Though we generally discuss how relevant is to have high speed broadband internet, it is also interesting to explore how impactful little but essential data networks can be.
This is the case of a set of wireless telecommunication networks called LPWAN (low-powered wide area networks), that use low power high sensitivity radios. There are many like these but arguably the most widespread one has been LoRa.
These radios’ main use has been focused on Internet of Things projects, but others have chosen to use it for other things…
As this radios have very high sensitivity (though have longer range) and are thought to be reliable in multiple scenarios like urban or remote locations, they can be perfect for basic but essential human-to-human communications (ie. bare-minimum community networks).
There are a set of projects that have gone that way, and that are free software/hardware, namely:
There are a few non-free similar projects, but as they are not open for expansion or ownership by the communities, we shouldn’t focus much on them here.
All of them implement:
hardware access
mesh routing
application layer
All of them are affordable (<U$S 50).
Most of them use the same hardware, like esp32, esp8266 or raspberry pi zero.
They differ in applications:
disaster relief
hiking
bitcoin traiding
I myself see them as potential precursors of broadband internet community networks, and that can support communities getting in touch with each other and building the meaningful connections in between communities to imagine building more broadband-like community networks, and that could strengthen the relation between communities.
Hope more interactions could happen around this kind of networks!
I preserved your list of projects on disaster radio’s wiki homepage
I would love to see more collaboration and cross-pollination between these projects. I believe we (disaster.radio) have someone from meshtastic interested in using the same protocol as us (LoRaLayer2). So that’s something.
Interested to see if anyone has ideas on how to collaborate? Using the same protocol and sharing hardware designs are a good start. There are also great opportunities to work with community networks, since they typically have access to good node locations and connections in their communities to actually get nodes deployed.
I’m active on the disaster radio mailing list and disaster radio github, https://disaster.radio/connect/, so if there are interested collaborators you can reach me on those platforms.
hey everyone, bryan from project owl. similarly we would like to find ways to empower more collaboration between these projects. integration at the protocol level seems like a good area to focus. Maybe we can have a discussion at some point?
New Research Article on LoRa - low-cost, low-power consumption
solution to provide messaging to isolated communities.
Cardenas, A.M., Nakamura Pinto, M.K., Pietrosemoli, E. et al. A Low-Cost and Low-Power Messaging System Based on the LoRa Wireless Technology. Mobile Netw Appl25, 961–968 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11036-019-01235-5
That looks interesting Eric - few things are noticeable
I know its low bandwidth, but there is no mention of what that bandwidth is in practical situations.
It says 11km range line-of-site, I’m wondering what the typical range is in various other cases, for example forest, mountainous terrain or city (at ground level).
LoRa is usually used with a well sited base station, so I’m wondering what it really works like in this mesh form
Also … that guide makes meshtastic significantly less intimidating, but it doesn’t show how to attach the battery, which makes me wonder…
Found some useful forum discussions here. Glad people are getting 11km+ los, but I’d also love to see numbers from a few of the GPS-enabled units roaming around urban & informal areas.
Looks like battery attachment depends on the board, battery and case used. There are some nice designs on thingiverse.
Thanks @dbellomo for this… it looks like it is a proposal that goes in the lines of the other projects, but this one relies on the internet and doesn’t use mesh… I guess it would be good for them to be aware of this thread
In relation to this thread, Amazon seems to start creating an LPWAN of their own: Amazon Sidewalk.
It is related in the sense that it creates a sort of low power network that has a purpose of its own … in their case is always connecting people to their cloud.
Something critically important that I don’t see mentioned in this thread is that LPWAN data rate ranges from 0.3 kbit/s to 50 kbit/s per channel. In other words 0.005 Mbps maximum per channel. So keep that in mind - this is not a connectivity alternative, but simply an IoT vector for monitoring metadata or metrics, analogous to SMS..
That said, I am personally invested in LoRa and manage some small scale projects - and this is an incredible wealth of information shared here - thank you to everyone who contributed so far.
This thread has been dormant for 3 years, and I know that @luandro and surely others have many new experiences to share.
For me, in the Amazon rainforest in a pretty flat area, I’m interested in how far this system could function if the radio is in a tall tree (40 meters would be the top of the taller emergent trees) with a directional antenna. Also, what if I just put it 10m up on a beam in the community center, where it’s less likely to get filled with ants or knocked down by a falling branch?
These systems look pretty inexpensive – looks like I can buy the radio parts, the screen, the battery, a better antenna, and a waterproof box, and maybe even a small solar panel for about $100 USD in the US, Peru or Colombia. Here in Ecuador it will be more expensive, but hopefully not too much more.
In our area, communities used to communicate via HF radio. Now that some communities have internet, they have stopped using the HF radios, and this has created two separate communication networks: those with HF radio, and those with internet. In the case of our local association of 4 communities, only one has internet, and it doesn’t take the time to communicate with the other communities via HF radio. The communities are 7 to 15 km apart. Maybe simple messaging with LoRa would be a useful, if it doesn’t require line of sight. If we were to build towers for line-of-sight, then we would put WiFi radios up there and thus have LAN and internet connection (satellite backhaul for now). LoRa maybe could still be used as backup, or for data gathering from sensors, or maybe even for certain network maintenance functions.
Anyone have experience to share? Or other questions? I think this thread could be useful.
) comments in this github issue for how/why we thought this might be useful: 