A Large-Scale LoRa Measurement Campaign in Urban and Suburban Environments

This dataset supports a large-scale LoRa measurement campaign conducted at 868 MHz across urban and suburban environments in the city of Funchal, Madeira Island, Portugal. The research hypothesis is that inconsistencies in measurement methodology, particularly the use of mobile platforms, uncalibrated hardware, and insufficient sampling per location, introduce systematic bias in path-loss estimation for LoRa-based Internet of Things deployments, and that a fixed-position, calibrated, multi-sample approach yields more accurate and reproducible path-loss characterization. The dataset contains received signal strength indicator (RSSI), signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and estimated effective signal power (ESP) values for both uplink and downlink transmissions, collected at 1,203 fixed locations across an area of approximately 8 km², from February to November 2025. Three custom gateways, designated Gateway A, Gateway B, and Gateway C, operating at carrier frequencies of 868.1 MHz, 868.3 MHz, and 868.5 MHz respectively, received transmissions from four end devices arranged in a spatial diversity structure. Eight samples were acquired per measurement location, resulting in a total of 28,872 uplink packets transmitted. Each record includes GPS-verified geographic coordinates, timestamp, and per-packet RSSI and SNR values for each gateway link. The data reveal that small-scale fading induces signal fluctuations of up to 35 dB, with per-location standard deviations reaching approximately 12 dB, underscoring the need for multiple samples when estimating path loss. Uplink and downlink path-loss values were found to be statistically similar, with a mean difference of 0.9 dB and a standard deviation of 1.5 dB. Near the receiver sensitivity limit, packet loss reduces the number of available samples and degrades path-loss estimation accuracy; an order-statistics-based correction technique is described in the companion paper to address this effect. The data also demonstrate that conventional single-slope log-distance path-loss models achieve a root mean square error of approximately 12 dB across the full measurement area, indicating that more refined modeling approaches incorporating environmental parameters are necessary for accurate propagation prediction in complex urban scenarios.