Brandon Dalida, Regional Sales Director at MultiTech, talks about how large-scale LoRaWAN deployments succeed when they're designed around cost-efficiency, business alignment, and network structure.

With over two decades in telecom and IoT, Brandon brings a deeply practical perspective on what makes LoRaWAN work for enterprise—especially when budgets, security, and data costs are on the line.

• Breaks down how LoRaWAN networks can be tailored to support different business models, comparing Capex-driven private networks with Opex-heavy cloud-based topologies
• Explains the value of edge intelligence and why Fortune 500 companies are increasingly turning to on-site LoRaWAN deployments for privacy, scalability, and WAN data cost savings
• Introduces MultiTech’s Conduit gateways and their BACnet/IP integration, enabling seamless LoRaWAN-to-building automation system communication for smart buildings
• Discusses the retrofitting opportunity: how LoRaWAN can be used in older buildings like museums and courthouses where wired infrastructure is not feasible
• Talks through the challenges of fragmented networks in multi-site deployments and how MultiTech is building tools for onboarding and orchestration to unify device management at scale
• Shares the vision for future integration between LoRaWAN and Bluetooth Low Energy, especially for mobile onboarding, firmware updates, and device configuration
• Highlights how different wireless technologies—LoRaWAN, LTE, BLE, NFC—can work together depending on the use case, cost, and scale requirements

Links:

Brandon on LinkedIn

Multi-Tech website

Today's guest on

2

MeteoScientific's

The Business of LoRaWAN is Brandon Dalida.

3

Brandon is a regional sales director

4

at Multi-Tech,

where he spent the last several years

5

helping enterprise customers deploy

LoRaWAN and cellular networks at scale.

6

With over 25 years of experience

in telecom and IoT.

7

Brandon brings a business

focused Lens to wireless networking,

8

translating technical solutions

into operational wins for smart buildings,

9

utilities, oil and gas, and more.

10

In this conversation, we get into

how Multi-Tech is making LoRaWAN more

11

accessible from onboard network servers

and edge

12

intelligent gateways to smart building

integrations using BACnet.

13

We also talk through the real bottlenecks

in smart infrastructure,

14

like fragmented networks

and the complexities

15

of onboarding sensors at scale,

and how Multi-Tech is tackling those

16

with API driven orchestration

and hybrid connectivity strategies.

17

Brandon lays out

why LoRaWAN isn't just competing with but

18

complementing cellular, Bluetooth and NFC,

and why he sees

19

ubiquitous utility style LoRaWAN coverage

as the next big opportunity.

20

If you're in the business of deploying

real world IoT,

21

this episode will give you insight

into how LoRaWAN is evolving

22

to meet enterprise demands without losing

sight of scalability or cost efficiency.

23

Now, let's dig into the conversation

with Brandon Dalida.

24

Brandon,

thanks a ton for coming on the show today.

25

Yeah. My pleasure. Happy to be here.

26

And yeah, I'm psyched

to have you from Multi-Tech.

27

As a well known player in the LoRaWAN

system, LoRa Alliance, all of that.

28

I wanted to focus on a bunch

of the experience that you have,

29

because you've been in this in the scene

for a while.

30

Let's start off

with this idea of designing

31

different LoRaWAN networks

for different business models.

32

Can you talk me through what that means?

33

Yeah, yeah. No, no. That's great.

34

So it kind of really started out

for when we joined the, as you mentioned,

35

were one of the founding members

of the LoRaWAN alliance.

36

And one of the first things

37

that we brought to the table joining

the alliance is we said, hey,

38

we want to put a LoRa network server

on the gateway

39

so companies could build out

private LoRaWAN networks.

40

And that's evolved over time.

41

You know, today, traditionally

you have a gateway.

42

It's a packet forwarder to a cloud based.

43

LNS. Great for scalability

nationwide global type deployments.

44

But when you have an onboard LNS,

45

you know, you might have a private network

or you have a single site or whatever.

46

And there's a lot of businesses

47

that want to use that, or it

depends on your business model, right?

48

You know, it's a it's a CapEx business

play versus an OpEx

49

using a cloud based LNS.

50

And then over time, that's that's evolved.

51

So we can take, we’ve

got an LNS that runs on on a gateway.

52

And you might have a private network.

You could add additional gateways.

53

As packet forwarders pointed to that main

gateway running the LNS.

