A Novel Approach to Energy Efficiency Optimization in Hybrid ESP-NOW/LoRa Networks Using Low-Power Strategies

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) are essential in applications such as environmental monitoring and smart agriculture, where they collect and transmit data from remote locations. A key challenge is energy efficiency, especially for battery-powered applications, as it affects network lifetime and maintenance costs. To address this, the design and implementation of a wireless sensor network architecture that combines ESP-NOW and LoRa protocols to create a low-power IoT solution is presented. This hybrid approach leverages the energy efficiency and simplicity of ESP-NOW for short-range local communication between nodes while using LoRa for long-range transmission to the back-end infrastructure (Gateway). The results demonstrate that the proposed architecture offers an efficient and flexible solution compared to traditional architectures based solely on LoRa or WiFi, thanks to the optimized integration of ESP-NOW for the local network and LoRa for long-range transmissions.