Integrated Satellite-terrestrial networks for IoT: LoRaWAN as a Flying Gateway

When the Internet of Things (IoT) was introduced, it causes an immense change in human life. Recently, different IoT emerging use cases, which will involve an even higher number of connected devices aimed at collecting and sending data with different purposes and over different application scenarios, such as smart city, smart factory, and smart agriculture. In some cases, the terrestrial infrastructure is not enough to guarantee the typical performance indicators due to its design and intrinsic limitations. Coverage is an example, where the terrestrial infrastructure is not able to cover certain areas such as remote and rural areas. Flying technologies, such as communication satellites and Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), can contribute to overcome the limitations of the terrestrial infrastructure, offering wider coverage, higher resilience and availability, and improving user\u2019s Quality of Experience (QoE). IoT can benefit from the UAVs and satellite integration in many ways, also beyond the coverage extension and the increase of the available bandwidth that these objects can offer. This thesis proposes the integration of both IoT and UAVs to guarantee the increased coverage in hard to reach and out of coverage areas. Its core focus addresses the development of the IoT flying gateway and data mule and testing both approaches to show their feasibility. The first approach for the integration of IoT and UAV results in the implementing of LoRa flying gateway with the aim of increasing the IoT communication protocols\u2019 coverage area to reach remote and rural areas. This flying gateway examines the feasibility for extending the coverage in a remote area and transmitting the data to the IoT cloud in real-time. Moreover, it considers the presence of a satellite between the gateway and the final destination for areas with no Internet connectivity and communication means such as WiFi, Ethernet, 4G, or LTE. The experimental results have shown that deploying a LoRa gateway on board a flying drone is an ideal option for the extension of the IoT network coverage in rural and remote areas. The second approach for the integration of the aforementioned technologies is the deployment of IoT data mule concept for LoRa networks. The difference here is the storage of the data on board of the gateway and not transmitting the data to the IoT cloud in real time. The aim of this approach is to receive the data from the LoRa sensors installed in a remote area, store them in the gateway up until this flying gateway is connected to the Internet. The experimental results have shown the feasibility of our flying data mule in terms of signal quality, data delivery, power consumption and gateway status. The third approach considers the security aspect in LoRa networks. The possible physical attacks that can be performed on any LoRa device can be performed once its location is revealed. Position estimation was carried out using one of the LoRa signal features: RSSI. The values of RSSI are fed to the Trilateration localization algorithm to estimate the device\u2019s position. Different outdoor tests were done with and without the drone, and the results have shown that RSSI is a low cost option for position estimation that can result in a slight error due to different environmental conditions that affect the signal quality. In conclusion, by adopting both IoT technology and UAV, this thesis advances the development of flying LoRa gateway and LoRa data mule for the aim of increasing the coverage of LoRa networks to reach rural and remote areas. Moreover, this research could be considered as the first step towards the development of high quality and performance LoRa flying gateway to be tested and used in massive LoRa IoT networks in rural and remote areas

Envisioning the Future Role of 3D Wireless Networks in Preventing and Managing Disasters and Emergency Situations

In an era marked by unprecedented climatic upheavals and evolving urban landscapes, the role of advanced communication networks in disaster prevention and management is becoming increasingly critical. This paper explores the transformative potential of 3D wireless networks, an innovative amalgamation of terrestrial, aerial, and satellite technologies, in enhancing disaster response mechanisms. We delve into a myriad of use cases, ranging from large facility evacuations to wildfire management, underscoring the versatility of these networks in ensuring timely communication, real-time situational awareness, and efficient resource allocation during crises. We also present an overview of cutting-edge prototypes, highlighting the practical feasibility and operational efficacy of 3D wireless networks in real-world scenarios. Simultaneously, we acknowledge the challenges posed by aspects such as cybersecurity, cross-border coordination, and physical layer technological hurdles, and propose future directions for research and development in this domain

Autonomous first response drone-based smart rescue system for critical situation management in future wireless networks

