A 2.4-GHz LoRa-Based Protocol for Communication and Energy Harvesting on Industry Machines

The fourth industrial revolution is paving the way for Industrial Internet of Things applications where a large number of wireless nodes, equipped with sensors and actuators, monitor the production cycle of industrial goods. This article proposes and analyzes LoRa for industrial networks (LoRaIN), a network architecture and medium access control-layer protocol thought for on-demand monitoring of industrial machines. Our proprietary system is an energy-efficient, reliable, and scalable solution, where the protocol is built on top of LoRa at 2.4 GHz. Indeed, the low-power characteristics of LoRa allow to reduce energy consumption, while Wireless Power Transfer is used to recharge batteries, avoiding periodic battery replacement. High reliability is obtained through the joint use of Frequency and Time Division Multiple Access. A dynamic LoRaIN scheduler manages the communication and recharging phases depending on the tasks assigned to the nodes, as well as the number of monitoring devices. Performance is measured in terms of network throughput, energy consumption and latency. Results demonstrate that the proposed solution is suitable for monitoring applications of industry machines.