LoRA Communication Testing for LOS and NLOS Operations

Communication plays a vital role in both connected and autonomous systems deployment, enabling important functions like data acquisition, monitoring for reliable, secure and safe operations. Selection of a communication method is driven by requirements like cost, reliability, performance, safety, security, and operating conditions. In this paper, the focus is on the communication options for distributed, outdoor robots under Line of Sight (LoS) and Non-Line of Sight (NLoS) conditions. Initially, details of various wireless networking options are compared and the rationale behind selection of Long Range (LoRa) communication is presented. Subsequently, the software and hardware factors within a communication architecture using LoRa are defined. Finally, implementation of LoRa-based communication architecture through successful results collected during tests simulating real-world LoS and NLoS operations is corroborated.