Author(s): Lukas Reinhardt

Abstract: Environmental monitoring systems increasingly rely on Internet of Things technologies to enable continuous data acquisition, transmission, and analysis across distributed sensing environments. However, conventional IoT communication architectures often impose high energy consumption, latency, and computational overhead, which limit their suitability for resource-constrained environmental deployments. This research presents the design and evaluation of a lightweight IoT-based communication system specifically optimized for environmental monitoring applications. The proposed system integrates low-power sensor nodes, an efficient data aggregation layer, and a streamlined communication protocol to support reliable transmission under constrained bandwidth and energy conditions. Emphasis is placed on minimizing packet size, reducing retransmissions, and optimizing duty cycles to extend node lifetime while maintaining acceptable data fidelity. The system architecture is modular, enabling scalability and interoperability with existing IoT platforms. Performance evaluation is conducted through experimental deployment and simulation, focusing on key metrics including latency, throughput, packet delivery ratio, and energy consumption. Results demonstrate that the lightweight design significantly reduces communication overhead and power usage compared to conventional IoT communication stacks, while preserving robustness in dynamic environmental conditions. The system also exhibits improved adaptability to heterogeneous sensor networks and intermittent connectivity, which are common challenges in real-world monitoring scenarios. By balancing simplicity and functionality, the proposed approach supports long-term environmental data collection with minimal maintenance requirements. This work contributes a practical communication framework that addresses the critical trade-offs between efficiency, reliability, and scalability in IoT-based environmental monitoring systems. The findings indicate that lightweight communication strategies can enhance system sustainability and broaden the applicability of IoT technologies in environmental science, agriculture, and smart ecosystem management contexts worldwide.

DOI: 10.33545/2707661X.2026.v7.i1a.171

Pages: 17-22 | Views: 46 | Downloads: 17

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