Overview of this Activity

“Easy LoRa Basics Station setup for Actility TPCP” configures a LoRaWAN® gateway with the Semtech LoRa Basics™ Station packet forwarder to use the ThingPark Community Platform (TPCP) as it’s Network Server. We then connect LoRaWAN® sensors and monitor the traffic using TPCP packet logger.

An introduction to LoRa Basics™ Station packet forwarder

The LoRa Alliance® is still working on a standard Gateway to Network Server (GW/NS) protocol. Meanwhile, several implementations coexist:

  • Some gateways still run a packet forwarder named “Legacy UDP Packet Forwarder” or “GWMP Protocol” which was created by Semtech as proof-of-concept code, without security or resilience in mind. It can be used for educational purposes but never in production.
  • In 2019, Semtech presented Basics™ Station as their new Packet Forwarder implementation for LoRaWAN® gateways, a replacement for GWMP with enhanced security.
  • Some LoRaWAN® infrastructure providers, like Actility, also provide their own Packet Forwarder implementation (LRR™ for Long Range Relay), with additional features oriented towards production environments like geo-redundancy, local packet buffering or improved monitoring.

In this activity, we are going to setup a LoRa Basics™ Station* Gateway and deliver the messages sent by a LoRaWAN® device to the ThingPark Community Platform.

* To learn more about LoRa Basics™ Station*, please visit Semtech Basic Station Documentation.

** To learn more about Actility and ThingPark, please visit welcome to TPCP Page.

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