LoRa Alliance expands certification programme

The LoRa Alliance has announced expansions to its certification programme with the addition of relay testing and an authorised test lab in Brazil.

The addition of the relay feature to LoRaWAN certification testing is aimed to strengthen the certification by ensuring that end devices are compliant with the feature as defined in the LoRaWAN standard.

‘Relay’ is a key feature for utilities and satellites in particular to amplify and extend the reach of LoRaWAN signals to enable communication over greater distances and through obstacles like buildings and terrain that can impede direct communication between end devices and the gateways/base stations.

Introducing LoRaWAN relays into a network architecture allows for easy expansion and scalability without the need for additional gateways.

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The testing also adds to the programme’s growing number of optional feature tests, such as firmware updates over the air and static context header compression, which are designed to ensure certified devices are fully compliant with all aspects of the LoRaWAN standard.

Alongside this new test feature, the Alliance has authorised DEKRA’s Atibaia facility, located near São Paulo in Brazil, as a new test lab for LoRaWAN end devices – and its first in Latin America.

The new test lab is aimed to support the growing membership and promote increased device manufacturing in the region and will offer time and cost savings for members seeking LoRaWAN certification without the need to ship their products elsewhere.

Commenting, Donna Moore, CEO and chair of the LoRa Alliance, said the simple fact is that IoT needs certified devices to ramp to billions of sensor deployments.

“The tremendous benefit of certification – knowing that devices are correctly configured and will perform as intended – truly underlies the market’s trust in a technology’s ability to scale. The programmes announced today follow through on our commitment to continuously accelerate and simplify the certification process for end-device manufacturers.”

Other new updates include the launch of the LoRaWAN web certification system to simplify and automate the certification process with seamless digital communications between the member certifying, the test labs and the LoRa Alliance.

Another is the introduction of LoRa Alliance member self-testing of end devices and submission of the test results, further streamlining the certification process and decreasing the time to market for these devices.

To ensure the quality of the programme, the LoRa Alliance intends to continuously audit capability for authorised members.