toc LoRaWAN Nano-gateway more_vert What's in this document more_vert Tutorials & Examples > Networks > LoRa > LoRaWAN Gateway

LoRaWAN Nano-gateway

This example allows a development module to act as a single channel gateway, and connect to a LoRaWAN network such as The Things Stack (TTS), Helium or Loriot. The files can be found in our GitHub Repository.

Nano-gateway setup

The functionality of the Nano-Gateway is split into 3 files, main.py, config.py and nanogateway.py. These are used to configure and specify how the gateway will connect to a preferred network and how it can act as packet forwarder.

Gateway ID

Most LoRaWAN network servers expect a Gateway ID in the form of a unique 64-bit hexadecimal number (called a EUI-64). The recommended practice is to produce this ID from your board by expanding the WiFi MAC address (a 48-bit number, called MAC-48). You can obtain that by running this code prior to configuration:


from network import WLAN
import ubinascii
wl = WLAN()
ubinascii.hexlify(wl.mac())[:6] + 'FFFE' + ubinascii.hexlify(wl.mac())[6:]

The result will by something like b'240ac4FFFE008d88' where 240ac4FFFE008d88 is your Gateway ID to be used in your network provider configuration.

main.py

This file runs at boot and calls the library and config.py files to initialise the nano-gateway. Once configuration is set, the nano-gateway is then started.

""" LoPy LoRaWAN Nano Gateway example usage """
# Acknowledgement:
# Thanks to robert-hh for providing us with an updated, more stable example for the nanogateway 

# disable heartbeat
from pycom import heartbeat
heartbeat(False)
print ("Heartbeat off")


import utime
from machine import RTC
rtc = RTC()
rtc.ntp_sync("pool.ntp.org")
utime.sleep_ms(750)
t = rtc.now()
with open("bootlog.txt", "a") as f:
   f.write(repr(utime.time()) + " " + repr(t) + "\n")

def reload(mod):
    import sys
    mod_name = mod.__name__
    del sys.modules[mod_name]
    return __import__(mod_name)

from machine import reset

""" LoPy LoRaWAN Nano Gateway example usage """

import config
from nanogateway import NanoGateway

if True: #__name__ == '__main__':
    nanogw = NanoGateway(
        id=config.GATEWAY_ID,
        frequency=config.LORA_FREQUENCY,
        datarate=config.LORA_GW_DR,
        ssid=config.WIFI_SSID,
        password=config.WIFI_PASS,
        server=config.SERVER,
        port=config.PORT,
        ntp_server=config.NTP,
        ntp_period=config.NTP_PERIOD_S
        )

    nanogw.start()
    #nanogw._log('You may now press ENTER to enter the REPL')
    #input()

config.py

This file contains settings for the server and network it is connecting to. Depending on the nano-gateway region and provider (TTN, Loriot, etc.) these will vary. The provided example will work with The Things Network (TTN) in the European, 868Mhz, region.

The Gateway ID is generated in the script using the process described above.

Please change the WIFI_SSID and WIFI_PASS variables to match your desired WiFi network

""" LoPy LoRaWAN Nano Gateway configuration options """

import machine
import ubinascii

WIFI_MAC = ubinascii.hexlify(machine.unique_id()).upper()
# Set  the Gateway ID to be the first 3 bytes of MAC address + 'FFFE' + last 3 bytes of MAC address
# GATEWAY_ID = WIFI_MAC[:6] + "FFFE" + WIFI_MAC[6:12]
GATEWAY_ID = WIFI_MAC[:6] + "FFFF" + WIFI_MAC[6:12]
SERVER = 'router.eu.thethings.network'
#for TTS v3, use 'eu1.cloud.thethings.network'
PORT = 1700

NTP = "pool.ntp.org"
NTP_PERIOD_S = 3600

WIFI_SSID = ''
WIFI_PASS = ''

# for IN865
# LORA_FREQUENCY = 865062500
# LORA_GW_DR = "SF7BW125" # DR_5
# LORA_NODE_DR = 5

# for EU868
LORA_FREQUENCY = 868500000
LORA_GW_DR = "SF7BW125" # DR_5
LORA_NODE_DR = 5

# for US915
# LORA_FREQUENCY = 903900000
# LORA_GW_DR = "SF7BW125" # DR_3
# LORA_NODE_DR = 3

nanogateway.py

The nano-gateway library controls all of the packet generation and forwarding for the LoRa data. This does not require any user configuration and the latest version of this code should be downloaded from the Pycom GitHub Repository.

