Battery life optimization in LoRa networks using spreading factor reallocation

Author(s)

de Andrade, Ian H. ; Costa, Luis Henrique M. K. ; Couto, Rodrigo S.

• Document type: Journal article
• Source: Ad Hoc Networks; v. 177, p. 12-pg., 2025-10-01.

Abstract

This paper proposes a dynamic strategy for the allocation of resources used by end devices in LoRa networks, which employ chirp spread spectrum modulation. The proposed battery life optimization (BLO) strategy splits end devices into different spreading factor (SF) groups. The basic idea is to reduce the collisions between end devices using the same SF. Moreover, BLO also considers the current battery level of each end device, and periodically reallocates the SF groups to optimize the battery consumption of all nodes and extend the network lifetime. The main innovation of BLO is to consider in addition to the RSSI the air time of different SFs as a weighting factor in SF allocation. We compare BLO to state-of-the-art (SoA) SF-allocation strategies, achieving 77% improvement in successful message delivery compared to LoRaWAN's ADR scheme. Furthermore, we obtain better energy efficiency with BLO. In a scenario with one gateway and 500 devices operating over 24 h, the remaining energy with BLO is 10 and 3.6 times larger than with EXPLoRa-SF and EXPLoRa-AT SoA strategies, respectively. (AU)

• FAPESP's process: 23/00811-0 - EcoSustain: computer and data science for the environment
• Grantee: Antonio Jorge Gomes Abelém
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants
• FAPESP's process: 23/00673-7 - Distributed intelligence in communications networks and in the internet of things
• Grantee: Nelson Luis Saldanha da Fonseca
• Support Opportunities: Research Projects - Thematic Grants