Evaluation of LoRa Radio Propagation and LoRa Base Station Placement Algorithm in Urban Regions

Abstract

In recent years, IoT sensors become to be used in various fields rapidly. Usually, these IoT sensors are setup for years in a wide area, collect and upload a small amount of data periodically. Therefore, the IoT sensors have a high demand for battery life and the radio propagation coverage, while not the bandwidth. In order to serve this kind of devices, based on the LPWA standard, a new type network Lora, is proposed. LoRa’s base station(BS) placement problem is also an important part of LoRa network design. However, due to the radio propagation features of LoRa, especially when applied to an urban area with many obstacle buildings, we need to rethink the LoRa’s BS placement approach. In this article, we get data by simulating the radio propagation in UT hongo-campus, and utilize a hypergeometric distribution method that based on heuristic algorithm, to find a BS placement solution that is able to guarantee the required coverage, RSSI and number of BSs.