Publication detail

Exploring LoRaWAN Traffic: In-Depth Analysis of IoT Network Communications

POVALAČ, A. KRÁL, J. ARTHABER, H. KOLÁŘ, O. NOVÁK, M.

Original Title

Exploring LoRaWAN Traffic: In-Depth Analysis of IoT Network Communications

Type

journal article in Web of Science

Language

English

Original Abstract

In the past decade, Long-Range Wire-Area Network (LoRaWAN) has emerged as one of the most widely adopted Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) standards. Significant efforts have been devoted to optimizing the operation of this network. However, research in this domain heavily relies on simulations and demands high-quality real-world traffic data. To address this need, we monitored and analyzed LoRaWAN traffic in four European cities, making the obtained data and post-processing scripts publicly available. For monitoring purposes, we developed an open-source sniffer capable of capturing all LoRaWAN communication within the EU868 band. Our analysis discovered significant issues in current LoRaWAN deployments, including violations of fundamental security principles, such as the use of default and exposed encryption keys, potential breaches of spectrum regulations including duty cycle violations, SyncWord issues, and misaligned Class-B beacons. This misalignment can render Class-B unusable, as the beacons cannot be validated. Furthermore, we enhanced Wireshark’s LoRaWAN protocol dissector to accurately decode recorded traffic. Additionally, we proposed the passive reception of Class-B beacons as an alternative timebase source for devices operating within LoRaWAN coverage under the assumption that the issue of misaligned beacons can be addressed or mitigated in the future. The identified issues and the published dataset can serve as valuable resources for researchers simulating real-world traffic and for the LoRaWAN Alliance to enhance the standard to facilitate more reliable Class-B communication.

Keywords

IoT; LoRa; LoRaWAN; Class-B; dataset; network sniffer; traffic monitoring; time synchronization

Authors

POVALAČ, A.; KRÁL, J.; ARTHABER, H.; KOLÁŘ, O.; NOVÁK, M.

Released

22. 8. 2023

Publisher

MDPI

Location

Basel, Švýcarsko

ISBN

1424-8220

Periodical

SENSORS

Year of study

23

Number

17

State

Swiss Confederation

Pages from

1

Pages to

20

Pages count

20

URL

https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/17/7333

Full text in the Digital Library

http://hdl.handle.net/11012/213817

BibTex

@article{BUT184438,
  author="Aleš {Povalač} and Jan {Král} and Holger {Arthaber} and Ondřej {Kolář} and Marek {Novák}",
  title="Exploring LoRaWAN Traffic: In-Depth Analysis of IoT Network Communications",
  journal="SENSORS",
  year="2023",
  volume="23",
  number="17",
  pages="1--20",
  doi="10.3390/s23177333",
  issn="1424-8220",
  url="https://www.mdpi.com/1424-8220/23/17/7333"
}