Abstract
This paper examines the problem of supporting actuators in a LoRaWAN network. It proposes a novel autonomous mechanism to allow one-to-one and one-to-many direct communication between different nodes of the same network for actuating purposes. The proposed scheme, called ActLoRa, uses a synchronized subnetwork which coexists with LoRaWAN while the end-devices can still register to the same network following the typical over-the-air activation process consisting of a joinrequest and a join-accept message. ActLoRa is evaluated using simulations and testbed experiments. The simulation results show that the performance of the synchronized part of the network is not considerably affected even when the Aloha-part consists of many nodes. The experiments are used to show the feasibility of the approach through the development of a proof-of-concept.