Integrated LNS

A LORAWAN Network Server (LNS) is integrated to the IOT Platform. It is an instance of Chirpstack.

The LNS is in charge of the management of the LORAWAN Gateways, and of the authorization and the secure exchange of data (payloads - uplinks/downlinks) between the IOT platform and the Devices.

From your ChirpStack account, check that you have correctly configured:

At least one “Service Profile”
At least one “Device Profile”

This will be essential when declaring LORAWAN Devices. If you don't have access to the ChirpStack instance, contact us: support@iotfactory.eu.

The steps are:

Configure the Gateway
Declare the Gateway in the Network Server
Then, declare the Devices in the Network Server

Gateway Configuration

ChirpStack supports Gateways that have activated a “Semtech Packet Forwarder”. This program has a configuration file (global_conf.json or local_conf.json) which contains:

A unique ID for the Gateway (“gateway_id”)
The address of the network server, as well as the UP and DOWN port

To know the address of the network server and the UP and DOWN ports, consult the “doc” tab in

Account Management > Settings > Device Communication Channels > Lorawan Network Server > defaultns > doc

Stop Packet Forwarder (/etc/init.d/lora_watchdog stop)
Change settings in global_conf.json file (or local_conf.json if you have one)
In the “gateway_conf” section: server_address, serv_port_up, serv_port_down
Restart the Packer Forwarder.

The Gateway will now communicate with our Network Server.

Add a Gateway

To add a Gateway to your account:

Create, in ChirpStack, a Gateway: Gateway > Create
You must have available the Gateway ID (“gateway_id”, which must be retrieved from your Gateway (see the Semtech Packet Forwarder global_conf.json file)
If your Gateway is active, you should see that it is communicating with the Network Server.
In the list of Gateways, in Chirpstack, the “Last seen” column should indicate a recent communication. The “Gateway Activity” column will give a first indication of received/transmitted packets.

Applications and Devices

The Devices must be declared on the Network Server, in order to be authorized to communicate with it. For each device, you will need a DevEUI and an Application Key. Devices are created in an Application. The concept of Application makes it possible to group devices and associate them with an account on the IOT platform.

Correspondence between ChirpStack and IOT Platform

If you have a “Solution” type account, you can associate each account created with an Application in ChirpStack, and therefore recover in each account, all the devices defined in a ChirpStack application.
If you have a simple account, you will only be able to synchronize one ChirpStack Application with the platform.

The association between a platform account and Chirpstack is done in

Account Management > Settings > Device Communication Channels > LORAWAN Network Server > defaultns

The iotApplicationID field allows you to select the ChirpStack application.