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. 2019 Jan 30;19(3):585.
doi: 10.3390/s19030585.

A Deployable LPWAN Platform for Low-Cost and Energy-Constrained IoT Applications

Bart Thoen  1 , Gilles Callebaut  2 , Guus Leenders  3 , Stijn Wielandt  4
Affiliations

A Deployable LPWAN Platform for Low-Cost and Energy-Constrained IoT Applications

Bart Thoen et al. Sensors (Basel). .

Abstract

Many commercial platforms for fast prototyping have gained support for lpwan technologies. However, these solutions do not meet the low-cost and low-power requirements for a large-scale distribution of battery-powered sensor nodes. This paper presents the design, realization and validation of an open-source lpwan versatile platform. Energy and cost are considered key constraints for this hardware design. A power-efficient LoRa radio interface is implemented by hosting MAC functionality on the application microcontroller, eliminating the need for a modem. In the system architecture, power and cost savings are obtained by omitting and controlling lossy power circuitry. The resulting platform allows entry-level prototyping, while featuring an ultra-low sleep power of 25.2 μ W . This makes lpwan sensor applications accessible in domains that would otherwise require custom hardware development. The proposed design is validated by an illustrative but functional example of sensor nodes deployed in the field.

Keywords: Arduino; IoT; LPWAN; LoRaWAN; low power; prototyping platform; sensor node.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Arduino Uno power flow: power delivery either through USB or an external 12 V power supply, converted to a 5 V power rail powering both the always-on programmer and microcontroller.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Picture of the proposed solution, including dipole antenna.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Power flow of the proposed solution: power can be delivered through the USB port, an external battery, or an external 12 V supply. The most efficient power rail is selected to power the MCU and other peripherals. The programmer is only activated when the USB port is active. The on-board radio and other peripherals can be turned off in sleep mode.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Power consumption of the considered platforms when transmitting a packet of 20 Bytes at SF12 with a transmit power of 14 dBm. The platform wakes up, transmits a packet, and opens two receive windows.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Expected operation time in terms of messages per day for spreading factors 7 (upper-bound) and 12 (lower-bound) with a 20 Byte payload. The maximum of 655 messages per day corresponds to the 1% duty cycle for transmitting a 20-byte message with SF12.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Application: the proposed platform is employed as a sensor for monitoring the health of trees.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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