Illustration LoRaWAN network layers

The physical layer employs LoRa modulation, which is based on CSS and presents the same
characteristics of FSK (Frequency Shifting Keying) regarding communication range

Thus, LoRaWAN will be approached as a communication protocol and network architecture, while LoRa
physical layer enables the long range link. The protocol and network architecture have the influence to
determine a node's battery life, the network capacity, the QoS (Quality of Service), security and
reliability of the applications in the network

Long range radio or LoRa is a physical layer specification that uses a proprietary spread spectrum
modulation scheme . It utilizes spread spectrum techniques with the use of chirp signals, which are
continuous sinusoids with linearly increasing or decreasing frequency, for the transmission and
reception of data.

THE LoRa MODULATION

From the waveform analysis and the public information [7], it can be inferred that LoRa is a chirp-
modulated high-order M-ary FSK system.

LoRa aims to eliminate repeaters, reduce device cost, increase battery lifetime on devices, improve
network capacity, and support a large number of devices. It is a physical layer used for longrange
communication.

To achieve low power, most wireless technologies use Frequency Shift Key (FSK) modulation. However,
LoRa uses Chirp-spread-spectrum (CSS) modulation to maintain low power characteristics for the benefit
of increasing communication range

CSS has been used in long-range communications by military and space agencies due to its ability to
withstand interference.
The LoRaWAN protocol is relatively new and became the focus of several research centers across the
world. LoRa (Long Range) is a modulation technique that enables the long range transfer of information
with a low transfer rate. The LoRa modulation has been patented by Semtech Corporation.

LoRa is a type of SS-Spread Spectrum modulation, and the novelty of this technique consists in the use
of a chirp signal that varies constantly with the frequency. The advantage of using this method is that
the offset in time and frequency to the sender and receiver is the same, thus considerably reducing the
complexity of the receiver

LoRa Modulation

The LoRa modulation technique is of Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) type. It uses different modulation
Spreading Factors (SF) raging from SF7 to SF12. This mechanism provides resistance to interference and
multipath fading.

Thus, it is possible to adjust individually per node the modulation rate and the transmission power. A
chirp encodes one symbol of information. If the SF is increased the package size will be reduced,
resulting in a higher power over the channel and a longer communication distance.

Table 1 presents the LoRa spreading factors for 125 kHz bandwidth. As can be observed if the Spreading
Factor is increased the bitrate is decreased, the time-on-air parameter is increased but the SNR limit is
significantly improved.

The number of symbols encoded decrease meanwhile the Spreading Factor is decreased.

Table I: LoRa spreading factors for 125 KHz bandwidth

The LoRa Modulation LoRa is a proprietary PHY modulation designed and patented by Semtech
Corporation, based on a derivative of Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS): the spreading of the signal over a
larger frequency band is achieved by generating a chirp signal that varies linearly in frequency. The LoRa
modulation employs different types of physical layer packets, with different lengths in time,
parametrized by the so-called Spreading Factor (SF), which can take values SF ∈ {7,..., 12}. We remark
that the higher the SF is, the longer in time the packet and the more reliable its reception will be.

Thanks to new Physical Layer (PHY) designs that enable a higher receiver sensitivity, these
technologies trade data rate for coverage, decreasing the former to increase the latter. A low
data rate is not satisfactory for many applications, however for the typical smart city traffic,
characterized by sporadic and intermittent transmissions of small packets, this is not an issue

LoRa is a proprietary PHY modulation designed and patented by Semtech Corporation, based on
a derivative of Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS): the spreading of the signal over a larger frequency
band is achieved by generating a chirp signal that varies linearly in frequency.

The LoRa modulation employs different types of physical layer packets, with different lengths in
time, parametrized by the so-called Spreading Factor (SF), which can take values SF ∈ {7, . . . ,
12}. We remark that the higher the SF is, the longer in time the packet and the more reliable its
reception will be.1
LoRaWAN
While the LoRa PHY layer is proprietary, the rest of the protocol, known as LoRaWAN, is open and
described by the LoRa Alliance2 in [7]. For a complete overview of the Due to the constrained space of this
paper, we can not provide a comprehensive description of the modulation, LoRaWAN:
1) the end device (or end node), that is, a node that generates UL and/or receives downlink (DL) traffic;
2) gateways, which are devices that collect/send the packets coming from/sent to the end devices and
forward/receive them to/from
3) the Network Server (NS), which plays the role of central coordinator and controller of the LoRa network

The LoRa LPWAN solution includes two major components. The first one, describing the physical
layer, is the LoRa modulation, which is a CSS (Chirp Spread Spectrum) frequency modulated
technology developed by company Semtech that uses wideband linear frequency modulated
pulses whose frequency increases or decreases based on the encoded information. The main
advantages of this approach are twofold: a substantial increase in receiver sensitivity due to the
processing gain of the spread spectrum technique and a high tolerance to frequency
misalignment between receiver and transmitter 7 . The second component is the LoRaWAN
network protocol