54

And then another platform that we have

and doesn't really get talked a lot about.

55

But we have a platform called Lens

which stands for LoRa Enterprise

56

Network Services,

where we abstract the join server

57

and we put that up into a cloud

based instance in AWS.

58

So what that allows for is companies

that want to do edge intelligence

59

at the gateway level

or at the actual on site level,

60

and they want to maybe be able

to send data from the gateway directly

61

through a secure network to their back

62

end platform, or maybe locally to an on

premise server, for example.

63

But you still need that central join

server

64

for adding devices

and keys for scalability and management.

65

It's really an enterprise play.

66

There's a lot of, you know, fortune.

67

I'll even say fortune 500 companies

that want to have that edge intelligence,

68

or they want the data from there,

69

from the gateway

to be sent directly to their platform.

70

But when you have an onboard LNS

71

you don't have that scalability

with adding, you know, keys and stuff.

72

So interesting.

73

And so this sounds like for companies

as you're, as you're pitching,

74

this is really comes down

to kind of privacy and security.

75

Privacy security,

you know, business model.

76

I would also say too that a lot of times

it reduces

77

bandwidth over the data

traffic over the WAN connection.

78

So if you got a cellular backhaul,

79

those cellular data plans,

you know, can be costly, right?

80

So if we're not sending all that

everybody's traffic over that connection

81

and just our data that we want to see,

82

that can also do reduce

some costs as well.

83

So got it.

84

And how does that break down

as far as usually manufacturing

85

kind of companies will like this type

and smart cities will like that type.

86

Like what do you see

as far as how that plays out?

87

I would say enterprise companies

that are bringing out their own

88

want to build out their own networks,

89

that they want to manage

their own networks themselves.

90

This tends to be a business model

that they like and prefer.

91

But if we got more hybrid private public

92

networks and stuff like that, packet

forwarding might make more sense.

93

Yeah.

94

Yeah, that that lines up with kind of how

I understand the whole thing.

95

Now, I know that smart buildings

are something

96

that your site on smart Building

seem to be for a number of reasons,

97

kind of the next big thing in LoRaWAN,

which is funny to me because like, smart

98

buildings are so boring,

but at the same time, it's like

99

super exciting to think that we're about

to get all these things connected in.

100

Yeah. Yeah.

101

Maybe we do a cool little plug

for Multi-Tech here and say,

102

talk to me about the Conduit line

or what makes this thing

103

special and specifically kind of useful

for smart buildings.

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Yeah. No no no no. Great.

105

So, you know,

106

Conduit is kind of our name for our brand

name for our LoRaWAN gateways

107

over the

last year, maybe about two years ago.

108

And it's still a work in progress,

but we added the ability to take low

109

end data and convert

that to BACnet IP on a gateway.

110

So that really brings us now

into the more integrated

111

into the smart building space

where we can take,

112

you know, hook into a controller and

we can now start sending LoRaWAN traffic

113

into the building management system where

we're not developing that cloud platform.

114

We're using the LNS on the gateway.

115

And what excites me about that is

and this is the beauty of LoRaWAN,

116

and I think why LoRaWAN has really scaled

117

and the adoption has been

so successful is its openness, right.

118

So there's over 380.

119

For the last I checked, there was over

120

384 companies worldwide

that were making LoRaWAN sensors.

121

So as long as they make their decoders

available, right, if you go on the TTN

122

things networks GitHub, I don't 80-90% of

the decoders are up there.

123

We're working on being able to pull those.

124

You can get any sensor

into a building management system,

125

say for example Tritium’s

Niagara platform. Right.

126

And you kind of go, okay,

I want a leak sensor, I want a temp

127

humidity sensor, I want to do indoor

air quality people counting,

128

you know, anything you could think of,

you can make a smart building, you know.

129

And the other thing

and I was thinking about this

130

last night

about things to talk about today.

131

We talk about smart buildings.

132

It's, you know.

133

Yeah. New construction.

134

It's really easy to run wires and stuff

for for sensors and stuff.

135

But a lot of times

136

you get these calls and it's like, hey,

I, I've got a courthouse,

137

I've got a museum

or a lot of infrastructure

138

in Europe that's, you know,

how do I modernize these building?

139

Because these buildings

aren't going away. Right.

140

How do we modernize these things

and make them smart?

141

And LoRaWAN allows that to happen, right.

