LORA-to-LEO Satellite: A Review with Performance Analysis

The Satellite Internet of Things (IoT) sector is undergoing rapid transformation, driven 2 by breakthroughs in satellite communications and the pressing need for seamless global 3 coverage—especially in remote and poorly connected regions. In locations where terrestrial 4 infrastructure is limited or non- existent, Low Earth Orbit (LEO) satellites are proving to be 5 a game-changing solution, delivering low- latency and high-throughput links well-suited 6 for IoT deployments. While North America currently dominates the market in terms of 7 revenue, the Asia-Pacific region is projected to lead in growth rate. Nevertheless, the de- 8 velopment of satellite IoT networks still faces hurdles, including spectrum regulation and 9 international policy alignment. In this evolving landscape, the LoRa and LoRaWAN proto- 10 cols have been enhanced to support direct communication with LEO satellites, typically 11 operating at altitudes between 500 km and 2,000 km. This paper offers a comprehensive 12 review of current research on LoRa/LoRaWAN technologies integrated with LEO satellite 13 systems, also providing a performance assessment of this combined architecture in terms 14 of theoretical achievable bitrate, Bit Error rate (BER), and path loss.