Analysis of the Influence of Terrain on LoRaWAN-based IoT Deployments

Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) is a network protocol specifically designed to leverage the advantages of Long Range technology. LoRaWAN is employed to connect Internet of Things devices through a long-range network infrastructure, providing a secure and efficient communication layer that facilitates connectivity for a vast number of devices in a LoRa network. The aim of this study is to assess the real-life performance of LoRaWAN in different topographical environments. In particular, two scenarios (one flat and one mountainous) are compared, with an analysis of the success rate in data packet reception. The purpose is to examine how topography influences communication between LoRa devices and gateways, as well as to explore alternatives for overcoming challenges in rugged terrain environments. Therefore, in the mountainous environment, the study also investigates whether the use of drones could enhance communications. The findings of this study reveal that the topography of the terrain significantly impacts LoRa communications, resulting in a 58.63% decrease in the number of successfully received packets compared to a flat environment. Moreover, one-third of the nodes failed to establish communication with the ground gateway, and a partial improvement in connectivity was achieved by using gateways deployed on drones.