# Evaluating LoRaWAN Connectivity in a Marine Scenario
###### Abstract  
The growing need for interoperability among the different oceanic monitoring systems to deliver services able to answer the requirements of stakeholders and end-users led to the development of a low-cost machine-to-machine communication system able to guarantee data reliability over marine paths. In this framework, an experimental evaluation of the performance of long-range (LoRa) technology in a fully operational marine scenario has been proposed. In-situ tests were carried out exploiting the availability of (i) a passenger vessel and (ii) a research vessel operating in the Ligurian basin (North-Western Mediterranean Sea) both hosting end-nodes, and (iii) gateways positioned on mountains and hills in the inland areas. Packet loss ratio, packet reception rate, received signal strength indicator, signal to noise, and expected signal power ratio were chosen as metrics in line of sight and not the line of sight conditions. The reliability of Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) transmission over the sea has been demonstrated up to more than 110 km in a free space scenario and for more than 20 km in a coastal urban environment. inter of things (IoT); low power wide area network (LPWAN); LoRaWAN; marine technology 4.0/. +
Footnote †: journal: Marine Science and Engineering  
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Nowadays, the common priority for all existing networks of observing systems, monitoring strategies, and development of innovative sensors is therefore to create mechanisms and technologies such that data has greater societal and scientific value, and the overall life cycle cost of sensors and observing systems is reduced [7; 8; 9]. In this context, one of the most demanding challenges is the high cost of data transmission from sea platforms to shore conducted through the use of either high-power consuming traditional satellite communication or short-range local base stations. The former approach is not viable for battery-powered devices, whereas the latter is costly as it requires physically connecting to the local base station for data transmission [10]. Both radio systems and cellular terrestrial networks have been widely used to build and support networks of remote marine sensors: for example, Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) is used for areas not under satellite coverage [11; 12]. A combination of WiMAX, Long-Term Evolution (LTE), and Very High Frequency (VHF) have been proposed to build Wireless Coastal Area Networks (WiCAN). GSM and GPRS-based systems have been used to facilitate the monitoring of vessels and their surrounding environment. However, most of these technologies are costly and power-consuming solutions, hence not suitable for power-limited devices [13]. One of the most attractive technologies relying on radio coverage over open areas and requiring very low energy consumption is the so-called Low-Power Wide Area (LPWA) network. This is gaining momentum as a good solution to provide machine-to-machine connectivity in rural and urban contexts [14; 15]. LPWA networks were designed to allow long-range communications for the Internet of Things (IoT) [16] based on the interaction and the exchange of data between heterogeneous objects through a layered architecture. The development of an ICT platform compliant with the concept of IoT to be applied in the marine environment involves the design of a two-way communication supporting the use of adaptive network topologies able to modify their operation in terms of sampling strategy or extension of the area to be controlled, depending on changes in the environment. Indeed, in marine applications, IoT systems have to be conceived by exploiting heterogeneous sensors equipped with intelligence and interconnected with each other through LPWA, able to widely distribute information [17; 18]. In the last decade, different LPWA solutions have been proposed, and, in some cases, they have been applied to the marine domain for specific in-situ experiments [10; 19; 20; 21].