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LoRaWAN

LoRaWAN is a Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) communication protocol based on LoRa technology. Elastel gateway that support LoRaWAN has reserved a mini-PCIe socket for LoRaWAN module which powered by Semtech SX1302/1301, this enables Elastel gateway act as a LoRaWAN gateway to efficient communication and management of a large number of IoT endpoints with long-range, low-power wireless connections.

ElastPro provide a visible webUI for LoRaWAN gateway configuration, go to Network>> LoRaWAN to view and configure the LoRaWAN gateway related settings.

Elastel LoRaWAN gateway support two working mode, “Packet Forwarder” and “Basic Station”,

Packet Forwarder Mode​

In Packet Forwarder mode, the gateway mainly as "bridge" that receiving the uplink data sent by the LoRa nodes and forwarding it directly to the LoRaWAN Network Server (LNS) without any data processing. Also downlink data sent by the LNS is forwarded by the gateway to the nodes.

Note

This mode should work with LNS (like TTN, ChirpStack), ElastPro has prebuilt local ChirpStack as default LNS. Check Services>>ChirpStack for more details.

Lorawan packet forwarder mode

  1. Enable LoRaWAN and Set the Working Mode “Packet Forwarder” or “Basic Station”
  2. Set the Gateway ID for Gateway EUI, Gateway EUI is the uniq ID for connecting to LNS, should be same on both sides.
  3. Configure the LNS server address, it can be cloud one LNS, or the local Chirpstack prebuilt in ElastPro, if using local Chirpstack, the server address should be 127.0.0.1
  4. Configure the LNS server port for upstream
  5. Configure the LNS server port for downstream
  6. Configure the keepaliver interval for LNS connection
  7. Configure the statsu interval for LNS connection
  8. Configure the Frequency plan on gateway, this frequency plan should be same as the LNS side, also can coverer the Lora frequency on nodes side.
  9. Radio & Channels settings is relevant to the Frequency plan, normally no need change, this is for adjustable to match some nonstandard third party LNS has special frequency table.

Check the tutorial “How Elastel Gateway processing data from LoRaWAN node to Cloud” for demo reference.

Basic Station Mode​

Basics Station is another LoRaWAN gateway mode designed to simplify communication between gateways and network servers. Compared with the packet forwarder mode, it has higher security, dynamic configuration capability and remote management function. It uses TLS for encrypted communication, supports LNS (LoRaWAN Network Server) protocols for data transmission, and CUPS (Configuration and Update Server) protocols for managing configuration and updates.

basic station mode

  1. Set the Working Mode “Basic Station”
  2. Configure the Gateway ID for Gateway EUI, Gateway EUI is the uniq ID for connecting to LNS, should be same on both sides.
  3. Configure the protocol, options available “LNS” and “CUPS”
  4. Configure the Websocket or HTTPS URI for communication with LNS or CUPS
  5. Configure the Authentication Mode, options are
    1. “TLS Server Authentication”
    2. “TLS Server & Client Authentication”
    3. “TLS Server Authentication & Client Token”
  6. Upload the certificate files and key files according authentication mode

Check the tutorial “How Elastel LoraWAN Gateway connect with AWS IoT Core” for demo reference.