review
Dragino LPS8 Indoor Gateway Speedy LoRaWAN Gateway Setup
Figure 1:The Dragino LPS8 Indoor Gateway. (Source: Dragino [5])
By Mathias Claußen (Elektor)
We have often described how you can interconnect your own electronics devices using a LoRaWAN link. If you are not within range of an existing LoRaWAN gateway, or if you simply want to delve a bit deeper into the topic, you can set up and operate your own gateway. We tried this using the low-cost Dragino LPS8 Indoor Gateway.
LoRaWAN is a topic we have featured many number times in Elektor. It is relatively easy to build a basic LoRaWAN node which has an associated sensor or actuator module. In this type of setup, a LoRaWAN module (which handles communication to the network) is connected to a microcontroller board such as an STMicroelectronics STM32 or Raspberry Pi Pico [1, 2], and this provides an interface to the sensor. In order for the data sent to and from the node via LoRa to be transported further, a remote station is required. In this case, a LoRaWAN gateway will accept the data over the air via LoRa and forward it to an Internet platform like The Things Network (TTN). You can use a pre-existing gateway that’s already been set up in your area (many are run by volunteers), or you can set up your own gateway. I have been using a Dragino LPS8 to provide an Indoor Gateway for more than a year now.
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The Dragino LPS8
The Dragino LPS8 Indoor Gateway (Figure 1) is housed in a plastic enclosure and could easily be mistaken for a Wi-Fi router. The electronics inside are powered by a small Atheros (today Qualcomm) AR9331 Wi-Fi SoC clocked at 400 MHz which is specifically designed for use in router platforms and access points. With 64-MB RAM and 16-MB Flash, its processing power is not spectacular when compared with something like a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W, but it is more than enough for the functions that the gateway needs to perform. The SoC also supports Wi-Fi according to 802.11 b/g/n and provides a 10/100 Mbit LAN port. The communication rates available are more than capable of handling the relatively slow data rate used by LoRaWAN. The gateway itself does not have to provide a lot of computing power either, as it only takes care of the integrated LoRa
