End-to-End Emulation of LoRaWAN Architecture and Infrastructure in Complex Smart City Scenarios Exploiting Containers

Area of Science:

• Computer Science
• Networking
• Internet of Things (IoT)

Background:

• LoRaWAN networks are crucial for smart city applications.
• Backend and node stacks are increasingly containerized.
• Existing emulation methods may not fully capture complex, disaggregated architectures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To emulate complex end-to-end LoRaWAN architectures for smart city scenarios using lightweight virtualization.
• To define metrics for evaluating the scaling complexity of emulated LoRaWAN networks.
• To assess the feasibility and cost-effectiveness of container-based emulation.

Main Methods:

• Leveraging containerization and lightweight virtualization for LoRaWAN component disaggregation.
• Defining fundamental metrics to evaluate scaling complexity.
• Applying the methodology to real-world smart city use cases with hundreds of nodes.
• Evaluating emulation on both premise and cloud servers.

Main Results:

• Container-based emulation enables distributed deployments of LoRaWAN functionalities.
• The same software used on real nodes can be utilized in emulation.
• The emulation process is simple to configure and manage.
• Emulation costs are affordable, with cloud-based options potentially under $1 per hour for large networks.

Conclusions:

• Container-based emulation provides a flexible, cost-effective, and scalable solution for testing LoRaWAN infrastructures in smart cities.
• The approach facilitates the use of identical software across real and emulated environments.
• This method supports the evaluation of complex network scenarios with hundreds of nodes efficiently.