{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,7,25]],"date-time":"2026-07-25T16:10:29Z","timestamp":1784995829888,"version":"3.55.0"},"reference-count":14,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"4","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,3]],"date-time":"2021-12-03T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1638489600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["JSAN"],"abstract":"<jats:p>LoRaWAN has established itself as one of the leading MAC layer protocols in the field of LPWAN. Although the technology itself is quite mature, its resource allocation mechanism, the Adaptive Data Rate (ADR) algorithm is still quite new, unspecified and its functionalities still limited. Various studies have shown that the performance of the ADR algorithm gradually suffers in dense networks. Recent studies and proposals have been made as attempts to improve the algorithm. In this paper, the authors proposed a spreading factor congestion status aware ADR version and compared its performance against that of four other related algorithms to study the performance improvements the algorithm brings to LoRaWAN in terms of DER and EC. LoRaSim was used to evaluate the algorithms\u2019 performances in a simple sensing application that involved end devices transmitting data to the gateway every hour. The performances were measured based on how they affected DER as the network size increases. The results obtained show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the currently existing implementations of the ADR in terms of both DER and EC. However, the proposed algorithm is slightly outperformed by the native ADR in terms of EC. This was expected as the algorithm was mainly built to improve DER. The proposed algorithm builds on the existing algorithms and the ADR and significantly improves them in terms of DER and EC (excluding the native ADR), which is a significant step towards an ideal implementation of LoRaWAN\u2019s ADR.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/jsan10040070","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,7]],"date-time":"2021-12-07T03:21:05Z","timestamp":1638847265000},"page":"70","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":6,"title":["A Spreading Factor Congestion Status-Aware Adaptive Data Rate Algorithm"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"10","author":[{"given":"Charles","family":"Lehong","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science Department, North-West University, Mafikeng 2745, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3915-4627","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Bassey","family":"Isong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science Department, North-West University, Mafikeng 2745, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Francis","family":"Lugayizi","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Computer Science Department, North-West University, Mafikeng 2745, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6413-3924","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Adnan","family":"Abu-Mahfouz","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), Pretoria 0001, South Africa"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,3]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Li, S., Raza, U., and Khan, A. (2018, January 9\u201313). How Agile is the Adaptive Data Rate Mechanism of LoRaWAN?. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE Global Communications Conference (GLOBECOM), Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.","DOI":"10.1109\/GLOCOM.2018.8647469"},{"key":"ref_2","unstructured":"De Carvalho Silva, J., Rodrigues, J.J., Alberti, A.M., Solic, P., and Aquino, A.L. (2017, January 12\u201314). LoRaWAN\u2014A low power WAN protocol for Internet of Things: A review and opportunities. Proceedings of the 2017 2nd International Multidisciplinary Conference on Computer and Energy Science (SpliTech), Split, Croatia."},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"(2021, June 21). LoRa Alliance, LoRaWAN, What Is It: A Technical Overview of LoRa and LoRaWAN. Available online: https:\/\/lora-alliance.org\/resource_hub\/what-is-lorawan\/."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Lehong, C., Isong, B., Lugayizi, F., and Abu-Mahfouz, A.M. (2020, January 25\u201327). A Survey of LoRaWAN Adaptive Data Rate Algorithms for Possible Optimization. Proceedings of the 2020 2nd International Multidisciplinary Information Technology and Engineering Conference (IMITEC), Kimberley, South Africa.","DOI":"10.1109\/IMITEC50163.2020.9334144"},{"key":"ref_5","unstructured":"Semtec (2019). Understanding the Lora Adaptive Data Rate, Semtec Corporation."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"2019","DOI":"10.1109\/TWC.2020.3038638","article-title":"Capture Aware Sequential Waterfilling for LoRaWAN Adaptive Data Rate","volume":"20","author":"Garlisi","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Wirel. Commun."},{"key":"ref_7","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Cuomo, F., Campo, M., Caponi, A., Bianchi, G., Rossini, G., and Pisani, P. (2017, January 9\u201311). EXPLoRa: Extending the performance of LoRa by suitable spreading factor allocations. Proceedings of the 2017 IEEE 13th International Conference on Wireless and Mobile Computing, Networking and Communications (WiMob), Rome, Italy.","DOI":"10.1109\/WiMOB.2017.8115779"},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Abdelfadeel, K.Q., Cionca, V., and Pesch, D. (2018, January 12\u201315). Fair Adaptive Data Rate Allocation and Power Control in LoRaWAN. Proceedings of the 2018 IEEE 19th International Symposium on \u201cA World of Wireless, Mobile and Multimedia Networks\u201d (WoWMoM), Chania, Greece.","DOI":"10.1109\/WoWMoM.2018.8449737"},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Kim, S., and Yoo, Y. (2018). Contention-Aware Adaptive Data Rate for Throughput Optimization in LoRaWAN. Sensors, 18.","DOI":"10.3390\/s18061716"},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"L.A.T. Committee (2017). LoRaWAN 1.1 Specification. Version no. 1.1., L.A.T. Committee."},{"key":"ref_11","unstructured":"Semtec (2016). LoRaWAN\u2014Simple Rate Adaptation Recommended Algorithm: Common Class A\/B\/C Specification, Semtec Corporation."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Bor, M.C., Roedig, U., Voigt, T., and Alonso, J.M. (2016, January 13\u201317). Do LoRa Low-Power Wide-Area Networks Scale?. Proceedings of the MSWiM \u201816: The 19th ACM International Conference on Modeling, Analysis and Simulation of Wireless and Mobile Systems, Malta, Malta.","DOI":"10.1145\/2988287.2989163"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Reynders, B., Meert, W., and Pollin, S. (2017, January 21\u201325). Power and spreading factor control in low power wide area networks. Proceedings of the presented at the 2017 IEEE International Conference on Communications (ICC), Paris, France.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICC.2017.7996380"},{"key":"ref_14","unstructured":"(2021, June 21). LoRa Alliance, LoRaWANTM 1.1 Regional Parameters. Available online: https:\/\/lora-alliance.org\/resource_hub\/lorawan-regional-parameters-v1-1ra\/."}],"container-title":["Journal of Sensor and Actuator Networks"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2224-2708\/10\/4\/70\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,11]],"date-time":"2025-10-11T07:39:18Z","timestamp":1760168358000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/2224-2708\/10\/4\/70"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,3]]},"references-count":14,"journal-issue":{"issue":"4","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,12]]}},"alternative-id":["jsan10040070"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/jsan10040070","relation":{},"ISSN":["2224-2708"],"issn-type":[{"value":"2224-2708","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2021,12,3]]}}}