Enhancing Extensive and Remote LoRa Deployments through MEC-Powered Drone Gateways

Abstract

The distribution of Internet of Things (IoT) devices in remote areas and the need for network resilience in such deployments is increasingly important in smart spaces covering scenarios, such as agriculture, forest, coast preservation, and connectivity survival against disasters. Although Low-Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies, like LoRa, support high connectivity ranges, communication paths can suffer from obstruction due to orography or buildings, and large areas are still difficult to cover with wired gateways, due to the lack of network or power infrastructure. The proposal presented herein proposes to mount LPWAN gateways in drones in order to generate airborne network segments providing enhanced connectivity to sensor nodes wherever needed. Our LoRa-drone gateways can be used either to collect data and then report them to the back-office directly, or store-carry-and-forward data until a proper communication link with the infrastructure network is available. The proposed architecture relies on Multi-Access Edge Computing (MEC) capabilities to host a virtualization platform on-board the drone, aiming at providing an intermediate processing layer that runs Virtualized Networking Functions (VNF). This way, both preprocessing or intelligent analytics can be locally performed, saving communications and memory resources. The contribution includes a system architecture that has been successfully validated through experimentation with a real test-bed and comprehensively evaluated through computer simulation. The results show significant communication improvements employing LoRa-drone gateways when compared to traditional fixed LoRa deployments in terms of link availability and covered areas, especially in vast monitored extensions, or at points with difficult access, such as rugged zones.

A Systematic Review of Real-Time Deployments of UAV-Based LoRa Communication Network

“…Prototype basic validation in a relevant environment [47], [54], [67], [70] 6-7 Prototype demonstration in a relevant and operational environment [28], [29], [49], [53], [55]- [60], [68], [72], [73], [76], [77], [79] 8…”

“…A UAV-based LoRa gateway is typically used for data collection from ground LoRa nodes [43], [45], [62]- [66] and to increase the communication ranges [29], [67]. 8 summarizes the backhaul communication modules integrated by the researchers in the LoRa network applications.…”

“…MQTT [53] IEEE 802.11s [28] ES920GW as an Internet Gateway [47] 4G/LTE [29], [57], [70], [76], [77], [79] Wi-Fi [44], [68], [73], [74] Virtual Ethernet [49]…”

“…A UAV-based LoRa gateway can replace a compromised fixed LoRa gateway or be delivered to a specific remote location to increase the network coverage of specific IoT devices. One of the main advantages of using UAVs as LoRa gateways is that they can be deployed on demand, and increasing their number can increase the efficiency of the system [29].…”

The Internet of Drones: Requirements, Taxonomy, Recent Advances, and Challenges of Research Trends

“…Gallego-Madrid et al [ 72 ] introduced an architecture based on the ability of multi-access edge-computing (MEC) to host a drone-board virtualization platform to provide an intermediate processing layer running virtualized networking functions (VNF). The results of the presented architecture have shown significant communication improvements using LoRa-drone gateways in terms of link availability and covered areas, particularly in vast controlled extensions or at points with difficult access, such as rough zones.…”