Abstract
Long range (LoRa) is a wireless communication standard specifically targeted for resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) devices. LoRa is a promising solution for smart city applications as it can provide long-range connectivity with a low energy consumption. The number of LoRa-based networks is growing due to its operation in the unlicensed radio bands and the ease of network deployments. However, the scalability of such networks suffers as the number of deployed devices increases. In particular, the network performance drops due to increased contention and interference in the unlicensed LoRa radio bands. This results in an increased number of dropped messages and, therefore, unreliable network communications. Nevertheless, network performance can be improved by appropriately configuring the radio parameters of each node. To this end, in this article we formulate integer linear programming models to configure LoRa nodes with the optimal parameters that allow all devices to reliably send data with a low energy consumption. We evaluate the performance of our solutions through extensive network simulations considering different types of realistic deployments. We find that our solution consistently achieves a higher delivery ratio (up to 8% higher) than the state of the art with minimal energy consumption. Moreover, the higher delivery ratio is achieved by a large percentage of nodes in each network, thereby resulting in a fair allocation of radio resources. Finally, the optimal network configurations are obtained within a short time, usually much faster than the state of the art. Thus, our solution can be readily used by network operators to determine optimal configurations for their IoT deployments, resulting in improved network reliability.
Highlights
L OW power wide area networks (LPWANs) are a new class of communication networks primarily targeted for batterypowered and resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) devices [1]
The optimization problems OPT-MAX, OPT-DELTA and OPT-transmission power (TP) are solved with IBM ILOG CPLEX through its Python API on a machine with an Intel Core i55300 U CPU and 16 GB of RAM
This article addressed the optimal assignment of spreading factor (SF) and TPs to nodes in dense Long range (LoRa) networks
Summary
L OW power wide area networks (LPWANs) are a new class of communication networks primarily targeted for batterypowered and resource-constrained Internet of Things (IoT) devices [1]. LoRaWAN [2] is one such solution that relies on the LoRa (long range) physical layer [1] to provide long-range connectivity (in the order of kilometers) at low data rates and with low energy consumption. LoRaWAN is ideally suited to provide connectivity for industrial Internet [3]–[5] and smart city applications such as smart metering, smart street lights, smart waste collection, and smart grids [1], [6]–[9]. Devices need to sporadically send only a small amount of data [13]–[15], which is appropriately supported by the data rates of LoRa. The low energy consumption ensures that the IoT devices do not need to be replaced for at least ten years [3]. Devices communicate over unlicensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands over one-hop links with gateways and use a simple medium access control (MAC) protocol that requires limited coordination [1]
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