# Adaptive Spatial Scheduling for Event Traffic in LoRaWAN Networks

## TL;DR

This paper introduces a new scheduling algorithm for LoRaWAN networks to improve performance during event-triggered traffic by using spatial information and learning automata.

## Contribution

A novel adaptive spatial scheduling algorithm using learning automata and spatial correlation for improved LoRaWAN performance during event traffic.

## Key findings

- The proposed algorithm reduces average frame delay by up to 30% compared to previous approaches.
- It achieves an order of magnitude lower delay than the baseline algorithm.
- Using spatial information significantly improves network performance in location-sensitive applications.

## Abstract

Low-Power Wide-Area Networks constitute a leading, emerging Internet-of-Things technology, with important applications in environmental and industrial monitoring and disaster prevention and management. In such sensor networks, external detectable events can trigger synchronized alarm report transmissions. In LoRaWANs, and more generally in networks with a random access-based medium access algorithm, this can lead to a cascade of frame collisions, temporarily resulting in degraded performance and diminished system operational capacity, despite LoRaWANs’ physical layer interference and collision reduction techniques. In this paper, a novel scheduling algorithm is proposed that can increase system reliability in the case of such events. The new adaptive spatial scheduling algorithm is based on learning automata, as well as previous developments in scheduling over LoRaWANs, and it leverages network feedback information and traffic spatial correlation to increase network performance while maintaining high reliability. The proposed algorithm is investigated via an extensive simulation under a variety of network conditions and compared with a previously proposed scheduler for event-triggered traffic. The results show a decrease of up to 30% in average frame delay compared to the previous approach and an order of magnitude lower delay compared to the baseline algorithm. These findings highlight the importance of using spatial information in adaptive schemes for improving network performance, especially in location-sensitive applications.