2017 IEEE 41st Annual Computer Software and Applications Conference

LoRaWAN as an e-Health Communication

Technology
M.Talha Buyukakkaslar∗ , Mehmet Ali Erturk , Muhammed Ali Aydin§ Luca Vollero †

Computer Engineering Department Computer Engineering Department

Istanbul University Universit Campus Bio-Medico di Roma
Istanbul, Turkey Rome, Italy
Email: ∗ [email protected] Email: † [email protected]
 [email protected]
§ [email protected]

Abstract—LoRaWAN is a Low Power Wide Area Network In this study, we investigate the application of the LoRa
(LPWAN) technology which enables low cost and low power technology for e-Health IoT applications. In particular, we
IoT device communication even in dense urban areas. LoRa analyze by means of a simple test-bed and a single channel
modulation is capable of extracting data from a weak signal
in noisy environments. This modulation technique can be useful gateway the performance LoRa nodes bundled with sensor
for the delivery of critical data in the noisy environment. In this components. Obtained results from real test-bed environment
study, we investigate LoRaWAN technology in the context of data are analyzed and evaluated and analyzed in the context prac-
transmission for health care systems (or critical health data in tical services.
disaster environments). In the study, we explore the standard and The paper is organized as follows, Section II introduces the
evaluate data frame transmission in LoRaWAN with a custom
test-bed system. LoRaWAN technology, whereas Section III discusses system
design, the test-bed setup and the results. Section IV concludes
I. I NTRODUCTION the paper with our final remarks.

LoRaWAN is a new Low Power Wide Area Network II. L O R A & L O R AWAN
(LPWAN) technology which aims at becoming the de facto A. Architecture
standard in providing wireless connectivity for Internet of LoRaWAN is an energy efficient LPWAN technology de-
Things (IoT) applications. The most important aspects of the signed to address power consumption and coverage issues in
LPWAN technology is its ability to provide services that span IoT applications [1]. The specification defines security policies
areas ranging kilometers and to be implementable in devices and localization services. Since LoRa modulation runs on ISM
that operate requiring very low energy. LoRaWAN enables the bands, it is possible to deploy private and public LoRaWAN
deployment of public and private networks. These networks networks. From an architectural point of view, the system has
work similarly to cellular ones. The low connectivity costs three main components; (i) end nodes, (ii) gateways (GWs)
of this technology translates into low IoT sensors deployment and network servers (or data centers). LoRaWAN networks
costs. are deployed as a star of stars topology and GWs are the
LoRa stands for Long Range, and it is a physical layer link between network servers and nodes. The communication
technology that works on unlicensed bands (EU 868 MHz, from node to GW can rely on either LoRa or FSK modulation
US 433 MHz) with its unique modulation. LoRa modulation with different channels and data rates. GWs are connected
is based on Chirp Spread Spectrum (CSS) modulation. Further- to the network server via standard IP technology. LoRaWAN
more LoRa implements some improvements over Frequency architectural overview is shown in Figure 1.
Shift Key (FSK) modulation. The advantages of LoRa are
detailed in [1]. Today Semtech holds the intellectual property  
 


of the LoRa modulation [1]. However LoRaWAN, the MAC

layer of the protocol, also supports FSK physical layer as an
option. LoRaWAN specifications are open and coordinated by  



the LoRa Alliance [2].
Variety of applications employ LoRaWAN as their com-
munication infrastructure such as security [3], agriculture [4],
and smart metering are just some examples of applications
  


that may rely effectively on this technology. However, the



above are just few cases and it is possible to consider other

applications where LoRaWAN can be successfully used. Fig. 1. LoRaWAN architecture

0730-3157/17 $31.00 © 2017 IEEE 310

DOI 10.1109/COMPSAC.2017.162
B. LoRa: the Phisical Layer The way the receive windows are controlled determines
LoRa modulation extends the traditional Spread Spectrum the class of the device. Class A devices open the receiving
principles to reduce amount of energy required to transmit windows (two) only after the transmission of a message. This
bits over the channel. The Data Rate (DR) in attainable method makes Class A devices to be the most energy efficient
communication can be computed from the bandwidth BW devices. Class B devices opens periodically a receiving win-
(Hz), the Spreading Factor (SF), and the Coding Rate (CR) as dow. These windows are synchronized to beacons. Eventually,
follows [5]: Class C devices listen the network continuously in order to
reduce downlink delay. These devices are the most energy
BW consuming and require a stable energy source.
DR = SF × × CR (1)
2SF An Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) mechanism is used to control
The LoRa modulation has better performance than Fre- the data communication rate between end nodes and gateways.
quency Hopping techniques in managing interferences. The Depending on the distance the data rate ranges from 0.3 kbps
modulation can tolerate interferences of arbitrary power levels to 50 kbps. The data rate of each end-device is optimized by
up to 30% of the symbol length with less than 6 dB sensitivity the ADR scheme independently. Data rates determine range
degradation [1]. and energy consumption of devices. The slower is the data rate,
The Spreading factor (SF) is the key variable that ensures the higher is the energy consumption per transmitted byte, but
the quality of service. When using the lower range of SF the higher is the communication range. Higher data rates are
values, the data rate is very high and time on air is low. more energy efficient in terms of energy spent per transmitted
The higher SFs extend the range but limit the Quality of byte but their ranges are lower and packet drop rates are higher.
Service. SFs from 7 to 12 allow orthogonal communications, LoRaWAN specification optimizes network to use the highest
i.e. different networks can speak simultaneously on same data rates possible.
frequency band without interfering [6]. To join a LoRa network an activation method is required.
C. LoRaWAN: the MAC Layer The standard specifies (i) the Activation by Personalization
(ABP) and (ii) the Over The Air Activation (OTAA) methods.
Under ABP, devices are configured to work with a specific
LoRaWAN network. Devices are therefore pre-provisioned
 
