“ZHIYUAN Electronics’ LoRa intelligent networking chip supports multiple LoRa networking protocols to meet different needs in various application scenarios and help you quickly build the most suitable LoRa wireless communication system.

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Summary

ZHIYUAN Electronics’ LoRa intelligent networking chip supports multiple LoRa networking protocols to meet different needs in various application scenarios and help you quickly build the most suitable LoRa wireless communication system.

The LoRa intelligent networking chip can support a variety of protocol types, which is convenient for users to use flexibly in various application scenarios. These include the self-organized network transparent transmission protocol and LoRaNET protocol independently developed by Zhiyuan Electronics, as well as the industry-wide LoRaWAN, LinkWAN, CLAA and other protocols.

This article will list the more commonly used self-organizing network transparent transmission, LoRaNET and LoRaWAN three protocols to illustrate their functional characteristics and suitable application scenarios. Note: The protocol features described in this article are the features of the corresponding protocol on the Zhiyuan Electronics LoRa chip or gateway.

Protocol comparison

1. Ad hoc network transparent transmission protocol

The self-organizing network transparent transmission protocol is a set of very simple LoRa communication protocol independently developed by Zhiyuan Electronics, which supports one-key automatic network formation. The protocol adopts a star network structure, and both the master and the slave use the ZSL42x chip, and no additional gateway equipment is required.

Protocol features:

• Data transparent transmission, support self-organizing network
• Support level 2 relay
• Support whitelist
• Support CAD detection and wake-up in the air
• Support timing dormancy wake-up reporting, time-sharing reporting
• Support local and wireless upgrade

Applicable scene:

The self-organizing network transparent transmission protocol is very friendly to small-scale products with a short development cycle due to its simple operation, convenient development, fast and convenient on-site network deployment. It is suitable for small networks with less than 100 nodes. For example, scenes such as small lighting control systems, smart parking lots, and sensor collection systems.

2. LoRaNET protocol

LoRaNET protocol is another set of LoRa networking protocol developed by Zhiyuan Electronics. It can be used with Zhiyuan Electronics GL1301W-I series gateway to support multi-channel communication and improve the ability of concurrent data processing.

The entire network supports localized deployment and gateway localized analysis and processing of data. Users can obtain node data with the user’s cloud platform or back-end server through the MQTT protocol, etc., and issue instructions or data to the terminal node.

The LoRaNET protocol supports secondary development. In the protocol, we abstract the gateway-node interaction mode into three types. Users can choose a suitable solution, and then carry out secondary development of the application layer on this basis.

In the following features, the terminal uses the ZSL42x series of LoRa intelligent networking chips, and the gateway uses the Zhiyuan Electronics GL1301W-I LoRa gateway.

Terminal features:

• Support sleep, timing wake-up and normal power consumption mode
• Support remote configuration parameters
• Support relay
• Support secondary development

Gateway features:

• Support local privatization deployment
• Support whitelist
• Support MQTT, TCP/IP protocol to transparently transmit terminal data
• Support connecting ZWS cloud server and other cloud servers
• Support local and remote configuration and upgrade
• Support the export of gateway configuration and operation log

GL1301W-I LoRaNET Gateway

Applicable scene:

The LoRaNET protocol is suitable for scenarios with a large number of nodes and a complex network structure, such as three-meter collection, power monitoring, and large-scale lighting control systems. In addition, because LoRaNET supports local privatization deployment, in some data-sensitive applications, servers can be built locally, and intelligent management can be realized without uploading to the cloud.

3.LoRaWAN protocol

LoRaWAN is an open source MAC layer communication protocol based on the LoRa chip launched and maintained by the LoRa Alliance. Its advantage is that it has a large node capacity and is a globally unified protocol standard. As long as devices from different manufacturers follow the LoRaWAN protocol standard, they can also be interconnected.

The LoRaWAN network architecture is a typical star topology. In this network architecture, the gateway is a transparent transmission relay, connecting the terminal device and the back-end server. The terminal device communicates with one or more gateways, and all terminals communicate with the gateway in two ways.

In the following features, the terminal uses the ZSL42x series of LoRa intelligent networking chips, and the gateway uses the Zhiyuan Electronics GL1301W-O outdoor LoRaWAN gateway.

Terminal features:

• Support CLASSAC equipment;
• Support AT and data transparent transmission mode;
• Supports dynamic configuration of the number of receiving windows to achieve high real-time transmission;
• Support air wakeup;
• Support multicast;
• Support serial port upgrade;

Gateway features:

• Access to standard LoRa Server server;
• Support standard LoRaWAN V1.1 CLASS A/B/C terminal equipment access;
• Support 4G/Ethernet data return link, and support automatic switching network card function;
• Support local and remote configuration;
• Support local and remote upgrades;
• Support gateway configuration and running log export;
• Support remote viewing and maintenance of gateway device information;

Applicable scene:

As a global standard, the LoRaWAN protocol is suitable for scenarios that require access to third-party equipment (terminal products or gateways). As long as products that meet the LoRaWAN protocol standard, they can seamlessly access the same system. It is widely used in industries such as fire protection systems, large-scale sensor systems, and smart agriculture.

In addition, the LoRa intelligent networking chip also supports the standard LinkWAN protocol and CLAA protocol, so that users can quickly access the LoRa communication system of Ali’s IoT system and the LoRa communication system of ZTE Carat.