In an Australian first, Launceston is set to become the first city to be covered by an Internet of Things (IoT) network.
The Hodgman Government is a proud supporter of innovation, local business and creating skilled job opportunities, and this is an example of that.
We’ve committed $100,000 to fund a city-wide LORA network, which is a long range, low power network, similar to wifi and ideally suited to IoT applications.
The network gateways and sensors will be manufactured by Launceston-based IT company Definium, and the project run from the new Enterprize Launceston innovation hub.
Not only will Launceston be the first city in Australia to operate a LORA network but the devices used to run it will also be made locally.
Launceston is becoming known as one of Australia’s prime start up cities and the LORA project, which will operate out of our new Enterprize innovation hub, will only accelerate this process.
The network will enable a host of innovative new projects involving transport, monitoring, inventory control, health, traffic and sensing all in real time.
Launceston was selected by the federal government as one of the three initial Smart Cities and the state government is kick-starting that project with a community-driven IT network that will become a showcase for the rest of the country.
Project partners include UTAS, the CSIRO, Sense-T and Definium.
Work on the pilot network will commence immediately and is expected to be operational early in 2017.
BACKGROUND TECHNICAL INFORMATION:
The Launceston LORA network will consist of approximately 10 base stations, each with a maximum range of about 20km.
Low-power sensors, made in Launceston by Definium, connect to these base stations and then on to the Internet.
This makes data transfer extremely low cost compared with applications and sensors which rely on the mobile phone network.
In some cases sensor batteries can last up to 10 years, making the network suitable for a huge range of applications.
The LORA communications standard is driven and controlled by the non-profit worldwide LORA Alliance association. It includes companies such as IBM, Cisco, Semtech and SingTel.
