This document discusses the application of LoRa wireless technology in monitoring marine and coastal environments, emphasizing its potential to enhance data collection over traditional methods. It highlights various case studies and new technological advancements, such as the use of drones and satellite services, which improve the efficiency and range of monitoring systems. The document also explores commercial applications and environmental monitoring initiatives that leverage LoRa technology for better management of marine ecosystems.

1. Marine and Coastal applications
of LoRa wireless technology

2. This presentation was given to the Everynet project group on March 30th 2020
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3. Here is what you will learn today
• Traditional approaches to monitoring coastal and marine
environments
• Why harsh marine conditions place design constraints on equipment
• How emerging technologies such as LoRa and UAVs provide new
possibilities for monitoring
• Why transmission of RF signals over surface of sea limits range
• New types of Satellite services for LoRaWAN
• Say hello to the ‘Living Coast’ programme
• Showcase of commercial maritime applications for LoRaWAN
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4. Monitoring the marine
environment
Let’s look at current approaches and consider the emerging role for LoRaWAN
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5. Hello ducky
• In 1992 a cargo container was
washed off a freighter in the Pacific
ocean
• It was travelling from Hong Kong to
the United States
• It contained 28,000 plastic ducks
which over the course of a few
years were dispersed by winds and
currents
• Studying their dispersal pattern has
revolutionised our understanding
of ocean currents in the Pacific
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6. Conventional approaches to monitoring
• There are strong economic and ecological
reasons for monitoring what goes on in our
oceans
• Weather, atmospheric conditions and acidification
• Understanding seasonal variations of factors such as
water temperature and salinity
• Measuring and tracking marine pollution
• Help to understand changes in fish stocks and
migration patterns
• Monitoring has traditionally been performed
using Satellite imagery, underwater devices
equipped with sensors and marine buoys
• New technologies such as drones ( UAVs) and
LoRa are opening up new possibilities
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7. Operating in the harsh maritime environment
• Enclosures must protect against ingress of saline water
• Hardware, sensors and any electromechanical devices must be
designed to wide variations in temperature, humidity and constant
wave motion
• Retrieving data from buoys and underwater sensors is a costly and
time-consuming exercise
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8. Buoys for coastal and ocean monitoring
Fixed buoys: anchored to known location Drift buoys: travel with wind and currents
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9. Global deployments: National Data Buoy Center
Fixed Buoys are used worldwide
to collect data for a variety of
purposes:
• Weather forecasting
• Tsunami warning
• Marine environment
monitoring
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10. Global Deployments: drift buoys
• These drift with the currents and
are scattered widely across the
world’s oceans
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11. The problem with buoys
• Current methods of collecting data from buoys includes:
• Long-range communications: this could be either close-shore or satellite
communications
• Short-range communications between groups of buoys in a defined
geographical area, with one buoy acting as a ground station
• Dispatch of a vessel and crew to collect data from the buoys ( which may
involve physical collection of the actual buoys )
• All the above methods involved considerable effort, time and cost
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12. New approaches to the problem
• Last few years has seen both academic research projects and commercial solutions which
aim to harness LoRa for maritime applications
• Some of these have used drones to ‘harvest’ data from groups of buoys
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13. Sample research projects
Origin Summary Reference
University of Zaragoza (2017) Employs a UAV as a mobile data collector, low-power long-
range communications and sensing buoys as part of a
single WSN
[1]
University of Trieste (2018) Development of a low-cost LoRa enabled drift buoy for
coastal monitoring
[2]
University of Belgrade (2018) Transmission of LoRa signals over sea-water [3]
University of Murcia (2018) Use of LoRa for tracking and monitoring of near-shore
boats
[4]
NTNU Norway (2019) Design of LoRa-enabled buoy for underwater acoustic
receiver
[5]
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14. Transmission of LoRa signals over water
• Academic research has shown that:
• LoRa links are fully feasible over seawater at distances of at least 22 km,
using only low-cost off-the-shelf rubber duck antennas in LOS path condition
in both ISM bands ( 863 MHz and 434 Mhz)
• LoRa links can be established over a 28 km obstructed LOS oversea path in
ISM 434 MHz band, but this required the use of more expensive high-gain
antennas
• Why is this significant?
• Radio engineers have long known fact that radio waves travelling over the
surface of the sea are attenuated ( due to temperature and salinity factors)
• You need to bear this in mind when designing any monitoring solution which
involves buoys
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15. Satellite services for LoRaWAN
• There are now a number of
satellite services which are
specifically designed for use
with LoRaWAN
• Examples include:
• Lacuna
• Fossa
• Inmarsat-Actily
• Wyld
• Opens up a new frontier in
satellite based IoT applications
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16. Example: Lacuna
• Lacuna have plans to launch a
constellation of 32 small satellites
in low-earth orbit (LEO)
• This constellation will be at a
height of 500km
• Each of these satellites will have an
LoRa gateway which can receive
short data messages from IoT
sensors on the ground or sea.
• The gateway on the satellite will
communicate with the ground/sea
devices whenever they are in
reach.
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17. The Living Coast
Let’s talk about Biosphere monitoring in Sussex
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18. Welcome to the biosphere
• Did you know that the area between the Adur and the Ouse rivers is a
designated UNESCO biosphere zone?
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19. We can help
• I have described the use of buoys for environmental monitoring and
explained how LoRa technology could simplify the process of
collecting data
• We would need to have LoRa base stations located at strategic points
along the coast
• It would help the Living Coast programme reach its goal of improving
knowledge and management of marine ecosystems
• Take a look at their strategy document for more details
• This is something that we can take a closer look at in Q3/Q4 of 2020
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20. Commercial applications
Let’s take a look at some LoRa-WAN use cases in the coastal and maritime arena
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21. Monitoring the health of fish farms
• Fish farms pump a lot of nutrients,
‘slurry’ and chemicals into the sea
• LoRaWan provides a way to monitor
the health of the immediate marine
environment
• May reduce negative impact of fish
farming and save the operator money
• Example: Libellium offer a LoRaWAN
based monitoring solution for fish
farms
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22. Smart Harbours
• This harbour in Estonia uses
LoRaWAN to monitor harbour
lighting, security and berthing
facilities
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23. Smart Ports
• Many ports around the world
have deployed private LoRaWAN
networks to monitor facilities
and track assets
• traceability of containers
• the water quality of the port
• location of mobile assets
• the impact of waste
• Port of Barcelona is an example
of such an initiative
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24. Monitoring coastal flooding
• Many coastal communities are
are risk of flooding during
periods of high tides and heavy
rains
• Semtech have documented a use
cases which uses LoRaWAN
gateways in combination with
off the shelf ultrasonic sensors
• This can provide near real-time
information about the extent of
flooding
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25. References
[1] https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/17/3/460
[2] http://wireless.ictp.it/Papers/Drifter.pdf
[3] https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/18/9/2853/htm
[4] https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329899474_Tracking_and_Monitoring_System_Based_on_LoRa_Technology_for_Lightweight_Boats
[5] http://folk.ntnu.no/alfredse/Forslag%20til%20prosjektoppgaver%20hoesten%202019.htm
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26. That’s all folks
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