The LoRa Alliance has made its LoRaWan certification available for end-devices using static context header compression (SCHC).

Certification is based on the LoRa Alliance technical specifications for IPv6 published last May, which enable the deployment of IPv6 over LoRaWan. The first applications to leverage SCHC for IPv6 over LoRaWan are smart metering and IoT applications in the smart grid, just two of many applications requiring the use of IPv6-based standards.

Products using LoRaWan for metering include proactive consumption monitoring, leak detection warnings and automatic shutoffs, and for balancing electricity supply and demand. LoRaWan is suitable for identifying and managing unmeasured losses, which currently reach into the billions of dollars each year, in addition to helping conserve energy. Similar benefits can be realised for water and gas metering, with LoRaWan Certified devices communicating over open standards enabling scale to address these growing markets.

“As deployments continue to grow to the tens or hundreds of millions of devices, the importance of using open standards has never been greater,” said Donna Moore, CEO of the LoRa Alliance. “Certifying IPv6 over LoRaWan for end-devices gives end users the level of certainty needed to deploy and benefit from IP-based solutions. With vendors now able to certify LoRaWan end-devices using SCHC, customers can confidently commit to massive utilities deployments. This will further drive digital industrialisation across a wide variety of new markets and applications, which will in turn enable massive IoT.”

The certification of IPv6 over LoRaWan using SCHC confirms that the end device meets the functional requirements of the LoRaWan IPv6 TS010-1.0.0 adaptation layer specification. End devices must already be LoRaWan Certified as a prerequisite of SCHC over LoRaWan certification. The full testing suite for SCHC over LoRaWan has been added to the LoRaWan Certification Test Tool (LCTT), which is available for download.

The IPv6 adaptation layer facilitates and accelerates development of secure and interoperable applications over LoRaWan and furthers the alliance’s commitment to ease of use. IP-based products, commonly found in enterprise and industrial settings, can now be transmitted over LoRaWan and integrated with cloud infrastructures. This allows developers to enable internet-based applications quickly, while reducing time-to-market and total cost of ownership.

At Enlit Europe in Berlin this week, LoRa Alliance members are showing how LoRaWan supports the utilities market and standards-based technologies, including:

• Acklio: Ensure successful smart metering deployments with Acklio’s software using SCHC
• Actility: Connectivity for utilities, cities and energy management enabled by LoRaWan
• Comtac: Monitoring of transformer stations in electricity medium voltage distribution networks via LoRaWan
• Connexin: End-to-end AMI smart water metering with LoRaWan
• Digita: Water meter and data management enabled by LoRaWan and power line infrastructure condition monitoring
• Everynet: The power of LoRaWan for massive IoT in the utility industry
• OrbiWise: LoRaWan public networks for deployment of smart water and gas metering
• Vertical M2M: Smart water everywhere, from subscriber to network, saving energy and water

The LoRa Alliance is an open, non-profit association that was formed in 2015. The LoRaWan standard has been deployed by more than 170 major mobile network operators globally, with connectivity available worldwide.