IoT gets major distance boost from IBM and Semtech

AMSTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS: IBM and Semtech Corp., a leading supplier of analog and mixed-signal semiconductors, announced a significant advancement in wireless technology, combining IBM software and Semtech hardware to create a system capable of transmitting data up to a distance of 15 km (9 miles), depending on the environment, with significantly improved ease-of-use.

The joint solution, comprised of IBM's Mote Runner software and Semtech's SX127x with LoRa, will be demonstrated at European Utility Week in Amsterdam October 15-17 in the Semtech/Future Electronics booth, Hall 5 Booth F47.

Over the next 15 years, the number of machines and sensors connected to the Internet will explode creating what is called the Internet of Things. According to IMS Research, there will be more than 22 billion web-connected devices by 2020. These new devices will generate more than 2.5 quintillion bytes of new data every day, while every hour enough information is transported on the Internet to fill seven million DVDs.

To make wireless sensor networks (WSN) easier to program and use, IBM has developed a software development kit - called Mote Runner - which provides an open and programmer-friendly platform to connect sensor and actuator motes.

This platform is now available on the Semtech SX1272 RFIC to create a system capable of covering a range of 15 km (nine miles) in a semi-rural environment and up to five km (three miles) in dense urban environments. For comparison, the maximum distance today of a smart-meter transceiver in Europe, utilizing FSK modulation, is between one and two kilometers (1.2 miles).