LoRa-Based Smart Village Communication and Sensing Network

Problem statement

Many rural and remote areas lack reliable internet connectivity and communication infrastructure. Monitoring water levels, weather, soil moisture or sending village alerts becomes difficult. Cellular networks may be weak or expensive. A low-power long-range communication system is needed to connect sensors and simple message services across a village.

Abstract

This project designs a LoRa-based communication network for a model smart village. Multiple sensor nodes deployed at water tanks, farms and weather stations use LoRa radios to send data to a central gateway. The gateway, which may have intermittent internet, uploads data to the cloud when available or shows it locally. The same network can also relay simple text alerts between nodes, providing a basic communication channel for remote villages.

Components required

• LoRa transceiver modules (SX1278 / RFM95W)
• Sensor nodes with Arduino / ESP32
• Gateway (Raspberry Pi / ESP32 + LoRa + Wi-Fi)
• Sensors (water level, soil moisture, temperature, humidity)
• Power supply or solar panels for remote nodes
• Cloud dashboard or local HMI display

Block diagram

Working

Each node periodically reads its attached sensor (for example, water level at a tank, soil moisture in a farm, or weather parameters). The node packages the data into a small LoRa packet and transmits it at a defined interval. The central gateway listens on the same frequency and bandwidth, decodes packets from all nodes, and forwards data either to a local display (for offline scenarios) or to a cloud server when internet access is available. The dashboard consolidates the data and can generate SMS or speaker-based alerts for critical events such as low water level or extreme weather.

Applications

• Smart village water and agriculture monitoring
• Rural environmental data collection
• Disaster early warning systems
• Educational projects on LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area Networks)