Numerous problems have been experienced due to the current exponential rise in urban population. Such challenges include insecurity and disaster management. It is therefore critical that new and efficient ways of disaster management are realized. Drone technology has been used in many applications due to their flexibility and cost-effectiveness in executing tasks. Such applications include goods delivery, data collection, surveillance, and tracking. This paper proposes an autonomous first response drone-based (Auto-FRD) smart rescue system. Auto-FRD paradigm uses drones to provide quick response to critical situations in a smart city setting. The system comprises three main sections: sensor network, intelligent drones, and the command center. The Auto-FRD system is designed such that the drones automatically deploy to a specific location upon receiving an alert signal from the smart sensors, as opposed to people sending the signal. Moreover, the system is implemented using cheap LoRa technology. Experimental results show that the proposed system drastically reduces the response time compared to conventional critical situation response systems. Additionally, the data collected by the drones prove to be extra valuable when analyzing the critical situation.No sponso

Drone Base Station Trajectory Management for Optimal Scheduling in LTE-Based Sparse Delay-Sensitive M2M Networks

Providing connectivity in areas out of reach of the cellular infrastructure is a very active area of research. This connectivity is particularly needed in case of the deployment of machine type communication devices (MTCDs) for critical purposes such as homeland security. In such applications, MTCDs are deployed in areas that are hard to reach using regular communications infrastructure while the collected data is timely critical. Drone-supported communications constitute a new trend in complementing the reach of the terrestrial communication infrastructure. In this study, drones are used as base stations to provide real-time communication services to gather critical data out of a group of MTCDs that are sparsely deployed in a marine environment. Studying different communication technologies as LTE, WiFi, LPWAN and Free-Space Optical communication (FSOC) incorporated with the drone communications was important in the first phase of this research to identify the best candidate for addressing this need. We have determined the cellular technology, and particularly LTE, to be the most suitable candidate to support such applications. In this case, an LTE base station would be mounted on the drone which will help communicate with the different MTCDs to transmit their data to the network backhaul. We then formulate the problem model mathematically and devise the trajectory planning and scheduling algorithm that decides the drone path and the resulting scheduling. Based on this formulation, we decided to compare between an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) based technique that optimizes the drone movement among the sparsely-deployed MTCDs and a Genetic Algorithm (GA) based solution that achieves the same purpose. This optimization is based on minimizing the energy cost of the drone movement while ensuring the data transmission deadline missing is minimized. We present the results of several simulation experiments that validate the different performance aspects of the technique

Relaying in the Internet of Things (IoT): A Survey

The deployment of relays between Internet of Things (IoT) end devices and gateways can improve link quality. In cellular-based IoT, relays have the potential to reduce base station overload. The energy expended in single-hop long-range communication can be reduced if relays listen to transmissions of end devices and forward these observations to gateways. However, incorporating relays into IoT networks faces some challenges. IoT end devices are designed primarily for uplink communication of small-sized observations toward the network; hence, opportunistically using end devices as relays needs a redesign of both the medium access control (MAC) layer protocol of such end devices and possible addition of new communication interfaces. Additionally, the wake-up time of IoT end devices needs to be synchronized with that of the relays. For cellular-based IoT, the possibility of using infrastructure relays exists, and noncellular IoT networks can leverage the presence of mobile devices for relaying, for example, in remote healthcare. However, the latter presents problems of incentivizing relay participation and managing the mobility of relays. Furthermore, although relays can increase the lifetime of IoT networks, deploying relays implies the need for additional batteries to power them. This can erode the energy efficiency gain that relays offer. Therefore, designing relay-assisted IoT networks that provide acceptable trade-offs is key, and this goes beyond adding an extra transmit RF chain to a relay-enabled IoT end device. There has been increasing research interest in IoT relaying, as demonstrated in the available literature. Works that consider these issues are surveyed in this paper to provide insight into the state of the art, provide design insights for network designers and motivate future research directions

Hybrid LoRa-IEEE 802.11s Opportunistic Mesh Networking for Flexible UAV Swarming

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) and small drones are nowadays being widely used in heterogeneous use cases: aerial photography, precise agriculture, inspections, environmental data collection, search-and-rescue operations, surveillance applications, and more. When designing UAV swarm-based applications, a key "ingredient" to make them effective is the communication system (possible involving multiple protocols) shared by flying drones and terrestrial base stations. When compared to ground communication systems for swarms of terrestrial vehicles, one of the main advantages of UAV-based communications is the presence of direct Line-of-Sight (LOS) links between flying UAVs operating at an altitude of tens of meters, often ensuring direct visibility among themselves and even with some ground Base Transceiver Stations (BTSs). Therefore, the adoption of proper networking strategies for UAV swarms allows users to exchange data at distances (significantly) longer than in ground applications. In this paper, we propose a hybrid communication architecture for UAV swarms, leveraging heterogeneous radio mesh networking based on long-range communication protocols—such as LoRa and LoRaWAN—and IEEE 802.11s protocols. We then discuss its strengths, constraints, viable implementation, and relevant reference use cases

