Evaluación del rango de transmisión de LoRa para redes de sensores inalámbricas con LoRaWAN en ambientes forestales

Abstract

Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) such as LoRaWAN, provide several advantages to develop monitoring systems in forested environments due to its simple set-up, low cost, low power consumption, and wide coverage. Regarding the coverage area, the transmission in forested environments is highly attenuated by foliage and must be defined to optimize the number of nodes. This paper proposes an empirical study of LoRa with LoRaWAN transmission range in forest, based on path loss modeling using Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) and Signal to- noise-ratio (SNR). The measurements have been conducted in the riverside of three local rivers located at urban, semi-urban and rural environments in the city of Cuenca-Ecuador. The measurement results found that there is a significant distribution difference between measurement places, a high correlation between two banks of a same river, a higher standard deviation in urban measurements and a larger coverage in rural areas.