Map coverage of LoRaWAN signal’s employing GPS from mobile devices

Forests are remote areas with uneven terrain, so it is costly to map the range of signals that enable the implementation of systems based on wireless and long-distance communication. Even so, the interest in Internet of Things (IoT) functionalities for forest monitoring systems has increasingly attracted the attention of several researchers. This work demonstrates the development of a platform that uses the GPS technology of mobile devices to map the signals of a LoRaWAN Gateway. Therefore, the proposed system is based on concatenating two messages to optimize the LoRaWAN transmission using the Global Position System (GPS) data from a mobile device. With the proposed approach, it is possible to guarantee the data transmission when finding the ideal places to fix nodes regarding the coverage of LoRaWAN because the Gateway bandwidth will not be fulfilled. The tests indicate that different changes in the relief and large bodies drastically affect the signal provided by the Gateway. This work demonstrates that mapping the Gateway’s signal is essential to attach modules in the forest, agriculture zones, or even smart cities.
This work has been supported by Fundação La Caixa and FCT - Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia within the Project Scope: UIDB/5757/2020. Thadeu Brito is supported by FCT PhD Grant Reference SFRH/BD/08598/2020. Beatriz Flamia Azevedo is supported by FCT PhD Grant Reference SFRH/BD/07427/2021.

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