In the contemporary world, we see LoRa gateways in many application fields. They include – smart homes, smart buildings, industrial IoT and so on. 

There are several gateways and the companies need to go through a certain procedure to choose one of those which are the best for their particular services. They must consider certain things while selecting a LoRa gateway. A few of them is the area of coverage, the transmission of data and the required settings. They act as bridges for sending transmitted data. The path followed is strictly from the LoRa sensors to a network server or the cloud. 

For many devices (particularly the concurrent ones), they serve as communication centres. 

LoRa GATEWAY: A BEGINNER’S GUIDE

LoRa is based on CSS modulation, also referred to as, Chirp Spread Spectrum modulation. It is also true that it has lesser power characteristics just like the FSK modification. The only difference is that it can be easily used for long-range communications as well.

LoRa gateway powers the wireless modulation and that is how it establishes a wide range of communication among devices. 

It offers many features like Modulation, Capacity, Battery, Security, Sustainability, Long-range, Low Power and many more. 

It plays a huge role in lessening the investment that goes into infrastructure and battery replacement. It can be even utilised for the connection purposes of sensors, gateways, devices, machines and so on. All of this is connected to the cloud without any source of wires. LoRa gateway allows the operator of an Internet of Things network to trade and communicate data rate for enhanced power and spectrum for optimization of the networks which is merely performance-based. 

THINGS TO CONSIDER WHILE SELECTING A LoRa GATEWAY

As mentioned earlier, one needs to be extremely vigilant of the things to consider while selecting a LoRa gateway. Below is a list that might help.

• OUTDOOR OR INDOOR: First and foremost, the company must decide whether the location of the application is outdoors or is it indoors. Then, they must regard how will that particular gateway is going to connect with the internet. This is done to know whether the gateway needs to support the connectivity of 3G or 4G.

• INITIATING FROM THE CAPACITY: Certainly, gateways support many channels. More number of channels is always a better alternative. High capacity deployments are essential to address a wide variety of applications with LoRa gateways. 

• DATA AND PRIVACY: There are a few suggestions proposed by Lin for selecting a LoRa gateway. They include data control (particularly real-time), requirements of field coverage, data privacy for the client. Private LoRa solutions have been proposed by Advantech. It plays the role to collect sensor data and examining the equipment’s condition. Advantech has also initiated the Network Server inside the gateway. This assists the users to define the data flow through a VPN or MQTT. This is done to prevent the leakage of data. 

• TESTING HEAVILY: The best advice that an end device manufacturer could get is to ensure the testing of gateways with end devices and servers. 

WHAT IS SWISSCOM LoRaWAN?

Swisscom LoRaWAN proposes a fast, sustainable and secure network as well as the greatest bandwidths in Switzerland along with a significant mobile network. The power characteristics that it carries is usually low but that doesn’t take away the fact that it can easily be used for long-range communication purposes. Swisscom is considered one of the most endurable as well as inventive companies in Switzerland. It has more than 19,000 employees working under it. It is also functional and active in Italy.

It can be used to connect sensors, devices, gateways and even machines for that matter. LoRaWAN gateways are present in the heart of “LoRa star topology”, end-devices as well as the server in the network. LoRa gateways are the centre of communication used for many links. 

Swisscom LoRaWAN and LoRa gateway do not share a one-to-one relationship, but it’s a fact that it is more often than not confused by many people as being similar. The LoRa gateway is a radio modulation technology that is for wireless networks for LAN coming under the category of LPWA. 

On the other hand, Swisscom LoRaWAN is a protocol or a network that uses LoRa. 

Both LoRa and LoRaWAN come under the classification of non-cellular LPWAN protocol (wireless network of communication). 

CONCLUSION

To conclude, a few things that one must consider while selecting a LoRa gateway include intensive testing, the privacy of clients data, whether the application is outdoors or is it indoors, etc. LoRa gateway powers the wireless modulation and establishes a range of communication among devices with many features like Modulation, Capacity, Battery, Security, Sustainability, Long-range, Low Power and many more.