Evaluation of LoRa Technology for Vehicle and Asset Tracking in Smart Harbors

Abstract

Tracking of goods, containers, and vehicles in harbors is a challenging task because seaports typically are in a secluded area with limited networking capability. Existing solutions use the combination of RFID tagging and Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN). A harbor is considered a harsh industrial environment with metallic components and surfaces. These conditions influence the wireless networking performance. In addition, harbors' areas vary from 500 ha to 7500 ha. Hence, the coverage range of wireless systems and the exposition to interference are considered. LoRa (Long Range) technology becomes a promising solution among other Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN). Therefore, we investigate the LoRa technology to locate and track assets in harbors. Through ns-3 simulations on scalability, interval rate, and coverage range performance metrics, we evaluated the feasibility to use LoRa in seaports. In our experiments, we applied 1000 LoRa nodes within a radius of 2500 m to the gateway. The results exhibit a probability of successful transmission of 85 % in an interval of 300 sec.