Wireless link Analysis of LoRa in vegetation and Semi urban scenarios

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) collects and exchanges data from various physical devices through wired or wireless communication networks. However, for transmission of data to remote locations, Low Power Wide Area Network can be used, which can transmit data up to 10 km in rural areas. Experimental evaluation at such a range can be quite challenging, and hence the need arises for a simulation-based approach. In this paper, we have used Network Simulator 3 for analyzing the wireless link of a LoRa network, for different environmental conditions, with the variation of distances between the end-device and the gateway. Each simulation in Network Simulator 3 has been performed for a finite duration, with the packet being sent at periodic intervals. Each test was simulated with multiple seed values, averaging the individual obtained outputs to get the final Quality of Service metrics. The Quality of Service metrics were plotted for the varying distance between the end-device and the gateway. The different environmental conditions considered in the simulation were, Medium vegetation, Medium buildings and Sparse vegetation. The results show that for the case of medium buildings and sparse vegetation, the simulated and measured values of Cost-231 and Okumura-Hata propagation loss models are having fewer deviations. However, in the case of the medium vegetation, the propagation loss models and experimental values are having large deviations.