Long-Range Wireless Communications: HaLow, LoRa & Mesh Networking
Course Duration
10 Days
Audience
Employees of federal, state and local governments; and businesses working with the government.
Prerequisites
Comfortable with the Linux command line, SSH, and basic networking concepts. No prior LoRa or HaLow experience required.
Course Description
This intensive, hands-on course covers the full spectrum of modern long-range, low-power wireless technologies — from sub-GHz Wi-Fi (802.11ah HaLow) to LoRa mesh networking and LoRaWAN sensor infrastructure. Over 10 days, students build, configure, secure, and field-test complete wireless systems using real hardware and real-world scenarios. Every topic is lab-driven. Students leave with working networks they built themselves — not slideware. Security and privacy are woven into every module, not bolted on as an afterthought.
Learning Objectives
- Deploy and secure encrypted LoRa mesh networks for off-grid team communications
- Compare competing mesh architectures and evaluate trade-offs through empirical testing
- Build a complete LoRaWAN pipeline — from gateway to network server to real-time dashboard — and enroll a diverse range of commercial sensors
- Configure 802.11ah Wi-Fi HaLow networks in access point, mesh, and bridged topologies across multiple hardware platforms
- Stream and record video over long-range wireless links
- Integrate mapping and situational awareness tools with mesh radios
- Harden wireless infrastructure with VPN tunnels, TLS, broker authentication, and end-to-end encryption
- Plan and execute structured field tests with measurable outcomes