In LoRa modulation the spreading of the spectrum is achieved by generating a chirp signal that
continuously varies in frequency. The frequency bandwidth of this chirp is equivalent to the
 spectral bandwidth of the signal. The wanted data signal is chipped at a higher data rate and
modulated onto the chirp signal. Several parameters are available for the customization of the
LoRa modulation: Bandwidth (BW), Spreading Factor (SF) and Code Rate (CR). The SF describes
how many bits per symbol are encoded. Its number ranges from SF6 (64 chips/symbol) to SF12
(4096 chips/symbol). Two signals with different spreading factors are orthogonal.

Semtech SX1211
Ultra Low Power (3mA RX) RF Transceiver 862-960MHz
The SX1211 is a low cost single-chip transceiver operating in the frequency ranges from 863-870,
902-928 MHz and 950-960 MHz. The SX1211 is optimized for very low power consumption (3mA
in receiver mode).
Features
 Low Rx power consumption: 3mA
 Low Tx power consumption: 25 mA @ +10 dBm
 Good reception sensitivity: down to -107 dBm at 25 kb/s in FSK, -113 dBm at 2kb/s in OOK
 Programmable RF output power: up to +12.5 dBm in 8 steps
 Packet handling feature with data whitening and automatic CRC generation
 RSSI (Received Signal Strength Indicator) range from noise floor to 0 dBm
 Bit rates up to 200 kb/s, NRZ coding
 On-chip frequency synthesizer
 FSK and OOK modulation
 Incoming sync word recognition
 Built-in Bit-Synchronizer for incoming data and clock synchronization and recovery
 5 x 5 mm TQFN package
 Optimized Circuit Configuration for Low-cost applications
Applications
 Wireless alarm and security systems
 Wireless sensor networks
 Automated Meter Reading
 Home and building automation
 Industrial monitoring and control
 Remote Wireless Control
 Smart Lighting Systems
 The LoRa Alliance technical workgroup defines both physical and data link standards for LoRa
networking [2]. LoRa provides long-range connectivity by utilising a chirped spread spectrum
technique with a wide bandwidth. Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) was developed for radar
applications in the 1940’s [3]. The chirp signal is used to spread the transmitted signal and it
varies in frequency. CSS modulation schemes are known for low power consumption and
robustness against channel degradation challenges such as interference and multi-path fading.
This modulation scheme offers a range of data rates for different frequency ranges. In LoRa
networks, the data rate is selected based on the range requirement, and there is a trade-off
between data rate and communication range. LoRa technology has ability to demodulate
several simultaneous signals at the same frequency by using different chirp rates due to their
orthogonality. LoRa modulation de- fines six chirp rates which are called spreading factors,
trading throughput for the on-air time

. LoRa adopts the M-ary frequency shift keying (FSK) modulation and Chirp Spread Spectrum
(CSS) technique

Range
LoRa is a communication long range limited for different
environments, i.e, 2–5 km urban and 45 km rural, with data rate
between 290 bps and 50 kbps.
Some of IoT communication technologies are…..
1)Bluetooth/LE
2) DASH7
3) Sigfox

A. LoRaWAN Network

A typical LoRaWAN network is a “star-of-stars” topology,

illustrated in Fig.

Illustration of lora wan network architecture.

several components are defined in a LoRaWAN as end-devices, gateways (i.e., base stations), network
server, and applications.

1. End-devices perform the communication gateways using LoRa and LoRaWAN technologies.

2. Gateways dispatch the LoRaWAN frames from the end-devices to a network server using a back-
haul interface with higher throughput, usually Ethernet, 3G/4G, satellite, or Wi-Fi.

3. The network server decodes the packets sent by the devices, performing security checks and
adaptive data rate, thus generating the packets that should be sent back to the devices.

4. Each application receives data from the network server. It should decode the security packets
and uses the information to decide the action in the application.

Table I LoRaWAN MAIN characteristics

Power consumption vs range for Bluetooth/LE, cellular, lora wan, and wi-fi technologies
 Taking into account the application needs, LoRaWAN considers three classes of end-devices. These
classes are illustrated in Fig. 4 and can be briefly described as follows:

 Class A (bidirectional) - Devices have a scheduled uplink transmission window, followed by two
short downlink windows. It has low power consumption and high latency while
sending/receiving unicast messages.

 Class B - Devices have additional scheduled downlink windows. It has medium power
consumption, low latency at sending/receiving unicast and multicast messages.

