Milesight LoRaWAN gateways run powerful packet forwarders that have been successfully bridged with multiple well-known network servers.
1. General
Q: What’s the difference between Gateway EUI and Gateway ID?
A: The gateway EUI, like the device EUI, is the unique identifier of the gateway. The initial gateway ID is the same as the gateway EUI, but it can be edited. The main purpose is to modify it as needed when connecting to a third-party Network Server, and to keep it unified with the gateway ID on the third-party Network Server.
Q: When do I need to use Frequency-Sync?
A: Frequency-Sync is disabled by default. Generally, when connecting to a third-party Network Server, you can choose which destination Network Server to synchronize with according to the ID. Connecting to TTN may use this feature; however, Frequency-Sync is not supported for Chirpstack yet.
Q: What is localhost?
A: localhost refers to the built-in Network Server. For the packet forwarder, it means to transfer data packets to local internal destination, that is, the Network Server we developed based on ChirpStack. It’s similar to the loopback in the network settings. Disabling it will cause no data packets to be seen on the built-in Network Server.
Q: Why do some destinations like Loriot, TTN, ChirpStack require to disable all other packet forwarders?
A: The LoRa modem as the target resource that the packet forwarders in the system needs to call. The more packet forwarders, the more repeated forwarding. Some packet forwarders require that no other programs are using the LoRa modem when they are calling it, otherwise it will fail to start or will only receive a subset of all the packets on the air.
Q: How many can be configured for multiple destinations? Will it be forwarded to all Network Servers at the same time?
A: 5; if there is no TTN, Loriot, ChirpStack, etc., which needs to disable all other packet forwarders, it can be forwarded to a maximum of 5 Network Servers.
2. Radios
Q: Why there are 4 radios but only 2 antennas?
A: A 16-channel gateway contains 2 LoRa modules, each referring to 2 radios. 1 LoRa chip is connected to 1 antenna. radio0 and radio1 are connected to module1, and radio2 and radio3 are connected to module2.
Q: What is the centre frequency? Why should I configure it?
A: The centre frequency defines the upper and lower limits of the four to five channels of this radio. For example, in EU868, if a centre frequency is 868.5 and the range is 868.0375 ~ 868.9625 (± 0.4625). There will be about 4/5 channels considering each channel is 0.2MHz apart.
Q: What is the meaning and difference between LoRa channel setting and FSK channel setting?
A: Both LoRa and FSK are wireless signal modulations. Our gateway supports only enabling FSK or LoRa modulation. Same as the channel, a modulation modem configures a LoRa module/chip.
Q: What are the differences between the parameters of LoRa channel setting and FSK channel setting?
A: The greater the BW, the weaker the anti-interference ability; the greater the SF, the greater the sensitivity. SF12 can solve package down to -20dB SNR, but it is easy to be hit or interfered, because the air time is too long. So as long as the distance allows, the smaller SF the better.
3. Advanced
Q: Whose Keep Alive Interval is this?
A: It is the Keep Alive interval of the gateway packet forwarder reporting to Network Server, similar to MQTT heartbeat package.
Q: What is the meaning of the check of CRC setting?
A: Every LoRa packet will go through a CRC check when it is received in the packet forwarder. By default, no matter the forwarding check succeeds or fails, all packets will be forwarded.
4. Traffic
Q: What is the difference between Traffic and Packets in Network Server?
A: The Traffic in Packet Forwarder records all the air packets received by the antenna of the gateway, and it does not necessarily belong to which Network Server, or even your device. Unlike the packets of Network Server, the content of the data cannot be seen here because it is encrypted by LoRa. In addition to the received packets, you can also see the data packets sent by the gateway chip, but they are also encrypted and the content cannot be observed.