SALSA A Scheduling Algorithm For LoRa To LEO Satel
SALSA A Scheduling Algorithm For LoRa To LEO Satel
Received December 8, 2021, accepted January 7, 2022, date of publication January 25, 2022, date of current version February 1, 2022.
Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/ACCESS.2022.3146021
ABSTRACT Satellites are going to revolutionize the Internet of Things (IoT) connectivity enabling the
ubiquitous coverage targeted by 5G and upcoming 6G networks. While the potentials of satellite IoT are
unquestionable, many challenges still remain unsolved. In the present work, we design a Long Range Wide
Area Network (LoRaWAN) with mobile gateways (GWs) installed on Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites.
We address synchronization issues due to intermittent link availability between the End Devices (EDs)
and the GW, and we propose a Scheduling Algorithm for LoRa to LEO Satellites (SALSA). SALSA
ensures reliable communication, avoiding packets drops and packet collisions, by using a Time Division
Multiple Access (TDMA) approach, rather than classic ALOHA-based LoRa. The uplink transmissions of
the EDs are scheduled considering the satellite availability period, the satellite footprint, and the specific
visit time for each ED. Two different policies are proposed: a First Come First Served (FCFS), and a FAIR
policy. Simulation results, obtained in real conditions, with real satellites visibility, demonstrate the better
performance achievable with SALSA (regardless of the policy) compared to standard LoRa. The FAIR policy
outperforms the FCFS policy by giving all the EDs an equal chance to transmit, even to those that are visited
last by the satellite. The performance of SALSA can be further improved considering larger constellations
of LEO satellites.
INDEX TERMS Satellite communication, Internet of Things, performance evaluation, optimization meth-
ods, scheduling algorithm, LoRaWAN, synchronization, fairness.
achieved by integrating a LoRaWAN gateway on a LEO The remainder of this paper is structured as follows.
satellite. Section II introduces the system architecture and the back-
Satellite LoRaWAN has drawn the attention also of ground information about the LoRa PHY and LoRaWAN
academia, and researchers. Several works have identified the MAC protocols. In Section III, we describe the proposed
open research challenges and proposed a preliminary net- SALSA algorithm in all the details, including the system
work architecture [5]–[8]. In a recent survey [5], the authors assumptions and the scheduling policies. Section IV first
have discussed the pros and cons of satellite access for IoT, presents the simulated environment and then, the perfor-
current limitations, and ongoing initiatives for making it mance achievable with SALSA, considering real conditions.
possible. Very few works have provided technical solutions, Through simulation results, we show that SALSA cancels by
as enhancement of LoRa PHY modulation [9], and manage- design collisions due to random ALOHA MAC, and packet
ment of Doppler effect [10]. drops due to intermittent link availability. When using the
While the use of a satellite gateway increases the cov- FAIR policy and having a constellation of satellites, the end
erage range of the LoRaWAN network, it also introduces devices get an equal chance of transmitting several uplink
several challenges due to its limited visibility time. The prob- packets. Finally, Sec. V draws the conclusion and future
ability of collision due to the random ALOHA-like access research direction.
scheme - already high in classical terrestrial LoRaWAN
networks [11], [12] - can only get worst since many End II. SYSTEM ARCHITECTURE
Devices (EDs) will compete for the same resource and We consider a satellite LoRaWAN network, whose architec-
attempt an uplink transmission during the limited availabil- ture is depicted in Fig.1. Several end-devices (EDs) deployed
ity of the gateway. To address such a problem and ensure on the ground can communicate through wireless LoRa links
reliable communication, scheduling techniques are needed. with a LoRaWAN gateway (GW) installed on a LEO satellite.
Several ones have been proposed in literature for terres- Only the EDs within the satellite footprint can reach the GW.
trial LoRaWAN networks [13]–[20]. Zorbas et al. tackled
the issue of a LoRaWAN mobile gateway, installed on a
drone [21], [22]. To deal with the limited availability of
the flying gateway, they have proposed to transmit a bulk
of data and reduce the ToA for the grouped transmissions.
A couple of recent works considered direct LoRa to satellite,
but they did not enhance network performance with schedul-
ing techniques. Ullah et al. [23] modeled the PHY channel
between the EDs and the satellite gateway and assumed
EDs transmit according to the ALOHA-like LoRa standard.
