Smart City and Intelligent Agriculture Solutions
The connection between these two application areas may not seem obvious, but they are linked by the problem of providing connectivity over extended distances or in challenging environments, where short range wireless such as Bluetooth or Wi-Fi may not be sufficient alone.
Smart City applications
Street lighting management is one area where IOT solutions can aid efficiency and save power. Traditional systems were typically limited to switching on lights by fixed timing; however modern solutions can offer more sophisticated control, based on presence detection, ambient light levels and other indicators. Parking management can also benefit from IOT solutions, with occupancy detection and intelligent guiding to vacant spaces. Initiatives to encourage low-carbon mobility (walking, cycling, scooters etc) can be aided by accurate measurement of usage of foot and cycle paths, helping city planners to devise new routes.
LoRa is a valuable technology for such solutions, offering long range communications, and the advantage over cellular solutions that it can be installed relatively simply without engaging with a network operator and also it can be used in cellular blackout zones such as underground car parks.
