Design of Active RFID-Based Military Base Gate Access Control System and LoRa SX1278

Telekomunikasi Militer

Abstrak

This study aims to design and implement a vehicle authentication-based military base gate access control system using 433 MHz frequency Active RFID (433 MHz) integrated with LoRa SX1278 wireless communication in a point-to-point architecture. Conventional security systems that still rely on manual inspections have limitations in efficiency, consistency of identification, and the potential for human error. The developed system utilizes Active RFID (433 MHz) tags with a transmitting power of 10–20 dBm and a sensitivity of −105 dBm for medium-range identification, a Raspberry Pi as a database processing and verification unit, a LoRa SX1278 module as a wireless communication medium, and an ESP32 microcontroller as a gate actuator controller based on the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technique. The research method uses an experimental approach through prototype design, hardware and software integration, and performance testing in a semi-restricted operational environment. Evaluation was carried out based on RFID reading distance parameters, LoRa communication quality using RSSI and SNR indicators, and system response time. The test results showed that the system was able to identify vehicles up to a distance of 50 m with a 70% success rate at the maximum distance. The LoRa SX1278 communication maintains stable signal quality up to 200 m with RSSI values of −89 dBm and SNR of 4.2 dB at the farthest distances. The system response time is recorded in less than one second. The integration of Active RFID (433 MHz) and LoRa SX1278 in the ESP32-based distributed architecture has been proven to improve the operational efficiency as well as reliability of vehicle access control systems in military environments.