A Self-Powered Long-range Wireless IoT Device based on LoRaWAN

In this article, we propose a self-powered long-range wireless Internet-of-Things (IoT) device based on Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) with various sensing capabilities. The nodes are designed based on ambient energy harvesting in such a way that these are self-sustainable throughout the components’ lifespan. Also, these nodes can be deployed on a large scale and are maintenance-free. In addition, these nodes can be deployed in remote places where the accessibility is limited, and maintenance is difficult. The wireless sensor nodes can be deployed both in indoor and outdoor environments with sufficient light levels for the solar panel, such as indoor lights in the indoor environment and ambient sunlight in the out door environment. The fully functional wireless sensor node prototype is designed and tested. The developed long-range node has a power consumption that is lower in comparison to the amount of power harvested in the ambient environment. The designed node senses the air quality parameters: the level of carbon dioxide, amount of humidity, pressure levels, temperature, and the total organic volatile compounds and gases. It is possible to add several other sensors without modifying the base hardware.