An Experimental Evaluation of the Reliability of LoRa Long-Range Low-Power Wireless Communication

Abstract

Recent technological innovations allow compact radios to transmit over long distances with minimal energy consumption and could drastically affect the way Internet of Things (IoT) technologies communicate in the near future. By extending the communication range of links, it is indeed possible to reduce the network diameter to a point that each node can communicate with almost every other node in the network directly. This drastically simplifies communication, removing the need of routing, and significantly reduces the overhead of data collection. Long-range low-power wireless technology, however, is still at its infancy, and it is yet unclear (i) whether it is sufficiently reliable to complement existing short-range and cellular technologies and (ii) which radio settings can sustain a high delivery rate while maximizing energy-efficiency. To shed light on this matter, this paper presents an extensive experimental study of the reliability of LoRa , one of the most promising long-range low-power wireless technologies to date. We focus our evaluation on the impact of physical layer settings on the effective data rate and energy efficiency of communications. Our results show that it is often not worth tuning parameters, thereby reducing the data rate in order to maximize the probability of successful reception, especially on links at the edge of their communication range. Furthermore, we study the impact of environmental factors on the performance of LoRa, and show that higher temperatures significantly decrease the received signal strength and may drastically affect packet reception.

Improving Quality-Of-Service in LoRa Low-Power Wide-Area Networks through Optimized Radio Resource Management

“…The work of Cattani [23] presents an analysis of the performance of the LoRa in relation to different configurations of PHY and environmental conditions. The analysis done in a scenario where the network nodes are at the communication limit concludes that it is more efficient to use the faster PHY configuration and higher transmission power than slower configurations that maximize the quality of the link because the faster PHY setting provides 100 times faster effective bit rate than the slower setting scenario, at the cost of a 10% lower average packet reception rate.…”

Performance Evaluation of E32 Long Range Radio Frequency 915 MHz based on Internet of Things and Micro Sensors Data

“…uplink and downlink of LoRa 915 MHz Internet gateway. In research [8] the Framework of the Distance-Ring Exponential Stations Generator (DRESG) was introduced in handling and providing Multi-hop solutions, e.g, Routing nodes, energy efficiency and consumption among all the STAs in the Network. In research [14] conducted research transmission data using LoRa to find out energy efficiency over very long distance [15] by building communication 6 LoRa nodes which can cover 1.5 ha of network with sensor node specifications ie, 2 AA type batteries, data transmission every 5 seconds and level 80% reliability.…”

“…In research [7], packet loss is calculated for different coverage of SF12 use in indoor and outdoor conditions. In research [8] very detailed in testing the reliability of LoRa signal and LoRa transmission data (bit rate, data rate), Receive Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI), Error Bit Rate (EBR (%)) and EPR (Error Packet Rate (%) ), Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR(%) juga dilakukan menggunakan perbandingan simulasi menggunakan LoRaSIM [9]. Research [11] analyzed in detail the Signal Interference Ratio (SIR) by comparing the detailed Spreading Factor (SF) Parameters e.g., Co-Spreading Factor Interference.…”

Special Issue: Quality of Service in Wireless Sensor/Actuator Networks and Systems

“…Papers cover a wide range of topics, namely the optimization of retransmission scheduling in IEEE 802.15.4e WSANs [1], an experimental evaluation of LoRa reliability [2], the estimation of WSAN lifetime based on innovative battery models [3], a novel radio interference classification method for WSANs [4], a dynamic QoS-aware MAC that can be boosted for long-range communications [5], an RSSI-based model-learning for target localization/tracking [6], using sensor network calculus for designing WSANs with predictable e2e delays [7], and decision-centric WSAN resource management [8]. A brief summary of each paper is provided here.…”

“…The authors of [2] report the main results of an extensive experimental evaluation of the reliability of LoRa, one of the most prominent long-range low-power WSAN to date, along with SigFox and Narrowband-IoT. The authors focus on the impact of physical layer settings and ambient temperature on effective data rate and energy efficiency.…”