IoT systems commonly use low-power and battery-operated electronics to guarantee long service life of the network node. RF communication is one of the most important cause of battery consumption, especially for applications requiring high link-budget as for indoor communications.
The objective of the study was to define a method to reduce the energy consumption of an IoT node, based on LoRa, making it suitable for high-penetration indoor communication.
EMA analyzed the node energy management and how RF parameters and antenna mismatch affected the battery consumption. Additionally, a dynamic model of the node was designed to study and validate the best solution in terms of service life, reliability and scalability. The outcomes of the study were a software strategy to manage the required transmissions and a proper custom protocol that maximized the life of the node battery.
