Effect of Weather Condition on LoRa IoT Communication Technology in a Tropical Region: Malaysia

Abstract

An experimental study on the effect of weather conditions such as solar radiation, humidity, temperature, and rain on the Long Range (LoRa) communication in a tropical region (Malaysia) via a campus environment has been carried out and analyzed. The weather parameters were obtained from an online meteorological weather station (Meteoblue) and the use of a local automatic weather station. A temperature sensor was attached to the LoRa node to measure the onboard temperature. We analyze the diurnal variation and the effects of the weather condition based on the LoRa link in a LoRaWAN setup. A regular pattern of RSSI was observed with stronger RSSI values having a positive correlation with the atmospheric temperature, onboard temperature, and solar radiation during the day but degrades in late evenings. The positive correlation and pattern observed can be attributed to the prevailing metrological conditions and opens room for further research needed for propagation modeling. The RSSI signals and relative humidity, on the other hand, showed no correlation. Furthermore, strong RSSI signals were obtained when the atmospheric temperature was between 30 -40 o C, and the onboard temperature between 40 -50 o C. No significant impact was observed on the RSSI signals when the rainfall rates vary from 12 mm/h to 180 mm/h. The study presents useful information to be considered on the effects of weather conditions in the propagation model and deployment of LoRa for IoT communication.

Dispositivo para retransmissão de mensagens LoRaWAN

“…Essa maior taxa de perda deve ter ocorrido devido às condições climáticas, chuva, nos dias em que foram realizados os estudos. O efeito da chuva é um fator que afeta a atenuação de sinais propagados (Elijah et al, 2021).…”

Diseño de una red LoRa de bajo costo para el monitoreo del sector agrícola

“…LoRa es una tecnología de capa física de LoRaWAN, de licencia libre en bandas ISM, caracterizada por un bajo ancho de banda, un número limitado de mensajes (Elijah et al, 2021;Zhang et al, 2019). Emplea modulación Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) que permite un largo alcance y un bajo consumo de potencia (Sanchez-Iborra et al, 2018).…”

WSN System Warns Producer When Micro-Sprinklers Fail in Fruit Trees

“…Low frequencies provide good penetration within forests and present lower losses than high-frequency bands [24]. Tropical orchards can experiment with drastic weather conditions, being air temperature the variable that affects more LoRa transmission [25][26][27]. Air temperature decreases the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) variable [25].…”

“…Tropical orchards can experiment with drastic weather conditions, being air temperature the variable that affects more LoRa transmission [25][26][27]. Air temperature decreases the received signal strength indicator (RSSI) variable [25]. Rain and relative humidity did not affect RSSI strongly [25,28].…”