In this work, a container-based architecture for the integration of Long Range Wide Area Network (LoRaWAN) end nodes—e.g., used to monitor industrial machines or mobile entities in specific environments—with Internet Protocol (IP)-based networks is proposed and its performance is investigated. To this end, we exploit the native service and resource discovery support of the Constrained Application Protocol (CoAP), as well as its light traffic requirements, owing to its use of User Datagram Protocol (UDP) rather than Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). This approach (i) adapts transparently (with no impact) to both private and public LoRaWAN networks, (ii) enables seamless interaction between LoRaWAN-based and CoAP-based nodes, through a logical “virtualization” of LoRaWAN nodes at server side, and (iii) enables routing among LoRaWAN end nodes, overcoming LoRaWAN's absence of inter-node communication and lack of compliance (at the end nodes' side) with IP. Two virtualization approaches are proposed: (i) virtualization of a single end node (represented as a CoAP server) per container and (ii) virtualization of multiple end nodes (as CoAP servers) per container. Finally, deployments of the proposed virtualization architectures, using both a laptop and an Internet of Things (IoT) device (e.g., a Raspberry Pi), are considered, highlighting how the best solution relies on the use of several containers, with more than one CoAP server per container.

In this paper, we propose an effective target localization strategy for Internet of Things (IoT) scenarios, where positioning is performed by resource-constrained devices. Target-anchor links may be impaired by Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) communication conditions. In order to derive a feasible IoT-oriented positioning strategy, we rely on the acquisition, at the target, of a sequence of consecutive measurements of the Received Signal Strength Indicator (RSSI) of the wireless signals transmitted by the anchors. We then consider a pragmatic approach according to which the NLOS channels are pre-mitigated and “transformed” into equivalent Line-Of-Sight (LOS) channels to estimate more accurately each target-anchor distance. The estimated distances feed “agnostic” localization algorithms, operating as if all links were LOS. We experimentally assess the performance of our approach in indoor (IEEE 802.11-based) and outdoor (Long Term Evolution, LTE-based) scenarios, considering both geometric and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO)-based localization algorithms. Even if NLOS mitigation per single communication link is very effective, our results show that, in a given environment, it is possible to derive an “average” NLOS mitigation strategy regardless of the specific position of the target in the given environment. This is crucial to limit the computational complexity at IoT nodes performing localization, yet guaranteeing a relatively high (for IoT scenarios) localization accuracy, especially in an IEEE 802.11-based indoor case (with six anchors). The obtained performance compares favorably (in relative terms) with that obtained with more sophisticated wireless technologies (e.g., Ultra-WideBand, UWB).

Research efforts in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) are providing solutions in building new types of “network of networks,” going beyond the technological barriers due to intrinsic limitations of the constrained devices typically used in this context. Thanks to the improvement in communication/networking protocols and the hardware cost reduction, it is now possible to define new IoT architectures, combining the “micro” IoT paradigm, based on short-range radio technologies (e.g., IEEE 802.15.4 and IEEE 802.11), with the rising “macro” IoT paradigm, based on sub-GHz radio technologies. This allows the implementation of scalable network architectures, able to collect data coming from constrained devices and process them in order to provide useful services and applications to final consumers. In this paper, we focus on practical integration between micro and macro IoT approaches, providing architectural and performance details for a set of experimental tests carried out in the campus of the University of Parma. We then discuss challenges and solutions of the proposed micro-macro integrated IoT systems.