Various embodiments comprise systems, methods, and apparatus enabling communications between a mobile network node (e.g., base station, eNB, gNB) and a large number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices by defining IoT device groups comprising at least one primary IoT device and a plurality of secondary IoT devices. The mobile network node communicates directly with group primary IoT devices via a mobile network protocol, and the group primary IoT devices further communicate with the secondary IoT devices via a local wireless protocol. Identifiers are used to identify secondary IoT devices that are the source of transmitted uplink messages, or the target/destination of downlink messages. Identifiers may be bundled or concatenated such that the primary IoT devices can manage messages or other communications to/from the base station, which in turn handles all backhaul services necessary to support the group of IoT devices.