LoRa-based IoT Network Planning for Advanced Metering Infrastructure in Urban, Suburban and Rural Scenario

Abstract

Internet of Things is predicted to be the future of digital business in Indonesia. The trend of IoT implements on a large scale as more sensors and devices are connected. LoRa is one of the promising applications of the Internet of Things with long-range wireless communication in broad areas. LoRa network deployment in Advanced Metering Infrastructure (AMI) is one of the most significant components in smart metering which measure and collect data from smart meters to be analyzed utilities distribution and consumption. In the IoT, the scenario must achieve two main goals: efficient communication like massive connectivity and defense against environmental conditions. In this paper, we propose the LoRa for Advanced Metering Infrastructure in three utilities (electric, gas, and water meter) to implement in urban, suburban, and rural areas in case of Medan and surroundings by calculating capacity and coverage planning to find out the optimum number of LoRa gateways. Use the method of forecasting IoT connected devices then predict the amount of LoRa gateways need with two scenarios. The first scenario requires the capacity planning by volume demand of the customer's supply of the system. Meanwhile, the second scenario needs coverage planning mostly depends on the link budget and geographical. The simulation results in Forsk Atoll 3.3.2 indicate that the whole determined areas can serve by the number of gateways that have to obtain within acceptable the mean of best signal levels is –76,28 dBm, –75,7 dBm, –81,67 dBm for the urban, suburban and rural scenario, respectively.