Last year saw a “major shift” in LoRaWan being recognised as essential technology, according to Donna Moore, CEO of the LoRa Alliance, at the launch of the organisation’s 2022 annual report.

The report highlights LoRa Alliance achievements as well as LoRaWan adoption, technology and certification advancements over the past year.

Advancements across several market factors drove LoRaWan’s growth in 2022:

• LoRaWan is now a mature technology. 
• It is approved by ITU as an open international standard. 
• The LoRa Alliance has the largest and most diverse IoT ecosystem, with stakeholders from the entire value chain participating. 
• LoRaWan has the most networks around the world and the only LPWAN with network options for public, private, satellite, community and hybrid.
• LoRa Alliance members are said to have the most deployed applications and the largest at-scale deployments as well as the most deployed multi-technology options with wifi, Bluetooth, RFID, 5G, DLMS, OMS, BACnet and more. 
• The LoRa Alliance has the most certified LPWAN devices with the choice of device vendors and diversity of devices on the market. 
• Through alliance members’ partnerships and collaborations, it has the largest number of end-to-end offerings, making deployments easier for users. 

“We saw a major shift in 2022, with LoRaWan being recognised as an essential technology,” said Moore. “We’ve moved from needing to educate about what LoRaWan is to focusing on how to deploy LoRaWan. As end users move from exploratory stages and proofs-of-concept into massive adoption of LoRaWan, integrators and providers across a variety of industries are intensifying their sales efforts, which is growing LoRaWan deployments exponentially. Our members are innovative, determined and passionate about changing the world for the better, and I can’t wait to see what they do next.”

The LoRa Alliance experienced an increase in member-driven initiatives, with cross-company collaboration driving more projects. There was also significant growth in webinars and educational programmes in the past year, which reflects the shifting market awareness and interest in LoRaWan.

Additionally, 2022 was another strong year for advancing the LoRaWan standard from a technological perspective. The LoRa Alliance focuses on continually making LoRaWAN easier to develop and deploy and strengthening its certification programme.

Achievements over the past year include:

• Support for IPv6 over LoRaWan  accelerates onboarding IP-based applications;
• The relay feature extends LoRaWan coverage beyond its current physical limits;
• The payload codec API eases the integration of application platforms with LoRaWans;
• Expansion of self-testing and ease of use of the LoRaWan certification test tool accelerates certification; and
• The LoRaWan certification programme has added support for critical technologies, including certifying devices for IPv6 over LoRaWan. 

“Together with our incredible ecosystem, we will continue to improve the world in ways no one ever imagined possible,” said Moore. ”I invite everyone interested in developing LoRaWan to join us at LoRaWan Live this coming March in Orlando to explore our ecosystem and network with industry leaders.”

The event is open to the public, and the programme will focus on smart cities, smart utilities and smart buildings, with sessions ranging from educational training to deployment use cases. The programme also provides opportunities for business development and collaboration.