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

Area of Science:

• Electrical Engineering
• Computer Engineering
• Wireless Sensor Networks

Background:

• Commercial rapid prototyping platforms support Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) technologies.
• Existing solutions often fail to meet the stringent low-cost and low-power demands for widespread, battery-operated sensor node deployment.
• This necessitates the development of specialized hardware for large-scale LPWAN sensor applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To design, realize, and validate an open-source, versatile LPWAN platform.
• To address the key constraints of energy efficiency and cost for hardware development.
• To enable entry-level prototyping for LPWAN sensor applications, reducing the need for custom hardware.

Main Methods:

• Implemented a power-efficient LoRa radio interface by integrating Medium Access Control (MAC) functionality within the application microcontroller.
• Optimized system architecture to achieve power and cost savings by omitting and carefully controlling lossy power circuitry.
• Validated the platform through field deployment of a functional sensor node example.

Main Results:

• Developed an open-source LPWAN versatile platform prioritizing energy and cost.
• Achieved an ultra-low sleep power consumption of 25.2 μW.
• Demonstrated the platform's capability for entry-level prototyping and large-scale deployment.

Conclusions:

• The presented open-source LPWAN platform effectively meets low-cost and low-power requirements for battery-powered sensor nodes.
• The design facilitates accessible LPWAN sensor application development in domains previously requiring custom hardware.
• Field validation confirms the platform's practical utility and performance.