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Comparison of LoRa, LoRa MESH and LoRaWAN

With the continuous development of Internet of Things technology, wireless communication technology has been widely used in various fields. LoRa (Long Range) is a low-power, long-distance wireless communication technology, while LoRa MESH is an ad hoc network communication protocol based on LoRa technology. Simply put, LoRa MESH is a MESH networking solution based on LoRa transmission.


Maybe many friends can’t tell the difference between LoRa, LoRa MESH and LoRaWAN.

What is LoRa technology?

Before introducing LoRa MESH, you need to first understand what LoRa technology is.
LoRa (Low Power Wide Area Network) technology is an IoT communication technology developed by Semtech. Its main features are low power consumption, long distance and strong anti-interference ability.

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long distance

LoRa has a low transmission rate but high sensitivity. Its transmission distance is much longer than other wireless communication technologies. It can transmit several kilometers in outdoor environments and even cover long distances in urban environments. Therefore, it is suitable for applications with long distance, low speed and small data volume.

Low power consumption

LoRa technology uses a low-power transmission method, allowing the device to work for a long time under battery power. This feature is ideal for devices that require long-term operation and are difficult to replace batteries, such as sensor nodes, smart city equipment, etc.

Strong anti-interference ability

LoRa uses spread spectrum technology, which gives it excellent anti-interference capabilities. When encountering external electromagnetic signal interference during communication, LoRa can continue to communicate stably, while traditional wireless technology cannot communicate.

massive connections
Supporting large-scale device connection, each base station can handle thousands of devices at the same time, suitable for building wide area Internet of Things (LPWAN) networks.
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What is LoRa MESH?
LoRa MESH is an ad hoc network communication protocol based on LoRa technology. Using LoRa wireless communication technology, multiple devices form a self-organized network to form a mesh topology to realize interconnection between devices. It has both the advantages of LoRa technology and the characteristics of Mesh ad hoc networks.

Mesh ad hoc network: Mesh network is "wireless mesh network". The nodes in the Mesh network topology are interconnected, have high utilization rate, and have strong network self-healing properties.


Ad hoc network characteristics

LoRa MESH network has the characteristics of self-organizing network and can automatically establish and maintain the network. When a device joins or leaves the network, the network automatically adjusts the topology to ensure the stability of data transmission. This self-organizing network feature makes the LoRa MESH network highly flexible and scalable.

Routing node: Routing node receives data in the network for routing updates and data forwarding.
Terminal node: Terminal nodes do not have routing functions and are generally deployed at the edge of the network.

multi-hop transmission

The LoRa MESH network uses multi-hop transmission, and data can be forwarded through multiple nodes and finally reaches the target node. This multi-hop transmission method can effectively extend the communication distance, improve signal penetration capabilities, and reduce the communication pressure of a single node.

Low power consumption

The low-power design allows the device to maintain a long working time while transmitting data. This is especially important for devices that need to run for a long time, such as smart homes, environmental monitoring and other fields.


high capacity

Multi-hop communication improves the capacity and reliability of the network. Even if a node fails, data can still be transmitted through other paths. Therefore, LoRa MESH has a high capacity and can support the access of a large number of devices. This makes the LoRa MESH network very suitable for large-scale IoT scenarios, such as smart cities, smart agriculture, etc.

low cost
LoRa MESH uses low-cost equipment and solutions to lower the cost threshold for IoT applications. More enterprises and developers can participate in innovation and applications in the field of Internet of Things.

Wide range of applications

The LoRa MESH network can be widely used in smart home and industrial sensors, wireless alarm security systems, building automation solutions, smart agriculture and other application scenarios because of its characteristics of automatically forming a network and supporting the access of large quantities of devices.

LoRa MESH technology communication method

Ebyte's LoRa MESH network supports four communication methods, Unicast, Multicast, Broadcast and Anycast. Users can choose different communication methods according to different application scenarios.

Among them, unicast and broadcast are the simplest and most basic communication methods. Under unicast, routing will be automatically established and request responses will be returned to determine the data transmission path. In broadcast mode, all routing nodes will start a data relay after receiving data.

The multicast mechanism is relatively complex and can achieve one-to-many communication. Users need to configure the multicast group address first, similar to a public address. Anycast is usually used for data exchange between different networks. Data will not be forwarded under anycast. Under anycast, two communication methods, unicast and broadcast, can be implemented depending on the target address. Users can transmit any data to any module within the communication range.


What is LoRaWAN?

