Performance Evaluation of the Radio Propagation in a Vessel Cabin Using LoRa Bands

Due to the development of the Internet of Things (IoT) and maritime wireless networks, the wireless networking of vessels will be the future trend. Furthermore, long-range (LoRa) technology is widely used in the marine field with the benefits of long range, lower power consumption, security, scalability, and robustness. In this study, LoRa is used as the solution for internal wireless networks of vessels as well as considering external and internal wireless communication, aiming to reduce construction and maintenance costs. The received signal strength (RSS) and signal to interference plus noise ratio (SINR) were measured and analyzed. The findings demonstrated that the mean value of the RSS and the SINR in the cockpit are above -81.70 dBm and 4.45 dB respectively, which indicates that there is a good communication link between the deck and the cockpit. Furthermore, the RSS value acquired by the nodes located on the same side of the gateway is stronger than that of the other nodes. Additionally, the RSS value acquired by the nodes close to the windows is found to be as high as 6-9 dB over that of the node located in the middle of the cockpit.