LoRa Being Worked On For The Linux Kernel - Allows Long-Range, Low-Power Wireless

[phoronix]

Phoronix: LoRa Being Worked On For The Linux Kernel - Allows Long-Range, Low-Power Wireless

Linux kernel patches are in the works for LoRa for various chipsets/modules and the new networking subsystem itself along with a new socket interface. LoRa allows for long-range, low-power wireless with minimal infrastructure...

http://www.phoronix.com/scan.php?page=news_item&px=Linux-LoRa-Kernel-Patches

[AsuMagic]

I saw LoRa a while ago on hackaday IIRC. It's pretty amazing how far it can reach with a laughably low power usage. The downside is obviously the extremely low bit rate but you can't have everything... This seems great for remote telemetry like weather sensors, etc. though

[macemoneta]

It would be nice if this were added to smartphones, along with mesh messaging. It would be useful in emergencies when infrastructure is down

[Ronshere]

LoRaWAN baud rates range from 0.3 kbps to 50 kbps.
It's 1995 all over again.

[starshipeleven]

This is aimed at embedded/IoT applications that are currently forced to add a GSM module and a SIM with an IoT mobile contract (either a bunch of SMS or like 5 MB of traffic per month), and then rely on cellphone infrastructure, which is a mixed bag and a source of annoyance more often than not.

Plus there is the fact that GSM infrastructure is on the brink of being shut down (and in some places in USA and Australia it actually was shut down), and that buying a LTE low power modem (3G isn't that amazing with power consumption) is not terribly cheap.

It's a BIG thing, especially because it is designed to do a wifi mesh between all devices you deploy, so other IoT in the swarm can carry messages from their peers and do repeater job, basically giving you infinite range as long as you are within reach of other IoT in your swarm.

You could literally carpet-bomb an area with cheap IoT devices and get full coverage over arbitrary distances without additional infrastructure.

These modules are tiny, microcontroller-friendly, and much simpler/cheaper than even the crappiest GSM modem.

Afaik it's more for microcontroller-based IoT devices than for full-blown devices running Linux, but they need to run a few more powerful devices to be the swarm C&C and gateways, so that's where Linux will most likely be employed.

Boy, I'm excited.

[heliosh]

I use LoRaWAN for many sensors in and around my house. Because of the "low" frequency it can penetrate walls easily and you don't have to take care of channel coding and modulation unlike some 433 MHz devices. If you just need a few Bytes/kBytes per minute, it's the perfect tool for the job.