In 2018, the U.S. made up 35 percent of the global smart home market, which is expected to grow five-fold to a $192 billion global market by 2023. The same data from IHS Markit shows that over a third (38 percent) of U.S. households already have at least one smart device. Consumers in the market for smart home devices are faced with an overwhelmingly wide variety of device options and technology platforms. Among those offering the longest range and lowest power consumption are YoLink LoRa®-based devices offered by YoSmart. Smart home sensors leveraging Semtech’s LoRa devices are only a few clicks away, available now on Amazon in the U.S.

Leveraging smarter technology allows us to address the world’s toughest problems. Semtech’s founding principal of delivering advanced solutions that have a social and environmental impact is being fully realized in our challenge to combat the global COVID-19 pandemic today.

A year ago, the number of worker-focused proximity alert solutions could be counted on one hand. The need was not particularly great and the use case was very specific. The construction industry is one such area where the safety benefits are compelling. For over a decade, construction companies have been using forms of proximity detection as a means to interrupt at-risk behavior, with one such example being worker-worn systems to detect infrequent unsafe interactions between workers and equipment.

Following its origin 20 years ago, the Device Language Message Specification (DLMS) has become a universal standard for utilities. With a hundred million smart meters using DLMS installed worldwide, it is currently one of the most used smart metering standards today. On June 26, 2020, Semtech was approved by vote to join the board of the DLMS User Association during its recent general assembly.

In a webinar hosted by the LoRa Alliance® and moderated by Semtech, the President of the DLMS (Device Language Message Specification) User Association, announced the future release of the first DLMS profile over the LoRaWAN® protocol. The DLMS User Association and the LoRa Alliance have been collaborating for more than two years to define a reliable and secure way to support the DLMS protocol over a LoRaWAN network. Having proven the feasibility via several demonstrations in 2018, continuing into subsequent years at European Utility Week 2019 and the Indian Smart Utility Week in 2020, this new profile is a key achievement of the liaison that will provide reliability and interoperability in future implementations of DLMS over LoRaWAN.

The LoRa Alliance® exists to develop and promote the open LoRaWAN® protocol and its ecosystem to deliver massive Internet of Things (IoT) worldwide. To reach this goal, it is crucial that member companies are successful in LoRaWAN-related pursuits and obtain real value from membership. This is especially true for adopter members who benefit from the large presence the LoRa Alliance has in the world of IoT. Derek Wallace, VP of Marketing for the LoRa Alliance, goes even further on the importance of providing value to Alliance members:

As new Internet of Things (IoT) solutions become available across industries and applications, technology decision makers are on the front lines leading the digital transformation. IoT solutions have become necessary to improve operational efficiency, increase data security and scale as each and every business works to remain competitive. IT decision makers and systems integrators are tasked with not only recommending the best IoT solutions, but also driving the transition to reliable and cost-effective technology.

We’re well into 2020, and the promise of 5G networking is continuing to lead conversations across the wireless industry. However, as 5G deployments increase, we also see a rise in alternative low power technologies to offer flexible, cost effective power and low bandwidth options for these so-called massive Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. In particular, market demand for solutions based on Semtech’s LoRa® devices and the LoRaWAN® protocol is continuing to increase, including those helping to combat the global COVID-19 outbreak. It has become clear that as 4G and 5G will target low latency and high throughput applications in the near future, LoRa and LoRaWAN-based applications will make up a larger portion of the massive IoT space, led by mobile operators, unlicensed spectrum operators and enterprises across private rollouts. The market is heading toward a Multi-Radio Access Network (Multi-RAN) strategy leveraging complementary standards, including 4G, 5G, LoRaWAN, and others such as Wi-Fi 6. 

Cities are getting smarter, making a significant difference in how we all live and work.

Enterprises are increasingly looking for ways to digitize processes and businesses. This trend started with the adoption of the Internet more than 20 years ago. First, eCommerce drove this trend, and later, Application Service Provisioning (ASP). Salesforce.com was one of the first companies to realize that large enterprises need customer relationship management (CRM) solutions for its mobile workforce that allow entering data remotely into one hosted instance instead of typical on-premise enterprise applications. With the emergence of larger Internet bandwidth, many new software solutions were provided from the Cloud, such as SAP and Microsoft Office applications. This digitization trend then extended to industrial environments with the strongly promoted vision of Industry 4.0. Enterprises realized that there is much to gain when combining the typical silos of IT and legacy OT (Operational Technology) with enormous potential to create more efficiency and quality in manufacturing processes.