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Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
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Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000
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ScienceDirect
Procedia Computer Science 171 (2020) 2334–2342

Third International Conference on Computing and Network Communications (CoCoNet’19)

Third International Conference on Computing and Network Communications (CoCoNet’19)
Improving Unwavering Quality and Adaptability Analysis of
LoRaWAN
Improving Unwavering Quality and Adaptability Analysis of
LoRaWAN
S.Hariprasad a
, T.Deepab
a b
b
a
S.Hariprasad , T.Deepa
Research Scholar , SRM Institute of Science and Technology , Kattankulathur -603203 ,Tamilnadu
Associate Professor, SRM Institute of Science and Technology , Kattankulathur -603203 ,Tamilnadu
a
Research Scholar , SRM Institute of Science and Technology , Kattankulathur -603203 ,Tamilnadu
b
Associate Professor, SRM Institute of Science and Technology , Kattankulathur -603203 ,Tamilnadu

Abstract

Abstract
Many of the Internet of Things (IoT) profit significantly from long-range connectivity with low power. Low power wide area
network (LPWAN) technologies are designed to extend the coverage by minimizing the energy efficiency and less expense of
Many of the Internet
data throughput. Longof Things
range WAN (IoT) profit significantly
(LoRaWAN) is a mediafrom long-range
access connectivity
control (MAC) with
protocol low power.
operated by theLow
LoRa power wideusing
Alliance area
the unlicensed
network LoRatechnologies
(LPWAN) radio modulation technology.
are designed LoRaWAN
to extend providesbya successful
the coverage minimizinginnovation
the energytoefficiency
meet the long–range and low-
and less expense of
power
data demands. Long
throughput. LoRaWAN offers(LoRaWAN)
range WAN three distinctisdevice
a media classes
access(A, B and
control C), providing
(MAC) protocol aoperated
trade-offbyamong
the LoRaeffectiveness and
Alliance using
the unlicensed
power LoRa
usage. This radio
paper modulation
provides technology.
a comparison LoRaWAN
of these classesprovides a successful
theoretically innovation of
and the simulation to class
meet A thewith
long–range
reductionand
of low-
duty
cycle. The
power main contribution
demands. LoRaWAN offers of thisthree
paperdistinct
is to analyze
device the scalability
classes (A, B andof LoRaWAN andaits
C), providing packet among
trade-off deliver effectiveness
ratio (PDR) with
and
maximum
power number
usage. of nodes.
This paper Utilizing
provides LoRaWAN
a comparison ofthe outcomes
these classes are built up an
theoretically examination
and of scalability
the simulation of class Aand unwavering
with quality
reduction of duty
cycle.
measureThe main contribution of this paper is to analyze the scalability of LoRaWAN and its packet deliver ratio (PDR) with
in ns-3.
maximum number of nodes. Utilizing LoRaWAN the outcomes are built up an examination of scalability and unwavering quality
measure in ns-3.
© 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.
© 2020
This The
is an Authors.
open accessPublished by Elsevier
article under B.V.
the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility
© 2020 The Authors. Published byofElsevier
the scientific
B.V. committee of the Third International Conference on Computing and Network
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Third International Conference on Computing and Network
Communications
Communications (CoCoNet’19)
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
(CoCoNet’19).
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Third International Conference on Computing and Network
Communications (CoCoNet’19)Cycle ;PDR;SF;PER
Keywords: LoRaWAN;ADR;Duty

Keywords: LoRaWAN;ADR;Duty Cycle ;PDR;SF;PER

a
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9025457430.
E-mail address: haripras@srmist.edu.in
a
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91-9025457430.
1. E-mail
Introduction
address: haripras@srmist.edu.in

1. Introduction
The Internet of Things (IoT) could be a range of associated objects, ingrained sensors, software’s, electronics and
protocols of wireless property that gather and exchange data via internet-connected wireless networks [1]. Today, the
The Internet of Things (IoT) could be a range of associated objects, ingrained sensors, software’s, electronics and
protocols
1877-0509 ©of2020
wireless property
The Authors. that gather
Published andB.V.
by Elsevier exchange data via internet-connected wireless networks [1]. Today, the
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review
1877-0509 ©under
2020responsibility
The Authors. of the scientific
Published committee
by Elsevier B.V.of the Third International Conference on Computing and Network Communications
(CoCoNet’19)
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Third International Conference on Computing and Network Communications
(CoCoNet’19)

1877-0509 © 2020 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V.

