An Energy-efficient Solution for Multi-Hop Communications in Low Power Wide Area Networks

The combined effect of large scale adoption of mobile communications, recent advent of Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) promoted by Internet of Things (IoT) and unprecedented diversification of the next generation networked applications offers new opportunities for further advancements of wireless communications. In this work, an innovative solution and a low-power network communication technology are proposed to be employed in conjunction in a real-world scenario in a smart city environment. The paper introduces the energy-efficient multi-hop communication solution (e2McH) which performs energy-efficient communications in multi-hop manner over LPWAN, employing narrowband technologies. Experimental testing involving deployment of the proposed solution over two licensed industrial, scientific and medical (ISM) bands shows how e2McH can be used to cover successfully an area with a radius of roughly 14 km.