""" LoPy LoRaWAN Nano Gateway. Can be used for both EU868 and US915. """

import errno
import machine
import ubinascii
import ujson
import uos
import usocket
import utime
import _thread
import gc
from micropython import const
from network import LoRa
from network import WLAN
from machine import Timer
from machine import WDT

PROTOCOL_VERSION = const(2)

PUSH_DATA = const(0)
PUSH_ACK = const(1)
PULL_DATA = const(2)
PULL_ACK = const(4)
PULL_RESP = const(3)

TX_ERR_NONE = 'NONE'
TX_ERR_TOO_LATE = 'TOO_LATE'
TX_ERR_TOO_EARLY = 'TOO_EARLY'
TX_ERR_COLLISION_PACKET = 'COLLISION_PACKET'
TX_ERR_COLLISION_BEACON = 'COLLISION_BEACON'
TX_ERR_TX_FREQ = 'TX_FREQ'
TX_ERR_TX_POWER = 'TX_POWER'
TX_ERR_GPS_UNLOCKED = 'GPS_UNLOCKED'

UDP_THREAD_CYCLE_MS = const(10)
WDT_TIMEOUT = const(120)


STAT_PK = {
    'stat': {
        'time': '',
        'lati': 0,
        'long': 0,
        'alti': 0,
        'rxnb': 0,
        'rxok': 0,
        'rxfw': 0,
        'ackr': 100.0,
        'dwnb': 0,
        'txnb': 0
    }
}

RX_PK = {
    'rxpk': [{
        'time': '',
        'tmst': 0,
        'chan': 0,
        'rfch': 0,
        'freq': 0,
        'stat': 1,
        'modu': 'LORA',
        'datr': '',
        'codr': '4/5',
        'rssi': 0,
        'lsnr': 0,
        'size': 0,
        'data': ''
    }]
}

TX_ACK_PK = {
    'txpk_ack': {
        'error': ''
    }
}


class NanoGateway:
    """
    Nano gateway class, set up by default for use with TTN, but can be configured
    for any other network supporting the Semtech Packet Forwarder.
    Only required configuration is wifi_ssid and wifi_password which are used for
    connecting to the Internet.
    """

    def __init__(self, id, frequency, datarate, ssid, password, server, port, ntp_server='pool.ntp.org', ntp_period=3600):
        self.id = id
        self.server = server
        self.port = port

        self.frequency = frequency
        self.datarate = datarate

        self.ssid = ssid
        self.password = password

        self.ntp_server = ntp_server
        self.ntp_period = ntp_period

        self.server_ip = None

        self.rxnb = 0
        self.rxok = 0
        self.rxfw = 0
        self.dwnb = 0
        self.txnb = 0

        self.sf = self._dr_to_sf(self.datarate)
        self.bw = self._dr_to_bw(self.datarate)

        self.stat_alarm = None
        self.pull_alarm = None
        self.uplink_alarm = None

        self.wlan = None
        self.sock = None
        self.udp_stop = False
        self.udp_lock = _thread.allocate_lock()

        self.lora = None
        self.lora_sock = None

        self.rtc = machine.RTC()

        self.watchdog = WDT(timeout=10000)

    def start(self):
        """
        Starts the LoRaWAN nano gateway.
        """

        self._log('Starting LoRaWAN nano gateway with id: {}', self.id)

