Adaptive Beacon Period Configurator for Scalable LoRaWAN Downlink Applications

Abstract

Low-power wide-area networks (LPWAN) are commonly used because they meet the requirements of Internet-of-Things (IoT) networks with a large number of end devices, such as high network scalability, wide area coverage, low data rates, and delay tolerance while consuming very little energy. The LoRa wide-area network (LoRaWAN) is one of the most popular solutions, supporting three types of medium access control (MAC) options to handle distinct application demands. Class B shortens downlink frame transmission latency while maintaining low energy consumption in the end device. This article analyzes the operation of gateways with class B devices to determine the events that influence scalability and performance, presents an analytical model to describe these systems, and proposes an optimization mechanism called Adaptive Beacon Period Configurator (ABPC). ABPC changes the time-related parameters configuration to improve the usability of these networks in dynamic scenarios. The proposed solution is then simulated and tested against the analytical model. The tradeoff between the waiting time between messages, the probability of reception, and the energy consumption of an end device is shown in the results, describing how traffic density increases impacts in these Key Performance Indicators (KPI) and how to try to guarantee these requirements in a network deployment.

Keywords

• LoRaWAN
• low power wide area network (LPWAN)
• scalability
• network optimization