## 4 Results and Discussion
### Overview of Simulation Results
Figure 8: Percentage of bytes that collided out of the total number of bytes sent. A standard comma-separated value (.CSV) file which is presented to the receiving end contains the following columns:  
```
0004A30B00 FFFE62,1655557243123,161,86850000,SF11 BW125 4/5,-115,-35,024B0 BFFFF0310B2,1,693e0001b6 eb002000 off
0004A30B00 FFFE62,1655557843123,162,867500000,SF11 BW125 4/5,-102,-12,8,024B0 BFFFF0310B2,1,693e4001b6a9802000 off
0004A30B00 FFFE62,165558443123,163,867700000,SF11 BW125 4/5,-115,-25,024B0 BFFFF0310B2,1,693e4001b6a5002000 off
0004A30B00 FFFE62,1655559043103,164,868100000,SF11 BW125 4/5,-118,-2,02480 BFFFF0310B2,1,693e4001b43e7002000 off
0004A30B00 FFFE62,1655560243103,166,868300000,SF11 BW125 4/5,-115,-7,8,02480 BFFFF0310B2,1,693e8001b43e5800000 off
```  
Therefore, it is evident that, based on continuous monitoring of the counter (FCnt), an insight into its changes can be gained to define an arbitrary maximum deviation from two consecutive counter values before the application of ADR is requested. In the case that the application server contains some data, for instance, about ADR usage, which it needs to transmit to a specific sleeping sensor that sends data periodically, when that sensor is a Class A device, the application server must wait for an uplink from the sensor before it can send its data [72]. The application server immediately transmits the downlink once the uplink is received. Upon receipt of the downlink, the sensor goes back to sleep. This way, even if some overhead is present, energy savings can be achieved. Furthermore, as can be concluded from the collected results presented in Figure 9, the transmit (Tx) and receive (Rx) state energies are the most significant contributors to total energy consumption. However, the sleep mode energy has a more significant share in the total energy if ADR is used while the confirmations are omitted, as presented in Figure 10. The results show that optimizing the LoRa parameters such as SF, CR, and payload size is a crucial element in reducing the consumed energy by the sensor node. The total consumed energy per useful bit is a function of the payload at different spreading factors (SF). For the more excellent value of SF, more time is taken to send a packet, so more consumed energy is needed to transmit data. Moreover, when the coding rate (CR) decreases, the time on air and, consequently, the consumed energy increases. Furthermore, there is a trade-off between the LoRaWAN communication range, the spreading factor, and the transmission power. The range is a function of SF at different transmission powers. If the SF increases, the LoRaWAN range increases as well. Moreover, the LoRaWAN range increases with increasing transmission power. It can be concluded that the theoretical maximum range that can be achieved at the determined power level is obtained with the highest SF. Figure 9: Percentage of TxRx energy in the total consumed energy. Saving electricity is one of the fundamental priorities in all aspects of modern life [89; 90; 91]. The results of this work show the saving of electricity in precision agriculture. Limitation of the proposed study relate to the fact that only data for three carefully selected sizes of packets that contain data essential for precision agriculture are presented in the paper. However, these sizes correspond to one of the smaller, average and the largest packet that can be sent over the network. Moreover, it was shown that a 6-bit packet is sufficient for transferring the same amount of data as an 11-bit packet. Figure 10: Total consumed energy per packet per sensor node. (**a**) Unconfirmed packets with and without ADR; (**b**) Confirmed packets with and without ADR.