142

Because of the good in-building

penetration, the ability to add sensors

143

without running wires, you know,

you've got, you know, good range.

144

And then obviously the tremendous

battery life that LoRaWAN provides.

145

Okay.

146

I mean, BACnet is the the big thing.

147

And for folks who don't know,

148

that was a building automation

controls is probably what BAC stands for

149

I hey you know what I don't know

150

off the top of my head I'm I'm gonna

I'm gonna take a, take a guess at that.

151

But it's something I see

kind of repeated over and over again.

152

Whether it's Alper this,

153

the CEO of the LoRa Alliance

talking about it or Olivier at Actility

154

saying like, hey,

this is the next big thing

155

is that all these buildings

already have this built in.

156

They just don't

always have the connectivity

157

that they might want,

which is what LoRaWAN provides.

158

What do you think

is going to be the bottleneck there?

159

Are there enough people to

to kind of do this stuff?

160

Or is it just like, hey,

we only have 20 engineers

161

who understand this in the world

or 40 or whatever it is.

162

And there's just like,

you know, a million buildings.

163

There's just, are numbers

in the way there?

164

I think what the bottleneck

is, is going to be,

165

and we're trying to solve this bottleneck

right now.

166

What I've noticed in this space is, is

167

there's a lot of intelligent people

in that, in the smart building space.

168

They know networking, they know TCP IP,

they know all the different protocols.

169

They a lot of these master systems

integrators know how to

170

develop and write code.

171

So there's a tremendous amount of talent,

I think, where the

172

the issue is

and what we're trying to figure out

173

is a lot of

these are private networks, right.

174

So you're putting a gateway

on a private network.

175

They're very fragmented.

176

For example, let's just say you've got

a chain of 50 gas stations, right.

177

And they're going to put in LoRaWAN at all

178

these stations and integrated

into their building automation system,

179

their private networks. Right.

180

So maybe six months or a year down

the road, they go, hey, we want to add

181

these LoRaWAN sensors to the system

that already exists.

182

Well, you either got to roll a truck

or you got to have VPN access, right.

183

So a technician

maybe sits down at their office

184

for the day and they got a VPN

and at manually add those sensors.

185

Right.

186

So what we're trying to solve is

how do we allow for a central pane of

187

glass in that building management system

to manage and scale the network.

188

And those things are being looked

at, worked on.

189

But that's kind of

190

I would say, the big bottleneck right now,

because systems are fragmented

191

and cloud connectivity is very limited

or even forbidden.

192

Yeah, in this space.

193

And it's always been funny to me

as long as I've known about IoT,

194

that it is filled like packed to the gills

with really smart people.

195

And there's still isn't

196

kind of an Apple of of IoT yet

where that's super easy to use.

197

And it's all intuitive, and you don't

need to know any code like it just works.

198

And it seems like a lot of

companies are working on, on that.

199

You know, one of the

the most obvious things

200

when you first come into in a LoRaWAN

is like, okay, I mean, onboard a sensor,

201

let me type out this, you know, 16

character or whatever it is every time.

202

Yeah.

203

Are you guys doing anything to, to address

just making the onboarding of sensors

204

gateways, whatever easier?

205

Yeah. No, no, I'm glad you asked.

That's very important question.

206

You know, a lot of times. Right.

207

You get a you order, you go on Amazon

or you can order from my company

208

order sensor. Right.

209

And you get a little card

and maybe there's a QR code

210

that you can scan to get the device

and the keys or

211

you got to put your reading glasses on

212

and, and type in those,

all those text numbers and stuff.

213

And it's it's complicated.

214

You know, historically,

maybe you send a CSV file or a spreadsheet

215

that's got all that.

216

That's not very secure, right?

217

It's not really a best practice

in my opinion.

218

So some of the things

that we've recently developed

219

and we're piloting with some

some companies is, is the onboarding

220

and orchestration of LoRaWAN sensors

and gateways.

221

So for example,

222

you know, we make a LoRaWAN module

that we use that OEMs might design in

223

that are building their own LoRaWAN

sensors. Right.

224

Let's just say we ship them

225

10,000 of these modules

while during manufacturing

226

what we can do is have APIs

into their lines, for example.

227

So when we make a shipment,

we can send over those devices

228

in those keys and automatically automate

that, load that into their own

229

at the time of manufacturing,

230

and then send out a notification

or whatever that this has been completed.

