Flying LoRaWAN IoT Gateway for Oil Palm Plantation Monitoring

Low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies such as long range wide area network (LoRaWAN), which utilize the LoRa physical layer modulation, have become prominent for Internet of Things (IoT) deployments in large agricultural areas. This is due to their low power and long-range transmission. However, data transmission in large farms with diverse landscapes suffers from obstructions or occlusions, and wired gateways are still difficult to cover the whole agricultural area without proper network or power infrastructures. This study integrates LoRaWAN gateways with a flying drone to enhance connectivity to LoRa nodes deployed in an oil palm plantation. The study mounted the LoRaWAN gateway on a multi-rotor agricultural drone and compared data transmission employing the flying gateway and a fixed gateway on multiple nodes across the plantation. Data transmission recovery (35%) significantly improved at locations where data was lost when using a fixed gateway. All nodes successfully transmitted a maximum payload of 50 bytes at the minimum Tx power of 6 dBm, which is preferable in smart farming applications. This work supports IoT monitoring in large agricultural areas with limited network coverage and accessibility.