This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/)
Peer-review under responsibility of the scientific committee of the Third International Conference on Computing and Network
Communications (CoCoNet’19).
10.1016/j.procs.2020.04.253
 S. Hariprasad et al. / Procedia Computer Science 171 (2020) 2334–2342 2335
2 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000

IoT already bump the plan of action of the many sectors and facilities like automotive, electronics for consumer,
smart cities, e-health, supply chain management and applications for manufacturing. According to Machina,
connected objects are over 25 billion links beyond 2025 [2]. The LoRa communication system is a physical layer of
LoRaWAN’s LoRa alliance protocol [3]. LoRa communication is distributed across frequency channels and
information rates between end devices and gateways. LoRa promotes data rates for a 125 kHz bandwidth varying
from 300 bps to 5 kbps.
Table 1. Spreading factor and its range [2].
Spreading Factor (SF) Bitrate Range (Indicative values , Depending Time on Air (ms)
(at 125kHz) on Propagation Conditions) For 10 bytes app payload
SF7 5470bps 2 km 56 ms

SF8 3125bps 4 km 100 ms

SF9 1760bps 6 km 200 ms

SF10 980bps 8 km 370 ms

SF11 440bps 11 km 740 ms

SF12 290bps 14 km 1400 ms

LoRaWAN utilizes unlicensed spectrum, generally ISM (Industrial, Scientific, Medical) bands for air access.
European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) controls the access band ISM in Europe with 868 MHz
and 433 MHz. [4]. The use of these organizations is limited: The transmitter's output capacity equivalent
isotropically radiated power (EIRP) must not be greater than 14 dBm or 25 mW along with the duty cycle enforced
by ETSI in Europe shall be restricted to 1% (for devices) or 10% (for gateways) of the used band. With a multitude
of IoT vertical applications, LoRaWAN protocol is creating business efficiencies applications and improving lives
around the world depends on data rate and spreading factor (SF). The applications such as indoor lighting system,
smart home for SF7, SF8 and smart metering, smart city, smart transportation and logistics, video surveillance for
SF8 to SF12.The various of SF and their range is summarized in table 1.
LoRaWAN's main motivation is a widely available game-changing paradigm that offers low-power and long-
range applications, a way to ensure quality of service, and a way to prove that even in adverse conditions the
application works. The main work of this paper is to analyze the scalability of the LoRaWAN and to determine the
maximum number of PDR in the LoRaWAN architecture. This study is to evaluate the LoRa adaptability by
innovation of additional considerations, like packet length payload are taken into account. The rest of the sections
are formulated as follows. In Section 2, the works associated with this paper are deliberated. Section 3 provides the
overview of LoRaWAN. The result and analysis is conferred with more details in Section 4. Section 5 finally
concludes the work.

2. Related Works

An overview of previous research on knowledge sharing is discussed in related works. LoRaWAN message
format and collision rate estimate are addressed in [5]. The message format consists of header and CRC, which is
required for uplink messages. For downlink messages does not have the CRC only header is present. In [6] the
distribution is considered for separating the users and nodes. Uniform distribution and a Poisson law is assumed for
the packet arrivals of the length of payload between one and 51 bytes, it is possible to plot the anticipated collision
rate and capacity utilization based on the load. The technology is not linked to a mobile network operator, so open-
source manner can be implemented by users. In [7] model error is coupled for LoRaWAN MAC protocol for the ns-
3 module enabled with multi-spread factor of bi-directional systems including thousands of end devices. Offers an
integrated framework and a global open network to make low-cost IoT application with the high security and ready
for scale. A number of works which study the performance were published in the LoRa network literature such as
2336 S. Hariprasad et al. / Procedia Computer Science 171 (2020) 2334–2342
Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 3

[8-10]. Reliability and scalability LoRa (RS-LoRa) [11] appropriate for wireless sensor networks is the
synchronized lightweight scheduling is coordinated by gateways. First it looks for an available channel to transmit a
message by Node n. The latest beacon are listening the necessary information. In [12] the flexible distributed
architecture gateway is implemented to improve the network performances. Such gateways connect to server in the
network controls the whole network via an IP network. It also provides base classes that enable the network server
to easily implement new applications. The conventional LoRaWAN and general system are discussed in [13]. The
long range of low energy is consumed by the LoRaWAN and it is accomplished through technique selection of
LoRa Modulation and adaptive data rate (ADR). All analyzes [14] show a large space for potential LoRa
performance improvement. Nevertheless, together with performance, the suggestions for improved techniques of
access must take account of energy consumption.

3. LoRaWAN Overview

Figure 1 – LoRaWAN Architecture

Each LoRaWAN network core is the network server. It is connected to various LoRaWAN gateways that work
as “access points” or “base stations” for front-end end systems and one or more back-end application servers,
process the information produced by the top devices, arising in the topology of star to star, as is often view in the
top-end systems Figure 1.

