An infrastructure for integrating heterogeneous embedded 6LoWPAN networks for Internet of Things applications

The recent trend of ubiquitous computing and the Internet of Things demands everyday objects to be IP addressable and Internet accessible. This brings forward the challenges of converting or mapping formerly isolated wireless sensor networks (WSNs) to be IP compatible. IPv6 over Low power Wireless Personal Area Networks (6LoWPAN) is one of the first protocols which provide IP compatibility to low data rate WSNs. While 6LoWPAN is efficient for WSNs, there are other limitations such as different physical layers and radio interfaces which will break the information flow between heterogeneous IP-compatible networks and the Internet. In this paper, an integrated hardware/software solution is presented to bridge two heterogeneous 6LoWPAN networks. It is motivated by the necessity of merging a body area network and an environment control network in typical health monitoring applications of an intelligent environment. The unification is achieved through use of a physical serial bus, making a single hybrid router with the capability to route packets across both networks. The commonalities between two 6LoWPAN implementations allow highly efficient packet translation between two network stacks. Internet connectivity was added though use of an edge router, and allows each node to be addressed and accessed directly from anywhere on the Internet.