231

So when they build that in and send

that out, all that stuff is already done.

232

And these sensors magically should just go

on board and, and work, you know?

233

Yeah, great.

234

Great to do QR codes

and scan that stuff for single sensors.

235

But was it as we scale

and we got businesses

236

that are starting to deploy the stuff

in the thousands

237

or tens of thousands, these things

are going to be really crucial.

238

So yeah, yeah, yeah.

239

Putting it one time like it

makes you feel like a competent nerd.

240

Couple of times you're like, oh,

I'm really getting into in the,

241

you know, this swing of this thing.

242

And then when you have to do 10 or 20,

you're like,

243

okay,

there's there's got to be a better way.

244

And got it. 10,000.

245

Yeah. Like you,

you can't do that manually.

246

So there's definitely that bottleneck

that you absolutely have to solve there.

247

One of the things I'm

also seeing in LoRaWAN is this big push.

248

So there's this big push

to smart buildings.

249

And then there's this.

250

It seems like a pretty big push

251

towards this idea of integration

across technologies,

252

really communications technologies for the

the best fit for a customer.

253

So these companies

that I think of as LoRaWAN companies,

254

of course, this business or this podcast

is about the business of LoRaWAN,

255

are also saying,

hey, there are great times to use LTE,

256

or sometimes we use NFC or Bluetooth or

whatever it is for these different pieces.

257

Can you talk about

what Multi-Tech might be doing in

258

in that realm where saying, hey,

259

we're going to combine NFC and LoRaWAN

in these specific applications? Yep.

260

Here's what I say I go not all one

technology is the be all end all right.

261

They all complement each other right.

262

So when you're hanging out with

263

a dinner party on Friday and like hey,

what do you do?

264

What are you working on right now?

265

And you mentioned this LoRaWAN. Right.

266

And your wife cringes. Yeah.

267

It's know.

268

Yeah. We've all had it.

269

There's a lot of wireless technologies

out of there.

270

But we all know what cellular is.

271

We all know what LTE is, 4G, 5G, etc.

272

we know what Bluetooth is.

273

We know what Wi-Fi is.

274

I think that fourth pillar is LoRaWAN.

275

And I will say

276

they all complement each other

and they not all solve one problem, right?

277

I would say things

that we should be looking into

278

and I think that are important.

279

One of the things that we do

is we work with companies that say, hey,

280

we're not an IoT company,

we're not an engineering company.

281

Let's develop the solution together

for us or whatever.

282

And so we've done some.

283

I think integrating Bluetooth into LoRaWAN

284

endpoints is going to be really important.

285

I haven't seen a ton of it yet.

286

But you know, it's all about volumes

and costs and stuff like that.

287

But when we've got Bluetooth

in the LoRaWAN endpoint

288

and we've got one of these magic devices

called a smart phone, right, that we could

289

do, we could onboard sensors

that way over Bluetooth, we could do

290

push firmware updates

or configuration changes over Bluetooth.

291

So I think that's becoming more

and more important.

292

We're not there yet,

but I think that's just inevitable.

293

Yeah. And possibly NFC.

294

You know we've looked at that in the past.

295

And and maybe that's the thing

moving forward

296

I like the Bluetooth

297

because you got a little bit

more better range than than the NFC.

298

But NFC can be very inexpensive.

299

You know

300

you do a chip down tag or whatever

and it's pennies right to integrate that.

301

So yeah.

302

And I've got a video somewhere on YouTube

of the first time I encountered NFC.

303

And it's just like me 12 minutes

trying to get my phone in the right place

304

because it's it's

kind of centimeter accuracy.

305

There is what counts.

306

And yes, this is yeah,

I got all these comments like,

307

are you a boomer you don't know how to use

I'm like a I just I think if you

308

yeah if you can get the costs

obviously down you know or you know

309

maybe maybe we start seeing Dealie

and LoRa integrated into the same chips

310

or whatever.

311

You know,

I think I think that's what that's

312

that's what I see dominating over NFC.

313

Possibly. But I could be wrong.

314

Yeah. Yeah okay.

315

So it sounds like the kind of the

big thing for you guys to is in the direct

316

future is this idea of hey

you want to onboard 10,000 sensors.

317

This is something that we have

this kind of inbuilt capabilities do.