3.1. Device classes

There are 3 classes of LoRa device available such as Class A, B and C. Class A and B are regularly controlled
by battery, though Class C is mains-fuelled. Obviously, a LoRa device of class A with saving capacities of power,
aside from on the off chance that it is expressly organized to work in class B and C mode. The real contrast in three
different methods for the activity it is on the gathering connected with packets. Class A device receive windows is
illustrated in figure 2 has only two exceptionally short get windows after the packets were transferred. The Class A
device is rests after the windows in order to maintain vitality. Despite the peak of Class A devices, Class B devices
accessible at booked interims extra windows as shown in figure 3. The get windows are synchronized with reference
points that are sent from the input. Last, class C devices, as they are generally not battery-fuelled, can stand to
 S. Hariprasad et al. / Procedia Computer Science 171 (2020) 2334–2342 2337
4 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000

constantly have their radio in get mode, taking into consideration immediate transmission of data to the device
without closing the window as illustrated in figure 4. These classes of LoRa device features the activity of the get
windows for class A, B and C devices individually. The different mode of operation affects the battery life and the
vitality channel.

Figure 2 - Class A device receive windows

Figure 3 - Class B device receive windows

Figure 4 - Class C device receive windows

The Class A device of LoRaWAN is proposed with the two step approach in this work. The first step is to
determine the ADR and the second step is to assign proper SFs to end devices with reduction of duty cycle. If the
gateway far from end nodes or each other, low data rate is to be used to make efficient transmissions (SF10), but
gateway and end nodes close to each other, higher data rate is used for efficient transmission (SF7). The proposed
methods uses only single gateway because the multiple gateways to coexist with as few collisions as possible. The
reduction of the SF makes the reception of a transmission more difficult, because this will be more sensitive to
noise. These two steps approaches are explained briefly in section 3.2 and 3.3 respectively.

3.2. Data Rate

The first method utilized in a LoRaWAN system is the ADR. Basically a power-sharing instrument, the
information rate and RF yields capability are balanced to understand the separation from the packet nodes. The
nodes near the gateway use higher information rates and a RF yield control is lower. The ADR technique can suit
changes in the system foundation and bolster differing way misfortune. ADR instrument is to make use of the
notable potential information rate consistently.
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Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 5

3.3. Attributing LoRa SF to every end devices

The issue is to examine how to assign end devices to LoRa SFs. This can be solved by the second method by SFs
have a significant effect on PDR. Due to low signal to noise ratio (SNR), underestimating the SF may result in
receiving mistakes and overestimation of the SF could lead to inefficient air time. The following three strategies for
the allocation of SF were considered.
• Random: Allocate SFs to end devices indicated by exponential random distribution.
• Fixed: Assign SF equivalent to end devices.
• Packet error ratio (PER): Find and allocate the lowest SF for every end device where the packet error ratio is
below a given threshold.
A number of simulations have been carried out for each strategy for a 700-s upstream data period and a range of
end devices. A number of separate PER thresholds have been screened for 0.01 for the PER approach.
The duty cycle control can be noted when transmission takes part instantly after transmission. There would be an
error message to show that owing to duty cycle control the transmission was unsuccessful and the sub-band is
blocked then wait for the block length before we can retransmit effectively. The duration of the block, 𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠
is as follows defined:

𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴

𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠 = − 𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇𝑇 𝑂𝑂𝑂𝑂 𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴𝐴(𝑚𝑚𝑚𝑚) (1)
𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝐷𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠𝑠

The LoRaWAN network simulation (NS) installed only once by the LoRaWAN network server class. This one-
tone object recognizes gateway packets upstream and sends downstream traffic via gateways to end devices. It
uncovered the accompanying ascribes to design traffic downstream: confirmed or unconfirmed messages, packet
size and generation of packet based on exponential random variable. The class monitors information like device
address, packet counter, previous data rate and last gateway established for each end device. Duplicate data packets
can be detected by the end devices from different gateways based on the packet counters. The NS provides
downstream data and acknowledgments. It includes a packet queue for downstream traffic storage per end device. It
stores RX1 and RX2 timers for each end unit that are used for downstream traffic scheduling. At the point when a
clock elapses, the NS experiences the retrieval of the last known gateways and searches for a gateway to send the
queued packet downstream. Each time the NS processes upstream transmission, these timers are scheduled. Finally,
for confirmed downstream data packets, the NS is responsible for retransmission.

