Energy-saving methods for LoRa-Mesh wireless networks

Abstract

As a reliable and high-potential wireless communication technology for the Internet of Things (IoT), LoRa excels in long-distance and low-power transmission. The star topology adopted by traditional LoRaWAN suffers from poor deployment flexibility and insufficient scalability in scenarios with complex terrain or harsh environments. LoRa-Mesh networks can effectively solve coverage challenges through characteristics such as multi-hop and self-organization; however, the relay and forwarding requirements of nodes also introduce new challenges in energy consumption management. To address the energy consumption management challenges of LoRa-Mesh, this paper proposes a Data-Driven Energy Saving (DDES) protocol. It flexibly sets and dynamically fine-tunes node sleep durations based on data changes, constructs an efficient energy-saving framework through uplink data streams, and implements precise control over nodes via downlink post-analysis messages to achieve on-demand energy saving. Simulation results in the smart agriculture scenario of soil moisture monitoring and irrigation show that compared with protocols without a sleep mechanism, the battery life of the LoRa-Mesh network using the DDES protocol is extended by approximately 20 times. The proposed protocol breaks through the limitations of fixed sleep schemes, realizes refined and flexible division of sleep regions, and exhibits significant advantages in LoRa network energy saving.