11/05/2022

LoRaWAN network

The LoRaWAN network usually consists of one or more gateways (antennas) that communicate with associated LoRa end devices.

By setting up a city-wide Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN), SWD is taking the next step toward being able to offer digital services in Dormagen. The network usually consists of one or more gateways (antennas) that communicate with associated LoRa end devices. These can be both sensors and actuators. The gateways themselves are connected to the Internet and thus transport the collected data or sent commands.

The advantage over other technologies, such as WLAN or 5G, is the low investment and operating costs, due to the high transmission distance of the individual antennas combined with very low energy requirements of the end devices. This means that the entire Dormagen urban area can be covered with just a few antennas. In addition, there are a large number of sensors that can be used for a wide variety of applications, both in an industrial context and in the smart city area. As a result, both citizens and local companies benefit from the infrastructure that has been set up.

After the technical infrastructure has been set up, a test phase will be run, during which various use cases will be tested and transferred to productive operation. For companies, SWD will offer a service in which the network can be used for operational use cases. This will save companies the investment costs for the network and they will only have to procure the corresponding sensor technology. This ensures that significantly more use cases can be implemented profitably.

Citizens can implement their own use cases via a free service and also benefit from the fact that municipal departments can map their tasks more efficiently and thus more cost-effectively and in a future-proof manner.