LORAWAN what is it?
LORAWAN is an acronym for Long Range Wide Area Network. It is a communication protocol dedicated to connected objects that require low energy consumption and extensive coverage. It was developed to meet IoT (Internet of Things) needs for long-range connectivity, security and reliability.
How it works ?
LORAWAN uses the freely licensed band at 868 MHz (Europe) or 915 MHz (North America) to transmit data. It uses a wave modulation technology called Long Wave (LoRa) which makes it possible to cover large distances (up to 12km in town and more than 15km in open areas) with low energy consumption. The LoRaWAN protocol also allows a large number of objects to be connected to a single network, using a multiple access (MAC) technique to manage data collisions and maximize bandwidth efficiency.
How to apply it to your infrastructure?
To deploy an effective LoRaWAN solution, you need two separate servers: a VPN server and a Chirpstack server. The VPN server allows you to securely access the gateway administration interface, while the Chirpstack server allows you to create “Tenants” for your clients, i.e. manageable LoRaWAN environments.
The simplified deployment process is as follows:
- Create a Tenant for the customer on Chirpstack
- Configure gateways to connect to Chirpstack and VPN
- Enter the SN or DEVEUI of the gateways and sensors in the client's Tenant Chirpstack
- Ship
- Once the gateways are connected to the Internet (and the sensors within range of the gateway), the data goes back to Chirpstack
- You can send the data to your own servers or those of the client using different protocols to exploit the data.
- You can add or remove sensors by connecting a sensor's DEVEUI to a client Tenant on Chirpstack. If the sensor is within range of a gateway once installed, data will be collected.
- If there is a problem with a gateway, you can access its administration interface remotely via VPN, provided the gateway has access to the Internet.
To fully use the resources offered by Chirpstack, it is essential to use software to create dashboards such as ThingsBoard or even tago.io.
Here is an example of what can be produced with ThingsBoard:
Note that VPN is not required to use Chirpstack, but it allows you to manage gateways remotely. Chirpstack is an open source solution, just like many other VPN servers.
You can use VPS or machines on your premises depending on the number of clients deployed.
Sparwan can help you build and deploy this infrastructure to provide you with the best tools using our gateways And sensors.
Contact us at 02.51.99.13.03 or by email at contact@sparwan.com.