On the Feasibility of LoRaWAN Communication in a Smart Road Sensor Network

The mobility of people and goods is crucial for the social and economic development of modern cities, but issues like traffic congestion and limited parking can negatively impact this mobility and quality of life, leading to pollution. To address these problems, many cities are adopting smart mobility solutions using ICT and IoT technologies for more efficient, safe, and sustainable transportation systems. This requires installing various sensors and IoT devices on roads to communicate with connected vehicles and traffic management systems. However, preserving historic landmarks in city centers often restricts the installation of such devices. Our study is aimed at overcoming this restriction by developing an IoT-based sensor hosted in an enclosure that mimics cobblestones to blend into historic areas. The sensor network has been designed to use LoRaWAN technology for communication, thanks to LoRaWAN's promising features like low energy consumption and long-range communication. This paper presents a preliminary study about the feasibility of LoRaWAN in the designed sensor network, evaluating in particular how the presence of the cobblestone can affect the communication link quality. Results obtained in a controlled environment demonstrate that the LoRa received signal power, and the quality of the communication link between the sensor node and the gateway are not affected by the presence of the cobblestone, obtaining a packet receiving rate ever higher than 98%.