An Autonomous Sigfox Wireless Sensor Node for Environmental Monitoring

Low-power wide-area network protocols, such as LoRa, Sigfox, and NB Internet of Things, have become a popular technology for long range and limited data communication. Those protocols have been optimized for low power consumption and offer competitive subscription prices. This article presents the development of an autonomous Sigfox sensor node capable of transmitting data collected by a range of sensors directly to the cloud. The device is powered by a solar cell and can transmit data every 5 min under cloudy conditions (<5000 lx). Such a high transmission rate has not yet been reported in the literature for a fully autonomous system. Field trials have been realized by placing two sensor nodes at a vineyard in order to collect meteorological parameters.