A licensed router with a built-in LoRa radio can serve as a LoRaWAN gateway for Hermetry’s network server. It does not use Basics Station and a token. It connects over its own secure link and proves who it is with the device certificate it already has as a licensed device.
How it differs from a Basics Station gateway
| Basics Station gateway | Licensed router | |
|---|---|---|
| How it is added | Devices > New device > LoRaWAN gateway | Switched to cloud mode on the router’s own panel |
| Credential | A token, shown once | The router’s device certificate. There is no token. |
| Device in Hermetry | A new device on the built-in LoRaWAN gateway profile | The router’s own device. No second device is created. |
| Device limit | Counts as one device | Adds nothing: the router already counts as one device |
| Where you see it | The device’s LoRaWAN tab | A LoRaWAN gateway button in the router’s device page header |
| Health readings | Round trip, traffic, downlink results, duty-cycle use | The same, plus the router’s own counters (see below) |
Before you start
- The router is claimed in your organisation and appears on the Devices page.
- The router has a LoRa radio. Like every gateway on Hermetry, it serves the EU868 region.
Switch the router to cloud mode
- Open the router’s own administration panel and its LoRa page.
- Switch the LoRaWAN network server mode to cloud mode.
- Save.
The router connects to the network server with its device certificate. The gateway list then includes it. You do not copy any address or token: the router uses its own link and certificate.
Note
The steps on the router’s panel depend on the router’s firmware. See the router’s documentation for the exact menu names.
Find the gateway in Hermetry
- Open Devices and open the router.
- In the page header, select LoRaWAN gateway. The button is shown only on a router that serves as a LoRaWAN gateway.
- A drawer opens with the gateway’s connection, facts, the frames it heard and the devices it heard recently.
The router’s device keeps its own profile, so the device page has no LoRaWAN tab for it; the header button replaces it.
In the drawer, the Connect the gateway section says that the router connects with its own device certificate and has no token. There is no Rotate token button.
Extra health readings
A licensed router reports more about itself than a Basics Station gateway. These values are stored as telemetry of the router’s device, once a minute:
| Key | Meaning |
|---|---|
lora.gw.rx_ok, lora.gw.rx_bad, lora.gw.rx_nocrc | Frames received correctly, with errors, without CRC |
lora.gw.tx_ok, lora.gw.tx_fail | Frames transmitted and failed |
lora.gw.temp_c | Radio temperature in °C |
lora.gw.buffer_depth, lora.gw.buffer_oldest_s | Frames held in the offline buffer and the age of the oldest one |
lora.gw.uptime_s | Uptime in seconds |
lora.gw.dc_reported_pct.<band> | Duty-cycle use per band as the router counts it |
The router also reports downlinks it could not transmit, so its failed-downlink counts are exact. If the router’s channel plan differs from the plan the network server sent, the attribute lora.gw.plan_mismatch is set to true.
A Basics Station gateway does not report these keys. They are absent, never zero.
Disable or remove
In the gateway drawer:
- Disable disconnects the router’s LoRaWAN link and refuses it until you select Enable. The router itself stays online for everything else.
- Remove stops the router serving as a LoRaWAN gateway: it is disconnected from the network server and its EUI is released. The router itself and its readings stay.
See Gateway credentials, disable and delete.
Local mode
Licensed routers can also run a network server on the router itself. This local mode is in development; see Local mode and relays. A gateway record in local mode is shown as Local (on the gateway) and the cloud network server never sends downlinks through it.