Evaluating Energy Consumption and Maximum Communication Distance for SX1280 LoRa Transceiver at 2.4 GHz towards Adaptive Networks

LoRa is a wireless communication technology known for achieving long-range communication thanks to its low sensitivity while staying at a moderately low data rate. SX1280 LoRa transceivers operate at 2.4 GHz free band and represent an interesting addition to LoRa’s current catalogue. In this paper, we evaluate the SX1280 transceiver based on a set of 480 possible combinations of bandwidth (4 values), spreading factor (8 values) and transmission power (3 values) and coding rate (5 cases, no CR and 4 values). First, we evaluated maximum communication distance based on path loss using Okumura-Hata and ECC-33 propagation models for metropolitan environments and large cities respectively. Second, we calculated energy consumption for a reference payload of 25 Bytes. Finally, we compared both propagation models to determine optimal configurations based on maximizing communication range and minimizing energy consumption of the payload transmission. Results show that for each coding rate value, 24 of the 96 considered configurations are optimal. They achieve the largest maximum communication distance while staying at the lowest possible consumed energy per transmission. Results show the optimal configurations in terms of communication range and energy consumption. They may help to define the optimal configuration in network sensor deployments. Furthermore, they may be used to define a decision algorithm and rules to adapt the nodes configurations (e.g., using Fuzzy Logic).