IoT provider notes: how to create a LoRa network in a city without a network in one day?

    We have learned to work where we are not. Now we can configure the LoRa network without our Internet. How we did it - in the article. Place of action - the city of Karabash, Chelyabinsk region.

    Go!



    Task :

    1) There is a prospective customer.

    He does not believe in technology, but we are interested.

    2) The city does not have our network.
    We cannot configure LoRa through our Internet.

    Our solution:

    1) We deploy a pilot project for one day
    2) We check equipment capabilities
    3) We check the network
    4) We

    get
    results and draw conclusions What we did: Place - the city of Karabash. City with low-rise buildings (up to 5 floors, above - a rarity). Surroundings - mountains, difficult terrain, large elevation changes.



    We need to set up a poll of 5 objects by air. The distance from the central point is 1-2 kilometers. We have a point on the roof at a height of 20 m and a socket 220 V.

    1) Network deployed through 4G. They took the Mikrotik router (based on the RBM33G and LTE R11e-LTE modem cards). The Internet here comes through a sim card.



    Minuses:

    - floating ping <Base station - Server>
    - low signal predictability
    - no experience

    . We have developed such projects only on the table. At the same time, the base station (hereinafter referred to as BS) was made mobile: they placed it in a car. Here we decided to test the stationary position of the BS in real conditions. Since we had no experience, we relied on hypotheses and moved at our own risk.

    2) For the temporary placement of the BS, we used a standard 2.5 meter bracket mounted on the wall. The height of the suspension made it possible to minimize the influence of the edges of the roof on the radiation pattern.

    3) The power to POE was brought to the BS. Mikrotik secured to the bracket.

    The scheme was workable.

    Its minuses:

    - the location of the router affects the ping to the BS
    - in Mikrotik weak antennas. Enough for testing. But we will look for an alternative.

    Test results:

    I bring the results. The table noted the measurement points and quality parameters of the signal. RSSI and SNR are far from critical. Low quality is visible only at point # 1.



    The measurements were carried out inside buildings with a conventional radio module without external antennas. The project laid the opportunity to use radio modules with external antennas and display the latter on the roof.

    The customer is pleased with the results. We are preparing to connect its devices to our network. We also plan to transfer the BS to the stationary placement. Of course, we want to connect via wired Internet. But so far.

    I am glad that now we have a BS outside the zone of our wired presence.



    The project was done in one day, including the road from Chelyabinsk to Karabash and measurements at five points.

    We would be interested to hear comments and questions from you. Perhaps someone will be able to suggest a more interesting solution.

    Archive of past articles:

    # 1. Introduction# 2. Coverage# 3. Zoo of metering devices# 4. Propriety# 5. Activation and security in LoraWAN# 6. LoRaWAN and RS-485
    # 7. Devices and outbid# 8. A little about the frequency# 9. Case: we are making a LoRa network for TRK in Chelyabinsk

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