# Unveiling LoRa's Oceanic Reach: Assessing the Coverage of the Azores LoRaWAN Network from an Island
## 5 Conclusions  
This work describes the results of assessing the ocean coverage of a LoRaWAN network on an Azorean Island. The main goal of this study was to verify the feasibility of establishing a communication network with a wide range, low cost, and based on the IoT concept for the whole archipelago. For this purpose, a set of tests was performed using the existing infrastructure, specifically the gateway of Serra de Santa Barbara, located at the highest point of Terceira Island.  
To validate the coverage, a theoretical and experimental study was performed. For the experimental validation, end devices were placed on a small fishing vessel to test the effectiveness and range of radio transitions between the open ocean and land for distances greater than 100 km. The results were promising, evidencing the feasibility of receiving LoRa transmissions considering end devices installed on mobile platforms moving at sea in coastal and offshore scenarios and in free LOS and NLOS (non-line of sight) conditions. However, in NLOS conditions, shadow zones causing signal attenuation were found, as predicted in the theoretical study. In free LOS conditions, the results were in line with the theoretical research, and reliable transmissions were achieved at distances greater than 130 km between the end device and GW.  
Despite validating the theoretical coverage, the set of tests performed is necessary to standardize and stabilize the network coverage. Therefore, there is still work to be done in this direction. As future work considers the stabilization, uniformity of network coverage, and minimization of shadow areas, such as those that were verified, it is proposed to implement new GWs. Developing a new test panel including new metrics, such as packet loss, is suggested for this. Packet loss was not tested due to the hardware limitations of the nodes. Further analysis will provide greater details regarding the coverage and help identify ideal locations for new GWs.  
Conceptualization, J.P.; methodology, J.P. and A.D.R.; software, J.P., J.G. and M.A.; validation, A.D.R. and M.A.; formal analysis, J.P., J.G., A.D.R. and M.A.; investigation, A.D.R. and M.A.; resources, J.P., J.G., A.D.R., N.C. and P.S.; data curation, J.P. and J.G.; writing--original draft preparation, J.P.; writing--review and editing, J.P., A.D.R., M.A., N.C., J.G. and P.S.; visualization, J.P., J.G. and M.A.; supervision, J.P.; project administration, J.P.; funding acquisition, NA. All authors have read and agreed to the published version of the manuscript.  
This research received no external funding.  
The data used in this paper are available for non-commercial use at: [[https://github.com/AIRCentre/LoRaWAN-paper-1/tree/13b170969d3087f4c07c3b066](https://github.com/AIRCentre/LoRaWAN-paper-1/tree/13b170969d3087f4c07c3b066) be091438 accbe34/data]([https://github.com/AIRCentre/LoRaWAN-paper-1/tree/13b170969d3087f4c07c3b066](https://github.com/AIRCentre/LoRaWAN-paper-1/tree/13b170969d3087f4c07c3b066) be091438 accbe34/data).  
We thank [PERSON] and [PERSON] from the municipality of Angra do Heroismo for their diligence with gateway maintenance. We thank the municipality of Angra do Heroismo for their openness to creating a joint network with the TERinov (Parque de Ciencia e Tecnologia da Ilha Terceira) and the AIR Centre (Atlantic International Research Centre).  
The authors declare no conflict of interest.