An Optimization Method based on LoRa Parameters for Energy Consumption Reduction

Low-Power Wide-Area Networking (LPWAN) has become a key technology for connecting devices on the Internet-of-Things (IoT) context because of their long range and low-power capabilities. The LoRa (Long Range) modulation technique is getting more and more attention as a LPWAN for many application fields such as smart cities, smart industries, smart health and so on. In this way, evaluation of LoRa devices performance is needed to give support for new developments, mainly related to low-power applications. Although, there is a lack of studies about reducing the LoRa consumption, optimizing its parameters, which are important to the development of these applications, such as in energy harvesting systems. Then, in this work, some practical results of a LoRa-based node power consumption are shown aiming to compare energy consumption versus different LoRa parameter configurations for energy saving. In addition, a method for energy consumption optimization is introduced. Furthermore, the computed optimal values of the parameters Spreading Factor (SF), Bandwidth (BW) and Transmission Power (P
tx
) for a sensor node that uses a SX1276 LoRa radio are also shown.