4. Results and Discussions

We consider a situation of up to 100,500 and 1000 nodes with GW1 and several end devices as illustrated in table
2. The simulation time period is taken up to micro seconds of 700, 5000, 10000. End device positions are allocated
randomly around the portal in the 6000 m x 6000 m region. End devices send data frames that are unconfirmed.
With regard to the packet delivery ratio, we assessed and contrasted their efficiency with LoRaWAN using ns-3.We
simulated a network with an increasing number of nodes. The receiver receives the preamble of another packet as
illustrated in table 3.
Each simulation runs for a period of simulation equal to one hundred times the period of generation of upstream
data. For each end device, the first upstream packet's transmission time is picked from an exponentially distributed
random variable between zeros and upstream. The subsequent upstream packets are produced frequently, depending
on the information generation period. Upstream packets have an 8-byte payload application that contains a PHY
payload of 21-bytes.
An optimal distribution of SF between the end node is compared between proposed and [7] is shown in table 4.
For SF allocation, the 0.01 PER threshold is selected. On average, the proposed threshold is around 11% of SF12
and in [7] threshold is around 43% of SF12 in a single gateway with end device a radius of 6000 m in LoRaWAN
network. By proposed method the nearest SF allocation can be done with higher number of nodes when compared to
the previous method [7].
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6 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000

Table 2. Simulation parameter settings

Parameter Value Unit

No of Nodes 100, 500, 1000 -

Frequency band 868 MHz

Code Rate 4/5

Duty Cycle 0.1%

Packet length (excluding header) 21 bytes

Maximal distance to the GW1 6000 Meter

Spreading Factor SF7-SF12

Table 3. Downstream Acknowledgement and Upstream Packages for Confirmed Messages

Time Taken End Missed RX1

Gateway RX1 RX2 PDR (%)
(in us) Devices & RX2

700 100 14 21 35 69

5000 100 59 40 99 60

10000 100 69 31 100 38

700 500 23 43 13.2 589

GW1 5000 500 100 242 68.4 1232

10000 500 159 297 91.2 711

700 1000 22 52 7.4 1188

5000 1000 106 340 44.6 3300

10000 1000 190 541 73.1 2579

Table 4. Optimal distribution of SF12 at a unique data rate with One Gateway

Method Gateway SF12

Proposed 1 11%

[7] 1 43%
 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000 7
2340 S. Hariprasad et al. / Procedia Computer Science 171 (2020) 2334–2342

Figure 5-Distributions of 100 Nodes in the NS3 Simulator

The figure 5 demonstrates the conveyance of nodes in the NS3 Simulator. All recreations with one Gateway (GW1)
and number of configurable end devices sent in a circle with a greatest range of a 6000 m radius2. All end devices
and data packets are designed to utilize the equivalent 125-kHz LoRaWAN channel (868.100 MHz). The packet is
sent at fixed positions, which rely upon the quantity of entry ways in the previous data packets. If there should arise
an occurrence of one packet, it is situated in the root of the plate. The end devices are consistently appropriated in
the discrete occasion previous data packets and have a fixed position during the reproduction. The main recreation is
only a solitary portal GW1 situation for 100, 500, 1000 nodes. All nodes attempt to speak with the window GW1.
Because of the ALOHA idea of the convention, all nodes need to battle for sending their information to GW1. The
recreation results are appeared in Figure 6 and Figure 7.

Figure 6- PDRs for PER=0.01% for 100, 500, and 1000 nodes respectively (Single Gateway).
 S. Hariprasad et al. / Procedia Computer Science 171 (2020) 2334–2342 2341
8 Author name / Procedia Computer Science 00 (2019) 000–000

Figure 6 introduces the PDR for LoRaWAN for PER=0.01% for 100, 500, and 1000 nodes with various times 700,
5000, 10000 micro seconds respectively. The received packets are based on the time factor and gateway distance.
The PER is very low near the gateway, whereas the performance goes down far from the gateway. The inference of
the above figure is that with the number of contending devices, the ratio for LoRaWAN increases rapidly.

Figure 7- The packets transmission by all the nodes using GW1

Figure 7 illustrates the packets transmission by all the nodes using GW1 in LoRaWAN. All messages transmitted
are numbered in violet bars. The orange bars indicate the packets obtained effective at the gateway. The difference
in the amount of packets lost between the two bars. It presents the PDRs for the different SF allocation strategies.
Packets are sent as messages that are unconfirmed. Looking at the outcomes, obviously the PER technique plays out
the best out of three as far as PDR. The PDRs for fixed PER edges are basically the same as and in all considered
system sizes there is no edge that yields the highest PDR.

5. Conclusion

This LoRaWAN module has been designed for low power and long range communication in the framework of
ns-3. In this framework a flexible approach that can easily integrate a new server-side algorithm has been
investigated for new protocols and the effect on the network of different parameters. A two-step module was
proposed to improve the scalability and PDR. The first step was to determine the ADR and the second step was to
assign the proper SFs to end devices with reduction of duty cycle. At the end, the efficiency of LoRaWAN module
is increased without affecting energy consumption. Another benefit of LoRaWAN is enhanced throughput and
greater network capability was achieved up to 92%. Based on the simulation results some possible improvement can
also be done where several IoT systems linked to the network.

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