A Comparison Study of LPWAN Technologies Based on Onsite Measurements in a Converter Station Hall

With the fast development of the industrial internet of things (IIoT), communication technology becomes critical as it plays an essential role in any IIoT systems. For wireless battery-powered sensors with low data rate demands, the low power wide area network (LPWAN) technology is considered as an appropriate method due to its long-range and low energy consumption properties. In this paper, we aim at comparing and evaluating different LPWAN techniques in a converter station. In particular, we consider a scenario that wireless sensors are applied to monitor the condition of converters' key components while gateways are placed in the patrol corridor of the converter hall to collect the state data transmitted from these sensors. Based on our onsite measurement results, we validate that the selected LPWAN techniques can provide the necessary coverage along with reliable link connections while a typical wireless local area network (WLAN) standard, i.e., WiFi, cannot fulfil. Moreover, the LoRa in 470 MHz outperforms other techniques in this certain scenario.