The technology behind PingNet
Why LoRaWAN?
The radio network behind every PingNet tracker, sensor and switch — and why it's the right fit for devices that need to run for years, not days.
What is LoRaWAN?
LoRaWAN (Long Range Wide Area Network) is a radio network built specifically for small, infrequent messages from battery-powered devices — the exact job a tracker, soil probe, or door sensor actually needs done. A device wakes for a fraction of a second, sends its reading, and goes back to sleep. That simple pattern, repeated over years instead of days, is what makes the whole approach work.
What problem does it solve?
Every other common option makes you trade away something a sensor actually needs.
Wi-Fi
Drains a battery in days
Built for constant, high-bandwidth connections — overkill for a sensor sending a few bytes every hour, and it shows in the battery life.
Bluetooth
Runs out of range fast
Great for a phone a few metres away, not for a soil probe at the far end of a paddock or a tracker that's left the yard.
Cellular (4G/5G, NB-IoT)
A SIM card and a monthly bill per device
Reliable, but the ongoing cost adds up fast once you're running more than a handful of sensors — and the modem still draws real power.
LoRaWAN
Years of battery, no per-device SIM fees
Built specifically for small, infrequent messages from battery-powered devices — which is almost every sensor and tracker on a real site.
How it works
- 1
The device wakes briefly
A sensor or tracker spends nearly all its life asleep, waking only to send a small reading — a temperature, a position, an open/closed state. That's the whole reason the battery lasts years instead of days.
- 2
Any nearby gateway hears it
There's no pairing and no fixed connection to one gateway. Whichever gateway happens to hear the transmission — sometimes more than one — forwards it on, exactly as received.
- 3
The network sorts it out
Duplicate copies get merged, the sender is verified, and — if the device is in a weak-signal spot — it's nudged to use a more robust (if slightly slower) setting next time, automatically.
- 4
It shows up in your dashboard
The reading lands as plain data a moment later — which, on PingNet, is the map pin moving, or a device's history chart gaining a new point.
Why it's different
Built for batteries first
The radio spends the overwhelming majority of its life switched off. That's the single biggest reason a LoRaWAN sensor can run for years on one battery where a Wi-Fi equivalent needs recharging weekly.
Genuinely long range
One gateway on a rooftop or a high point can hear devices kilometres away — several kilometres across a built-up area, considerably further across open, rural ground.
No licence, no ongoing carrier fees
LoRaWAN runs on unlicensed radio spectrum set aside for exactly this kind of use. There's no monthly SIM cost per device, and no carrier to negotiate with as you add more.
One gateway, a lot of devices
A single gateway can comfortably hear from hundreds of sensors and trackers at once, so covering a whole site rarely means installing more than one or two.
Encrypted by design
Every message is encrypted end to end using device-specific keys established when it first joins the network — not something bolted on afterwards.
LoRa vs. LoRaWAN
The two names get used interchangeably, but they're different layers. LoRa is just the radio modulation — the physical signal a device transmits, with no idea of addressing, security, or what to do about a lost message. LoRaWAN is everything built on top of that: device identity, encryption, retry behaviour, and the network logic that turns a raw radio chirp into a reliable reading in an app. PingNet devices speak LoRaWAN, not bare LoRa — the reliability and security layer is exactly what makes the readings something you can actually trust.
What kinds of sensors run on LoRaWAN?
If it needs to run for years on a battery and report a small amount of data, there's very likely a LoRaWAN version of it already. A representative — not exhaustive — list of what's out there:
Tracking & location
- GPS/GNSS trackers — people, vehicles, equipment
- Geofencing tags — wandering-risk and dementia care
- Livestock ear tags — location plus activity/health
- Asset tags — pallets, tools, yard and depot equipment
Environment & climate
- Temperature and humidity sensors
- Air quality monitors — CO2, PM2.5, PM10, VOCs
- Soil moisture, temperature and EC probes
- Weather stations — rainfall, wind, sunshine hours
- Leaf wetness and frost sensors
Water & liquids
- Water leak / flood sensors
- Ultrasonic tank level sensors
- Water flow meters
- Water quality sensors — pH, turbidity, conductivity
- Irrigation valve controllers
Building & security
- Door and window contact sensors
- Passive presence/occupancy sensors
- Smoke and vape detectors
- Glass-break and vibration sensors
- Smart locks and access control
Energy & power
- Smart electricity meters and sub-meters
- Solar panel and battery monitors
- Electric fence energiser monitors
- Relay and switch controllers — pumps, lights, motors
- Generator run-time and fuel-level sensors
Cold chain & storage
- Chiller and freezer temperature probes
- Grain and feed silo humidity/CO2 sensors
- Warehouse pallet and inventory tracking
- Vibration and shock sensors for transit goods
Industrial & machinery
- Vibration and predictive-maintenance sensors
- Pressure sensors — tanks, pipelines, compressors
- Run-time and cycle counters
- Structural movement/tilt sensors
Frequently asked questions
Does it work indoors as well as outdoors?
Both. The frequencies LoRaWAN uses pass through walls and floors noticeably better than Wi-Fi, so indoor coverage is usually building-scale from a single gateway. Outdoors, with a clear line of sight, range extends much further — easily enough to cover a large farm or industrial site.
How many devices can one gateway handle?
Comfortably in the hundreds. A typical site — even one with dozens of trackers, soil sensors and controllers — is very unlikely to outgrow a single gateway.
Is it secure?
Yes. Messages are encrypted with device-specific keys from the moment a device joins the network, at both the network and application level — there's no unencrypted step in between.
How long does the battery actually last?
It depends on how often a device reports, but years rather than months is normal for typical reporting intervals — a big part of why LoRaWAN suits fit-and-forget sensors so well.
Do I need a licence to run it?
No. LoRaWAN operates on unlicensed radio spectrum set aside for short-range, low-power devices. The main rules to follow are around transmit power and how much of the airtime any one device can use — details PingNet's hardware already handles.
Does the weather affect it?
Barely. Rain and fog have very little effect on these frequencies. Thick metal structures and deep basements are a bigger factor than weather ever is.
How is this different from just using a SIM card in every device?
Cellular options are faster and simpler to set up one-to-one, but that speed costs battery life and a recurring fee per device. LoRaWAN trades the speed you don't need for battery life measured in years and no ongoing per-device bill — the right trade for a sensor that only ever needs to say a few words at a time.