03.10.2024.
As part of the two-day event organized by Kerlink and AdriNet, a conference dedicated to LoRaWAN communication technology was held in Zagreb on October 3, 2024, primarily aimed at AdriNet's partners and collaborators.
Unlike the first day of the event, which was more focused on end-users and the application of LoRaWAN technology in business, the second day of the conference was more technical and focused on the practical aspects of implementing LoRaWAN systems. The conference, "The Power of LoRaWAN," brought together local experts in IoT technologies – representatives of service providers based on the application of IoT technologies, network operators, and IoT system integrators from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Slovenia, and Serbia.
As with the first day of the event, the emphasis was on the use of LoRaWAN communication technology for the needs of smart cities, public utility companies, industry, and more efficient energy and business process management. By providing wireless connectivity for various sensors with long-range and high interference resistance, LoRaWAN technology enables quick and efficient digitalization of business processes.
Conference participants had the opportunity to hear numerous experiences from France and other European countries and learn more about successful digitalization projects in water utilities, remote energy reading, and the implementation of IoT solutions for various market segments. Numerous international speakers, renowned global experts in LoRaWAN technologies, presented examples of projects utilizing LoRaWAN solutions and successful projects implemented worldwide.
Yann Baudin and Rafael Denis from Kerlink presented a portfolio of professional LoRaWAN infrastructure solutions, reviewing various applications of LoRaWAN technology and examples of successful projects by Kerlink partners worldwide.
The conference also received official support from the renowned international organization LoRa Alliance, responsible for standardizing and promoting LoRaWAN technology as an open standard. The keynote address on LoRaWAN technology and its advantages was personally delivered by LoRa Alliance Ambassador, Rémi Demerlé, from the Smart Water and Energy division and marketing director at Semtech. The technical features of LoRaWAN, in the context of comparative advantages over other communication technologies, were highlighted during the presentation.
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As an example of a successfully implemented project in the Adriatic region, the first to be presented was a technically demanding LoRaWAN project, which showcased a successful collaboration between a system integrator from Serbia and Micro-Link, a Croatian company working on the development of specific LoRaWAN end devices. The project “Integration of Remote Thermal Energy Reading Systems” for the needs of Beogradske Elektrane used LoRaWAN communication for remote thermal energy consumption measurement. The implemented solution enables precise real-time monitoring of thermal energy consumption, and during the project, the robustness and excellent penetration of LoRaWAN radio signals within buildings and city centers were confirmed. Due to the technical specifics of this project, it was necessary to develop a completely new LoRaWAN device that did not exist on the market at the time, which Micro-Link’s development team successfully created in a very short period.
To introduce the thematic block dedicated to solutions for water utilities and public companies, Rémi Demerlé from LoRa Alliance gave an overview of the most significant Smart Water and Smart Metering project implementations worldwide. Stéphane Comignan and Pierre-Emmanuel Dubois from Veolia, one of the leading global water service providers, shared their experience in applying LoRaWAN technology for the complete digitalization of water infrastructure management in France. They presented the technical specifics of one of the largest LoRaWAN projects in the world, involving the automated remote reading system of 4 million water meters using LoRaWAN technology, along with additional solutions aimed at reducing water losses and monitoring water quality and environmental parameters. Representatives of Birdz, a company within the Veolia organization responsible for implementing smart IoT solutions, presented the technical details and best practices related to providing an adequate service level (SLA) for such large systems, highlighting the advantages and efficiency of LoRaWAN technology in reducing operational costs and improving services.
Participants of this two-day LoRaWAN event had the unique opportunity to attend a world premiere of a LoRaWAN product. Kerlink announced the launch of a new LoRaWAN concentrator with integrated solar power, offering new possibilities for easier LoRaWAN connectivity in locations without existing infrastructure.
Kerlink and AdriNet's partner companies Watteco, Actility, and Sensoneo, global leaders in the development and application of LoRaWAN systems, also presented their IoT solutions at the conference.
In the part of the conference dedicated to Smart Waste IoT solutions, Matej Turčan from Sensoneo presented successful project examples in major world cities where LoRaWAN technology was implemented for smart waste management. The technical components of these innovative waste collection optimization solutions were briefly introduced, including LoRaWAN ultrasonic sensors for monitoring bin fill levels.
The significant national project of Croatian Waters, "Installation of Measurement Devices at Water Intakes," which involved the use of LoRaWAN communication for digitalization and remote water reading, was also presented. The LoRaWAN technology allowed for the secure and reliable delivery of data for precise monitoring of water intake volumes at water intakes across Croatia. The technical aspects and implementation experience of LoRaWAN solutions in telemetry were presented by Darko Žvan, Board Member for Technical Affairs at Micro-Link, the system integrator for this project. The project involved the development of specially adapted devices, the integration of the entire data reading system based on LoRaWAN communication technology, and the data delivery to the central Croatian Waters platform. It was interesting to note that this project from Croatia also represents a unique application of LoRaWAN technology in the world.
On behalf of the French company Actility, business development expert Roman Savvin shared their experience in implementing an IoT platform for LPWAN connectivity for public and private operators and introduced conference guests to interesting global projects for cities, utility companies, and industries. The key role of high-quality and reliable infrastructure for projects involving various applications and a large number of sensors, and the necessity of scalable solutions, was emphasized.
Solutions for Industry 4.0, energy, and smart buildings, through examples of LoRaWAN sensors used for digitalizing industrial processes, increasing energy efficiency of buildings, and predictive machine maintenance, were presented by Pierre Savary from the French company Watteco. A particularly interesting reference was the AI IoT device project for Veolia, where significant savings in wastewater pump maintenance were achieved.
In the final part of the conference, the experience of system integrators from Bosnia and Herzegovina in applying LoRaWAN for public parking management was presented. Zoran Bojanić from Lanaco described the process of designing a LoRaWAN Smart Parking solution and shared their experience in selecting and testing various parking sensors, ultimately choosing NWave sensors as the most reliable and best-performing.
Kerlink also presented its portfolio of professional services to network operators for providing connectivity services, support, and maintenance, including guidelines for reducing network management costs.
With Kerlink’s thanks to all partners, collaborators, and IoT system integrators who joined us on the second day of this two-day event, the growing interest and need for LoRaWAN solutions in the Adriatic region were recognized, and we look forward to organizing more similar expert conferences on the theme of "The Power of LoRaWAN" in the future.