Internet of Things for Wetland Conservation using Helium Network: Experience and Analysis

The Internet of Things (IoT), as a new paradigm of connected things or objects to the Internet, allows us to monitor the environment by collecting data in a wide spatial and temporal window. Especially the utilization of IoT has increased significantly since the development of the Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN). However, deploying LoRa gateways, maintaining network infrastructure, operational cost, and quality of service are challenging. Helium has emerged as one of the largest networks in terms of coverage for IoT devices to solve such problems. Helium is decentralized, cryptocurrency incentives-based network infrastructure replacing traditional service providers. However, due to network incentives, currently, it contains more hotspots compared to active users. This paper presents our experience and analysis of deploying IoT devices for real-world applications using the Helium network. We present experiences from the IoT device’s deployment for wetland conservation in southern Sweden.