Coded Relaying in LoRa Sensor Networks

Abstract: To enhance the reliability of LoRa sensor networks, we propose two opportunistic forwarding protocols in which relays overhear sensor-to-gateway messages and periodically forward them to a gateway. To reduce the number of transmissions, the relays forward XOR sums of the overheard messages. One protocol employs a single relay node, while two relays cooperate in the other. With a single relay, our proposed protocol requires fewer relay transmissions to achieve similar loss rates as conventional uncoded forwarding in which every received message is immediately forwarded. We demonstrate up to 55% reduction in relay transmission time relative to uncoded forwarding. The cooperative protocol provides better loss and delay performance than the single-relay protocol, and we demonstrate up to 16% reduction in the message-loss rate along with 33% reduction in relay transmission times compared to conventional forwarding.