  LoRaWAN is an emerging Low-Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technology, which
is gaining momentum thanks to its flexibility and ease of deployment.
Conversely to other LPWAN solutions, LoRaWAN indeed permits the configuration
of several network parameters that affect different network performance
indexes, such as energy efficiency, fairness, and capacity, in principle making
it possible to adapt the network behavior to the specific requirements of the
application scenario. Unfortunately, the complex and sometimes elusive
interactions among the different network components make it rather difficult to
predict the actual effect of a certain parameters setting, so that flexibility
can turn into a stumbling block if not deeply understood. In this paper we shed
light on such complex interactions, by observing and explaining the effect of
different parameters settings in some illustrative scenarios. The
simulation-based analysis reveals various trade-offs and highlights some
inefficiencies in the design of the LoRaWAN standard. Furthermore, we show how
significant performance gains can be obtained by wisely setting the system
parameters, possibly in combination with some novel network management
policies.
