A Routing Protocol for LoRA Mesh Networks

A limitation of current LoRa networks is their single-hop nature. This causes difficulties in areas with poor Internet access, such as remote rural areas, or challenging radio environments, for example in metropolitan areas, as the LoRa gateway must be placed at a location with backhaul access to the network server, but must nonetheless be reachable by all end devices. To facilitate these applications, we present a new routing protocol to enable mesh networking with LoRa, allowing for multihop networking between gateways to extend coverage. Our protocol is tailored specifically to the requirements of LoRa networks. We have developed a proof-of-concept implementation of the protocol and have shown its effectiveness in both laboratory tests and a field trial in a real-world LoRa deployment.