LoRa-LBO: An Experimental Analysis of LoRa Link Budget Optimization in Custom Build IoT Test Bed for Agriculture 4.0

Abstract

The Internet of Things (IoT) is transforming all applications into real-time monitoring systems. Due to the advancement in sensor technology and communication protocols, the implementation of the IoT is occurring rapidly. In agriculture, the IoT is encouraging implementation of real-time monitoring of crop fields from any remote location. However, there are several agricultural challenges regarding low power use and long-range transmission for effective implementation of the IoT. These challenges are overcome by integrating a long-range (LoRa) communication modem with customized, low-power hardware for transmitting agricultural field data to a cloud server. In this study, we implemented a custom-based sensor node, gateway, and handheld device for real-time transmission of agricultural data to a cloud server. Moreover, we calibrated certain LoRa field parameters, such as link budget, spreading factor, and receiver sensitivity, to extract the correlation of these parameters on a custom-built LoRa testbed in MATLAB. An energy harvesting mechanism is also presented in this article for analyzing the lifetime of the sensor node. Furthermore, this article addresses the significance and distinct kinds of localization algorithms. Based on the MATLAB simulation, we conclude that hybrid range-based localization algorithms are more reliable and scalable for deployment in the agricultural field. Finally, a real-time experiment was conducted to analyze the performance of custom sensor nodes, gateway, and handheld devices.