Self-Healing Network of Interconnected Edge Devices Empowered by Infrastructure-as-Code and LoRa Communication

TL;DR

This paper presents a self-healing, automated network of Raspberry Pi devices using LoRa communication and Infrastructure-as-Code, addressing deployment challenges in remote or infrastructure-less environments with resilience and adaptability.

Contribution

It adapts Infrastructure-as-Code principles to LoRa-based networks on Raspberry Pi clusters, enabling automated deployment and self-healing capabilities despite protocol limitations.

Findings

Fragmenting data packets improves throughput under LoRa constraints.

Automated failover redeploys services within one second, enhancing resilience.

Challenges include collision management and line-of-sight interference.

Abstract

This Paper proposes a self-healing, automated network of Raspberry Pi devices designed for deployment in scenarios where traditional networking is unavailable. Leveraging the low-power, long-range capabilities of the LoRa (Long Range) protocol alongside Infrastructure as Code (IaC) methodologies, the research addresses challenges such as limited bandwidth, data collisions, and node failures. Given that LoRa's packet-based system is incompatible with conventional IaC tools like Ansible and Terraform, which rely on TCP/IP networking, the research adapts IaC principles within a containerised architecture deployed across a Raspberry Pi cluster. Evaluation experiments indicate that fragmenting data packets and retransmitting any missed fragments can mitigate LoRa's inherent throughput and packet size limitations, although issues such as collisions and line-of-sight interference persist. An automated failover mechanism was integrated into the architecture, enabling unresponsive services to be redeployed to alternative nodes within one second, demonstrating the system's resilience in maintaining operational continuity despite node or service failures. The paper also identifies practical challenges, including the necessity for time-slotting transmissions to prevent data packet overlap and collisions. Future research should explore the integration of mesh networking to enhance range, develop more advanced scheduling algorithms, and adopt cutting-edge low-power wide-area network (LPWAN) techniques.