The LoRa Alliance, a leading consortium of companies supporting the LoRaWAN standard for IoT low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), published its 2023 End of Year Report. The report celebrates the Alliance’s significant achievements over the past year, highlighting updates on LoRaWAN deployments, technological advancements, and certification progress.
Key trends from the 2023 report include:
- Significant global deployment growth of LoRaWAN across diverse sectors such as smart buildings, utilities, cities, agriculture, and industry.
- An expanding collaborative ecosystem within the Alliance, fostering comprehensive IoT solutions.
- Strong Return on Investment (ROI) from deployments, expediting the decision-making for new adopters and projects.
- Increasing demands for LoRaWAN certified devices in smart city project proposals (RFPs).
- LoRaWAN’s pivotal role in Industry 5.0, meeting the demands for sustainability, efficiency, and improved quality of life.
- Enhanced benefits and ROI when end users collaborate with system integrators and solution providers.
- Dominance in the nascent satellite-based LPWAN communication sector, with member companies leading deployments.
- The introduction of the LoRaWAN Accredited Professional program to address the IoT workforce needs, boosting end-user confidence in vendor selection.
Donna Moore, CEO and Chairwoman of the LoRa Alliance, remarked: “In 2023, we saw extensive adoption of LoRaWAN in critical markets like cities, buildings, and utilities, driven by its compelling ROI. This led to large-scale deployments and further innovation. The growing demand for certified devices in these sectors underscores the confidence in LoRaWAN, reinforced by our Accredited Professional program. As the forefront of global LPWAN deployments, we’re poised for an even more impactful year in 2024.”
Robin Duke-Woolley, CEO and Chief Analyst at Beecham Research, commented: “2023 witnessed sustained global growth in IoT deployments, with LoRaWAN firmly established as the LPWAN market leader. Thanks to its vibrant ecosystem, significant system integrator and solution provider involvement, and extensive features including satellite connectivity, we anticipate continued strong growth for LoRaWAN in 2024 as the IoT sector matures.”
Other 2023 report highlights include:
- Validation of LoRaWAN by IEC and CEN standards for smart metering, affirming its capability to meet specialised market requirements.
- Issuance of two Technical Recommendations enhancing LoRaWAN functionality, including network capacity improvement and direct device-to-device communication.
- Release of several FAQ documents to deepen understanding of recent LoRaWAN specification updates.
- Enabling pre-testing of firmware updates over the air (FUOTA) and relay specifications, alongside new reporting features via the LoRaWAN Certification Test Tool (LCTT).
- Development of tools and procedures by the Interoperability Work Group to certify interoperability among LoRaWAN network components, including the establishment of an interoperability testbed architecture.
- Beecham Research’s comprehensive study on networking technologies for smart cities, buildings, and utilities, resulting in two insightful reports available to LoRa Alliance members and the public.
This annual report underscores LoRaWAN’s presence in the LPWAN domain, demonstrating significant strides in technological advancements, deployment growth, and industry collaboration.
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