LoRa® and LoRaWAN®

What’s the difference?

LoRa® LoRaWAN®
Radio How the LoRa radio communicates

Wireless IoT platform Open standard

Wireless modulation technique Media Access Control (MAC) layer

uses Chirp Spread Spectrum controls the LoRa radio

Encodes sensor data on radio waves

Manages the flow of sensor data
using chirp pulses

Physical layer (OSI model Layer 1) Data link layer (OSI model Layer 2)

Create Superior IoT Solutions

The LoRaWAN® link layer protocol from the LoRa Alliance® combined with the LoRa radio offers critical benefits that
the LoRa radio combined with proprietary protocols do not. Building proprietary protocols is both expensive and time-
consuming. Furthermore, these protocols lack scalability. In contrast, LoRaWAN is not only scalable but also includes
critical additional features.

Benefits of LoRa® Benefits of LoRaWAN®

The LoRa modulation technique sends small data Using the LoRaWAN standard to manage data flow
packages that use low power while achieving long range provides additional, critical features, including:
data transfer. • Security • Roaming
• Adaptive Data Rate • LR-FHSS
• FUOTA • IPv6
• Relay • Codec API

LoRaWAN Architecture
NETWORK SERVER
(For Roaming)

Application Layer
Application Layer
LoRaWAN Link Layer
®

LoRaWAN Link Layer

®

LoRaWAN Regional
®

DEVICE Parameters GATEWAY NETWORK SERVER LoRaWAN ®

APPLICATION SERVER
Backend Layers
LoRa Physical Layer
®

the radio
how the radio communicates JOIN SERVER

LoRaWAN® is a mark under license from the LoRa Alliance®. The LoRa® mark is a trademark of Semtech Corporation or its subsidiaries.

Learn more about the LoRaWAN standard!