What is the performance of a single LoRAWAN gateway?

[Yang Yang]

Hello,ST experts

 

I have read Wiki on https://wiki.st.com/stm32mcu/wiki/Connectivity:Introduction_to_LoRaWAN. And we want to build a LoRAWAN based on STM32WL series MCU. But it seems not very clear what is the performance of the LoRA gateway. E.g. 1km distance from endnode to gateway, 100 endnodes, about 1K bytes per endnode, can a single gateway afford it? Or how much I need?

 

Best Regards

Yang

[STTwo-32]

Hello @Yang Yang 

For the Gateway side, you should ask the Gateway provider. The STM32WL are dedicated just to do the End node job. If you are looking for information about the Gateway, you should contact the manufacturer of the gateway you are going to use. But for 100 end nodes, you will need more than a single gateway (the number of gateways will depend on the capacity of your gateway).

Best Regards.

STTwo-32 

 

[Yang Yang]

Hello

 

I do understand STM32WL are dedicated for LoRA end node.  But I do understand very little about LoRA gateway. E.g. how does LoRA end node based on STM32WL matches with gateway.  LoRA gateway designed by different manufactures are universal?

 

BR

Yang

[Andrew Neil]

 

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@Yang Yang wrote:

how does LoRA end node based on STM32WL matches with gateway.  

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By complying with the LoRaWAN specifications - that's what defines the interaction between a device and the rest of the networks (including the gateways)

 

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@Yang Yang wrote:

LoRA gateway designed by different manufactures are universal?

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Yes, that is the whole point of standards like LoRaWAN - they mean that any compliant device will work in any compliant network.

Just like your cellphone will work with any compatible network - you don't have to ask the network operator if they use Ericsson kit, or whatever.

[Andrew Neil]

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@Yang Yang wrote:

we want to build a LoRAWAN based on STM32WL series MCU 

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What do you mean by that?

You can make a LoRaWAN End Device based on an STM32WL - but it's not suitable to build an entire LoRaWAN network.

 

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@Yang Yang wrote:

what is the performance of the LoRA gateway.

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That depends entirely on the particular gateway.

You would have to study the manufacturer's specifications for the gateway in question.

There are very many gateway manufacturers, and each one has a range of products available.

If you are deploying your own gateways, you would have to select according to your specific requirements - and budget.

 

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/

[Andrew Neil]

A quick video here on LoRaWAN gateways: https://learn.semtech.com/mod/page/view.php?id=47

 

Strictly, I think the name "Gateway" can only be given to a device which supports multiple channels simultaneously.

There are so-called "Single-channel gateways" - but they don't really fulfil the LoRaWAN requirements for a true Gateway:

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/gateways/start/single-channel/#:~:text=Single%2Dchannel%20gateways%20are%20not%20LoRaWAN%2Dcompliant

 

But none of this actually matters to an End Device - all it sees is a thing which accepts the LoRaWAN protocol.

 

Just like an STM32 with WiFi doesn't care about what manufacturer's products are used to create a WiFi networks - it just sees WiFi, and connects to it...