Using LoRa for industrial wireless networks

The new concept of Industry 4.0 has been developed: it includes both Internet of Things (IoT) structure and the local networks that are still needed to carry out real-time tasks. However, forecasts of mass application of consumer IoT system have stimulated the development of new wireless technologies that may also be interesting for industry. In this paper, the LoRa technology is investigated for the implementation of industrial wireless networks suitable for sensors and actuators of the Industry 4.0 era. After a brief overview of LoRa and LoRaWAN, the paper deals with the discussion about using LoRa for industrial applications compared to traditional industrial wireless systems. With only very light modifications to the upper layer of LoRaWAN communication stack, a time slot channel hopping schema is possible. The experimental results show the feasibility of the proposed approach, which is compatible with requirements of soft real-time applications in process industry. In particular, proper time, frequency, and spreading factor planning may allow 6000 nodes accessed up to one minute cycle time.