The Great Lakes region is a binational Canadian–American region that incorporates eight US states and the Canadian province of Ontario which form the Great Lakes Basin, bounded by watersheds to the region's north (Hudson Bay), west (Mississippi), and east and south (Ohio, part of the Mississippi watershed). To the east, the rivers of St. Lawrence, Richelieu, Hudson, Mohawk and Susquehanna form an arc of watersheds east to the Atlantic.
The LoRaWan network project is part of the state and federally funded broader roll-out of the Cleveland Water Alliance’s (CWA) Smart Lake Erie (pictured) Watershed initiative. According to Senet, the network will provide opportunities for cities and organisations to accelerate water technology development.
The CWA said the first uses of the network will include transmitting data from specialised buoys that monitor water conditions offshore for the City of Cleveland Water Department near its water intakes. In the longer run, the programme aims to increase the region’s ability to monitor and manage area waterways and provide opportunities for cities, businesses and universities to accelerate water technology development.
Bruce Chatterley, CEO of Senet, described LimnoTech as a great example of an innovative organisation using LoRaWan technology to solve some of the more “critical environmental and sustainability issues we face”.
To build the network, LimnoTech will use Senet’s Radio Access Network provider services while its Ohio-based subsidiary Freeboard will be responsible for maintaining portions of the network and hundreds of new sensors deployed in the region. LimnoTech will also be participating in Senet’s patented low power wide area virtual network (LVN), contributing to the unified carrier-grade LoRaWan connectivity service managed by Senet across the US.
The network buildout will begin with LimnoTech deploying gateways on a tower, at the University of Toledo’s Lake Erie Centre, on buildings at Case Western Reserve University’s Cleveland Campus, on the William Mather ship docked at the Great Lakes Science Centre, and atop the Anthony Celebrezze Federal Building in downtown Cleveland. Additional gateway deployments are next planned along the Ohio shoreline and other key inland and urban areas across northern Ohio.
Ed Verhamme, principal at LimnoTech and president of Freeboard Technology, said: “With Senet’s Ran Provider services, LimnoTech has been able to rapidly deploy, manage, and expand the network coverage footprint across key portions of the Great Lakes region, creating new business opportunities and enabling organisations to rethink how they plan and pay for connected sensors and environmental monitoring solutions.
“Because of its cost structure, this first of its kind LoRaWan network in the region supports research and monitoring that have been limited by the high cost of cellular communication plans and lack of cellular coverage. With LoRaWan, we’re getting regular connections to areas where cellular coverage isn’t available, including to our buoys 17 miles from shore.”