Also, Tondo et al. [24] proposed a system model for direct
IoT to satellite, with a constellation of LEO satellites. They
evaluated throughput and packet loss rate as a function of
FIGURE 1. LoRaSAT Network Architecture.
the erasure probabilities at each satellite. As in our work,
they demonstrated the network performance could improve
with larger constellations. Besides that, they assumed the EDs The footprint represents the area of the Earth covered by
transmit using slotted ALOHA. microwave radiation from a satellite dish (transponder). Thus,
In this paper for the first time, we address reliability and it corresponds to the coverage area. The size of the footprint
scalability issues in LoRa to LEO satellites communication. depends on several factors: the location of the satellite along
We propose SALSA, a scheduling algorithm that cancels its orbit, the shape, and size of the beam produced by its
packet drops and packet collisions by design, and ensures fair transponder, and the distance from the earth. In particular,
access to all the nodes in the network. We have designed the the footprint is impacted by the elevation angle θe , which
algorithm considering the worst-case scenario (i.e., a single is the angle between the beam pointing direction, directly
satellite available), while it is still applicable and extend- towards the satellite, and the local horizontal plane. As shown
able to LEO constellations. Two different access policies are in Fig.2, the satellite footprint decreases with increasing θe .
proposed: a First Come First Served (FCFS), and a FAIR In the example, the size of the footprint A is smaller than
policy. Simulation results, obtained in real conditions, with the size of footprint B, being θeA > θeB . The optimum
real satellites visibility, demonstrate the better performance value of θe depends on the satellite orbit, the budget link,
achievable with SALSA (regardless of the policy) compared and the communication link design. To properly schedule
to standard LoRa. The FAIR policy outperforms the FCFS uplink transmission from the EDs to the GW, it is of foremost
policy by giving all the EDs an equal chance to transmit, even importance to know the movement of the satellite and its
to those that are visited last by the satellite. The performance relative position to the IoT devices. Only with such infor-
of SALSA can be further improved considering larger con- mation, it is possible ensuring precise synchronization with a
stellations of LEO satellites. fixed θe .
scheduling table to each ED in the network. To consider the can have variable time duration: in the simpler case, a slide is
deviation of the current orbit of the satellite from its initial equal to the time needed for completing a single uplink trans-
orbit, periodic scheduling updates should be sent directly to mission Tr . It is the case when there is no overlap between
each device using unicast messages. Note that the exchange concurrent transmissions from several EDs because the EDs
of the configuration parameters and scheduling tables is out are one far away from another. On the contrary, when there is
of the scope of the present work, the reason why we made an overlap (i.e., a dense area with many EDs concentrated
such assumptions. together), and an ED cannot finish a transmission before
The LNS is in charge of scheduling the uplink transmis- another ED enters the satellite coverage, the LNS allocates
sions for each ED and assigning priorities. To guarantee long- a larger slide. The slide’s duration is set to Ns × Tr , where
range transmission from the EDs to the satellite gateway, Ns is the number of neighbor nodes within the identified
we assume that all the EDs transmit using SF = 12. Using dense area. The LNS defines the starting time TSi of the
a single value of the SF implies that only a transmission per EDi transmission. If the Start of the Satellite Visibility for
time can be scheduled, without incurring a collision. Accord- that EDi , TSSVi overlaps with an ongoing transmission from
ing to the standard, a single uplink transmission keeps the another EDj , the EDi has to wait till TEj (ending time of EDj
channel busy for a Time on Air (ToA) period. We propose to transmission). Either wise, it can start transmitting as soon
add two Guard Time, Tg , one before and one after the ToA for as it sees the satellite (see Algorithm 1). In the example in
taking into account possible synchronization issues between Figure 4, the ED4 will not transmit as soon as it enters the
the ED and the mobile gateway (see Fig. 3). Thus, whenever satellite footprint, but after the ED3 finishes its transmission.
the LNS schedules a transmission for an ED, it reserves the By doing so, SALSA with its TDMA approach and First
channel for that ED for a period of time equal to Tr = Come First Served (FCFS) policy results to be a collision-
ToA + 2 × Tg . free scheduling algorithm. It intrinsically avoids collision, not
allowing conflicting parallel overlapping transmissions.
B. FCFS POLICY
The LNS builds the scheduling tables for each of the EDs in FIGURE 4. Scheduling of EDs transmissions according to the satellite
movement along its orbit, and the visit time of the EDs. EDs that are
the network based on their discovering time of the satellite. visited first have first chance to transmit.
