An Exploration of LoRa Network in Tropical Farming Environment

Agricultural Internet of Things (IoT) applications represent a great help in collect environmental data and guide the farmer to make better decisions. Due to the data range of wireless networks and low power capabilities, one promising technologies for Low-Power-Wide-Area-Network (LPWAN) is LoRa systems. This study provides the performance evaluation of outdoor Lora signal propagation within the range 902-928 megahertz frequency in tropical environment. The behavior of LoRa communication in a tropical vegetation appeared smaller than the theoretical expected range. A dense vegetation intensely reduces the communication range impacting the spreading factor and coding rate. The sensor nodes are positioned from several hundred meters of a point collection in a rural environment. Different propagation models and checkpoint have been compared to the measurement metrics of the LoRa performance evaluation including the Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR), the Received Packet Ratio (RPR), Received Signal Strength Indication (RSSI).