Launching MESH Networks on Pycom

[philwilkinson]

@administrators 404 on all your links in this announcement unfortunately.
Can a LoPy acting as the Border Router flick between LoRaMesh and LoraWAN for transmission to a gateway?

[berlin]

@philwilkinson that's exactly also my question. thx

[catalin]

hi @berlin and @philwilkinson,

Scripts: https://github.com/pycom/pycom-libraries/tree/master/lib/lora_mesh
Release: https://forum.pycom.io/topic/3480/new-firmware-development-release-v1-19-0-b4/13
Docs Tutorial: https://docs.pycom.io/v/development_release/chapter/tutorials/lora/lora-mesh.html
Docs Lora class: https://docs.pycom.io/v/development_release/chapter/firmwareapi/pycom/network/lora.html

Quite interesting the scenario, to have a Border Router to LoRaWAN, it's not impossible and I need to do some tests. Yes, Border Router, could turn-off Mesh interface, and turn-on LoRaWAN interface; though this is not exposed in micropython. Maybe you could help with setting up specs for this scenario.

My assumption would be: Border Router is able to unpack all mesh traffic going "extern"(to LoRaWAN) and can forward (re-pack). Right/wrong?

[philwilkinson]

@catalin thanks for the response and the hyperlinks.

It is a very economical design to have a mesh network of LoPy nodes acting as sensors/actuators but with only one LoPy Node in reach of a LoRaWAN gateway.
Actually it reduces overall cost because less gateways are needed (which are far more expensive than Nodes). Only gateways need to be connected to the internet if the border router can publish via LoRaWAN

There is clearly the constraint on the payload/interval/datarate for any LoRa transmission. Could this constraint be applied separately by the mesh network and LoRaWAN classes?

I am not recommending that the Border Router acts as a 'dumb' router; simply passing through datapackets from the mesh network to the lorawan gateway. This can only be done when the data transmission rates within the mesh network are very low.
Beside, this is just wasting the power of a Pycom ESP32 module!!! My particular use case is that the border router would unpack the data from the mesh network, do some edge computation and then publish some consolidated/summarised data via LoRaWAN. Obviously the Border Router would be unavailable from the mesh network for the time it is transmitting packets to the LoRaWAN gateway.

[Bettina]

@philwilkinson Thanks for highlighting.

Here are the correct links:

https://docs.pycom.io/v/development_release/chapter/tutorials/lora/lora-mesh.html

https://github.com/pycom/pycom-libraries/blob/master/lib/lora_mesh/main.py

[IOAg]

@bettina MESH will greatly reduce hardware cost, as @philwilkinson highlighted, mesh network allows to reduce number of gateways and takes advantage of all nodes for communication.
Also MESH layout fits well in rugged terrain and remote area to provide private LPWAN. Yet, MESH border router needs bridging to to other LPWAN (LoRaWAN for instance), it is about the entire ecosystem.

Do you envisage to offer a LoRa Mesh kit (5-10 nodes) to trial in real life?

[brotherdust]

Really impressive, folks! Thanks for all your hard work!

One question: any plans to enable this for Bluetooth as well? =D

[catalin]

hi @brotherdust, the Bluetooth Mesh is on tests in Espressif (took a long time). Once it's released we'll incorporate it.

[Bettina]

@ioag apologies, I missed your post. We already have discounted LoPy4 kits available in on the webshop and they'll work for this ;-)

[David B Santiago]

This can only be done when the data transmission rates within the mesh network are very low.