TTN Lazio launched: the open and free data network for the Internet of Things

Internet of Things, abbreviated IoT, is a term that identifies applications and systems made up of a network of more or less intelligent devices, distributed at geographic scale and interconnected to a central system through the Internet.

IoT systems are applied in various sectors, including: home automation, environmental monitoring, smart cities, agricultural and industrial automation, management of renewable-energy plants, and many more.

People have been talking about IoT for several years, but only recently have significant projects exploiting this kind of architecture been deployed in Italy.

Our Digital Innovation Hub of Rome is finalising several projects in the fields of industrial automation and photovoltaic-plant monitoring.

A strategic factor for the success of an IoT project is the choice of the solution that allows the “objects” — that is, the devices distributed across the territory — to communicate with the central software system, where the processing aggregating the collected data takes place.

The most naive, immediate solutions are connecting the devices to the Internet via Wi-Fi or via 3G/4G/5G mobile networks.

These solutions, however, are undesirable for several reasons:

• They require too much energy
• They are only viable in areas covered by ADSL or mobile connectivity
• They are expensive.

The data volume usually transmitted by an IoT sensor is very low, in the order of tens of bytes per day. The mobile and fixed networks used for Internet connectivity in homes and offices have bandwidths sized for gigabytes — that is billions of bytes — of data.

Energy consumption and cost are commensurate with these bandwidths.

An application in smart cities or environmental monitoring may require the distribution of thousands of devices across the territory. In these cases, using Wi-Fi or cellular Internet connectivity would be unsustainable and unjustified.

For this reason, for about a decade now, several communication standards called LPWAN — Low Power Wide Area Network — have been proposed and developed.

These are wireless protocols that allow objects to be linked by radio to concentrators, or gateways, which in turn are connected to the Internet through one of the standard options: Wi-Fi, wired network or cellular.

The range is several kilometres, which makes it possible to limit the number of gateways since each can cover a wide geographic area.

Among the dozens of LPWAN standards proposed, a small set of solutions has actually been adopted by the market.

The very latest developments have seen the LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) protocol emerge as the leader.

The reason this protocol has become, in 2022, the “de facto standard” for IoT data connectivity lies in the open innovation features it offers:

• It uses the free and open sub-gigahertz radio band (in Europe centred around 860 MHz)
• Operating on the chosen radio band is free and does not require licences, concessions or authorisations, so anyone can install gateways and build their own network
• It has a coverage range of 15 km in rural areas and 5 km in urban areas. To cover a city as large as Rome, fewer than 10 well-placed gateways are enough!
• It has a negligible energy footprint. A well-designed LoRaWAN device can be permanently powered by a small solar panel or even by a regular button cell, with a multi-year life.
• The technical features have favoured the development of community and open-source projects that have generated widespread know-how.

The LoRaWAN protocol is maintained and governed by the LoRaWAN Alliance.

In 2015, the Dutch company The Things Industries — based in Amsterdam and a founding member of the LoRaWAN Alliance — launched an ambitious open-source project to provide LoRaWAN connectivity worldwide.

To pursue this goal, an open-source software system was developed implementing all the services needed to deliver an IoT application with LoRaWAN connectivity.

The software system, called The Things Stack, can be downloaded and installed on one’s own Internet-connected server, but is also available in cloud mode at: http://thethingsnetwork.org.

Companies, universities, research bodies, schools and individuals can register a free account on The Things Network (TTN) and find an off-the-shelf solution to create their own network for their application.

It is enough to obtain — or build — a LoRaWAN gateway and proceed with the platform registration to start developing an IoT system.

By connecting their gateways to the TTN platform, users implicitly accept that those gateways may also be used by other users’ applications.

This open-source and infrastructure-sharing logic has driven the rapid diffusion of the TTN platform worldwide.

To support this diffusion, The Things Industries has fostered the rise of local user communities that — through MeetUps and communications on social channels such as Facebook or Slack — can support each other in carrying out their projects.

The Things Industries has then started to offer paid plans for professional users needing dedicated networks and technical support.

A user can switch to a paid plan at any time, making their gateways dedicated.

Gateways connected under the free plan, called the Community Edition, also route the traffic of paying users.

In every country there are other commercial operators offering LoRaWAN connectivity solutions, but the TTN network is by far the most extensive at present.

TTN is an excellent entry point to LoRaWAN IoT solutions, allowing companies to start their projects with minimal investment. Later, in case of success and growth, it is possible to switch to a commercial plan with The Things Industries or with another operator.

To date, TTN is present in 151 countries, connects 201,000 gateways and has 166,400 registered users.

IoT architectures are of strong interest to companies and public administrations in Lazio.

The free and open TTN network is partially present across the regional territory thanks to the first research and industrial projects currently active.

Since the release of the first systems based on LoRaWAN connectivity is planned for 2022 for some companies in the FabLab Roma network, we have decided to invest in the infrastructure and extend coverage to the whole territory of our user base, which spans most of Lazio.

To give the initiative wide visibility and obtain support from the global TTN community, we decided to found a local community: The Things Network Lazio.

To create your own open LoRaWAN network on the TTN platform you do not need to be a community member, but the presence of a community helps engage more actors in the project.

Local communities are coordinated by The Things Industries and, to be accepted and listed as “official”, must meet some quality standards and run adequate communication activity.

Our community has been accepted and is already listed as an Official Community on the TTN community map: https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/community

Anyone can register a TTN profile and join our community: https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/community/lazio/

Joining the community does not involve any particular obligations or charges; each community is made up of active members with a role (core team) and members whose presence simply marks moral support for the project and for the values of the free and open network.

JOIN OUR COMMUNITY