As low‐power wide‐area network (LPWAN) end devices (EDs) are deployed in massive scale, their economic and environmental costs of operation are becoming too significant to ignore and too difficult to estimate. While LPWAN architectures and protocols are designed to primarily save energy, this study shows that energy saving does not necessarily lead to lower cost or environmental footprint of the network. Accordingly, a theoretical framework is proposed to estimate the operational expenditure (OpEx) and environmental footprint of LPWAN EDs. An extended constrained optimization model is provided for the ED link assignment to gateways (GWs) based on heterogeneous ED configurations and hardware specifications. Based on the models, a simulation framework is developed which demonstrates that OpEx, energy consumption, and environmental footprint can be in conflict with each other as constrained optimization objectives. We demonstrate different ways to achieve compromises in each dimension for overall improved network performance.

中文翻译：

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能源优化是否会导致LPWAN架构中的经济和环境浪费？

随着低功耗广域网（LPWAN）终端设备（ED）的大规模部署，其经济和环境运营成本变得非常重要，无法忽视，也难以估算。尽管LPWAN架构和协议旨在主要节省能源，但这项研究表明，节能并不一定会降低网络的成本或环境足迹。因此，提出了一个理论框架来估计LPWAN ED的运营支出（OpEx）和环境足迹。提供了一个扩展的约束优化模型，用于基于异构ED配置和硬件规范将ED链路分配给网关（GW）。根据这些模型，开发了一个模拟框架，该框架演示了OpEx，能耗，并且环境足迹可能会相互冲突，成为受限的优化目标。我们演示了在各个方面达成折衷方案的不同方法，以全面提高网络性能。