ADR-Lite: A Low-Complexity Adaptive Data Rate Scheme for the LoRa Network

Abstract

The long-range and low energy consumption requirements in Internet of Things (IoT) applications have led to a new wireless communication technology known as Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWANs). In recent years, the Long Range (LoRa) protocol has gained a lot of attention as one of the most promising technologies in LPWAN. Choosing the right combination of transmission parameters is a major challenge in the LoRa networks. In LoRa, an Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) mechanism is executed to configure each End Device's (ED) transmission parameters, resulting in improved performance metrics. In this paper, we propose a link-based ADR approach that aims to configure the transmission parameters of EDs by making a decision without taking into account the history of the last received packets, resulting in a relatively low space complexity approach. In this study, we present four different scenarios for assessing performance, including a scenario where mobile EDs are considered. Our simulation results show that in a mobile scenario with high channel noise, our proposed algorithm's Packet Delivery Ratio (PDR) is 2.8 times outperforming the original ADR and 1.35 times that of other relevant algorithms.

LP-MAB: Improving the Energy Efficiency of LoRaWAN Using a Reinforcement-Learning-Based Adaptive Configuration Algorithm

“…To evaluate the proposed algorithm’s performance and compare it with other schemes, we use the following two metrics: PDR (%) : Defined as the total number of packets received by the NS divided by the total packets sent from all EDs during the simulation time. EC (kJ) : Defined as the total EC divided by PDR as discussed in [ 15 ]. …”

“…To meet the desired communication performance, it is challenging to determine the proper configuration of the transmission parameters so that EC is minimized and PDR is enhanced. In our previous works, [ 15 , 16 ], we have used centralized and distributed ADR approaches, respectively, to find a solution to this problem. In [ 15 ], a low-complexity ADR scheme was proposed, in which the NS attempts to obtain the optimal transmission parameters of the EDs, not by considering the history of the last 20 packets received, but by considering only the current environmental conditions of the communication, based on the transmission parameters of the last packet received.…”

“…In our previous works, [ 15 , 16 ], we have used centralized and distributed ADR approaches, respectively, to find a solution to this problem. In [ 15 ], a low-complexity ADR scheme was proposed, in which the NS attempts to obtain the optimal transmission parameters of the EDs, not by considering the history of the last 20 packets received, but by considering only the current environmental conditions of the communication, based on the transmission parameters of the last packet received. In [ 16 ], each ED individually tries to find the optimum transmission parameter configuration with the help of ML approaches.…”

“…As a result, the proposed solution combines non-stationary adversarial and stochastic methods. In order to assess the performance of LP-MAB, simulation results for LP-MAB and various other ADR schemes, namely, ADR-MAX [ 4 ], ADR-AVG [ 11 ], No-ADR, and ADR-Lite [ 15 ], have been compared. These results indicate that the LP-MAB’s EC outperforms other algorithms while maintaining a relatively high PDR in various circumstances, considering both stationary and mobile EDs.…”

“…There are two methods to control the transmission parameters in LoRaWAN: distributed and centralized approaches [ 11 ]. In the distributed method, each ED tries to configure its own transmission parameters based on the NS’s ACKnowledgment (ACK) regarding the reception or non-reception of the uplink messages, e.g., in the ADR-AVG [ 11 ], and ADR-Lite [ 15 ] schemes. In the centralized method with a global knowledge of the network, the NS tries to configure the transmission parameters of each link according to the ACK messages individually, e.g., in the MIX-MAB [ 16 ], and LoRa-MAB [ 13 ] schemes.…”