Does this provide a bare IP connection or is it just for MQTT channels back to your servers? I can't tell if that's "the" method of communication or just a helpful thing that you're offering.
Basically, is this something that I would be able to use directly with my company's CoAP APIs?
The protocol speaks LoRaWAN, which isn't IP. The data will get sent via a distributed network, over IP (using MQTT), to a server of your choice. This application server (run by you or someone else) can then store the data, have a REST API endpoint, MQTT channel, or whatever service that runs there.
it would be so cool to just fiddle with IoT sensors without worrying about a nearby wifi hotspot with access. Just using the Things network as a free and open road is a beautiful idea.
Two questions:
1) are there technical restrictions for using this mesh network with remote aerial sensors, i.e. does it hurt badly when nodes move?
2) how well would it perform indoors in manufacturing plants? I'm thinking of low-cost adhoc industrial IoT prototyping.
I spoke with one associated with the lora alliance today and 1) yes, up to about 300 km/h, and 2) they perform well up to 20m underground in cities if gateways are placed every 500-1000m.
Awesome effort! We're following Amsterdam's example in Zurich and building a TTN network over here. The initial tests went great and we're now preparing to deploy more gateways real soon!
SIGFOX has certain limits (outside of theoretical and practical bandwidth restrictions) placed on it. radio-electronics.com (http://www.radio-electronics.com/info/wireless/sigfox/basics...) states up to 140 messages of 12 bytes per object per day, with a throughput of up to 100 bytes per second.
The Things network, on the other hand, seems to supply its services openly and freely without limits, using the LoRaWan spec. Semtech (http://www.semtech.com/wireless-rf/lora/LoRa-FAQs.pdf) says it provides between 0.3 and 11kbps of bandwidth, so in theory your speeds can be anywhere from 3x to 111x higher.
I'm not an expert but a big difference is packet size: Sigfox is limited to 12 bytes, while LoRaWAN is up to 256 (iirc). Sigfox also imposes a max of 140 messages per day. Also, the governing body of LoRa is open (lora alliance), while Sigfox is closed. In general, the LoRaWAN approach is more open, with most if not all of the infrastructure being open sourced.
Basically, is this something that I would be able to use directly with my company's CoAP APIs?