LoRaWAN System Parameter Description

[English]

LoRaWAN is a complete set of encrypted wireless communication protocol, and the operating status of the system is directly related to its parameter configuration.

1. Parameters on the Arduino Tools Menu

If you had correctly installed Heltec ESP32 Arduino development framework, you can see the following options on the tools menu.

  • LoRaWAN DevEUI – You can recognize this is the unique ID (Mac address) of a LoRaWAN node device, this option determines where the DevEUI of the device comes from.

    • CUSTOM – Use the value defined in the devEui array, which is in the .ino file, Can be any value, but it may conflict with other device, not recommend use in a public LoRaWAN NS.

    • Generate by ChipID – Generated based on the ESP32’s unique Chip ID.

  • LoRaWAN Preamble Length – The length of the preamble in LoRaWAN communication. Just keep the default 8-bit, 16 bit is for Heltec’s single/dual channel gateway.

  • LoRaWAN Region – LoRaWAN protocol region definition, strictly follow LoRaWAN™ 1.0.2 Regional Parameters rB, the LoRaWAN Frequency Plans and Regulations by Country/Region also make sense to you.

  • LoRaWAN Debug Level – LoRaWAN relevant logs print by serial port.

    • None – Default.

    • Freq – Sending/receiving frequency.

    • Freq && DIO – Sending/receiving frequency, and DIO pin interrupt information.

    • Freq && DIO && PW – Sending/receiving frequency, DIO pin interrupt information, and low power status.

  • Slow Clk Type (only for LoRaWAN) – The clock source of LoRaWAN timer.

    • Internal (default) – Use ESP32’s internal RTC crystal oscillator.

    • External 32K – Use external 32.768 KHz crystal oscillator as the timer source, it’s more friendly for low power features.

2. Some Parameters on the Code

You may see some parameters on the application source code like this.

  • LoRaWAN Net mode – OTAA (Over The Air Activation)

    • DevEUI – 8 bytes, device’s unique ID, like a Mac address.

    • AppEUI – 8 bytes, also called JoinEUI on some NS, the identifying of the join server during the OTAA process, devices in the same group can be set to be the same.

    • AppKey – 16 bytes, whenever an end device joins a network via OTAA, the AppKey is used to derive the session keys NwkSKey and AppSKey specific for that end device to encrypt and verify network communication and application data.

  • LoRaWAN Net mode – ABP (Activation By Personalization)

    • DevAddr – A 32-bit device address assigned by the Network Server to identify the end device within the current network.

    • NwkSKey – 16 bytes, used to encrypt data, verify data integrity, and establish secure network sessions.

    • AppSKey – 16 bytes, used to encrypt and decrypt application payloads in data messages for ensuring message confidentiality.

  • LoRaWAN User Channel Mask – The LoRaWAN node protocol had defined the uplink/downlink frequency for each channel (Please refer to LoRaWAN regional regulations), because the LoRa Gateway often comes with 8 channels, so the LoRa Node should working on the same 8 contiguous frequency channel. Such as the CN470 frequency channel definition.

    • Example 1 – In CN470, there are 96 up link channels, there are 6 x 16-bit data in the userChannelsMask array, which is corresponding to 0 ~ 95 channels, match from left to right and low to high. Set 1 to be valid and 0 to be invalid. If you want to set the channel 0 ~ 7, the array should be set like following.

      uint16_t userChannelsMask[6]={ 0x00FF,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000 };

    • Example 2 – In CN470, If you want to set the channel from 16 to 23, the array should be set like following.

      uint16_t userChannelsMask[6]={ 0x0000,0x0000,0x00FF,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000 };

    • Example 3 – In CN470, If you want to set the channel from 88 to 95, the array should be set like following.

      uint16_t userChannelsMask[6]={ 0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0x0000,0xFF00 };

  • LoRaWAN Class –Now with Class A and Class C supported.

    • Class A – Only opens two receiving windows after the uplink to receive the downlink from the gateway, and the low power consumption characteristics are better.

    • Class C – The receiving window is always open, and the real-time and flexibility of the communication mode are better, but the low power consumption is not good.

  • LoRaWAN AppTxDutyCycle – Used to limit how often a device can send data within a certain time window.

  • LoRaWAN ADR – The Adaptive Data Rate is related to the distance of communication, and the shorter the distance, the higher the rate.

  • LoRaWAN isTxConfirmed – Used to indicate whether the device has sent an acknowledgment of data. If this parameter is set to true, the node will receive acknowledge from gateway, as shown in the figure.