Improving LoRa Signal Coverage in Urban and Sub-Urban Environments with UAVs

Abstract: LoRa technology enables long-range communication with low-power consumption for the Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices in the urban and suburban environment. However, due to terrestrial structures in urban and suburban environments, the link distance of LoRa transmissions can be reduced. In this paper, we report signal strength measurements for the in-building and inter-building LoRa links and provide insights on factors that affect signal quality such as the spreading factor and antenna orientation. Subsequently, we also provide measurement results in urban and suburban environments when the LoRa transmitter is deployed at different heights using an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV). Our findings show that the UAV deployment height is critical for improving coverage in the suburban environment and antenna orientation affects the communication range.