Applicability of Listen Before Talk for LoRaWAN Deployments with Multiple Gateways

The Internet of Things is revolutionizing our daily lives by enabling numerous new applications. Low Power Wide Area Network solutions are pivotal in this transformation, facilitating long-distance data transmission with minimal energy consumption and extended battery life. Particularly suitable for simple temperature sensors, environmental monitoring, and metering applications in Smart Cities, Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) has gained popularity due to its adaptability. However, the use of random channel access in current systems presents a significant challenge, as simultaneous data transmissions can lead to message collisions and data loss. To address collisions, alternative channel access methods like Listen Before Talk (LBT) are being explored, showing promising results in efficient collision avoidance. However, optimizing parameter configurations for LBT is challenging due to the varying transmission airtimes of LoRa messages. Our comprehensive simulation-based study examines various parameters for LBT to enhance message transmission quality in LoRaWANs. Our approach significantly reduces message delay compared to existing methods, eliminating the need for additional re-transmissions.