Design of Low-Power Wide-Area Networks at Sea

Abstract: The development of low-power wide-area (LPWA) technologies has opened up for the deployment of wireless networks for new Internet of Things (IoT) applications. One of these is the monitoring of buoys at sea, which tend to detach due to ice, stormy weather or collision with boats, etc. The main unknown for this appli- cation is the behavior of the wireless channel in different sea states and weather conditions, especially at low antenna heights. In this thesis, the impact of various parameters and effects on the wireless channel at sea is studied by means of a literature study, simulations and measurements with a custom-built setup. With this setup, the path loss and fading at sea was measured using point-to-point LoRa links and compared with published models. Additionally, the coverage of the existing networks at sea was tested in the surroundings of Malmö harbor. The results of this thesis showed disagreement with a published model used for ship communication, pointing out the need for further research in this area.