RINAsense: An open-source, low-power IoT sensor node for Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA) Experimentation

The proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) has exposed fundamental challenges in scalability, security, and management within conventional network architectures. The Recursive InterNetwork Architecture (RINA) presents a "clean slate" alternative, promising inherent solutions to these issues by redesigning networking from first principles. However, the practical exploration and adoption of RINA have been hampered by a lack of accessible, low-cost, and open-source hardware tailored for resource-constrained IoT environments. This paper introduces the RINAsense node, an open-source hardware platform designed to bridge this gap. The hardware is based on a low-power ESP32 microcontroller and integrates environmental sensors for temperature, humidity, and carbon monoxide, all managed by a custom RINAsense firmware designed specifically for embedded systems. The hardware was deployed and validated in an operational smart building testbed, demonstrating its capabilities as a reproducible scientific instrument. The validation confirmed the hardware's successful operation, achieving low-latency communication with an average round-trip delay of 2.05 ms and a remarkable 82% reduction in energy consumption compared to non-optimized operation, a critical factor for battery-powered IoT devices. By providing a fully documented and replicable design, the RINAsense node lowers the barrier to entry for practical RINA research and experimentation, contributing directly to the open science and reproducibility goals of the research community.