What is LoRaWAN Ecosystem?

Our previous article discussed the perks of LoRaWAN in IoT deployment, and today we will understand the LoRaWAN ecosystem. LoRaWAN follows an architecture as shown below. LoRaWAN network follows a star-of-stars topology. LoRaWAN has four critical components as follows,???

1. End Nodes???
2. Gateway???
3. Network Server???
4. Application Server???

End Nodes???

A LoRaWAN end node can be a sensor, an actuator, or both. These end devices are connected to the LoRaWAN network through gateways. End nodes are the devices we want to control remotely and collect the data or readings from the devices and use them for further business intelligence. The sensors or actuators send LoRa-modulated wireless messages to the gateways or vice-versa. LoRa modules fit into anything from utility meters, street lights, logistics, and parking spots to trash containers. After sending the messages to the gateway, LoRa End Nodes go into deep sleep mode as they are designed to work in low-power mode.?You can find more about SLS powered LoRa enable node here.

Gateway??

LoRaWAN Gateway acts as a bridge between end nodes and servers. The gateway receives RF packets sent out by LoRaWAN end nodes, which get converted to IP packets before sending this data to the cloud. Gateway does not read these RF/IP packets; it just holds them and transfers them to the server or end device whenever they are ready. This converted data will be forwarded through the backhaul to a server with a faster data transfer rate. End devices will send out their signals as RF packets to be picked up by every gateway in range, and the most robust device-to-gateway connection will pass the message on to the cloud. LoRaWAN architecture is self-healing; if one gateway dies, the RF packet from the end node will find another suitable path to send this data to the cloud through a different gateway. You can find more about SLS powered LoRaWAN enable gateway here.

Network Server??

The LoRaWAN Network Server is at the heart of every LoRaWAN Network. It enables connectivity, management, and monitoring of end devices, gateways and end-user applications. The main objectives of LNS are to ensure the security and reliability of data routing throughout the network. To understand better, it is to the LoRaWAN ecosystem what CPU is to Computer.???

LNS carry out MAC layer management of uplinks & downlinks, including service messages. Since uplinks have a broadcasting nature, LNS deduplicate them and sends them to an application server. It selects the best gateway to route downlink messages and provides acknowledgement upon successfully transferring the uplink to its destination. Want to know more about our LoRaWAN Network Server? Click here.

Application Server??

The Application Server handles uplink data decryption and decoding, downlink queuing and downlink data encoding and encryption. Application-specific data messages that are received from end devices are processed by the application server. Additionally, it creates all of the application-layer downlink payloads and transmits them via the Network Server to the associated endpoints. There might be several Application Servers in a LoRaWAN network. You can solve critical business problems using machine learning and artificial intelligence on the data collected from end devices.??

To conclude the ecosystem, the end device sends the data/reading as RF packets using the LoRa modulation technique to the gateway. The gateway will convert this RF packet into an IP packet and transfer it to the Network Server using suitable backhaul technology. The network server might be receiving the same readings coming through different gateways, and it will deduplicate the message before it sends it to the application server. At last, the application server will use application-specific data messages to solve business problems.??

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