Kontron, a leading global provider of Embedded Computing Technology (ECT), today announced that it has become a member of the LoRa Alliance™, the fastest growing alliance responsible for developing a global low power wide area network (LPWAN) standard for internet of things (IoT).

The LoRa Alliance was formed in 2015 with a mission to standardise LPWAN being deployed around the world to enable IoT, machine-to-machine (M2M), and smart city, and industrial applications. Today, over 500 members collaborate to make the LoRaWAN™ protocol the global open standard for IoT applications and guarantee interoperability between operators and private LoRaWAN networks.

"It is always a pleasure to welcome new members to our open ecosystem of LoRaWAN-based products and services," said Geoff Mulligan, Chairman of the LoRa Alliance. "We’re excited to see Kontron’s approach to using IoT in the transportation industry and how they are able to leverage the Alliance’s resources to advance their goals. Intelligent Transportation is one of many emerging application spaces where the LoRaWAN protocol’s long-range, low-power and low-cost approach stands to offer significant benefits."

Kontron has recently announced the availability of the TRACe LoRa-MQTT, its first LoRaWAN-based IoT gateway and network server for on-board rail. The TRACe LoRa-MQTT achieves continuous communications from LoRaWAN-based devices to the Cloud server, enabling secure data collection and remote analysis on a mobile platform.

"The internet of things in transportation is in its infancy with several challenges specific to that industry," said Bernard Féaux, Business Development Manager, Transportation Business at Kontron. "LoRaWAN technology is the perfect candidate to unleash the full potential of IoT-based applications on a fast-moving platform. Being part of the LoRa Alliance will help Kontron further develop LoRaWAN-based IoT solutions for the Transportation industry and other sectors."

Kontron plans to extend its IoT platform solutions supporting LoRaWAN and provide end-to-end solutions with edge analytics or general FOG computing capabilities for transportation, manufacturing and maritime, as well as and other sectors in the near future.