LoRaWAN-Based IoT System Implementation for Long-Range Outdoor Air Quality Monitoring

Abstract

This study proposes a smart long-range (LoRa) sensing node to timely collect the air quality information and update it on the cloud. The developed long-range wide area network (LoRaWAN)-based Internet of Things (IoT) air quality monitoring system (AQMS), hereafter called LoRaWAN-IoT-AQMS, was deployed in an outdoor environment to validate its reliability and effectiveness. The system is composed of multiple sensors (NO2, SO2, CO2, CO, PM2.5, temperature, and humidity), Arduino microcontroller, LoRa shield, LoRaWAN gateway, and The Thing Network (TTN) IoT platform. The LoRaWAN-IoT-AQMS is a standalone system powered continuously by a rechargeable battery with a photovoltaic solar panel via a solar charger shield for sustainable operation. Our system simultaneously gathers the considered air quality information by using the smart sensing unit. Then, the system transmits the information through the gateway to the TTN platform, which is integrated with the ThingSpeak IoT server. This action updates the collected data and displays these data on a developed Web-based dashboard and a Graphical User Interface (GUI) that uses the Virtuino mobile application. Thus, the displayed information can be easily accessed by users via their smartphones. The results obtained by the developed LoRaWAN-IoT-AQMS are validated by comparing them with experimental results based on the high-technology Aeroqual air quality monitoring devices. Our system can reliably monitor various air quality indicators and efficiently transmit the information in real time over the Internet.