Optimizing LoRaWAN throughput in maritime environments through adaptive coding and modulation in Rayleigh fading channels

This article proposes an Adaptive Coding and Modulation (ACM) scheme to improve the throughput of Long-Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) in a maritime environment where wireless communication faces severe challenges from multipath propagation, interference, and Rayleigh fading. Unlike conventional LoRaWAN systems that use fixed physical layer configurations, dynamic adjustment of spreading factor (SF), coding rate (CR), and bandwidth (BW), according to channel conditions based on real-time Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR), is another solution to respond to communication challenges in the maritime environment. Simulations using a Rayleigh fading model with six different configuration levels demonstrate that the proposed ACM can achieve a gain of up to 103 times the throughput improvement compared to fixed SF7 under low SNR conditions while maintaining link reliability. This work establishes the foundation for implementing efficient and reliable LoRaWAN networks in maritime Internet of Things (IoT) applications.