{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,18]],"date-time":"2026-08-18T05:07:49Z","timestamp":1787029669352,"version":"build-2736575974"},"reference-count":26,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"9","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,24]],"date-time":"2026-04-24T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1776988800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Large-scale smart agriculture requires reliable and energy-efficient wireless connectivity to support distributed environmental sensing across wide rural areas. However, existing low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) technologies often face limitations in scalability, reliability, or infrastructure dependency when deployed in large agricultural fields. This study presents the design and experimental evaluation of a hierarchical sensor network architecture that integrates LoRaMESH for multi-hop sensing communication and Wi-Fi HaLow as a sub-GHz backhaul for data aggregation and cloud connectivity. In the proposed system, LoRaMESH forms intra-cluster sensor networks using a lightweight controlled flooding protocol, while Wi-Fi HaLow provides long-range IP-based connectivity between cluster gateways and a central access point. A real-world deployment covering approximately\u00a02.5km\u00d71km\u00a0of agricultural area was implemented to evaluate the performance of the proposed architecture. Experimental results show that the LoRaMESH network achieves packet delivery ratios above\u00a090%\u00a0across one to three hops, with average end-to-end delays between\u00a010.6\u00a0s and\u00a013.3\u00a0s. The Wi-Fi HaLow backhaul demonstrates high reliability within short to medium distances, reaching\u00a099.5%\u00a0packet delivery ratio at 50 m and\u00a089.68%\u00a0at 200 m. Energy measurements further indicate that the sensor nodes consume only\u00a021.19\u03bcA\u00a0in sleep mode, enabling long-term battery-powered operation suitable for agricultural monitoring applications. These results indicate that the proposed hierarchical architecture is a feasible connectivity option for the tested large-scale agricultural sensing scenario. Because no side-by-side LoRaWAN or NB-IoT benchmark was conducted on the same testbed, the results should be interpreted as a field validation of the proposed architecture rather than as a direct experimental demonstration of superiority over alternative LPWAN systems.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s26092645","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,24]],"date-time":"2026-04-24T14:28:23Z","timestamp":1777040903000},"page":"2645","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":2,"title":["Design and Experimental Evaluation of a Hierarchical LoRaMESH-Based Sensor Network with Wi-Fi HaLow Backhaul for Smart Agriculture"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"26","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-2841-6724","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Cuong Chu","family":"Van","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Electronics Engineering 1, Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT), Hanoi 100000, Vietnam"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Anh Tran","family":"Tuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Electronics Engineering 1, Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT), Hanoi 100000, Vietnam"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0003-6207-1170","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Duan Luong","family":"Cong","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Faculty of Electronics Engineering 1, Posts and Telecommunications Institute of Technology (PTIT), Hanoi 100000, Vietnam"}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,24]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"66","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compag.2015.08.011","article-title":"Wireless sensor networks for agriculture: The state-of-the-art in practice and future challenges","volume":"118","author":"Ojha","year":"2015","journal-title":"Comput. 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