New LoRa modem module designed for North American LPWAN applications

Microchip has announced an addition to its LoRa technology product line - the new RN2903 wireless modem works with North American Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWAN) and is FCC certified for use in the 915MHz band. The RN2903 modem is designed to be an efficient way to add long-range LoRaWAN network capability to any embedded design by integrating a proven LoRaWANT protocol stack running on a low-power PIC microcontroller, along with the LoRa radio and embedded antenna matching circuit. Driven by the LoRa Alliance, LoRa technology is able to achieve a range of up to 10 miles and 10-year battery life. The technology targets low data rates and low duty-cycle applications such as energy metering, location tracking, utility infrastructure monitoring and control, smart city and agriculture. Although predominantly used for the uplink of sensor data, bidirectional communications allow real-time acknowledgement of mission-critical data and downlink control of remote actuator nodes. The RN2903 is designed to be easy to adopt, which minimises research and development investment and speeds time-to-market. The simple ASCII-over-UART interface can be controlled by any embedded system, even down to a tiny, eight-pin PIC12 MCU, and the embedded antenna matching circuits and FCC modular certification require minimal radio expertise, says the company.