Design and Performance Evaluation of a LoRaWAN-Based Communication System for Enhanced Situational Awareness in Armored Vehicles

This study presents the design and performance evaluation of a LoRaWAN-based communication system for enhancing situational awareness in armoured vehicles, with a comparative analysis against GSM networks. Performance metrics such as communication range, latency, security, GPS accuracy, data transmission speed, and power consumption were assessed under different environmental conditions, including open fields, urban areas, and forested regions. The results indicate that LoRaWAN offers a reliable alternative to GSM, particularly in environments with limited cellular infrastructure. LoRaWAN demonstrated a communication range of up to 12 km in open fields, moderate security with AES-128 encryption, and superior power efficiency, supporting up to 41.6 hours of continuous operation on a 5000mAh battery. While GSM outperformed LoRaWAN in latency (50–150 ms vs. 150–300 ms) and data transmission speed, LoRaWAN provided better performance in rural areas and secured communication through dynamic key management. These findings highlight LoRaWAN’s potential for military applications where secure, long-range, and energy-efficient communication is required