A Low-cost Real-time IoT based Air Pollution Monitoring using LoRa

Abstract

In the era of industrialization, pollutants in the air are increasing at an alarming rate causing serious threats to mankind. This has raised a need of measuring and recording pollution levels to initiate planned actions so as to protect the environment. Internet of Things (IoT) and cloud computing are two of the emerging technologies with enormous potentials that can be utilized for this purpose. Therefore, in this paper we propose an IoT based Air Pollution Monitoring (APM) system whose components are deployed at all critical locations within the city. An upcoming, long-range communication medium LoRa is used as the backbone of our APM system. Our system not only allows passersby to view pollution status of his/her surrounding through an appropriate Android application but also informs the corresponding authorities in case of an emergency. Through real-time data collection and performance evaluation we show how our proposed system satisfies the necessary criteria. Finally, we also provide a detailed comparison of why we prefer LoRa over WiFi (the traditional medium of wireless communication) and how it is beneficial, cost-effective in case of large deployment areas.