A Demonstration of Low Power Wide Area Networking for City-Scale Monitoring Applications

Networks of sensors are key components of an Internet of Things. This paper outlines a demonstration of a wireless technology called LoRa/LoRaWAN that may be used to network sensors over a range of several kilometers. LoRa is an example of a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) and features hardware, software and network protocols especially designed to achieve wide area coverage with exceptionally low power consumption. However, these features constrain effective data rate and multiplexing capabilities. Our demonstration applies LoRa to an Environment Monitoring and Electrical Power System application where these tradeoffs are justified.