RAKwireless Launches the "Hybrid" WisGate Connect for mioty and LoRaWAN Networks

Internet of Things (IoT) specialist RAKwireless has launched its first "hybrid gateway," designed for those working with both mioty and LoRaWAN-based low-power long-range radio networks — and featuring a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 inside.

"The WisGate Connect for mioty is a hybrid gateway supporting both mioty and LoRaWAN protocols," the company explains of the device. "It connects via Ethernet, Wi-Fi, or optional LTE [cellular], offering flexible backhaul options. Built with an industrial-grade enclosure, it ensures reliable performance in harsh environments. This gateway is ideal for urban and industrial IoT deployments, supporting long-range communication for both mioty and LoRaWAN networks."

LoRaWAN, built on the LoRa standard, needs little introduction: the low-power long-range license-free radio standard has become ubiquitous for projects where Wi-Fi and Bluetooth won't cut it. Mioty, by contrast, is less well-known, using telegram splitting and aggressive error correction to transmit data at ranges up to 10km — even when the transmitter or receiver are traveling at speeds of up to 120km/h (around 75 miles per hour.)

The WisGate Connect, brought to our attention by CNX Software, handles both LoRaWAN and mioty in one device — the latter built in as standard, the former through an optional LoRaWAN transceiver module that can be left out in mioty-only networks. Inside the industrial-grade enclosure is a Raspberry Pi Compute Module 4 computer-on-module, either a model featuring 2GB of RAM and 16GB of eMMC storage or one with 4GB of RAM and 32GB of eMMC storage.

The exterior of the chassis includes four dipole antennas, a gigabit Ethernet port with optional Power over Ethernet (PoE) support, a 2.5-gigabit-Ethernet port, one USB 2.0 port, and two USB 3.0 ports. For applications where PoE is not used, there's the choice of barrel-jack of Phoenix terminal connector accepting a 9–28VDC input.

The WisGate Connect is now available to order on the RAKwireless site, starting at $549; at the time of writing, only 868MHz mioty networks were supported.