The advantage of LoRa® is its long-range capability. A single gateway or base station can cover entire cities or hundreds of square kilometers. Range highly depends on the environment or obstructions in a given location, but LoRa® – and its MAC layer LoRaWAN™ – have a link budget greater than any other standardized communication technology. The link budget, typically given in decibels (dB), is the primary factor in determining the range in a given environment.
The LoRaWAN™ protocol is a global standard that offers a long range (up to 15km) bi-directional communications with very low power consumption, allowing operation for up to ten years on the same battery. LoRaWAN™ is using the unlicensed ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) radio bands for cost-efficient network deployments.