Image Transmission in LoRaWAN: An Experimental Study on Transmission Time

The evolution of future mobility, encompassing human-guided or autonomous systems, necessitates energy-efficient operation of IoT devices integrating imaging sensors. In the realm of IoT, various categories of wireless technologies exist, each with its own strengths and limitations. In certain situations, high transmission rates may not be feasible or suitable. For remote coverage with long-range capabilities, Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) technologies offer extended range at the expense of data rate. This chapter focuses on a particular scenario involving high transmission rates, specifically for image transmission, using the LoRaWAN protocol. To investigate the differences in transmission times, an experimental study was conducted, exploring various configurations for end-devices while considering regional restrictions such as duty cycle limitations. The findings reveal that it is possible to transmit images within the confines of the protocol specifications. The transmission times ranged from 8 s (for a \(100 \times 100\) resolution image) to 34 s (for a \(200 \times 200\) resolution image) when utilizing the highest possible data rate with JPEG2000 compression and not considering duty cycle restrictions. However, it is important to consider the impact of duty cycle restrictions. As the data rate decreases, the transmission time exponentially increases, making image transmission highly impractical for slower data rates when minimizing delays is crucial.