English

Wi-Lo: Emulating LoRa using COTS WiFi

Networking and Internet Architecture 2021-05-12 v1

Abstract

We present Wi-Lo, which allows to convert an ordinary 802.11 (WiFi) access point into an internet of things (IoT) gateway supporting the low-power wide area network (LPWAN) technology LoRa in the downlink. Our Wi-Lo system only requires a software update and no additional hardware. It uses signal emulation technique based on complementary code keying modulation from 802.11b in order to emulate a downlink LoRa (long range) transmission. The Wi-Lo gateway can be used by a normal WiFi-enabled smartphone to send packets to LoRa compliant IoT devices like smart sensors. We implemented a prototype using commodity WiFi hardware. Experimental results show that Wi-Lo enables a normal WiFi node to communication to LoRa devices even over long distances, which is comparable to the configurations using pure LoRa transmitter and receivers.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2105.04998,
  title  = {Wi-Lo: Emulating LoRa using COTS WiFi},
  author = {Piotr Gawlowicz and Anatolij Zubow and Falko Dressler},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2105.04998},
  year   = {2021}
}

Comments

5 pages, 8 figures

R2 v1 2026-06-24T01:59:15.647Z