Abstract
When aiming for the wider deployment of low-power sensor networks, the use of sub-GHz frequency bands shows a lot of promise in terms of robustness and minimal power consumption. Yet, when deploying such sensor networks over larger areas, the link quality can be impacted by a host of factors. Therefore, this contribution demonstrates the performance of several links in a real-world, research-oriented sensor network deployed in a (sub)urban environment. Several link characteristics are presented and analysed, exposing frequent signal deterioration and, more rarely, signal strength enhancement along certain long-distance wireless links. A connection is made between received power levels and seasonal weather changes and events. The irregular link performance presented in this paper is found to be genuinely disruptive when pushing sensor-networks to their limits in terms of range and power use. This work aims to give an indication of the severity of these effects in order to enable the design of truly reliable sensor networks.
Highlights
Since many Internet of Things (IoT) applications rely on the deployment of low-power wireless sensor networks (WSNs) over rather large areas, research on sub-GHz wireless communication technologies has seen a steady rise in popularity
Modern low-power, wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies such as NarrowBand IoT (NB-IoT) [1], Long Term Evolution-Machine Type Communication (LTE-M) [2], Dash7 [3], SigFox [4] and, in particular, “Long Range” (LoRa) [5] receive a lot of attention, as they trade in data rate for communication range, link reliability and power efficiency
As a lot of WSNs are deployed in densely urbanised environments, average power levels may vary greatly depending on the exact placement of each node
Summary
Since many Internet of Things (IoT) applications rely on the deployment of low-power wireless sensor networks (WSNs) over rather large areas, research on sub-GHz wireless communication technologies has seen a steady rise in popularity. When pushing the boundaries of LPWAN technologies, such as LoRa, by deploying outdoor sensor networks with relatively large inter-nodal distances, large-scale propagation effects and mechanisms such as obstruction fading, tropospheric scattering and tropospheric ducting may become increasingly important as these may have a sizeable impact on the quality and reliability of wireless links [26]. Given that both tropospheric scattering and tropospheric ducting could vastly increase the communication range for a single wireless link [27,28], inter-cell interference may turn out to be just one of those hurdles when scaling up modern LPWAN technologies. To this date, the amount of literature on the impact of large-scale propagation phenomena and weather effects in LoRa networks is limited
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