Generic Model to Quantify Energy Consumption for Different LoRaWAN Channel Access Methods

LoRaWAN is one of the most promising Internet of Things technologies with regard to low energy consumption. However, the currently used random channel access has much potential for improvement. Thus, current literature studies alternative channel access approaches, but the energy consumption is often not taken into consideration. For that reason, we present a generic model to quantify energy consumption in LoRaWAN for different channel access mechanisms based on a state machine. With our model, we can describe the energy consumption for specific access mechanisms or for the complete network. Our model shows that random access only performs best if no additional receive windows are opened. A simple improvement is Listen before Talk. For networks with high load, improvements are achieved by a more complex scheduled MAC. Our model serves as a basis for future energy consumption studies, conducted through measurements or simulations.