318

Is there anything else that you see

that you're super excited about in LoRaWAN

319

over the next six months to a year

that that you guys are doing,

320

or that the industry in general

is kind of going in this direction?

321

I got it's going to be so cool.

322

I guess the answer

323

to that is maybe we're there

with Helium or whatever,

324

and that's kind of a

you either onboard or you're off for sure.

325

But the idea of having LoRaWAN

326

as a utility almost,

and kind of ubiquitous coverage.

327

So you could order LoRaWAN sensor and you

just have coverage whether you want them

328

in your home or wherever you're at,

and you're not worried

329

about installing and managing

and deploying gateways, it's a big deal.

330

And there's the funny thing is,

I heard this amazing stat the other day

331

that funnily you mentioned Helium.

332

I was talking to some of the folks there

333

about this roaming thing

because roaming is,

334

I think, one of the next big things

in, in LoRaWAN for exactly

335

the reason you mentioned

is that if you could just order a sensor

336

and not worry about checking your map

to see if there's a gateway nearby,

337

the sensor just works.

338

That's a that's a really big deal

for Lauri. Yeah. Yep.

339

Helium has an I haven't I haven't heard

anyone who has said like this is wrong.

340

So I keep saying it.

341

But Helium has the largest LoRaWAN

in the world right now.

342

So hundred thousand gateways.

343

I think it might be over

a million by now.

344

I don't know. Last night

I was like 800,000 or something like that.

345

So they went up to 800,000.

346

And then that was during the kind of the,

the peak of the crypto craze.

347

And then it's down

348

now back down as people like,

oh, it's not worth to, to keep it on

349

for whatever 20 bucks a month

or whatever they're making in crypto.

350

But they

do have this giant worldwide network.

351

And because it's LoRaWAN, it's just radios

that are listening.

352

Radios don't know

not to listen to a Multi-Tech gateway

353

like an the only listen

for a Helium gateway.

354

So they just pick up all LoRaWAN

and all Lora like signals.

355

Everything in that 902 928 range.

356

And then those signals get routed

to the Helium Packet Router, HPR

357

before they go to an LNS, because

it has to know kind of where to go.

358

If it's if it's a Helium, it's going

to take just a second to go through it.

359

But I think it's crazy

if the if the packet says like,

360

hey, I'm coming from a Helium gateway,

it gets routed to the right LNS.

361

If it doesn't and it's not paid for,

it just gets discarded.

362

It's an unrouted packet.

363

There are 5 to 7.

364

This is the stat that blew my mind 5 to

365

Oh wow.

366

So that's all of the LoRaWAN

367

and all the LoRa-like, you know,

radios in the world are doing that.

368

So it's like, okay, the possibility exists

if we can get roaming down

369

to have ubiquitous Lora coverage.

370

So like, we're we're close. It's

just not there yet.

371

But super exciting that

that's what you're also excited up.

372

Yeah. Yeah.

373

Well it's an asset tracking you know

and it's big.

374

It's cold chain.

375

It's there's

so many so many different things right.

376

Yeah Amazon package

I don't know you know. Yeah.

377

No it's so I can go anywhere ripping.

378

Dude I know you're busy

crushing for for Multi-Tech.

379

Thanks a ton for making the time

380

to come on and share a bunch, with us

about what you guys are doing in LoRaWAN.

381

Thanks,

man. Awesome. Thank you Nik Appreciate it.

382

That's it for

this episode of The Business of LoRaWAN.

383

I built this for you.

384

So whether you're a business owner,

a LoRaWAN professional, or a hobbyist,

385

the intent is to give you great LoRaWAN

information.

386

Of course,

the best information doesn't come from me.

387

It comes from the conversations

388

we have with the people building

and deploying this tech in the real world.

389

And that's where you come in.

390

LoRaWAN is a global

patchwork of talent and ideas.

391

And ironically,

for a globally connected network,

392

most of the brilliant folks

working on it are connected yet.

393

Help me change that.

394

Introduce me

to someone awesome in your network.

395

Someone doing meaningful work in LoRaWAN

work.

396

Just shoot me a name.

397

I'll take it from there

398

and get them on the show

so we can share their work with the world.

399

You can always find me at metsci.show.

400

That's M-E-T-S-C-I dot

401

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402

If you want to support the show

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All those are super helpful.

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If you'd like to support financially,

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We're also open to sponsors.

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409

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I'm Nik

Hawks. I'll see you in the next show.