Raspberry Pi-based cluster network for the emulation of sensor networks in remote teaching

Due to their versatility, sensor networks and Internet of Things (IoT) have become technologies of a great importance in many modern applications in so-diverse ambits such as environmental monitoring and smart cities. Therefore, these are included in the contents of the subject “Advanced Sensor Network Infrastructure” of the Master on Intelligent Systems on Energy and Transport of the University of Seville. This subject serves as an introduction to sensor networks, their applications, and their operating principles. Its schedule includes laboratory lessons in which the students use various sensor devices for learning about the existing communication and processing methods. The health crisis caused by the COVID-19 has made difficult that all the students have physical access to the laboratory at the same time, which forced to adapt the existing materials and facilities. In this sense, to solve this problem, a Raspberry Pi-based computer network has been deployed to allow the emulation of a sensor network while providing external remote access to the students for them to perform their laboratory tasks. At the same time, this proposal has expanded the subject contents to cover several data processing layers and architectures.