On the Performance of LoRaWAN in Smart City: End-Device Design and Communication Coverage

Abstract

Expected communication scenarios within the emerging landscape of Internet of Things (IoT) bring the growth of smart devices connected in the communication network. The communication technologies of greatest interest for IoT are known as Low-Power Wide-Area Networks (LPWANs). Today, there are LPWA technologies (Sigfox, Long-Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN), and Narrowband IoT (NB-IoT)) capable to provide energy efficient communication as well as extended communication coverage. This paper provides an analysis of LPWA technologies and describes experimental evaluation of LoRaWAN technology in real conditions. The LoRaWAN technology provides over 150 dB Maximum Coupling Loss (MCL), which together with maximum transmission power (TX) 14 dBm and spreading factor 7 results in theoretical communication distance in units of kilometers. The obtained results from field-deployment in the city of Brno, Czech Republic confirm the initial expectations as it was possible to establish reliable communication between low-end LoRaWAN device and LoRaWAN gateway on the distance up to 6 km.