A Study of Energy Consumption Analysis on LoRa-Based Wireless Sensor Networks

Abstract

This research presents the energy consumption analysis of LoRa-based wireless sensor networks. Long-Range (LoRa) is among the platforms of the wireless sensor network. Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) is a data-link layer with long range, low bit rate and low power. Energy consumption is one of the crucial properties of deploying a wireless sensor network. It is also one of the most important metrics which influences the lifetime of a wireless sensor node. However, there is no coherent experimental based research which identifies the factors influencing LoRa energy efficiency. Most of the current research done are based on simulation and mathematical modelling. In this research, the energy efficiency performance of LoRa network was studied in term of its signal strength (RSSI and SNR), data rate and power consumption. The performance was evaluated at a different range and spreading factor in indoor and outdoor. LoRa networks energy efficiency is assessed through the energy consumption ratio metrics for various nodes density. Parameters that influence the energy consumption ratio such as the node time interval of data transmission and the spreading factors were analyzed. The node density also affects Packet delivery ratio, packet loss and data rate. Besides, based on the measurement and calculation, a mathematical modelling of the LoRa energy consumption ratio is proposed to estimate the energy efficiency at different node densities, the time interval of data transmit and spreading factors. From this research, it can be seen that the LoRa nodes density, time interval of data transmission and spreading factor gives impact on the energy consumption ratio (ECR). As the number of transmitter increases, the ECR decreases by about 10 to 30%.