Low-Power Wide-Area Networks: Opportunities, Challenges, Risks and Threats

This book offers the most suitable methods of applying Low-Power Wide-Area Network (LPWAN) technology to conceptual works and/or research studies. For instance, existing IoT protocols such as CoAP and MQTT are complemented by LPWAN to provide better service quality (QoS) to enable the notion of "sensor as a service" to endpoint users which is demonstrated in this book. LPWAN is a new enabling technology for IoT, filling the gap that existed between the legacy network technologies (WLAN, LAN, PAN) in terms of power, range, and data rates. It is also an alternative solution to implementations of IoT via cellular (4G/5G/6G) technologies, as it operates on the ISM band and also provides long-term battery life. Due to the several advantages, it brings, LPWAN raises high enthusiasm for many stakeholders of IoT. However, there still exist many research challenges to be tackled within this technology.  As such this book aims at shedding light on those research problems.

Moreover, practical users can also benefit from this book: Emergency response teams can leverage IoT systems with the extended communications-range capability provided by LPWAN technology. Moreover, machine-to-machine (M2M) and thing-to-thing (T2T) communications also benefit from this notion, as well as the Social IoT (SIoT) concept, owing to the “low-power” consumption advantage that is brought up by LPWAN technologies, e.g., 10 years battery lifetime projection for the LoRaWAN end-devices is very promising. Eventually, this proposed book aims at covering all aspects of LPWANs, from A to Z, theoretical aspects, hardware platforms and technologies, along with applications, opportunities, and, finally, challenges.

Cyber-attacks and incidences are on the rise within the last decade, especially cases in large corporates and critical infrastructures have shown that cybersecurity should become one of the important pillars of computer network infrastructures as well as any kind of relevant technology being introduced. As such, cybersecurity is bringing attention not only from practitioners and academicians but also from other parties such as media, politicians, etc. Eventually, to reflect this important point of view, this book includes three chapters to investigate various aspects of LPWAN cybersecurity.

Researchers working in wireless communications technologies and advanced-level students taking courses in electrical engineering or computer science will benefit from this book as a reference. Professionals working within this related field will also want to purchase this book.

Ismail Butun (Ph.D.) received his B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from Hacettepe University. He received his second M.Sc. degree and Ph.D. degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of South Florida in 2009 and 2013, respectively. He worked as an Assistant Professor at Bursa Technical University and Abdullah Gul University from 2015-2018. Dr. Butun was a post-doctoral researcher/fellow by various universities (University of Delaware, Mid Sweden University, Chalmers University of Technology, and finally KTH Royal Institute of Technology) in 2016-2021. Since February 2022, he is with RISE Research Institutes of Sweden, engaged in IoT security-related EU projects and automotive domain cyber-security projects.

Dr. Butun has more than 50 articles in international peer-reviewed scientific journals and conference proceedings, along with an H-index of 21 and I-index of 31. He is an editor of Springer Nature, IGI Global, IEEE Accessand MDPI Sensors journals. He served as a TPC for various conferences held by IEEE, Springer, and IARIA. His research interests include but not limited to; computer networks, wireless communications, WSNs, IoT, cyber-physical systems, cryptography, network security, and intrusion detection.

Dr. Butun is a well-recognized academic reviewer for IEEE, ACM, and Springer. He served for 39 various scientific journals and conferences in the review process of more than 207 articles. He contributed as a track chair and session chair for numerous international conferences and workshops and performed as a technical program committee (TPC) member for several international conferences organized by IEEE, Springer, and ACM. His research interests include but not limited to; computer networks, wireless communications, WSNs, IoT, IIoT, LPWAN, LoRa, cyber-physical systems, cryptography, network security, and intrusion detection.

Ian F. Akyildiz (Ph.D.) received his BS, MS, and PhD degrees in Electrical and Computer Engineering from the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, in 1978, 1981 and 1984, respectively. He is the President and CTO of the Truva Inc. since March 1989. He also serves on the Advisory Board of the Technology Innovation Institute (TII) in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates since June 1, 2020. He is also an Adjunct Professor with the University of Iceland and University of Helsinki since Fall 2020. He is the Ken Byers Chair Professor Emeritus in Telecommunications, Past Chair of the Telecom group at the ECE and the former Director of the Broadband Wireless Networking Laboratory at the Georgia Institute of Technology from 1985-2020. Dr. Akyildiz had many international affiliations during his career. He established many research centers in Spain, South Africa, Finland, Saudi Arabia, Germany, Russia, India, Cyprus, etc. 

He is the Founder and Editor in Chief of the newly established of the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) Journal on Future and Evolving Technologies (ITU-J FET) since August 2020, and is the Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of Computer Networks Journal (Elsevier) (1999-2019), the founding Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Ad Hoc Networks Journal (Elsevier) (2003-2019), the founding Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Physical Communication (PHYCOM) Journal (Elsevier) (2008-2017), and the founding Editor-in-Chief Emeritus of the Nano Communication Networks (NANOCOMNET) Journal (Elsevier) (2010-2017). He is an IEEE Fellow (1996) and ACM Fellow (1997) and received numerous awards from IEEE and ACM and other professional organizations, including Humboldt Award from Germany. His current research interests are in Internet of Things, 6G/7G Wireless Systems, TeraHertz Communication. According to Google Scholar as of November 2022, his h-index is 135 and the total number of citations to his papers is 138+K.