Architecture and Applications of IoT Devices in Socially Relevant Fields

Number of IoT enabled devices are being tried and introduced every year and there is a healthy competition among researched and businesses to capitalize the space created by IoT, as these devices have a great market potential. Depending on the type of task involved and sensitive nature of data that the device handles, various IoT architectures, communication protocols and components are chosen and their performance is evaluated. This paper reviews such IoT enabled devices based on their architecture, communication protocols and functions in few key socially relevant fields like health care, farming, firefighting, women/individual safety/call for help/harm alert, home surveillance and mapping as these fields involve majority of the general public. It can be seen, to one's amazement, that already significant number of devices are being reported on these fields and their performance is promising. This paper also outlines the challenges involved in each of these fields that require solutions to make these devices reliableComment: 1

GNSS-free outdoor localization techniques for resource-constrained IoT architectures : a literature review

Large-scale deployments of the Internet of Things (IoT) are adopted for performance improvement and cost reduction in several application domains. The four main IoT application domains covered throughout this article are smart cities, smart transportation, smart healthcare, and smart manufacturing. To increase IoT applicability, data generated by the IoT devices need to be time-stamped and spatially contextualized. LPWANs have become an attractive solution for outdoor localization and received significant attention from the research community due to low-power, low-cost, and long-range communication. In addition, its signals can be used for communication and localization simultaneously. There are different proposed localization methods to obtain the IoT relative location. Each category of these proposed methods has pros and cons that make them useful for specific IoT systems. Nevertheless, there are some limitations in proposed localization methods that need to be eliminated to meet the IoT ecosystem needs completely. This has motivated this work and provided the following contributions: (1) definition of the main requirements and limitations of outdoor localization techniques for the IoT ecosystem, (2) description of the most relevant GNSS-free outdoor localization methods with a focus on LPWAN technologies, (3) survey the most relevant methods used within the IoT ecosystem for improving GNSS-free localization accuracy, and (4) discussion covering the open challenges and future directions within the field. Some of the important open issues that have different requirements in different IoT systems include energy consumption, security and privacy, accuracy, and scalability. This paper provides an overview of research works that have been published between 2018 to July 2021 and made available through the Google Scholar database.5311-8814-F0ED | Sara Maria da Cruz Maia de Oliveira PaivaN/

AIoT-informed digital twin communication for bridge maintenance

Digital twin (DT) has been moving progressively from concept to practice for bridge operation and maintenance (O&M), but its issues of data synchronization and fault tolerance remain problematic. This paper investigates the time delay of bridge DT services according to communication and computation complexity, revealing the distinct impact of their sequence, and proposes an AIoT-informed DT communication framework to solve the above issues. The information hierarchy and two-way communication can be leveraged to minimize communication complexity in the framework. Meanwhile, the data flow and resilience of the proposed framework are demonstrated using a Petri net. Moreover, the framework is developed into a prototypical DT through cross-platform integration and validated with different cases. The results demonstrate that compared with other existing bridge DTs, the proposed framework has high efficiency, low-latency, and excellent fault tolerance, which can contribute to the efficiency and safety of bridge O&M, especially under communication-constraint circumstances. The framework is also promising for federated learning to protect the AI-model privacy of different stakeholders and has the potential to support agent-based intelligent bridge management in the future with little human intervention

An efficient and resilient digital-twin communication framework for smart bridge structural survey and maintenance

A bridge digital twin (DT) is expected to be updated in near real time during inspection and monitoring but is usually subject to massive heterogeneous data and communication constraints. This work proposes an efficient framework for a bridge DT with decreased communication complexity to achieve updates synchronously and provide feedback to the physical bridge in time. The integrated edge computing and non-cellular long-distance wireless communication enable DT resilience when cloud servers become unresponsive due to the loss of internet connection. This framework is validated by different scenarios for DTs in support of bridge inspection and monitoring. It is demonstrated that the framework can enable dynamic interaction between on-site inspection and online bridge DT during the survey as well as knowledge transfer among different sectors in time. It can also support local decision-making on a single bridge as well as regional dynamic coordination for multiple bridges without cloud-server involvement