After months of hard work to improve the wireless range of Semtech’s LoRa® LPWAN radio, we are pleased with the results. XR Mode was initially a response to customers asking why gateways and endpoints deployed near ground level achieve a wireless range or distance that is less — far less — than what is advertised by certain entities promoting LoRa® or LoRaWAN who employing “ideal” range testing conditions. For customers deploying LoRa® for mobile use cases like asset tracking, signal propagation can be highly variable and “range” becomes a subjective term. Unlike LTE radios that blast at high wattage, the low power output of LoRa® means negotiating RF-unfriendly environments over long distances is a challenge, particularly at ground level. So optimizing range and Quality of Service (QoS) for ground level is where we began, but the benefits of XR Mode apply to LoRa® radios deployed at any altitude.