LoRaWAN is not suitable for every use-case, so it is important that you understand the limitations. Here’s a quick overview:
Suitable use-cases for LoRaWAN:
- Long range - multiple kilometers
- Low power - can last years on a battery
- Low cost - less than 20€ CAPEX per node, almost no OPEX
- Low bandwidth - between 250bit/s and 11kbit/s in Europe using LoRa modulation (depending on the spreading factor)
- Coverage everywhere - you are the network! Just install your own gateways
- Secure - 128bit end-to-end encrypted
Not Suitable for LoRaWAN:
- Realtime data - you can only send small packets every couple of minutes
- Phone calls - you can do that with GPRS/3G/LTE
- Controlling lights in your house - check out ZigBee or BlueTooth
- Sending photos, watching Netflix - check out WiFi
https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/lorawan/limitations.html
