Initial Study and Performance Analysis of Vertical LoRa Using Drone in Forest Areas

Abstract

Along with the development of drone technology, it is now possible to implement LoRa technology vertically, which can be used as a mobile LoRa repeater or tracker. We introduce the initial study and performance analysis of vertical LoRa communication using drones as forest repeater or trackers in monitoring systems. In addition, several test methods were also developed and carried out to determine whether using LoRa with drones vertically could increase the reception range of LoRa signals, particularly in forest areas considering vegetation density, signal propagation, multipath effect. From the results obtained in the experiments, the vertical LoRa system proved to have a better RSSI value than the horizontal LoRa system in forest areas. Using vertical LoRa at a distance of 100 meters shows a better RSSI value with a difference up to 16.24 dBm than the horizontal LoRa. In the forest with higher density, we got a variation of the RSSI measurement result of 4.67 to 4.73 dBm caused by the multipath effect. To conclude, the vertical LoRa using drones can improve the LoRa telecommunication coverage area and is possible to use as LoRa repeater or trackers.