THIRUVANANTHAPURAM:
In a major boost to start-ups and the SME sector, the International Centre for Free and Open Source Software (ICFOSS), an autonomous institution under the Kerala government, commissioned the first public LoRaWAN in the state, which provides long range communications using very low power levels for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications.
M Sivasankar, Secretary, Electronics and IT Department, made the public launch by receiving information on moisture content in soil from a sensor connected to the Internet through LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network).
“This network will encourage SME and start-ups establish commercially viable Proof of Concepts and scale it up to the next level,” he said.
The event also witnessed the launch of the Thiruvananthapuram chapter of The Things network community and release of the OpenIoT.in (https://openiot.in) website aimed at making available a knowledge database for creating IoT projects using Open Source Hardware and Software.
The launch had a short seminar on “What, Why and How to use LoRaWAN” by the Open IoT wing of ICFOSS, which was followed by demonstration of LoRa-based IoT projects by two companies, smart parking solution by Elvicto Technologies Pvt Ltd and smart water metering solution by Livares Technologies Pvt Ltd.
During the event, Open IoT lab of ICFOSS demonstrated LoRa-enabled sensor nodes, including soil moisture, particle matter, oxygen (gas), and rain placed at various locations in Technopark. The sensors were spread across Technopark demonstrating the range and low power capabilities of the technology.
“The technology demands no licensing of radio spectrum for the operation of the network which brings down the cost for deployment and improves scalability of the system by major folds,” Dr. Jayasankar Prasad. Director ICFOSS, said.
“ICFOSS will be working closely with communities like The Things network for evolving a free and open IoT ecosystem for developers and entrepreneurs in Kerala,” he added.
