LoRa Network Planning and Communication Strategies to Support Multiple IoT Use Cases

Abstract

Long range (LoRa) is a popular low-power wide-area networking (LPWAN) technology that can support multitude of Internet of Things (IoTs) use cases. LoRa drives its popularity from its ability to dynamically conFigure PHY layer transmission parameters, such as, bandwidth, spreading factor, coding rate, and transmission power. These parameters impact coverage, reliability, data rate, and energy consumption. Therefore, the parameters should be carefully selected based on an IoT use case’s requirements. Ideally, a deployed LPWAN should simultaneously support multiple IoT use cases. This requirement complicates networking planning and the transmission parameters assignment because not only multiple use cases’ dynamics have to be considered, but possible impact of use cases on each other has to be taken into account. Here, we present and evaluate three different LoRa-based LPWAN planning and communication strategies. The presented strategies consider the following: (i) IoT use case’s data generation model, (ii) transmission parameters selection, (iii) network topology, and (iv) communication model. Our simulation results have demonstrated that the network planning and communication strategy that allocates fastest data rate PHY layer transmission parameters to LoRa nodes, partitions a network into different cells, and uses separate gateway inside each cell is the best LoRa-based LPWAN deployment and communication strategy. The strategy outperforms other presented network planning strategies that use hybrid communication model based on separate communication channels and a combination of single-hop and multi-hop communication.