REVISTA DYNA NEW TECHNOLOGIES

Key words:

LoRa, WSN, LPWAN, Internet de las Cosas, IOT

Article type:

ARTICULO DE INVESTIGACION / RESEARCH ARTICLE

Section:

RESEARCH ARTICLES

In recent years, Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) have become increasingly more important for outdoor monitoring. The need to analyse relevant data in real-time in rural environments, such as natural reserves, agricultural field, etc. have driven the development of new communication technologies. Several protocols have been created to fulfil the requirements of many WSN scenarios, yet outdoor monitoring presents’ unique challenges which have not been fully accomplished, specifically covering areas of great length with a low power consumption. The newly arisen Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies aim to fill this gap, with long range transmitting capabilities. One such technology is the Long Range (LoRa) modulation, which operates in sub-GHz frequencies. To provide greater insight into this technology, this paper makes an evaluation of LoRa modulation using the 433 MHz frequency band. A thorough theoretical and practical analysis in energy, data throughput and range characteristics is done, while comparing LoRa with other LPWAN technologies. The experimental results demonstrate the full capabilities of this modulation, as well as the potential inclusion in outdoor monitoring networks. Keywords: LoRa, WSN, LPWAN, Internet of Things.