Mid Sweden University

Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWANs) are wireless technologies well accepted in the Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios because they operate in both public and private infrastructure using unlicensed frequency bands. Differently from other wireless standards, the LPWAN target applications are low-rate, sporadic-transmission, low-energy systems. Surely, fast response time and high reliable communication are out of the original LPWAN scope. In this work, a first investigation about the use LoRaWAN (one the most diffused LPWAN protocols) for notification of emergency messages across industrial plants is reported. The opportunity of using recently proposed low-cost repeaters, and the creation of a clever replication pattern of radio messages are the keys of the proposed approach. The results of the preliminary analytical feasibility assessment are presented, confirming the possibility to increase success ratio of notification and respective confirmation in case of emergencies. © 2021 IEEE.