Comparative analysis of end device and field test device measurements for rssi, snr and sf performance parameters in an indoor lorawan network

Abstract

Internet of things phenomenon has brought up distinctive technologies that are using wireless communication and appearing in smart city applications. Long range (LoRa) modulation technique has pulled up the market and forced the announcement of LoRa wide area network (LoRaWAN) standard in 2021 by ITU-T with Y.4480 standard code. LoRaWAN is a medium access control protocol using low power wide area network approaches with the aim of long-range coverage and management of many end devices. LoRaWAN networks are emerging all over the world with some existing optimization, planning and network allocation problems that need to be overcome. This paper focuses on comparative analysis and interpretation of measurements performed in a LoRaWAN network deployed in an 18-floor building with a LoRaWAN gateway on the roof. The research covers results of comparative measurements between end device and Adeunis field test device (AFTD) for received signal strength indicator (RSSI), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and spreading factor (SF). End devices have been randomly selected from 18th, 12th, 6th and 1st floors and their daily performance data have been gathered through the network server. AFTD has been used to get 100 sample measurements for each floor. Maximum and average RSSI values obtained from end device measurements are higher than ones measured with AFTD except the case in the 18th floor. Excluding the maximum SNR values at the 1st and the 18th floors, all SNR values measured with AFTD are higher than ones obtained from end device measurements. SF measurements show that higher SF values are more likely to be used with increasing distances to the gateway as expected from the theoretical background.