Knowledge Base

Q: Difference between LoRa & SigFox?

A: LORA (LongrangeRadio) & Sigfox are two different RF technologies. Both are used in low power long range networks. LoRa is open and can be used in a LAN (Local Area Network) or a WAN (Wide Area Network) whereas Sigfox is only available in WAN through their proprietary cellular network. When you use Sigfox, you need to go through the Sigfox “pipeline”: their sensors, their cellular network and their cloud. You then retrieve your data at the end of the chain from the cloud to use it as you please for your applications.

Q: LPWAN? LORA?

A: LPWAN-> Low Power Wide Area Network. The sensors (or nodes) can be powered on battery and left running for years. As it is WideArea, the sensors can also be placed in remote areas far from the base stations (or Gateways). LoRa (LongrangeRadio) is the corresponding physical layer (RF).

Q: LoRa message format?

A: The message is in a JSON (JavaScript Object Notation) format. It is a way of representing data and the way it is organized, just like xml and other formats.

Q: Why does it take so long to refresh?

A: LoRa devices have been designed to send only a couple of messages a day (a dozen).

Q: What is the LoRa transport packet size?

A: The maximum transport packet size is 255 bytes plus preamble.  But, due to on-air transmission restrictions (e.g., the FCC limits on-air transmission time to 400 mS in the U.S.), the maximum packet size may be smaller.  Higher spreading factors, lower data rates, and longer preamble lengths will reduce the maximum allowed transport packet size.

Q: How much payload in each LoRa packet?

A: The maximum payload is 242 bytes. This all depends on the spreading factor used.

Q:  Is there a way to increase the limit/size of the payload?

A: The major limit to packet size is due to on-air time or duty cycle restrictions.  It is not possible to increase the packet size and maintain FCC or ETSI certification.

Q: How many sensors can your Multitech gateway manage?

A: The gateway listens on 8 radio channels in parallel. It is LoRaWAN compatible. It can manage about a hundred devices sending messages at the same time on a single channel. Hence, on all channels, it can manage around 800 devices sending messages at the same time if their speech time is well managed.

Q: How does the Conduit’s LoRa end-device limitation work? Does this affect total possible connections?

A: The Conduit supports a maximum of 2000 end-devices and up to 10 additional gateways connected at one time. An end-device is considered connected when the LoRaWAN keys or session information is configured on the Conduit. The number of end-devices and gateways is limited by the size of storage allocated for configuration and processing power.

Q: How to connect to webbrowser Multitech Gateway?

A: Try to find the IP adress with a tools like Softperfect for example. By default the IP adress is 192.168.2.1.

Else you can connect an USB cable and open a Putty command on your laptop. Select the COM Port and enter in you gateway with login/pwd (by default: admin/admin). Find the IPAdress with ifconfig eth0 command. Change your computer network board conifguration to connect to the Gateway by webbrowser. In the web portal, you can choose your IP adress.

Q: How to manage who connects to my network?

A: To join a network, there are two methods: OTAA (OverTheAirAuthentication) & ABP (AuthenticationByPersonnalization). When it is done over the air (OTA), the device sends a join request with an AppKey (permission to use a specific app) and then receives a Network Session & App Session Key. So with OTAA, you can only access one App but over any Network that is running that App.

However, in ABP, you can still only access a single App but over only a single network as well! The network & app session keys are hardcoded in the sensor when manufactured.

Q: Power autonomy?

A: A LoRa or Sigfox sensor can remain on battery for several years before needing a replacement. When the battery is very low, the device sends an end-of-battery signal with its last GPS coordinates so it can be found and have its battery replaced/recharged.

Q: Sensor suppliers?

A: Lora & SigFox : Adeunis, nKe Watteco, Atim, Rg2i, OceaSoft, Sensing Labs etc…

End-to-end solutions, the biggest ones: Objenious (Bouygues) & Actility (Orange) both for LoRaWAN end-to-end solutions, from the sensor to the cloud platform. Sigfox supplies their network & cloud. SigFox sensors are made by their partners and are SigFoxReady certified since their technology is proprietary.

Q: REST API?

A: Representational State Transfer API. Based on a client-server architecture.

It is a state-agnostic API that’s very lightweight and well adapted for large-scale applications over the cloud, unlike it’s classic counterpart SOAP(Simple Object Access Protocol).

Q: How to interact with the cloud?

A: There are many RESTful API’s that are made available by cloud platform suppliers. They also have some connectors with other well-known cloud services if one would like to use other cloud services for different reasons (Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM IoT Watson, etc…).

Q: Cost of Sigfox?

A: The sensors cost a few hundreds of euros a piece, depending on the supplier and the kind of sensor. Regarding the subscription plan; as an example, 20 objects with 140 messages per day costs 250 euros a year.

Q: How is the battery life managed?

A: When the device is running low on battery, it sends an end-of-life signal with its last known GPS coordinates so it can be found back and have its battery replaced/recharged.

Q: Can we send commands to our objects?

A: It is called Downlink. It is possible but we must do little. Generally, on Downlink, we send updates or perform configurations remotely (Join request, tweaks, etc…). We almost never send commands to our objects, other than the ones cited above. Look at your sensor documentation.

Q: How can we check the network’s quality?

A: There is test equipment for coverage quality. The network service provider can handle that. In case of non-coverage; Sigfox, for instance, can rent you a gateway for 35 euros a month.

Q: How can we check the gateway compatibilty with PcVue?

A: Gateway with NodeRed is fine, check that you send a text by TCP/IP.

Q: How can we check the device compatibilty with PcVue?

A: All devices to send JSON are compatible, after that you need to read the frame description.

Q: How do you do the JOIN process with Adeunis device?

A: Connect a magnet during more than 6s. More details in the device documentation that you can find in https://www.adeunis.com/produits/produits/ or watch the video in KB1004

Q: Do you need a specific driver on your PcVue dongle?

A:Yes, the LoRa driver is an option on your dongle. Contact your ARC Informatique salers.

Q: What is the mapping to receive a data in a JSON?

A:Create a PcVue text and use in extended attribute the mapping #LORA#Gateway#EUI#JSONKey. Choose your JSONKey.

Q: What is the mapping to extract a byte in a payload from a device in a JSON format?

A:Create a PcVue register and use in extended attribute the mapping #LORA#Gateway#EUI#payload#X:Y. X is the index of byte and Y the number of bytes that you need. For example #LORA#Gateway#EUI#payload#3:2

Q: What is the mapping to extract a bit in a payload from a device in a JSON format?

A:Create a PcVue bit and use in extended attribute the mapping #LORA#Gateway#EUI#payload#X.Z. X is the index of byte and Z is the index of bit in the byte that you need. For example #LORA#Gateway#EUI#payload#1.1

Q: What is the mapping to filter a frame type in a payload from a device in a JSON format?

A:Create a PcVue variable and use in extended attribute the mapping #LORA#Gateway#EUI#X.Y[.Z]#V:W

U is the index of byte in the frame and W is the value of accepted frame in hexadecimal. For example LORA#Gateway#EUI#payload#3:2#0:0x43

Q: Why NSFMT ?

A: If the quality NSFMT appears in your variable status, please contact our support to upgrade the PcVue version.