Global LoRaWAN network service provider, The Things Industries has partnered with Lacuna Space to route LoRaWAN messages received by their space gateways for end users. The announcement was made at The Things Conference with a live demonstration of messages being routed via the satellite transmission. With this partnership, features of The Things Industries network server will be directly brought to the LoRaWAN space ecosystem. The newly introduced service will enable LoRaWAN operators to extend their network by providing satellite connectivity to fill the gaps between the terrestrial gateways out of cellular reach and give continuous global coverage. The service will be ideal for asset tracking, smart agriculture, and monitoring in remote areas.
Lacuna Space will launch a series of LoRaWAN gateways into orbit capable of receiving LoRaWAN messages from the ground. At about 500km above the surface, these satellites will revolve around the earth and pass over the poles every 100 minutes. The messages are sent using the LoRaWAN protocol, which is suitable for devices that require long battery life and telemetry data. The satellite stores the data for a short time after which it is relayed to an application on a terrestrial network.
Furthermore, getting telemetry data via satellites will also become as easy as launching an account and activating through the Lacuna Space virtual network operator while keeping the license fees linked to your existing cloud account or use the pay per use option.
An evaluation program will open to IoT space customers looking to get started with their use case later this year. The service will be provided after the first three months of operation (after the initial commissioning and experimental phase). It will allow the global LoRaWAN ecosystem to test the service and will be chargeable in the future.
