Subject

Co-promotor: An Braeken

Part of the growing IoT scene is low-power, long range communication. LoRa is a popular and growing technology designed for this market segment. Low-power networks typically use very constrained devices, with a limited, battery powered power supply.
A recent development is the availability of LoRa in the 2.4 GHz frequency band. This offers the possibility of higher data rates at a shorter but still a significant range as compared to short range solutions at 2,4 GHz..

Research towards more optimized protocols for LoRa is a very active topic. In particular, the multihop LoRa solutions as compared to the traditional single hop star based solution is under investigation by many research groups in the world. We contribute by proposing routing protocols and improved Medium Access Control to improve reliability and extend and battery life. The focus will be on Time Slotted Channel Hopping, a synchronized protocol already used in several communication standards (e.g. IEEE 802.15.4).

As thesis you would implement a variant of TSCH for 2.4 GHz LoRa, a time slotted MAC protocol used in multiple standards. You will also do an evaluation of the implementation using a network evaluation setup designed previously.

Kind of work

Implement novel protocols for LoRa 2.4 GHz
Test and evaluate the radio and implemented protocols on motes.

Framework of the Thesis

For our current research projects we work in cooperation with industry partners interested in novel IoT solutions.

Number of Students

1

Expected Student Profile

Good programming skills
Possibly some hardware skills, if not the subject is still suitable.