Design and Implementation of a Novel UAV-Assisted LoRaWAN Network

When LoRaWAN networks are deployed in complex environments with buildings, jungles, and other obstacles, the communication range of LoRa signals experiences a notable reduction, primarily due to multipath propagation, fading, and interference. With the flight advantage of height, mobility, and flexibility, UAV can provide line-of-sight (LOS) communication or more reliable communication in many scenarios, which can be used to enhance the LoRaWAN network's performance. In this paper, a novel UAV-assisted LoRaWAN network is designed and implemented. Specifically, a UAV-assisted LoRaWAN network system architecture is proposed to improve the LoRaWAN network coverage and communication reliability, in which the UAV architecture of "UAV + Remote Controller + Server" is combined with the traditional LoRaWAN architecture of "End-Device + Gateway + Server". Then, the implementation of the UAV gateway and the remote controller relay is presented, which play the important role of forwarding LoRaWAN frames transparently in our proposed architecture. In detail, the UAV gateway is developed based on the UAV's PSDK and classical LoRa packet forwarder, and the remote controller relay is developed based on UAV's MSDK. The experimental results show that the network coverage and communication reliability of our proposed LoRaWAN network have been significantly improved, effectively supporting a wide range of LoRaWAN applications. Specifically, when the end-device is deployed 1.3 km away with numerous obstacles in the propagation environment, with the UAV altitude advantage and the remote controller's relay capability, the proposed system achieved an SNR of 5 db and an RSSI of -80 dbm with a packet loss rate of 3%. In comparison, the ground gateway only achieved an SNR of -16 db and an RSSI of -113 dbm with a packet loss rate of 73%.