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The relation of LoRaWAN efficiency with energy consumption of sensor node

Conference Paper · October 2019

DOI: 10.1109/ICPEI47862.2019.8945016

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International Conference on Power, Energy and Innovation (ICPEI 2019)
October 16-18, 2019, Pattaya, THAILAND

The relation of LoRaWAN efficiency with energy

consumption of sensor node
Nisit Pukrongta Boonyarit Kumkhet
Department of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering Department of Electronics & Telecommunication Engineering
Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi Rajamangala University of Technology Thanyaburi
Pathum Thani, Thailand Pathum Thani, Thailand
nisit.p@en.rmutt.ac.th boonyarit.k@en.rmutt.ac.th

Abstract—This paper presents the study of the various soil (3). In addition to the development of sensors, there is
factors of LoRaWAN or LPWAN (Low power wide area also the development of energy management of data
network), that affect energy consumption compared to the transmission by applying energy variables to transmit data
efficiency of sensor nodes such as the transmitting and (bit) to analyze power consumption (4-5). Moreover, LoRa's
receiving data, the distance of transmission, and stability. The data communication packets are analyze to find the power
experiment efficiency of sensor node system by focuses on two consumption to transmit data in different modes of
parts. The first part, considered the node's communication. We communication for analyzing the lifetime of LoRa node (5-
connected sensor node 3 nodes with LoRa base station and 6).
operating communication test for 7 days using the sensor node,
which purpose to measurement and monitor of soil moisture, In this paper, we present a study of the relationship
temperature, and humidity. Then setting and varying 3 between the efficiency of the LoRaWAN network and the
communication parameters namely such as SF (spreading power consumption of sensor nodes in the network. The first
factor), CR (coding rate), d (distance). When any variable is step is to create a sensor node prototype according to
adjusted, other variable is remaining constant. Finally, energy agriculture and test the node's work. The second step is to
consumption was analyzed with each of variable to determine study the variables of LoRa's communication and to analyze
the suitability for different environments. When SF is high the the variables to determine the relationship with energy
power consumption is high, which is the highest SF value is 11.
consumption. The third step experiment Node's data
When the CR is low the power consumption is high, the lowest
transmission. Then the results to determine the power
CR is 4/8. The second part, we measuring factor of packet's
communication, which is following to the LoRa protocol
consumption of nodes by analyzing the packet of LoRa
standard. Which the power consumption 73.29 mW/H. From protocol. Finally, use the node's power consumption values
experiment test, the soil moisture sensor nodes have a battery to analyze and compare with energy sources (battery) to find
node’s lifetime is 6 days and 3 hours. in addition, maximum the lifetime of the sensor node.
distance to communication of the soil moisture sensor node is
226m, with RSSI -116 dBm. II. SENSOR NODE AND NETWORK DESIGN
In this research, a study of energy consumption of sensor
Keywords—LoRaWAN, spreading factor, codeing rate, node base on Heltec WiFi LoRa 32 board (ESP32 with LoRa
distance, power consumption SX1276) was purposed. In addition, the relationship between
the efficiency of data communication and energy
I. INTRODUCTION consumption use is studied to determine the ability of the
Today, the agricultural industry is one of those that have sensor node system by LoRaWAN.
used microcontroller electronic technology to help develop
and enhance agricultural capabilities (1). Varieties of
microcontroller and electronic devices have developed to
work in accordance with agriculture. LoRa Technology is
one of the equipment that is developed and suitable for
agriculture. Which LoRa is a technology, which is capable of
the distance of node’s data transmit. LoRa can send data at a
distance from 100 meters to several kilometers, which uses
less energy to send data. Therefore LoRa device used in
conjunction with sensors to measure agricultural properties
or factors such as humidity, temperature, rainfall, wind
speed, soil moisture, and etc (2). In addition, sensor devices
are developed to meet the requirements self-employed as
well from one research has developed a sensor to measure
soil moisture by using low-cost materials ie copper line and
thermocol sheet. This prototype sensor can measure soil
moisture by applying the principle of soil resistance that
Fig. 1 The prototype of sensor node
varies according to the amount of water or moisture in the