LoRaWAN is also an IoT communication protocol based on LoRa technology. Its main features are low power consumption, long distance and wide area coverage. Its main purpose is to achieve interconnection and interoperability between IoT devices.
How LoRaWAN works

In LoRaWAN, IoT devices transmit data to the gateway through the LoRa module, and the gateway transmits the data to the cloud server through Ethernet for storage and processing. IoT devices in LoRaWAN can communicate using different frequency bands to meet the needs of different application scenarios. At the same time, LoRaWAN also supports a variety of different data transmission methods, including unicast,  multicast and broadcast.

Comparison of LoRa, LoRa MESH and LoRaWAN

Feature	LoRa	LoRa MESH	LoRaWAN
Definition	A physical layer protocol that uses Chirp Spread Spectrum technology for long-range communication.	A networking protocol that enables LoRa devices to communicate in a mesh network.	A media access control (MAC) layer protocol built on top of the LoRa physical layer, defining the communication protocol and system architecture for the network.
Range	Long range (2-5 km in urban areas, 15  km in rural areas).	Range can be extended beyond LoRa's base range through mesh networking, as messages can hop between nodes.	Similar to LoRa, but effective range can be influenced by network architecture and gateway placement.
Data Rate	Varies from 0.3 kbps to 27 kbps.	Depends on the implementation, but typically similar to LoRa since it uses the same physical layer.	Varies from 0.3 kbps to 50 kbps, depending on the spreading factor and bandwidth.
Power Consumption	Low, designed for battery-powered devices.	Potentially higher than LoRa due to the added overhead and activity of relaying messages for other nodes.	Low, optimized for long battery life through adaptive data rate and network-controlled communication.
Network Topology	Point-to-point or point-to-multipoint. [https://www.cdebyte.com/Module-LoRa LoRa Modules/LoRa Network Solutions] 	Mesh network, allowing for node-to-node communication.	Star-of-stars topology, where end devices communicate with gateways that connect to a central network server.
Use Case	Simple applications requiring direct communication between devices.	Applications requiring coverage in challenging environments, or where network infrastructure is limited.	Suitable for wide-area IoT applications requiring centralized control, scalability, and security, such as smart cities and industrial IoT.
Security	Basic, depends on implementation.	Security is managed within the mesh network, with potential vulnerabilities as messages hop between nodes.	Advanced, with end-to-end encryption using unique network and application keys for each device.
Scalability	Limited by point-to-point connections.	Scalable within the limits of the mesh network's size and complexity.	Highly scalable, supporting millions of devices over a wide area with multiple gateways.
Ebyte LoRa MESH products

Ebyte's LoRa MESH networking technology is independently developed based on LoRa spread spectrum technology. The network adopts a decentralized structure. The entire network is composed of routing nodes and terminal nodes. There is no need for a central node or coordinator to participate in network management. The network is simple to build and easy to use. Convenient. At the same time, the LoRa MESH network has unlimited routing depth during broadcast communication and can form a huge MESH network. The theoretical number of networking can reach 65535 nodes, which is suitable for large-scale IoT product applications.
E52-900NW22S  and E52-400NW22S

E52-400NW22S LoRa MESH wireless module ad hoc network industrial grade self-routing network self-healing                           

[Interface type]：UART serial port

[Working frequency]:410.125~509.125MHz

[Communication distance]:2.5km

[Size]:20*14mm

[Introduction]：E52-400NW22S is a wireless serial port LoRa MESH networking module based on LoRa spread spectrum technology. It adopts the new LoRa MESH networking technology and has the functions of decentralization, self-routing, network self-healing, and multi-level routing.


E52-900NW22S LoRa spread spectrum technology wireless serial port LoRa MESH networking module [Interface type]：UART serial port

[Working frequency]：850.125～929.125MHz

[Communication distance]：2.5km

[Size:]：20*14mm

[Introduction]：E52-900NW22S is a wireless serial port LoRa MESH networking module based on LoRa spread spectrum technology.  It adopts the new LoRa MESH networking technology and has the functions of decentralization, self-routing, network self-healing, and multi-level routing.


e52 lora mesh.jpg



✅ LoRa MESH: Using advanced LoRa modulation method, it greatly improves the coverage of the entire MESH network.

✅ Ultra-large network capacity: The theoretical number of network connections is as high as 65535.

✅ Decentralization: The entire network consists of only two types of nodes: terminal nodes and routing nodes, and there is no need for a central node or coordinator to participate in network management.

✅ Automatic routing: When a data request is initiated, each routing node can automatically initiate connections with surrounding nodes to determine the data transmission path, without the need for a coordinator to participate in path planning.

✅ Network self-healing: When a link fails, the routing node re-establishes a new path after several communication attempts fail.

✅ Other functions: multi-level routing, path optimization, avoidance mechanism, multiple verification, encrypted transmission and remote configuration, etc.