Extending Internet Access Over LoRa for Internet of Things and Critical Applications

TL;DR

This paper presents ILoRa, a system that extends Internet access over LoRa networks, enabling IoT devices in disconnected areas to access web services and APIs, validated through hardware implementation.

Contribution

The work introduces ILoRa, including ICN and APN components, to facilitate Internet access over LoRa, a novel approach for connectivity in remote regions.

Findings

Achieved 1.06 kbps throughput for API data transfer.

Hardware implementation validated system functionality.

Low resource utilization and minimal power consumption.

Abstract

LoRa bridges the gap between remote locations and mainstream networks, enabling large-scale Internet of Things (IoT) deployments. Despite the recent advancements around LoRa, Internet access over this technology is still largely unexplored. Most existing solutions only handle packets within the local LoRa network and do not interact with web applications. This limits the scalability and the ability to deliver essential web services in disconnected regions. This work proposes and implements ILoRa to extend the public Internet to disconnected areas for essential service delivery. ILoRa enables accessing Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) and web pages on the Internet over a LoRa backbone network. It comprises a ILoRa coordinator code (ICN) and access point nodes (APNs). The ICN interfaces the LoRa network with the public Internet and interprets content. The APN tethers a WiFi hotspot to which devices connect and access the web content. This work further proposes data handling methods for ICNs and APNs. An actual hardware-based implementation validates the proposed system. The implementation achieves a throughput of 1.06 kbps tested for an Internet-based API returning JSON data of 930 B. Furthermore, the APN consumed approximately $0.162$A current, and the resource utilization on the ICN was minimal.