System Performance of Wireless Sensor Network Using LoRa–Zigbee Hybrid Communication

Abstract

Wireless sensor network (WSN) is considered as the fastest growing technology pattern in recent years because of its applicability in varied domains. Many sensor nodes with different sensing functionalities are deployed in the monitoring area to collect suitable data and transmit it to the gateway. Ensuring communications in heterogeneous WSNs, is a critical issue that needs to be studied. In this research paper, we study the system performance of a heterogeneous WSN using LoRa–Zigbee hybrid communication. Specifically, two Zigbee sensor clusters and two LoRa sensor clusters are used and combined with two Zigbee-to-LoRa converters to communicate in a network managed by a LoRa gateway. The overall system integrates many different sensors in terms of types, communication protocols, and accuracy, which can be used in many applications in realistic environments such as on land, under water, or in the air. In addition to this, a synchronous management software on ThingSpeak Web server and Blynk app is designed. In the proposed system, the token ring protocol in Zigbee network and polling mechanism in LoRa network is used. The system can operate with a packet loss rate of less than 0.5% when the communication range of the Zigbee network is 630 m, and the communication range of the LoRa network is 3.7 km. On the basis of the digital results collected on the management software, this study proves tremendous improvements in the system performance.