A New Approach Towards LoRa Wireless Technology Parameters' Selection

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) consist of remote sensors used to monitor and record physical conditions of the environment and analyze the collected data at a central location for further processing and decision making. WSNs measure environmental conditions such as temperature, pressure, pollution levels, humidity, etc. Long Range (LoRa) wireless technology is a good candidate for providing long-range, low data rate, low energy consumption for WSNs. In this paper, a methodology for selecting the best LoRa parameters, namely, the Spread Factor (SF), Bandwidth (BW), Coding Rate (CR), that achieve the highest bit rate, lowest packet loss, best receiver sensitivity has been proposed using the idea of Radar diagram, which should help researchers and applications' developers choose the best LoRa parameters according to their application requirements. Furthermore, a set of experimental tests has been conducted to study experimentally the LoRa parameters' impact on the transmission quality measured using the packet loss rate (PLR) and the Receiving Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI).