Simulation of LoRa in NS-3: Improving LoRa Performance with CSMA

In this paper, we consider two research issues. First, we present a NS-3 module that simulates the behavior of LoRa in an accurate way. To validate the module, we compare its results with measurements on a real-world testbed and with measured values reported by other work. We also show that the module correctly represents the capture effect that lowers the packet drop rate due to collisions. Second, we want to improve the performance of LoRa devices while not impacting energy consumption, the aspect that usually is not taken into account in the literature. We use the simulator to evaluate CSMA, a simple enhancement to LoRaWAN that lowers the collision ratio. The simulation results show that CSMA considerably lowers the collision ratio while only slightly increasing energy consumption. We also observe that CSMA presents lower energy consumption than LoRa for a large number of devices. Another advantage of CSMA consists of increased throughput and larger network capacity because the ETSI restrictions on the duty cycle do not longer apply.