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Testing Next-Generation Telemetry Using LoRaWAN On High-Altitude Balloons

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Abstract

One of the most significant issues when conducting high-altitude balloon missions is receiving telemetry from payloads while in flight.  This is typically achieved using satellite radio systems like Iridium or line-of-sight radios requiring mobile or fixed antennas on Earth to receive data.  Over the last few years, a next-generation telemetry solution called  LoRaWAN (Low Power Wide Area Networks) has been discussed and implemented to allow devices to send data to the internet by sending telemetry to a network of gateways that post the data to the internet.  The LoRaWAN network solution looked like a good candidate for high-altitude balloon telemetry. However, the network relies on a series of public gateways (ground stations) located on homes and businesses, typically located in cities and large towns.  To determine if LoRaWAN telemetry could work for high-altitude balloons, a series of test flights were conducted over Wyoming, which had very few public LoRaWAN Gate gateways.  To our surprise, more than 95% of the flight telemetry was received by the public LoRaWAN network and forwarded to our servers.  Over the last year, we have flight-tested LoRaWAN Telemetry solutions around the United States on numerous missions and seen a similar or better data delivery performance compared to Iridium Satelite systems for a fraction of the cost.  We will present high-altitude balloon test flight results utilizing the Helium LoRaWAN network and an introduction to how to get started building your own LoRaWAN telemetry systems. 

Keywords: LoRaWAN, Telemetry, High-Altitude Balloon, Over-the-horizion

How to Cite:

Krueger, J. & Bergmaier, P., (2024) “Testing Next-Generation Telemetry Using LoRaWAN On High-Altitude Balloons ”, Academic High Altitude Conference 2024(2). doi: https://doi.org/10.31274/ahac.18022