دانلود رایگان مقاله انگلیسی ادغام LoRaWAN و 4G/5G برای اینترنت اشیای صنعتی - IEEE 2018

Abstract

Current forecasts predict that the Industrial Internet of Things will account for about 10 billion devices by 2020. Simultaneously, unlicensed low-power wide area networks are gaining momentum due to their low cost, low power, and long range characteristics, which are suitable for many IIoT applications, in addition to the usage of unlicensed bands. In this article, a solution is proposed to seamlessly integrate LoRaWAN, an open and standardized LPWAN technology, with 4G/5G mobile networks, thus allowing mobile network operators to reutilize their current infrastructures. This proposal is transparent to LoRaWAN end devices and to the EPC, since only the LoRaWAN gateway needs to be modified. The gateway acts as an evolved Node B from the core network perspective, implementing part of the eNB protocol stack. All data packets transported over the core network are both encrypted and integrity protected, hence achieving end-toend security. As a proof of concept, this solution has been implemented and validated with an open source EPC.

Conclusions

Current forecasts predict several billions of IIoT devices by 2020, accounting for 57 percent of the overall IoT spending that year. Many of the IIoT use cases will generate mMTC traffic with low power, long range, and low bandwidth requirements. However, 3GPP cellular proposals for mMTC such as LTE-M and NB-IoT are not yet widely deployed due to their late standardization, and many mobile operators have started to employ LPWAN technologies such as LoRaWAN.

For this reason, in this article, we have presented a proposal for seamless integration of LoRaWAN and 4G/5G mobile networks. This solution is transparent to the LoRaWAN end devices and mobile network entities, which do not require any modification. Only the LoRaWAN gateway is modified, which is seen as an eNB from the EPC perspective, and implements the LTE signaling for S1 setup and the attach and default bearer establishment procedures. All data packets are sent through the EPC using only one LTE bearer to simplify and reduce signaling. Endto-end security is ensured thanks to the LoRaWAN procedures for integrity and confidentiality.