LoRaWAN Gateways

It receives the radio uplinks from every LoRaWAN sensor in range, forwards them over the internet or a local network to a LoRaWAN network server, and sends downlink commands back to the sensors. It does not store or interpret the data itself; the network server and your application do that.

Often one. A gateway covers a whole building indoors and kilometres outdoors, and serves hundreds of sensors. A second gateway is added for redundancy, for a site with obstructed areas, or when the number of messages grows. The LoRaWAN gateway and coverage calculator on this site estimates the count for a given area, terrain and device count.

Choose the indoor Setu X1 when the sensors are inside the building the gateway sits in. Choose the outdoor MacLink Gen-2 when sensors are spread across a site, a farm or a city block, or when a rooftop or mast position is available; height is what gives a gateway its range.

A single-channel gateway listens on one frequency and one spreading factor, which suits a pilot or a handful of devices that are configured to match it. An 8-channel gateway receives on all channels and spreading factors at once, which is what a standards-compliant LoRaWAN network needs as it grows.

ChirpStack, The Things Network, Orbiwise, Netmore and private on-premise network servers. Registration guides for each are in the documentation.

As high as the site allows: range is set mostly by antenna height and line of sight. The LoRaWAN antenna height planner on this site draws the path profile and shows the mast height needed for a target distance.