LoRaWAN

LoRaWAN development board for a node

LoRaWAN (short for Long Range Wide Area Network) is a low power wide area network protocol, used to connect nodes (eg. sensors) to the internet via gateways. LoRaWAN nodes (clients) can be used similarly to WiFi enabled micro controller boards like the ESP8266 but are optimized for battery driven usage.

Characteristics

low power usage (long battery lifetime, up to several years depending on usage)
long reach (several kilometers, depending on environment)
extremely low bandwidth

Buyers' Guide

Successfully tested nodes:

Badgerboard (small board, uses Arduino IDE)
LoPy (includes LoRaWAN, WiFi and BLE on one board, uses MicroPython
Dragino LoRa Shield (LoRa shield for Arduino UNO)

Successfully tested gateways:

iC880A concentrator board controlled by Raspberry PI (DIY solution)

Networks

LoRaWAN features a hierarchical network architecture. Nodes send messages via gateways to a centralizes server. Both commercial and private networks are possible. There is a community approach called The Things Network.