The latter depends on the satellite footprint, the satellite
movement along its orbit, and the value of the elevation
angle. As shown in Fig.4, while the satellite moves along
Algorithm 1 SALSA With FCFS Policy
its orbit, the satellite footprint also moves in time: therefore,
different EDs will be progressively in the satellite visibility, for slidek do
one after the other, in different periods. To efficiently use the for EDi do
network resources and maximize the number of EDs that can if TSSVi < TEj then
communicate with the mobile gateway, the LNS gives priority TSi ← TEj F TX after last ED
to the EDs that are visited first by the satellite footprint. In the else
example in Fig.4, the EDi will transmit before the EDj being TSi ← TSSVi F TX when satellite is available
ri < rj , with ri relative distance of EDi from the satellite end if
footprint. end for
Many nodes may be concentrated in the same area end for
(i.e., dense area), one very close to another, and thus, while an
ED is still transmitting, another one could enter the satellite
footprint and attempt a transmission as well. To avoid such C. FAIR POLICY
a scenario generating collisions, we introduce the concept of The LEO satellite is available for a limited time, equal on
slide. We divide the satellite footprint into several slides. They average to 100s. The visibility time could be shorter than the
FIGURE 5. Satellite footprint and slides. Cancellation of collision with TDMA approach and FCFS policy.
total time needed for scheduling at least one uplink transmis- D. OPTIMAL SCHEDULE
sion from all the EDs within every single slide. In a dense After scheduling the EDs’ transmissions according to the
area with hundred of EDs, several EDs that are visited last FAIR policy, there might be still several slots available,
by the satellite may never get a chance to transmit. They depending on the satellite visibility and the density of the EDs
will miss the satellite each time it is their turn to transmit, in the coverage area. Due to (i) the short availability time of
according to the FCFS policy. We propose the FAIR policy to the satellite and (ii) the LoRa duty cycle limitations imposed
overcome such shortcomings and ensure that all the EDs have by the LoRaWAN regional parameters, it is very unlucky
an equal chance to transmit. The logic behind it is described that a given ED have a second chance of transmitting within
by Algorithm 2. a single satellite visit. For instance, the maximum ToA for
{51 Bytes, EU868, SF12, 125KHz} [27] is equal to 2793.5ms
Algorithm 2 SALSA With Fair Policy while the duty cycle is 1% in the EU region. So the ED must
for slidek do wait for 279.35s before having a new uplink opportunity,
for EDi do while the availability time for a LEO satellite is shorter than
if ntxi ≤ ntxj then F Fairness check 120s at 500Km height above 30◦ elevation.
if TSSVi < TEj then While running the SALSA algorithm the LNS also imple-
TSi ← TEj F TX after last ED ments a check on the duty cycle limitations and further opti-
else mizes the use of the limited network resources. And whenever
TSi ← TSSVi F TX when satellite is available it identifies a gap (empty slot) in the schedule, it allocates it
end if to another EDi , at the conditions that: (1) The new expected
else reserved time, Tri , does not create any conflict in the schedul-
Do not TX F Give the chance to the next ED ing table with the already reserved slots for other EDs. (2) The
end if EDi has visibility with the satellite in that expected time.
end for
end for IV. PERFORMANCE EVALUATION
In this section we first describe the simulated environment
Let consider N EDs within a given slide of the satellite used for reproducing the system behaviour, and for imple-
footprint. The LNS first checks if the EDi had already several menting the SALSA algorithm. Then, we evaluate the per-
transmission opportunities, ntxi , higher than the other end formance achievable with SALSA, and compare them with
devices EDj , within the same slide. In this case, with ntxi > the benchmark solution (ALOHA).
ntxj , and j 6 = i, the EDi will not be granted an uplink slot.
On the contrary, if it can transmit because it transmitted fewer A. SIMULATED ENVIRONMENT
times than its neighbours, the LNS has to define the starting We have implemented the algorithm in a Matlab environ-
time TSi of its transmission, according to the FCFS policy (see ment to evaluate the performance achievable with SALSA,
Algorithm 1). FCFS, and FAIR policies. We consider network size variable
FIGURE 8. Packet drops during one month when the EDs transmit with
ALOHA-based LoRa, generating periodic traffic, every 30 minutes.
V. CONCLUSION
In the present work, we tackle the issue of a LoRaWAN
FIGURE 10. Average Number of Uplink Transmission for each ED, with mobile gateway installed on the LEO satellite. For the first
FCFS and FAIR policy (a) with one satellite, and (b) with two satellites.
time, we propose a TDMA scheduling technique, SALSA.
It optimises the usage of the satellite bandwidth during
limited satellite visibility. The proposed SALSA algorithm
the time reserved for each ED, for a single transmission is first avoids by design any collision, thanks to the TDMA
Tr = 2 × Tg + ToA = 2813.5 ms. approach; second, it avoids packet drop by considering the
satellite availability; third, it ensures fair access for all
B. ACHIEVABLE PERFORMANCE the end devices in the network. With simulation results,
We have compared the behaviour of the satellite LoRaWAN we demonstrate in a realistic scenario that the SALSA algo-
network in three different scenarios: rithm can improve the network performance. The opportu-
• ALOHA: the EDs transmit following the LoRa stan- nities of uplink transmission per each ED decreases with
dard, with random ALOHA access. They transmit increasing network size (more EDs are contending for the
periodically, every 30 minutes, without having any same channel). LEO constellations help overcome this issue.
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