How do I create a Semtech Network Server account?

In a web browser, navigate to https://lora-developers.semtech.com/resources/network-server/ and click the Login button. The Login/Registration page displays. Log in with your existing account or create a new account.

After you have registered, you can go back to the Network Server landing page and click Login. The Login/Registration page displays. Log in with your account.

Which regions does the Semtech Network Server support?

The Semtech Network Server supports the following regions and frequencies.

Which gateways are compatible with the Semtech Network Server?

The Semtech Network Server is compatible with the following gateways:

• LoRa Basics Station
• ChirpStack Gateway Bridge (To be used in combination with the Semtech UDP packet forwarder or ChirpStack Concentratord.)

How do I create a gateway?

If you haven’t done so already, make sure that you have installed a packet forwarder on your gateway and that your packet forwarder is configured with the correct frequencies.

Depending your gateway model, your gateway might come with a pre-installed packet forwarder. If this is the case, you will only need to configure it to match the channel-plan supported by the Semtech Network Server. Refer to the documentation for your gateway for more information about which packet forwarder is supported.

How do I install and configure LoRa Basics™ Station?

For instructions on installing and configuring LoRa Basics Station on your gateway or Raspberry Pi, see the LoRa Basics Station documentation on GitHub.

How do I install and configure the Semtech UDP packet forwarder?

For help installing and configuring the Semtech UDP packet forwarder, refer to the documentation provided by the gateway vendor. General information about the Semtech UDP packet forwarder can be found here.

The Semtech UDP packet forwarder cannot connect directly to the Semtech Network Server. To connect, you must also install the ChirpStack Gateway Bridge on your gateway. See the ChirpStack Gateway Installation documents for gateway- and model-specific installation instructions.

In summary, you will need to:

1. Install the ChirpStack Gateway Bridge on the gateway


2. Configure the Semtech UDP packet forwarder such that it forwards its data to “localhost” on port 1700 (for both uplinks and downlinks)

How do I set up a ChirpStack Gateway Bridge (for Raspberry Pi)?

Begin by downloading the ChirpStack Gateway OS image onto an SD card. You can download the image here. You will also find a list of supported concentrator shields and instructions on how to use the image and set up the concentrator shield here. The process includes the following steps:

1. Connect to the Raspberry Pi


2. Run the sudo gateway-config command


3. Set up the LoRa concentrator shield:
4.  
   1. Select the shield
   
   
   2. Select the channel-plan

Once the shield has been configured, you will be returned to the main menu. The Gateway ID will be displayed above the menu list. You will need this Gateway ID to configure your LoRaWAN network server.

Figure 1: Gateway ID

Note: If there is a Gateway: not configured message instead of the Gateway ID, it is possible that the concentrator is still in the initialization state. To remedy this situation, select . Wait a few seconds and then repeat steps 1 - 3.

How do I find my Gateway ID?

The Gateway ID is a 16-character value that is required in order to connect your gateway to a network server using the LoRaWAN® protocol. There are different methods to find this value, depending on the nature of your gateway.

LoRa Basics Station

For gateways based on LoRa Basics Station, this value can be found in the configuration file under the routerid setting. See the Configuration Files documentation for more information.

Semtech UDP Packet Forwarder

If you are using the Semtech UDP packet forwarder, the Gateway ID can be found in either the global_conf.json file and/or the local_conf.json file, under the gateway_ID configuration key. (If the gateway comes with a packet forwarder implementation that is compatible with the Semtech UDP packet forwarder, refer to the documentation provided by the gateway vendor.)

ChirpStack Gateway OS / ChirpStack Concentratord

If you are using the ChirpStack Gateway OS, you can use the gateway-config command, which will display the Gateway ID. Alternatively, you can run the gateway-id command provided by the ChirpStack Concentratord (which is bundled with the ChirpStack Gateway OS).

How do I add my gateway to the Semtech Network Server?

To add your gateway:

1. Login into the Semtech Network Server web interface.


2. In the menu on the left, click on Gateways, then + Create.


3. On the General tab, in the Gateway ID field, enter your Gateway ID (Figure 2). If you need help finding your gateway ID, see How do I find my Gateway ID?


4. In the Network Server field, select the region where your network server is deployed.

Figure 2: Gateway Create Page; "General" Tab

How do I generate a gateway client certificate?

To connect LoRa Basics Station or the ChirpStack Gateway Bridge with the Semtech Network Server, you must generate a client certificate. You can use the web interface to generate the certificate.

1. On the Gateways Overview page, click on the gateway name, and open the Certificate tab.


2. Next, click the Generate Certificate button. Generating the certificates might take a few seconds.

Figure 3: Generating Certificates

When ready, three fields display:

• CA certificate
• TLS certificate
• TLS key

How do I configure a gateway?

How you configure your gateway will depend on the underlying packet forwarder. See the article that applies to your gateway:

• How do I configure LoRa Basics Station?
• How do I configure a ChirpStack Gateway Bridge (ChirpStack Gateway OS)?

How do I configure LoRa Basics Station?

