No longer do users need technical knowledge about LoRaWAN to execute basic control of the modem in the IoT device or trigger client-initiated management downlink commands, including rejoining the network or a factory reset. Now, customers are able to use this Cloud service to manage their end devices using LoRaWAN in the field with ease. They can efficiently upload large files and send reliable data with a built-in error correction mechanism.

Target Markets

LoRa Edge and LoRa Cloud are ideal solutions for several applications used within the transportation and logistics, smart building, agriculture, manufacturing, and healthcare industries. For instance, an indoor/outdoor example is tracking a pallet of goods as it moves from a ship to truck to warehouse. Additionally, there are numerous indoor use cases, including tracking valuable equipment, such as beds or ultrasonic machines, as they move throughout a hospital.

One of Semtech’s key differentiators in the asset track and trace marketplace is that both outdoor and indoor capabilities are available from the same chip.

Learn more about LoRa Cloud on our website.

Semtech, the Semtech logo and LoRa are registered trademarks or service marks, and LoRa Cloud and LoRa Edge are trademarks or service marks, of Semtech Corporation or its affiliates.