The four layers of every connected site.

How to read this section

Every project we deliver is built from the same four layers: a radio that gets data off the site, a gateway and backhaul that get it to the internet, the protocols that give it meaning, and a platform that turns it into decisions. These pages explain each layer in plain language, with the trade-offs we weigh when we design a network. They are written for facility managers, superintendents, utility engineers and property teams who have to live with the result, not for radio engineers.

• LoRaWAN: the long-range, low-power network we build most. How it works, device classes, joining, security, and private versus public networks.
• LTE-M: cellular for sensors. Architecture, the attach process, power saving, mobility, security, and when to pick it over NB-IoT or LoRaWAN.
• Gateways and backhaul: choosing and placing gateways, and getting their data out over Ethernet, Wi-Fi, cellular, wireless bridges or satellite.
• Protocols and integration: pulse, analog, SDI-12, Modbus, serial, MQTT, REST, BACnet and OPC UA, and how equipment from different vendors ends up in one view.

Vendor-neutral by design

We do not sell a radio, a gateway brand or a network server. We recommend whichever combination fits the site, the budget and the team that will maintain it, and we say so in writing before hardware is ordered. Where a LoRaWAN network is the right answer we will build it; where two cellular sensors do the job we will not build a network for them. The guides here reflect that: each one ends with where the technology fits and where it does not.