Hybrid Low-Power Wide-Area Mesh Network for IoT Applications

TL;DR

This paper presents a hybrid LPWAN mesh network combining LoRa and ANT protocols to enhance IoT data collection, offering wide coverage and low power consumption demonstrated through real-world campus and farm deployments.

Contribution

It introduces a novel hybrid mesh network architecture utilizing both sub-GHz and 2.4 GHz radios, improving IoT network coverage and efficiency over existing solutions.

Findings

Superior coverage and power efficiency compared to traditional IoT networks.

Successful real-world deployment at Purdue University campus and farm.

Cost-effective solution with enhanced data collection capabilities.

Abstract

The recent advancement of the Internet of Things (IoT) enables the possibility of data collection from diverse environments using IoT devices. However, despite the rapid advancement of low-power communication technologies, the deployment of IoT networks still faces many challenges. In this paper, we propose a hybrid, low-power, wide-area network (LPWAN) structure that can achieve wide-area communication coverage and low power consumption on IoT devices by utilizing both sub-GHz long-range radio and 2.4 GHz short-range radio. Specifically, we constructed a low-power mesh network with LoRa, a physical-layer standard that can provide long-range (kilometers) point-to-point communication using custom time-division multiple access (TDMA). Furthermore, we extended the capabilities of the mesh network by enabling ANT, an ultra-low-power, short-range communication protocol to satisfy data collection in dense device deployments. Third, we demonstrate the performance of the hybrid network with two real-world deployments at the Purdue University campus and at the university-owned farm. The results suggest that both networks have superior advantages in terms of cost, coverage, and power consumption vis-\`a-vis other IoT solutions, like LoRaWAN.