        # setup WiFi as a station and connect
        self.wlan = WLAN(mode=WLAN.STA)
        self._connect_to_wifi()
        self.watchdog.feed()
        # get a time sync
        self._log('Syncing time with {} ...', self.ntp_server)
        self.rtc.ntp_sync(self.ntp_server, update_period=self.ntp_period)
        while not self.rtc.synced():
            utime.sleep_ms(50)
            self.watchdog.feed()
        self._log("RTC NTP sync complete")
        self.watchdog.feed()
        # get the server IP and create an UDP socket
        self.server_ip = usocket.getaddrinfo(self.server, self.port)[0][-1]
        self._log('Opening UDP socket to {} ({}) port {}...', self.server, self.server_ip[0], self.server_ip[1])
        self.sock = usocket.socket(usocket.AF_INET, usocket.SOCK_DGRAM, usocket.IPPROTO_UDP)
        self.sock.setsockopt(usocket.SOL_SOCKET, usocket.SO_REUSEADDR, 1)
        self.sock.setblocking(False)

        # push the first time immediatelly
        self._push_data(self._make_stat_packet())

        # create the alarms
        self.stat_alarm = Timer.Alarm(handler=lambda t: self._push_data(self._make_stat_packet()), s=60, periodic=True)
        self.pull_alarm = Timer.Alarm(handler=lambda u: self._pull_data(), s=25, periodic=True)

        # start the watchdog
        self.watchdog.feed()
        utime.sleep(1)
        self._log("Watchdog started")

        # start the UDP receive thread
        self.udp_stop = False
        _thread.start_new_thread(self._udp_thread, ())
        self.watchdog.feed()
        # initialize the LoRa radio in LORA mode
        self._log('Setting up the LoRa radio at {} Mhz using {}', self._freq_to_float(self.frequency), self.datarate)
        self.lora = LoRa(
            mode=LoRa.LORA,
            region=LoRa.EU868,
            frequency=self.frequency,
            bandwidth=self.bw,
            sf=self.sf,
            preamble=8,
            coding_rate=LoRa.CODING_4_5,
            tx_iq=True
        )

        # create a raw LoRa socket
        self.lora_sock = usocket.socket(usocket.AF_LORA, usocket.SOCK_RAW)
        self.lora_sock.setblocking(False)
        self.lora_tx_done = False
        self.watchdog.feed()
        self.lora.callback(trigger=(LoRa.RX_PACKET_EVENT | LoRa.TX_PACKET_EVENT), handler=self._lora_cb)
        self.watchdog.feed()
        if uos.uname()[0] == "LoPy":
            self.window_compensation = -1000
        else:
            self.window_compensation = -6000
        self.watchdog.feed()
        self._log('LoRaWAN nano gateway online')

    def stop(self):
        """
        Stops the LoRaWAN nano gateway.
        """

        self._log('Stopping...')

        # send the LoRa radio to sleep
        self.lora.callback(trigger=None, handler=None)
        self.lora.power_mode(LoRa.SLEEP)

        # stop the NTP sync
        self.rtc.ntp_sync(None)

        # cancel all the alarms
        self.stat_alarm.cancel()
        self.pull_alarm.cancel()

        # signal the UDP thread to stop
        self.udp_stop = True
        while self.udp_stop:
            utime.sleep_ms(50)

        # disable WLAN
        self.wlan.disconnect()
        self.wlan.deinit()

    def _connect_to_wifi(self):
        self.wlan.connect(self.ssid, auth=(None, self.password))
        while not self.wlan.isconnected():
            utime.sleep_ms(50)
            self.watchdog.feed()
        self._log('WiFi connected to: {}', self.ssid)

    def _dr_to_sf(self, dr):
        sf = dr[2:4]
        if sf[1] not in '0123456789':
            sf = sf[:1]
        return int(sf)

    def _dr_to_bw(self, dr):
        bw = dr[-5:]
        if bw == 'BW125':
            return LoRa.BW_125KHZ
        elif bw == 'BW250':
            return LoRa.BW_250KHZ
        else:
            return LoRa.BW_500KHZ

    def _sf_bw_to_dr(self, sf, bw):
        dr = 'SF' + str(sf)
        if bw == LoRa.BW_125KHZ:
            return dr + 'BW125'
        elif bw == LoRa.BW_250KHZ:
            return dr + 'BW250'
        else:
            return dr + 'BW500'

    def _lora_cb(self, lora):
        """
        LoRa radio events callback handler.
        """

