Rethinking LoRa for the IoT: An InformationCentric Approach

Abstract

In this article, we present LoRa-ICN, a new longrange communication system that provides a versatile data-oriented integration of battery-driven LoRa nodes into the Internet of Things (IoT). LoRa-ICN builds on two paradigms: information-centric networking (ICN), which enables more direct, data-oriented communication between Internet systems and the low-power wireless domain, and 802.15.4 DSME, which is an IoT MAC layer that facilitates reliable LoRa transmissions. While the combination of LoRa and DSME is generally better suited for bi-directional end-to-end communication, it still incurs considerable long and variable transmission latencies, and challenges the network layer transition between the power-constrained wireless domain and the Internet. Our design and implementation on actual off-theshelf IoT hardware includes extensions to ICN that enable delay-tolerant data retrieval between LoRa nodes and an application on the Internet. An experimental comparison between default ICN mechanisms and our extensions shows that LoRa-ICN is able to achieve a high data delivery rate, while dealing with the higher latencies explicitly, thus providing a viable option for re-imaging LoRa networks with a data-oriented, Internet-friendly approach. IntroductIonThe Internet of Things (IoT) interconnects numerous sensors and actuators either locally or across the global Internet. From an application perspective, IoT systems are inherently data-oriented, that is, their purpose is often to provide access to named sensor data and control interfaces. From a device and communication perspective, things in the IoT are resource-constrained devices that are commonly powered by a small battery and communicate wirelessly.LoRaWAN systems today integrate the LoRa physical layer with the LoRaWAN MAC layer and corresponding infrastructure support. Among the IoT radio technologies, LoRa is a versatile and popular candidate [1,2] since it provides a physical layer that allows for data transmission over multiple kilometers with minimal energy consumption. At the same time, the high LoRa receiver sensitivity enables packet reception in noisy environments, which makes it attractive for industrial deployments. On the downside, LoRa achieves only low data rates requiring long on-air times, and significantly higher latencies compared to radios that are typically used for Internet access.The LoRaWAN MAC layer and network architecture that is often used in LoRa deployments, thus provide a vertically integrated sensor data delivery service on top of the LoRa PHY that implements media access and end-to-end network connectivity. Unfortunately, LoRaWAN cannot utilize the LoRa PHY to its best potential with respect to throughput and robustness and is mostly used for upstream-only communication. It is not intended to directly interconnect with the Internet, but relies on a bespoke middlebox architecture consisting of gateways and network servers. Overall LoRaWAN has the following main problems, as depicted in Fig. 1a.Centralization around a network server pre...