Evaluation of LPWAN technologies for pest monitoring

Abstract:
The choice of wireless technology for a pest monitoring setup is crucial for energy efficiency and reliability. We analysed 48 different modules with regards to bitwise energy consumption theoretically and evaluated the best modules in real-life scenarios. It was found that the choice of module can be inferred from a thorough market analysis and Narrowband Internet of things (NB-IoT) and Long Range (LoRa) are the most promising candidates for deployment in industrial environments. Regarding the tested site NB-IoT showed a coverage of over 97 % with good signal quality. For LoRa a calculation of the coverage percentage is not reasonable, as it strongly depends on the amount and location of the gate-ways. It was determined that one gateway can cover more than 10,000 m². The results indicate that NB-IoT is suitable for wireless transmission in industrial environments and that LoRa with an individual gateway setup is ideal as a backup solution.