Semtech Corp. has announced it has teamed up with Link Labs, a wireless connectivity product design company based near Washington, D.C., for the LL-LP-20 radio module featuring Semtech’s LoRa™ long distance radio transceiver technology.
The Link Labs LL-LP-20 is a compact, low power, bidirectional radio module for the 915 MHz ISM band and 868 MHz frequency band, and features the LoRaMAC software stack for integration with the LoRa partner ecosystem. LL-LP-20 is fully FCC/IC certified for immediate use in the US and Canada. Using a certified module integrated with the LoRaMAC software accelerates the development time and reduces development costs to create products to connect the nationwide public networks that are starting to be deployed around the world. Announcements of these nationwide networks have already started to occur with many more expected over the next few months.
LoRa™ technology and the LL-LP-20 are designed for industrial control, security/automation, smart metering and sensor network applications. The additional wireless range provided by LoRa eliminates the need for repeaters in these applications, significantly simplifying the system design and lowering the total cost of deployment. The range extension provided by LoRa also makes the device ideal for emerging smart city, Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) applications.
LoRa utilises spread-spectrum communication and provides high interference immunity while minimising current consumption. The LL-LP-20 achieves a maximum sensitivity level of -141 dBm with a maximum output power of +19 dBm resulting in a link budget of 160 dB and achieving range of more than 15 km in a rural environment or 2-5 km in a dense urban environment operating in compliance with US and European regulatory limits.
“LoRa solves the traditional design compromise between range, interference immunity and energy consumption,” said Hardy Schmidbauer, director of Wireless Products at Semtech Corporation.
The growing use of the 915 MHz frequency band in the US/Canada creates increased interference for security systems, smoke detectors, lighting control, home automation and smart meter applications. The LL-LP-20 provides increased interference immunity compared to conventional radio systems by providing up to six orthogonal spreading sequences with three different signal bandwidth options and four error correction schemes.
“The LL-LP-20 and LoRa are a powerful alternative to Zigbee or other mesh networks for users that need extremely long battery life and great range performance,” says Link Labs CEO Brian Ray.
The module provides a cost effective and quick solution for integrating LoRa technology into existing or new products. To simplify the first steps of integration, Link Labs offers a starter kit with the corresponding demo and configuration software.
