On the latest episode of IoT Unplugged Craig Herrett, Managing Director of Alliot Technologies discussed the growth of the LoRaWAN market, key drivers, and recommendations for companies who want to deploy IoT solutions.
Alliot Technologies are a distributor of LoRaWAN solutions which Herrett explained came from examining the IoT market and choosing a niche part to invest in, due to the size and scale of the industry.
In comparing LoRaWAN to past competing technologies like Betamax versus VHS, DVD versus Blu-ray, and so on, Herrett spoke about viewing LoRaWAN through a similar lens, in that he expected it to be the technology to win out from other competing wireless technologies.
LoRaWAN is most suitable to applications where one gateway is serving thousands of sensors, as opposed to Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), which suits applications that deploy a small number of sensors into a small area. Wi-Fi, meanwhile, suits smart home and consumer IoT applications that aren’t dependent on continuous connectivity.
A key driver behind the growth of the market has come from a changing perception towards sensors; rather than deploying sensors for the sake of it, people are looking at deploying sensors for monitoring parameters such as energy consumption, for example, so smart building managers can understand how to achieve cost and energy savings.
Herrett’s recommendation for companies deploying IoT solutions was to find a good partner: “Someone came to us and said they wanted to measure the Lux lighting of street lights. A bad partner would say, ‘there’s a sensor, and this is what it will cost you’. A good partner will interrogate it.
“We asked them why they were monitoring the street lights. They said they wanted to make it safe for people to walk. Then you don’t want to measure street lights but measure the light at the height of someone walking.”
In this demonstration, Herrett explained, a good partner can be pivotal in ensuring the success of projects.
Herrett’s insights into LoRaWAN can be listened on the full podcast episode, which is available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts and at the link below.
