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The LoRa Alliance, the global association of companies backing the open LoRaWAN standard for Internet of Things (IoT) low-power wide-area networks (LPWANs), announced that it has released the latest LoRaWAN Regional Parameters RP2-1.0.5 specification. This updated specification defines new data rates that minimize time-on-air, maximize quality of service, and reduce the energy use of end devices by enabling longer battery life or the use of smaller, less expensive batteries to reduce device size and lower TCO. Higher data rates also optimize network capacity, allowing more devices to operate on the same number of gateways, and support both indoor-to-indoor and outdoor-to-outdoor applications.
Benefits of Improved RP2-1.0.5 Data Rates
The new raw data rates are 9.4 kbps for SF6 and 15.6 kbps for SF5, with higher data rates correlating with shorter time on air. For end devices that can use SF5 data rates, RP2-1.0.5 delivers three times faster performance than before, while end devices using SF6 data rates achieve 1.5 times faster transmission. For sensors primarily limited by power consumption—which results in reduced transmission time over the air—the new specification and higher data rates translate into either more transmitted data or longer battery life. Since higher-data-rate end devices now require shorter time-on-air, transmissions are more resistant to interference. Additionally, LoRaWAN uses an Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) algorithm managed by the LoRaWAN Network Server, ensuring that end devices use the optimal data rate.
In a real-world example, an indoor temperature sensor would typically use SF5. Data transmission accounts for most energy consumption, and this can be reduced by at least 50 percent with the new rates. This means the device can use a smaller battery—or half the size for the photovoltaic panel if light energy harvesting is used—therefore, it can have a cheaper, smaller form factor.
In terms of network performance, for the same amount of traffic, lower time-on-air results in higher scalability in terms of the number of devices and data packets supported, improving network capacity for both uplink and downlink transmissions. Furthermore, SF5 and SF6 integrate smoothly into the existing set of data rates: as with SF7 to SF12 previously, SF5 to SF12 can now be received concurrently on the same channel by a LoRaWAN gateway.
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