KRATOS: An Open Source Hardware-Software Platform for Rapid Research in LPWANs

TL;DR

KRATOS is an open-source hardware-software platform designed for rapid research in LoRa-based IoT networks, enabling low-cost, accessible development and testing of LoRa applications.

Contribution

This paper introduces KRATOS, a novel open-source LoRa platform with hardware and software designs released for research and development.

Findings

KRATOS offers a low-cost alternative to commercial LoRa devices.

The platform runs ContikiOS, facilitating IoT research.

Open-source release promotes community-driven innovation.

Abstract

Long-range (LoRa) radio technologies have recently gained momentum in the IoT landscape, allowing low-power communications over distances up to several kilometers. As a result, more and more LoRa networks are being deployed. However, commercially available LoRa devices are expensive and propriety, creating a barrier to entry and possibly slowing down developments and deployments of novel applications. Using open-source hardware and software platforms would allow more developers to test and build intelligent devices resulting in a better overall development ecosystem, lower barriers to entry, and rapid growth in the number of IoT applications. Toward this goal, this paper presents the design, implementation, and evaluation of KRATOS, a low-cost LoRa platform running ContikiOS. Both, our hardware and software designs are released as an open- source to the research community.