XXX-X-XXXX-XXXX-X/XX/$XX.00 ©20XX IEEE

International Conference on Power, Energy and Innovation (ICPEI 2019)
October 16-18, 2019, Pattaya, THAILAND
A. Sensor node and LoRa base station
Fig 1 show the prototype of the sensor node is designed
according to the characteristics of the plants that the plants
use to absorb nutrients, minerals, and water in the soil. The
roots of the plant are not just on the surface of the soil, but
the roots are underground deep down many centimeters to
find food. Therefore, we designed the sensor to measure the
depth at 3 levels as 20cm, 40cm, and 60cm. That sending
electricity current from one copper rod through the soil to
another copper rod. then compare the voltage receive with
voltage sent to find the resistance in the soil. When the soil
has a low resistance, the soil moisture content will be high
and when the soil has a high resistance value, the moisture
content will be low. In addition, the proposed sensor nodes
also integrate with LoRa technology for use in wireless data
transmission and low power consumption. The hardware of
the Node includes Heltec WiFi LoRa 32, that is
microcontroller model ESP32 works with wireless
communication using the LoRa Model Semtech SX1276
module (7), which supports band 923 (AS923-925MHz As
required by Thailand law). In addition to the 3-level soil
moisture sensor prototype, there is also a temperature and
humidity sensor (DHT21). The energy of node use battery
3.7V 3000mAH.
B. LoRaWAN Class
LoRaWAN has design protocol for low power node and
network organized as a star topology. Every node in the
group is connect with a gateway, that device listens every
time on-air after LoRa communication traffic. The LoRa
have data rates as 0.3kpbs up to 37.5kbps, depending on
coding rate, spreading factor, distance, and others. Which
LoRaWAN separate classes of LoRa node is 3 classes
follow working inside a node.
1) Class A - This class emphasizes using the power of
the node is low for improved battery life for extending
battery life. The node maintains sleep mode until the
gateway requirement signal to the node, that gateway will be
waiting node awake then transmit data to the gateway.
2) Class B - The node will process with the gateway
called a “beacon lock” by the gateway send a beacon to
node all time. In this class, it can calculate battery life
because the gateway can determine the interval for
transmitting data between the node and the gateway.
3) Class C - This class the gateway continuously
signal to the node - If the node has enough energy of node to
stay always on, the receive window will not be limited.
Class C can transmit a packet immediately when a node or
gateway wants to transmit data. Therefore making this class
is power consumption is high.
The LoRaWAN can be tuning all 3 by controlling
physical layer settings for change performance of
communication. Follow the principle of classes that already
explain the configuration of LoRa.
C. LoRaWAN packet structure
In this paper, we propose basic physical settings factors
as follow spreading factor (SF), bandwidth (BW), and
coding rate (CR). Which are parameters in basic LoRa
packet structure as shown fig 2
Fig. 2. LoRa packet structure
1) Spreading Factor (SF)
Spreading Factor (SF) is the basic parameter of LoRa
communication. Which transforming bit into many chips by
encoding method. The SF values can be changed from 6 to
12, each value is related to the number of chips and the
symbol rate from the formula 2SF. That the number of chips
will increase according to the value of SF. When the SF
value increases, will affect the number of chips per symbol
increases and sensitivity increases because when SF is high,
it results in the negative SNR decreases at SF = 6, with SNR
= -5db and at SF = 12, SNR = -20db. The transmission rate
of LoRaWAN is 0.3 kbps to 37.5 kbps.
2) Bandwidth (BW)
Bandwidth (BW) is the range of frequencies in the
transmission band. The LoRa have modulation signal is
FSK and the bandwidth since 125 to 500 kHz. The normal
setting of bandwidth is 125, 250, or 500 kHz. The RS
formula (2) shows the relation between BW and SF, that is
the ratio between the chip rate and the nominal symbol rate.
3) Coding Rate (CR)
Coding Rate (CR) is improving the robustness of the LoRa's
communication link by cyclic error coding (CRC) that add
to the encoding process of the data in the transmitted packet.
CR = 4/(4+n) by n is since 1 to 4. Which CR is large, it
means more reliability by improving resilience to corrupted
bits, but increases energy consumption because of the large
CR will increase time on air.
4) Transmission Power (TxPower)
Long-distance transmission of LoRa. Beyond antenna high
gain, is power transmission. Which LoRa have power
transmission ranges since -4 to 20 dBm. The higher the
power transmission, the higher the energy consumption and
SNR.
In addition, the basic modulation of LoRa is determined
by Semtech (7) has defined the modulation bit rate or Rb
formula as follows.
SF × 4 2 SF
Rb = bit / sec (1)
4 + CR BW
The payload packets can vary the size of payload
according to the actual data rate and error rate that included
in the header of the packet. In addition, add the error
checking code in the packet. Which the on-air transmission
time of the Lora packet, that is combined spread factor,
coding rate, and bandwidth. The symbol duration (TS) and
symbol rate (RS) is calculate as follows (2)
International Conference on Power, Energy and Innovation (ICPEI 2019)
October 16-18, 2019, Pattaya, THAILAND

1 BW
Ts = ; Rs = (2)
Rs 2SF
The payload duration (Tpayload) is calculate as follow (3).

Tpayload = N payload × Ts (3)

The N Payload is the number of symbols used to transmit.

Which the payload can calculated as follow (4).

 (8 PL − 4 SF + 28 + 16CRC − 20 IH   1 
N payload = 8 + max(celi    CR  , 0) (4)
 4( SF − 2 DE )  

Where ceil indicates the ceiling function, [(8PL-

4SF+28+16CRC-20IH) / 4(SF-2DE)]. Which when the Fig. 4 The effect of adjusting SF and maintaining C/R = 4/5
Header is enabled the value IH equal 0 and the header is
closed the value IH equal 1. The value DE equal 1 when the III. EXPERIMENTAL AND RESULTS
low data rate optimization is enabled and the value DE equal
0 for the other case.
D. Model of LoRa
In this section, this section will study the basic
parameters of LoRa. By considering the impact of changes
in the spread factor and coding rate, which are important
parameters that relate transmit data and power consumption
with the battery of the LoRa sensor node. The node used the
SX1276 transceiver, that parameter shown as in Table I.

