LoRaWAN Gateway Placement for Network Planning Using Ray Tracing-based Channel Models

Abstract

Network planning is a fundamental task in wireless communications, primarily focused on guaranteeing adequate coverage for every network device. In this context, the quality of any planning effort strongly depends on the channel model adopted in the design process of the simulations. Given this motivation, this work investigates how different channel models influence the placement of Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) gateways (GWs), formulating an optimization problem that contrasts stochastic and empirical models with ray-tracing-based models. To this end, we developed a framework that integrates ray tracing (RT) simulators with a discrete-event network simulator. Using this framework to generate long range wide area network (LoRaWAN) wireless data metrics, we employ an optimization model that determines the optimized GW placement under different channel models and power constraints. Our results show that the optimized solution is highly sensitive to the chosen channel model, even when considering the same scenarios with different RT simulators, revealing a clear trade-off between computational cost and the fidelity of the solution to real-world conditions.

Figures (10)

• Figure 1: Proposed framework integrating a RT and discrete-event network simulator used to simulate LoRaWAN scenarios in different network layers.
• Figure 2: Example of ray tracer output (received power) evaluated using WI and Sionna RT.
• Figure 3: Spatial ED organization that should be covered by a set of GW in $P$ positions.
• Figure 4: Optimized solution for the GW placement using different type of site-independent channels, in this case: COST-231, log-distance, Okumura-Hata and 3GPP-UMa.
• Figure 5: Optimized solution for GW placement considering channels from Sionna RT and WI using X3D and Full 3D algorithms. The number of suggested GW are 9, 3, 2, for optimization when Sionna, WI X3D and WI Full 3D channels, respectively, are used.