Long-range, low-power wireless technologies such as LoRa have been shown to exhibit excellent performance when applied in body-centric wireless applications. However, the robustness of LoRa technology to Doppler spread has recently been called into question by a number of researchers. This paper evaluates the impact of static and dynamic Doppler shifts on a simulated LoRa symbol detector and two types of simulated LoRa receivers. The results are interpreted specifically for body-centric applications and confirm that, in most application environments, pure Doppler effects are unlikely to severely disrupt wireless communication, confirming previous research, which stated that the link deteriorations observed in a number of practical LoRa measurement campaigns would mainly be caused by multipath fading effects. Yet, dynamic Doppler shifts, which occur as a result of the relative acceleration between communicating nodes, are also shown to contribute to link degradation. This is especially so for higher LoRa spreading factors and larger packet sizes.
Characterizing the Impact of Doppler Effects on Body-Centric LoRa Links with SDR