" with the Network and Application session. Conversely, under
OTAA, devices send a JOIN request to a given LoRa Network
to receive a device address and an authorization token. The

  OTAA method allows roaming and dynamic network keys.
III. E XPERIMENTAIL R ESULTS





A. LoRaWAN test-bed Setup
There are a variety of communication technologies that en-

!  able the communication among IoT devices. WiFi, Bluetooth,
Zigbee are the most common enabler to date. LoRaWAN is a



candidate as an alternative to these platforms. Transition to a
new infrastructure is not easy and requires a depth analysis.
   We will focus on the principal and most common ISM-band
   wireless platform to compare advantages and disadvantages
and their possible use cases. Table II gives an overview and
a comparison of theses technologies. As the table shows, the
Fig. 2. LoRaWAN layers target applications of LoRaWAN are those where a very long
range of communication is required with a moderata exchange
LoRaWAN is the MAC layer which regulates the medium of data. The overall costs are quite limited and, it may be
access for end-devices using multiple frequencies. LoRaWAN expected that they will decrease further in the next years with
is an open standard developed and maintained by LoRa the diffusion of the standard.
Alliance. There are tree main access categories (A, B and C) We evaluate LoRaWAN with a custom test-bed using Hop-
available for different power usage strategies. The protocol eRF RFM95/96 LoRa transreciever [7] with a custom single
is optimized for uplink communication. In order to avoid channel packet forwarder. The Things Network (TTN) is used
unnecessary messaging the protocol relies on the assump- as the network server to control the GW and end-nodes. The
tion that any message transmitted from an end-device will aim of the initial setup is to evaluate range and packet loss
be received by the receiving gateway. The management of rates. Node-to-GW communication quality is evaluated in an
Acknowledgement messages is possible trough the receive indoor application scenario specialized for e-Health services.
windows but the ACK system was not one of the main A GW is developed by using RaspberryPi3 equipped with
concerns in the design of this protocol. a HopeRF RFM95 LoRa transceiver chipset for 868Mhz ISM

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 TABLE I
L O R AWAN CLASS COMPARISON

Class Battery Consumption Description

A Most energy efficient Must be supported by all the End-Nodes. DL after TX
B Efficient with controlled DL Slotted communication synchronized with beacon frames
C Least efficient Devices listen continuously. DL without latency.

band. Our custom developed GW supports a single channel ∈ {7, 8}). In all the other configurations, the system latency
and uplink messages. The GW listens to the channel with is too big for time critic applications. LoRaWAN can be used
preconfigured frequency and SF values. As soon as any with big SF values for long distance P2P communication
LoRaWAN packet is received, it is redirected to the network in disaster scenarios where the IP or the GSM network
server by the GW. are unavailable. For instance, the body temperature or the
A custom LoRaWAN node is developed using the same blood pressure can be coded in small payloads and can be
LoRa supported RFM95 chipset on top of an Arduino Uno notified under a very small sampling rate (hours or days) to
device. Our end-node is capable of transmitting LoRa frames Health Care centers. The protocol provides builtin localization
with predefined frequency and SF values. The end-node is methods to identify node location without GPS.
configured with ABP parameters and its software is based on When comparing LoRa and other technology chipsets, LoRa
a Class A LoRaWAN library stack. The end-node is shown in chipset are more expensive than those used by alternative
Figure 3. IoT technologies, Table II. Building a LoRaWAN end-node
without any sensors currently requires $35 and a complete
GW costs from $200 to $800 depending on indoor or outdoor
deployments. On November 29, 2016, Semtech announced
the LoRa Picocell Gateway Platform that targets home users
for affordable prices [5]. The main goal is to enable LoRa
technology small size IoT environment for private network
deployments with affordable prices.

LoRaWAN Frame Transmission Airtime (4/5 Factor, 125 kHz BW

SF7
SF8
SF9
2500 SF10
SF11
2000 SF12
Airtime (miliseconds)

1600

Fig. 3. LoRaWAN node development.

800
400
B. Experimental Results 200
1000
We considered an indoor test scenario and we used two
frequencies, 868.1Mhz and 868.3, for all SF values with 4/5
10 20 30 40 50
coding factor at 125 kHz bandwidth. Each experiment was Payload Size (bytes)
performed independently without any interruption and external
intervention. Each configuration was evaluated 10 different Fig. 4. LoRaWAN frame transmission airtime for 4/5 coding factor at 125
times with the same payloads. 10-50 bytes long payloads kHz bandwidth
are generated and transmitted from the end-node through the
gateway. The protocol has a 14 bytes long overhead so, total
frame size is 24 bytes for a 10 bytes long payload. TABLE II
W IRELESS CHIPSET COST COMPARISION
All tests are performed using a single channel in a non-
noisy environment with measured 10 ± 1 SNR (with 95% Technology Chipset Cost Range Data Rate
confidential interval). Obtained results on frame airtime are Blutooth LE $3.69 10-100m 2Mbps
shown in Figure 4. Airtime transmission per-frame increases WiFi (2.4 GHz) $2.08 10-100m 433Mbps
Zigbee $4.80 10-100m 20-250kbps
significantly when SF increases even for very small payloads. LoRa (868Mhz) $8.90 2-15km 300bps-50kbps
Currently, LoRaWAN can be used for real-time services if and
only if both the payloads and the SF value are very small (SF

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 IV. C ONCLUSION R EFERENCES
LoRaWAN as an LPWAN technology that provides wireless
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motion based safety.”
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[7] HopeRF, “Rfm95/96/97/98(w) - low power long range transceiver
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