        events = lora.events()
        if events & LoRa.RX_PACKET_EVENT:
            self.rxnb += 1
            self.rxok += 1
            rx_data = self.lora_sock.recv(256)
            stats = lora.stats()
            packet = self._make_node_packet(rx_data, self.rtc.now(), stats.rx_timestamp, stats.sfrx, self.bw, stats.rssi, stats.snr)
            self._push_data(packet)
            self._log('Received packet: {}', packet)
            self.rxfw += 1
        if events & LoRa.TX_PACKET_EVENT:
            self.txnb += 1
            lora.init(
                mode=LoRa.LORA,
                region=LoRa.EU868,
                frequency=self.frequency,
                bandwidth=self.bw,
                sf=self.sf,
                preamble=8,
                coding_rate=LoRa.CODING_4_5,
                tx_iq=True
                )

    def _freq_to_float(self, frequency):
        """
        MicroPython has some inprecision when doing large float division.
        To counter this, this method first does integer division until we
        reach the decimal breaking point. This doesn't completely elimate
        the issue in all cases, but it does help for a number of commonly
        used frequencies.
        """

        divider = 6
        while divider > 0 and frequency % 10 == 0:
            frequency = frequency // 10
            divider -= 1
        if divider > 0:
            frequency = frequency / (10 ** divider)
        return frequency

    def _make_stat_packet(self):
        now = self.rtc.now()
        STAT_PK["stat"]["time"] = "%d-%02d-%02d %02d:%02d:%02d GMT" % (now[0], now[1], now[2], now[3], now[4], now[5])
        STAT_PK["stat"]["rxnb"] = self.rxnb
        STAT_PK["stat"]["rxok"] = self.rxok
        STAT_PK["stat"]["rxfw"] = self.rxfw
        STAT_PK["stat"]["dwnb"] = self.dwnb
        STAT_PK["stat"]["txnb"] = self.txnb
        return ujson.dumps(STAT_PK)

    def _make_node_packet(self, rx_data, rx_time, tmst, sf, bw, rssi, snr):
        RX_PK["rxpk"][0]["time"] = "%d-%02d-%02dT%02d:%02d:%02d.%dZ" % (rx_time[0], rx_time[1], rx_time[2], rx_time[3], rx_time[4], rx_time[5], rx_time[6])
        RX_PK["rxpk"][0]["tmst"] = tmst
        RX_PK["rxpk"][0]["freq"] = self._freq_to_float(self.frequency)
        RX_PK["rxpk"][0]["datr"] = self._sf_bw_to_dr(sf, bw)
        RX_PK["rxpk"][0]["rssi"] = rssi
        RX_PK["rxpk"][0]["lsnr"] = snr
        RX_PK["rxpk"][0]["data"] = ubinascii.b2a_base64(rx_data)[:-1]
        RX_PK["rxpk"][0]["size"] = len(rx_data)
        return ujson.dumps(RX_PK)

    def _push_data(self, data):
        token = uos.urandom(2)
        packet = bytes([PROTOCOL_VERSION]) + token + bytes([PUSH_DATA]) + ubinascii.unhexlify(self.id) + data
        with self.udp_lock:
            try:
                self.sock.sendto(packet, self.server_ip)
            except Exception as ex:
                self._log('Failed to push uplink packet to server: {}', ex)

    def _pull_data(self):
        token = uos.urandom(2)
        packet = bytes([PROTOCOL_VERSION]) + token + bytes([PULL_DATA]) + ubinascii.unhexlify(self.id)
        with self.udp_lock:
            try:
                self.sock.sendto(packet, self.server_ip)
            except Exception as ex:
                self._log('Failed to pull downlink packets from server: {}', ex)

    def _ack_pull_rsp(self, token, error):
        TX_ACK_PK["txpk_ack"]["error"] = error
        resp = ujson.dumps(TX_ACK_PK)
        packet = bytes([PROTOCOL_VERSION]) + token + bytes([PULL_ACK]) + ubinascii.unhexlify(self.id) + resp
        with self.udp_lock:
            try:
                self.sock.sendto(packet, self.server_ip)
            except Exception as ex:
                self._log('PULL RSP ACK exception: {}', ex)

    def _send_down_link(self, data, tmst, datarate, frequency):
        """
        Transmits a downlink message over LoRa.
        """

