SCHC over LoRaWAN, a Framework for Interoperable, Energy Efficient and Scalable Networks

Low Power Wide Area Networks, or simply LPWANs, are expected to be among the main wireless technologies to connect the massive number of constrained devices with the Internet of Things. However, the limitation of the devices and the restrictive nature of LPWANs challenge the use of the Internet protocol, and thus sacrifice the network layer interoperability. To address this challenge, the IETF standardized Static Context Header compression and Fragmentation (SCHC) as an adaptation layer. SCHC compresses structured data, such as headers, and divides long messages over several fragments thus enabling IPv6 packets. In this paper, we evaluate the impact of using SCHC on the energy consumption of a LoRaWAN device and the capacity of a LoRaWAN network in terms of the number of served users. Results show that up to 81% of energy reduction can be achieved while increasing the capacity of the network more than 4 times.