3 ms·

LoRa looks like a really cool technology, but I'm always a little bit hesitant about advocating adopting a proprietary protocol, and LoRaWAN is very much propri

LoRa looks like a really cool technology, but I'm always a little bit hesitant about advocating adopting a proprietary protocol, and LoRaWAN is very much proprietary.

selvakn 7y ago
LoRa is.. But LoRaWAN is an open standard, governed by LoRa Alliance.
- hlieberman 7y ago
  Using the LoRa PHY. Not much of an open standard at that point....
- dillonmckay 7y ago
  So, in the article, I saw the picture of a ‘base station’...where can I find more info about the towers (locations, hardware)? Does a single company own/control all the towers?
  - m3at 7y ago
    Are you speaking about the gateway? If so you can have more info here: https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/ https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/
  - htdvisser 7y ago
    These base stations (we call them gateways) are owned and operated by individuals, communities or companies. The gateways demodulate transmissions and forward them to The Things Network's public community network. There are currently over 8000 of these gateways worldwide (see also the map on https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/map https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/map).
    - amadeusw 7y ago
      What is the incentive for a hobbyist to set up and maintain a gateway, given that the protocol is not open?
      - abricot 7y ago
        Most probably don't want to have a say in the protocol specifications, they just want to use the protocol and spectrum.
Eduard 7y ago
wifi and 3gpp can be considered proprietary as well, considering patents
- zoobab 7y ago
  80211 has no public specifications neither. Those specifications are behind paywalls.
  - nybble41 7y ago
    Lack of public (official) specifications is much less of a problem than patents. Closed specifications can be reverse-engineered, but patents impede even independent clean-room implementations.
TaylorAlexander 7y ago
Yeah... I tried to make an open source radio system like LoRa before LoRa existed, but I mostly failed to deliver on my kickstarter. :-/ I did make a 915/868 MHz frequency hopping radio protocol that is open source, as well as ARM powered hardware to drive it, but it turns out everything I wanted to do was way more work than I realized. Bummer that LoRa hardware is proprietary, but I suppose so was the cpu and radio chip I used. Would be nice to get some open source digital radio chips!
- sorisos 7y ago
  That sounds interesting. Could you please provide a link to the open source project?
  - TaylorAlexander 7y ago
    Sure: https://github.com/flutterwireless/FlutterWirelessLibrary https://github.com/flutterwireless/FlutterWirelessLibrary https://github.com/flutterwireless/FlutterHardware https://github.com/flutterwireless/FlutterHardware I have lots of hardware I could share if anyone would pick it up in the Bay Area, and I can make all the IP CC0 or MIT licensed instead of copyleft it desired.

LoRa looks like a really cool technology, but I'm always a little bit hesitant about advocating adopting a proprietary protocol, and LoRaWAN is very much proprietary.

selvakn 7y ago

LoRa is.. But LoRaWAN is an open standard, governed by LoRa Alliance.

hlieberman 7y ago
Using the LoRa PHY. Not much of an open standard at that point....
dillonmckay 7y ago
So, in the article, I saw the picture of a ‘base station’...where can I find more info about the towers (locations, hardware)? Does a single company own/control all the towers?
- m3at 7y ago
  Are you speaking about the gateway? If so you can have more info here: https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/ https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/
- htdvisser 7y ago
  These base stations (we call them gateways) are owned and operated by individuals, communities or companies. The gateways demodulate transmissions and forward them to The Things Network's public community network. There are currently over 8000 of these gateways worldwide (see also the map on https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/map https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/map).
  - amadeusw 7y ago
    What is the incentive for a hobbyist to set up and maintain a gateway, given that the protocol is not open?
    - abricot 7y ago
      Most probably don't want to have a say in the protocol specifications, they just want to use the protocol and spectrum.

Eduard 7y ago

wifi and 3gpp can be considered proprietary as well, considering patents

zoobab 7y ago
80211 has no public specifications neither. Those specifications are behind paywalls.
- nybble41 7y ago
  Lack of public (official) specifications is much less of a problem than patents. Closed specifications can be reverse-engineered, but patents impede even independent clean-room implementations.

TaylorAlexander 7y ago

Yeah... I tried to make an open source radio system like LoRa before LoRa existed, but I mostly failed to deliver on my kickstarter. :-/ I did make a 915/868 MHz frequency hopping radio protocol that is open source, as well as ARM powered hardware to drive it, but it turns out everything I wanted to do was way more work than I realized. Bummer that LoRa hardware is proprietary, but I suppose so was the cpu and radio chip I used. Would be nice to get some open source digital radio chips!

sorisos 7y ago
That sounds interesting. Could you please provide a link to the open source project?
- TaylorAlexander 7y ago
  Sure: https://github.com/flutterwireless/FlutterWirelessLibrary https://github.com/flutterwireless/FlutterWirelessLibrary https://github.com/flutterwireless/FlutterHardware https://github.com/flutterwireless/FlutterHardware I have lots of hardware I could share if anyone would pick it up in the Bay Area, and I can make all the IP CC0 or MIT licensed instead of copyleft it desired.