 Class C - The devices use receiving windows continuously, similar to the sliding window
algorithms. It has high power consumption, lowest latency sending/receiving unicast and
multicast messages.

LoRaWAN communication classes.

E. Security : This feature, the security, is extremely important for the future IoT networks, since it will
ensure the operation of the thing without external interruption. LoRa Wan considers two layers of
security, one for the network and another for the applications, as shown in Fig
The LoRaWAN protocol has several advantages over other LPWA technologies, namely: the data rate
ranges from 300 bps up to 5 kbps (with 125 kHz bandwidth) and 11 Kbps (with 250 kHz bandwidth)
allowing for better time-on-air and better battery life; communication is bidirectional and unlimited
(subjects to ISM - industrial, scientific and medical band local regulations); native payload encryption
able to create public and/or private networks; ADR (Adaptive Data Rate) enables base station addition
on a scalable network, decreasing the ADR average and reducing time-on-air that, it is the time taken to
send chips at the chip rate around it, allowing more end devices to communicate.

Table II Comparison among LoRaWAN and others LPWA technologies

 LoRa architecture.

The end-device modules do not have routing capabilities, and the messages are sent directly to the
Gateway concentrator through a one hop mechanism. The LoRaWAN technology transfer rates range
between 0, 3 kbps and 50 kbps. In order to maximize the battery life span, the devices manage their RF
communication power and the transfer rate through an Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) mechanism.

LoRa communication stack.

LoRa has several types of end-devices, depending on the communication mechanism employed.

 Class A: Class A devices have bidirectional communication capabilities. The time slot during
which the device is transmitting is followed by two short time slots during which the device can
receive information. Devices included in this category can receive data from the server only
after they had sent information. Thus, class A devices ensure the highest energy efficiency. If
one wishes to send the data from the server, one will wait for the next scheduled slot uplink [8].

 Class B: Class B devices have bidirectional communication capabilities and an additional time
slot that allows them to receive data. Apart from the random time slots during which data can
be received that the type A device allows for, the type B device can also use a series of receiving
slots activated by a Beacon type of message sent by the Gateway [8].

 Class C: Class C devices have bidirectional communication capabilities and time slots during
which they can receive unlimited information. The only time when a class C device cannot
receive information is when it sends it [8].

According to the LoRa standard, each module must implement the class A communication mechanism,
while the specific functions of the other categories are optional.

LoRaWAN technology advantages are:

 Use the unlicensed ISM frequency band.

 It is a flexible solution that can be easily adapted.

 It is scalable.

 It supports bi-directional communication.

 Provides a high level of security due to encryption algorithms.

 Provides energy efficiency.

For more efficient communication transfer of the data from the sensor to the Gateway module is
facilitated. LoRaWAN is the protocol at physical layer the LoRa modulation is used. The main advantage
of using this modulation is the increase of the receiver's sensitivity.

If a node is situated closer to a Gateway it will have a higher communication data rate, because of the
integrated ADR (Adaptive Data Rate) mechanism. This mechanism entails the adjustment of the SF
gradually and individually per node in order to increase the data rate.

A. LoRaWAN : While the LoRa PHY layer is proprietary, the rest of the protocol, known as
LoRaWAN, is open and described by the LoRa Alliance
 the following three entities are defined in LoRaWAN:

1) the end device (or end node), that is, a node that generates UL and/or receives downlink (DL)
traffic;
2) gateways, which are devices that collect/send the packets coming from/sent to the end
devices and forward/receive them to/from
3) the Network Server (NS), which plays the role of central coordinator and controller of the
LoRa network.

At the heart of LoRa’s success is its adaptive data rate chirp modulation technology allowing for
flexible long-range communication with low power consumption and low cost design

LoRa Alliance has defined the higher layers and network architecture on top the LoRa physical
layers and termed them LoRaWAN

LPWAN networks provide longrange coverage to end nodes, exploiting license-free frequency
bands.

Simulation results show that a LoRa network can scale well, achieving packet success rates
above 95% in presence of a number of end devices in the order of 104.

Bandwidth/Data Rate
Bandwidth and data rate are used to determine the amount of data being transferred (bit rate) in a
given time unit, normally, seconds. Bandwidth means the spectrum range in Hertz that a system can use
for digital communication. Data rate depends on the bandwidth of the Internet connection. If the
bandwidth is high, the bit rate tends to be high. n LoRaWAN, the data rate is selected by a trade-off
between the communication range and the duration of the message.

Battery Life
The technical and practical challenges facing energy storage for electronics in IoT cannot be met by any
one incumbent technology. To maximize the life of the final device batteries, the LoRaWAN server
controls the RF output (Radio frequency) and an output rate through an adaptive scheme for each end
device.