Design, Implementation, and Comparative Study of LORA and WSN Data Transmission for Solar Smart Streetlight Monitoring

This study explored and compared two wireless communication systems-LoRa-based (RFM95W) and WSNbased (nRF24L01)-for monitoring solar-powered smart streetlights.LoRa, operating at 915 MHz, was tailored for longrange, low-power communication, making it well-suited for remote or rural areas.Meanwhile, the WSN system, running at 2.45 GHz, proved more effective in short-range, high-density environments.Coverage simulations using MATLAB were confirmed through field tests at Caraga State University with real sensor data.The performance evaluation focused on packet delivery ratio (PDR), latency, data accuracy, throughput, and network capacity.LoRa achieved a higher PDR of 76.92% and demonstrated better scalability.On the other hand, WSN offered faster response times (24.5 ms), greater throughput (979.59bps), and improved accuracy (75.00%).Economically, WSN also had a higher internal rate of return (7285%) and benefit-cost ratio (588.12).Overall, the findings suggest LoRa is ideal for wide-area deployments, while WSN excels in fast, accurate, and cost-efficient applications.