Semtech's LoRa Corecell Reference Design Offers Full-Duplex LoRaWAN Gateway Operation in the US ISM
Driven by a Raspberry Pi single-board computer, Semtech's latest design offers improved latency and capacity for LoRa-based networks.
Semtech has announced the launch of a reference design for full-duplex LoRaWAN gateway devices operating in the 902-928 MHz Industrial, Scientific, and Medical (ISM) band used in the US — eight months after releasing a variant for China's 470-510 MHz equivalent.
"Semtech first launched the LoRa Corecell Reference Design for full duplex gateway applications (SX1302) for the China 470-510 MHz ISM band back in August 2020. With this new addition, gateway manufacturers can also leverage Semtech’s comprehensive reference designs to produce full duplex gateways for customers in the US," explains Semtech's Marc Pegulu. "As a valuable solution in the LoRa Core portfolio, Semtech’s LoRa Corecell Reference Design for full duplex gateway applications improve LoRaWAN network communications efficiency while expanding the reach and connectivity of LoRa."
Designed to improve message response time for LoRaWAN applications requiring fast acknowledgement from the gateway, the reference design includes a claimed tenfold reduction in power draw compared to Semtech's legacy LoRa products, offers transmission power up to +27dBm and reception sensitivity down to -140.8dBm at SF2 with a 125 kHz bandwidth, eight frequency channels, 16 125 kHz-bandwidth LoRa demodulators plus a single high-speed 125/250/500 kHz multi-bandwidth LoRa demodulator, and a (G)FSK demodulator.
The reference design, built around LoRa Core SX1302 and SX1257 and installed as an add-on board to a controlling Raspberry Pi single-board computer, also enables Firmware Update Over-The-Air (FUOTA) to take place while the gateway is still processing uplink traffic, which Semtech claims reduces both the time and cost of end-device operational management compared to traditional single-duplex gateways. Targeting smart metering, smart building, smart factory, and other "smart" markets, the design is also said to allow for increased network capacity and/or the deployment of fewer gateway devices.
More details on the reference design are available on Semtech's product page, though at the time of writing the company had not yet published a datasheet nor design and production files.