TABLE I. THE PARAMETERS OF LORA

Mode Parameter Value Description
LoRa SF 7 - 12 Basic parameter Fig. 5 LoRa packet format
Mode CR 4/5 - 4/8 configurations is
BW 125KHz SF=7,C/R=4/5 and The experiment efficiency of sensor node system in this
BW 125 KHz paper focuses on two part. The first part, the communication
of node we operating test for 7 days using the soil moisture
sensor and temperature – humidity (DHT21) sensor with the
purpose of monitoring soil moisture, temperature, and
humidity. by communication between the sensor node and
the base station use the proposed communication is LoRa
protocol. Which format packet for transmitting data as
shown Fig. 5. In addition, we have measured the distance
and efficiency of sensor node communication with non-line
of sight (NLOS). Then we set the distance between the base
station and the sensor node as 50m apart and increase the
transmission data distance 50 meters at a time. Until the data
cannot be sent to the base station. The experiment results
show that the proposed sensor node can send data at a
distance of 226 meters, with RSSI -116 dBm as shown in
the results Table II and Fig. 6.
TABLE II. THE DISTANCE OF DATA TRANSMISSION
Fig. 3 The effect of adjusting C/R and maintaining SF = 7 Location
Distance (m) RSSI (dBm)
Lat Long
Fig. 3 shows the energy used per useful bit and maintain SF
= 7 and vary code rate. The function of payload at different Base Station (S) 14.0374 100.7261 0 -63
factors of the coding rate (CR) it is observe that this energy Point 1 14.0379 100.7261 50 -75
used per useful will be decrease as the decrease of coding Point 2 14.0382 100.7266 100 -104
rate (CR). Fig. 4 shows the energy used per useful bit and Point 3 14.0387 100.7266 150 -109
maintain CR = 4/5 and vary spread factor (SF). When the Point 4 14.0391 100.7270 200 -114
value of the rate of the spread factor is decrease, the energy Point 5 14.0392 100.7271 226 -116
used per useful bit will be less decreased according.
International Conference on Power, Energy and Innovation (ICPEI 2019)
October 16-18, 2019, Pattaya, THAILAND

Vbattery × Q
Th = 3600 × (7)
WN + WS
Then we calculation number of the operating hour. The
power consumption of the node is 73.29 mW/h. Which
consumes 1,758.96 mW a day. The electric quantity of the
battery that we have 3.7V×3000mWh = 11,100 mW/h.
Therefore, the sensor node can operate for about 6 days and
3 hours.
IV. CONCLUSTION
This paper created a node using LoRa technology and a
sensor node, which consisting of the 3-level soil moisture
Fig. 6 The distance of data transmission
sensor can measure soil moisture 3 levels ie 20cm, 40cm and
The second part, we focused on energy consumption of 60 cm. Include temperature – humidity sensor capable
node. We have measurement in order to affirm the value of measure temperature and humidity as well. Then we
the power consumption separately the verification of measurement the power consumption and transmission data
communication protocol. The aim of this affirmation is to of node according to the LoRa protocol. From the analysis, it
confirm how long energy source life for this system can be was found the power consumption of the sensor node is
operated. Then we measured the electric current, voltage 73.29 mW/h. We can be calculated as the energy consumed
per day compared to the battery 3.7V battery with 3000mA/h
and calculate processing time and power consumption for
of capacity. The sensor node working by battery only, that
each event mode. The result was showed in the Table III.
have 6 days and 3 hours of battery lifetime. Even though this
The most power consuming is data sending event. It shows number is the theoretical value of operations days, it seems
sleep time mode has lower power consumption than other that the energy of the sensor node not enough to monitor the
modes with respect to time. environment of the agriculture field in a long time. future
work, we consider energy from alternative energy such as
TABLE III. MEASUREMENT RESULTS OF POWER CONSUMPTION
solar or wind energy for fed to the wireless sensor nodes.
Electric Consumption
Event Time (s) Voltage (V) current of current ACKNOWLEDGMENT
(mA) (mW/h) The department of electronics and telecommunication
Standby
7.00 3.70 43.90 0.32
engineering (RMUTT) supports this paper. We would like
acquire to thank our colleagues, Mr.Panuwat Thiangyang and
Data send 943.20 3.70 73.78 71.52 Mr.Kulawat Disri, the prototype and research assistants. We
Mode
3.00 3.70 37.40 0.12
thank the assistant. Assistant Professor Dr. Paitoon Rakluea
switching and Mr.Pubet Sangmahamad provide help and suggestions
Receiving for improving the work and articles very much.
3.50 3.70 48.80 0.18
standby
Receive 1.50 3.70 48.60 0.07 REFERENCES
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