To configure LoRa Basics Station, you will need to generate gateway certificates, and you will need to use TLS Server with Client Certificate authentication. For information about how to generate the certificates, see How do I generate a gateway client certificate?. For information on using TLS Server with Client Certificate authentication, see the Authentication Modes documentation.

How do I configure a ChirpStack Gateway Bridge (ChirpStack Gateway OS)?

If you have a ChirpStack Gateway OS-based Raspberry Pi gateway, run the sudo gateway-config command and select Edit ChirpStack Gateway Bridge config. Next, select MQTT connection wizard. This will prompt you to enter the following values:

• MQTT broker address
• CA certificate
• TLS certificate
• TLS key

For the MQTT broker address, see Which regions does the Semtech Network Server support? for an overview of available MQTT endpoints.

For the CA certificate, TLS certificate and TLS key, use the values that you have obtained from the Semtech Network Server. If you need help getting these certificates, see How do I generate a gateway client-certificate?

After completing these steps, your Raspberry Pi-based gateway should be connected to the Semtech Network Server. It might take about 30 seconds before the Last seen data is updated.

How do I connect a gateway to the Semtech Network Server using the ChirpStack Gateway Bridge?

The following two actions must be performed to connect a gateway using the ChirpStack Gateway Bridge with the Semtech Network Server:

1. Store the CA certificate, TLS certificate and TLS key on the gateway.


2. Update the chirpstack-gateway-bridge.toml configuration file on the gateway with the MQTT endpoint and certificate configuration.

Depending on the gateway model, the configuration paths might be different. In this example, we assume that the chirpstack-gateway-bridge.toml” configuration file is located in a directory called /etc/chirpstack-gateway-bridge. In this case, we will use the following paths for the certificate files:

• CA certificate: /etc/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/ca.pem


• TLS certificate: /etc/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/cert.pem


• TLS key: /etc/chirpstack-gateway-bridge/key.pem

Assuming the above paths and file names for the certificates, the following code example shows how to configure the ChirpStack Gateway Bridge. Make sure to replace with the correct MQTT endpoint for your region. (For a list of available MQTT endpoints, see Which regions does the Semtech Network Server support?)

How do I create a device profile?

To add devices to a LoRaWAN network, you must create a device profile. You can do this when adding the first device. A device profile defines the capabilities of the device.

To create a device profile, click on Device-Profiles in the menu then fill in the details as provided by the device vendor.

In short, when creating a device profile, you are configuring the following:

• LoRaWAN MAC version
• Regional Parameter revision
• Over-the-air Activation (OTAA) or Activation by Personalization (ABP)
• Optional: How to decode the uplink payload / How to encode the uplink payload

What is an application?

An application holds a collection of devices. The device profile can be configured per device, however, all devices within an application must exist on the same network-server (i.e., in the same region). For example, you could assign all your tracker devices to one application, and all your temperature sensor devices to another application.

How do I add a device to a LoRaWAN Network Server?

To add a device, follow these steps:

1. Click Applications in the left menu.


2. Click on the application which you would like to add your device.


3. Click the +Create button to add a new device.


4. Provide a name, description and DevEUI for the device and you must select the device-profile that you want to use.


5. Once you have created the device, you will be asked for the OTAA root-keys (if you have chosen an OTAA device-profile) or ABP session-keys (if you have chosen an ABP device-profile).

For devices using the LoRa Cloud™ Device Join service, there is no need to set the root-keys for OTAA.

Also, you do not need to configure the AppEUI/JoinEUI using the web interface

For more information about adding a device to ChirpStack, see the ChirpStack documentation Connecting a device.

How do I get data from a connected device?

To get data from a connected device, follow these steps:

1. In the web interface, click on Applications in the left menu.


2. Click on the application in the list that contains the device from which you want data, and then click on the device.
3.  
   1. On the Device data tab, you will find all the data sent by your device.
   
   
   2. On the LoRaWAN frames tab, you will find the raw LoRaWAN frames, which can be useful for debugging MAC commands.

You can configure an application integration to forward the data sent by your devices to an external server. To do this, click on Applications in the left menu and then click on the application for which you want to configure an integration.

For example, to forward all device data to an external HTTP server:

1. Click on the Integrations tab and then click on Add under HTTP Integration.


2. Select the JSON payload marshaler.


3. In a separate browser window, create an https://postb.in/ endpoint and enter this URL into the Endpoint URL(s) for the Events field in the Semtech Network Server web interface.

Another way to get device data is to connect to the Semtech Network Server MQTT broker:

1. Open the Integrations tab. Under MQTT integration, click Get certificate.


2. Click Get certificate. Three certificates are generated. Save each of them as a text file:
3.  
   • CA certificate (Save as ca.pem)
   
   
   • TLS certificate (Save as cert.pem)
   
   
   • TLS key (Save as key.pem)
   •  
4. Connect your MQTT client to ssl://app.mqtt.loracloud.com:8883 using the certificate files you just saved, and create a subscription to "application/ID/#" where ID is substituted by the ID of the application. The application ID can be found can be found in the ID column of the applications list  

For documentation of the various integrations available, consult the ChirpStack Application Server documentation.