Empirical Evaluation of Lora Propagation in a Campus Environment

Abstract

LoRa (or LoRaWAN) is the well-known technology of narrowband communication systems
designed for various Internets of Things (IoT) applications. LoRa technology is designed for
long-range operations with low deployment cost. The remarkable feature of LoRa includes its
considerable loss in link budget and offers a remarkable immunity to multipath interference
environment. LoRa technology solution can be used in order to deployment of smart campus IoT
applications. To design a smart campus with LoRaWAN in campus premises, it is necessary to
evaluate its propagation channel characteristics for the selected locations of campus
environment. This paper concludes the empirical measurement of LoRa propagation using
868MHz frequency at different locations in the university campus premises located in Kuala
Lumpur, Malaysia. LoRa propagation performance was tested in indoor (classroom and
corridor), outdoor (car parking) and foliage (tress in the yard) environment individually. The
propagation effects are carried out in the form of received signal strength measurement. The
results show that outdoor environment propagation incurs significant loss compared to indoor
propagation over the same range. Moreover foliage propagation characteristics are more
complex because of absorption of signal in foliage medium. This research also compares the
measured path loss with the SUI model and Cost 231 Hata model. The outcome shows that the
measured path loss components are close to the SUI path loss curve. This demonstrates the need
for further studies of LoRa propagation channel modelling utilizing the SUI model with
correction factorfor heavy multipath propagation