        self.lora.init(
            mode=LoRa.LORA,
            region=LoRa.EU868,
            frequency=frequency,
            bandwidth=self._dr_to_bw(datarate),
            sf=self._dr_to_sf(datarate),
            preamble=8,
            coding_rate=LoRa.CODING_4_5,
            tx_iq=True
            )
        while utime.ticks_diff(utime.ticks_cpu(), tmst) > 0:
            pass
        self.lora_sock.settimeout(1)
        self.lora_sock.send(data)
        self.lora_sock.setblocking(False)
        self._log(
            'Sent downlink packet scheduled on {:.3f}, at {:,d} Hz using {}: {}',
            tmst / 1000000,
            frequency,
            datarate,
            data
        )

    def _udp_thread(self):
        """
        UDP thread, reads data from the server and handles it.
        """

        while not self.udp_stop:
            gc.collect()
            try:
                data, src = self.sock.recvfrom(1024)
                _token = data[1:3]
                _type = data[3]
                if _type == PUSH_ACK:
                    self._log("Push ack")
                elif _type == PULL_ACK:
                    self._log("Pull ack")
                elif _type == PULL_RESP:
                    self.dwnb += 1
                    ack_error = TX_ERR_NONE
                    tx_pk = ujson.loads(data[4:])
                    payload = ubinascii.a2b_base64(tx_pk["txpk"]["data"])
                    # depending on the board, pull the downlink message 1 or 6 ms upfronnt
                    tmst = utime.ticks_add(tx_pk["txpk"]["tmst"], self.window_compensation)
                    t_us = utime.ticks_diff(utime.ticks_cpu(), utime.ticks_add(tmst, -15000))
                    if 1000 < t_us < 10000000:
                        self.uplink_alarm = Timer.Alarm(
                            handler=lambda x: self._send_down_link(
                                payload,
                                tmst, tx_pk["txpk"]["datr"],
                                int(tx_pk["txpk"]["freq"] * 1000 + 0.0005) * 1000
                            ),
                            us=t_us
                        )
                    else:
                        ack_error = TX_ERR_TOO_LATE
                        self._log('Downlink timestamp error!, t_us: {}', t_us)
                    self._ack_pull_rsp(_token, ack_error)
                    self._log("Pull rsp")
            except usocket.timeout:
                pass
            except OSError as ex:
                if ex.args[0] != errno.EAGAIN:
                    self._log('UDP recv OSError Exception: {}', ex)
            except Exception as ex:
                self._log('UDP recv Exception: {}', ex)

            self.watchdog.feed()
            # self._log("Feeding the dog")

            # wait before trying to receive again
            utime.sleep_ms(UDP_THREAD_CYCLE_MS)

        # we are to close the socket
        self.sock.close()
        self.udp_stop = False
        self._log('UDP thread stopped')

    def _log(self, message, *args):
        """
        Outputs a log message to stdout.
        """

        print('[{:>10.3f}] {}'.format(
            utime.ticks_ms() / 1000,
            str(message).format(*args)
            ))

Nano-gateway node

As the gateway only supports a single channel, we need to setup our nodes to only send packets over that channel. The node can either use OTAA or ABP, but we’ll have to setup the correct channel. Use the following example to setup the correct channels for EU868. This can be modified for use in 915MHz regions as well:


# remove all the default channels for EU868
for i in range(3, 16):
    lora.remove_channel(i)

# set the 3 default channels to the same frequency (must be before sending the join request)
lora.add_channel(0, frequency=868100000, dr_min=0, dr_max=5)
lora.add_channel(1, frequency=868100000, dr_min=0, dr_max=5)
lora.add_channel(2, frequency=868100000, dr_min=0, dr_max=5)

# remove all the default channels for US915 / AU915
for i in range(3, 64):
    lora.remove_channel(i)

# set the 3 default channels to the same frequency (must be before sending the join request)
lora.add_channel(0, frequency=903900000, dr_min=0, dr_max=3)
lora.add_channel(1, frequency=903900000, dr_min=0, dr_max=3)
lora.add_channel(2, frequency=903900000, dr_min=0, dr_max=3)

Registering with TTN

Please check the LoRaWAN Device Registration page for more information

 

Previous Next