Nucleo-WL55JC as gateway

[KYZ]

Hello,

I'm using Nucleo-WL55JC cards and I wanted to know if it was possible to use them as gateways, partly to connect the radio world to the internet (LoRaWAN), and partly to extend the range of my network (by dispersing multiple gateways everywhere).

Note: there would only be a single "sensor" device that would send its data to the nearest gateway. This "sensor" device is also a Nucleo-WL55JC.

Thanks in advance.

Best regards,

KYZ.

[STTwo-32]

Hello @KYZ 

The STM32WL is designed to be an end node and note a Gateway.

Best Regards.

STTwo-32

[KYZ]

Hi @STTwo-32 

Thank you for your answers.

I expressed myself poorly, sorry. I meant end node (which is capable of sending data to a LoRa server, like The Things Stack for example). Is it possible to have multiple "end_node" devices sending data to a single application (TTS)?

These devices must be connected to this application and therefore must not be too far from a LoRa gateway? Let's say we have a single "sensor" device.

Did I understand the operating principle correctly?

Bests regards

KYZ.

[Andrew Neil]

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@KYZ wrote:

Is it possible to have multiple "end_node" devices sending data to a single application (TTS)?

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Of course!

I would say that's the normal use case - it would be rare to have just 1 sensor sending to an Application.

https://www.mokolora.com/what-is-lora-iot/ 

https://www.3glteinfo.com/lora/lora-architecture/ 

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@KYZ wrote:

These devices must be connected to this application and therefore must not be too far from a LoRa gateway?

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The name "LoRa" mean "Long Range" - the whole point is that the devices can be far (in some cases, tens of km) from the gateway!

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@KYZ wrote:

Let's say we have a single "sensor" device.

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Why would we say that when it seems that you actually have many "sensor" devices?

[Andrew Neil]

Or are you saying that you want your STM32WL to be a "hub" which collects data from a number of sensors, and then forwards that over LoRaWAN ?

So, as far as the LoRaWAN network is concerned, it is just a single end node.

And the sensors would not use LoRaWAN; maybe not even use LoRa - as you says they will be "close" to this "hub" ...

[KYZ]

Hi @Andrew Neil 

Thank for your reply !

If I understand the image correctly, the “end_node” example code supplied by STM links the card directly to the server via gateways? So we don't need to create gateways ourselves, we just need to be near an existing one?
Now, I'd like several of my cards (NUCLEO-WL55JC) to act as end nodes connected to a single application, and, to start with, one NUCLEO-WL55JC card would be the sensor. Later, why not add sensors?
The aim of having several end nodes is to extend the reach of my system.

I hope I've explained it better ;)

Bests regards

KYZ.

[Andrew Neil]

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@KYZ wrote:

the “end_node” example code supplied by STM links the card directly to the server via gateways?

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Yes - that's pretty much the definition of a LoRaWAN end-node.

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@KYZ wrote:

So we don't need to create gateways ourselves, we just need to be near an existing one?

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Again, not necessarily "near", just within range - which could be tens of km.

Just like your mobile phone needs to be within range of a cell tower, or a WiFi device needs to be within range of an access point, etc.

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@KYZ wrote:

Now, I'd like several of my cards (NUCLEO-WL55JC) to act as end nodes connected to a single application, and, to start with, one NUCLEO-WL55JC card would be the sensor. Later, why not add sensors?
The aim of having several end nodes is to extend the reach of my system.

I hope I've explained it better ;)

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No, now I'm confused again!

What, exactly, are you meaning by "sensor" here?

Please post a diagram to clarify.

[Andrew Neil]

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@Andrew Neil wrote:

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Just like your mobile phone needs to be within range of a cell tower,

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Taking that analogy a bit further:

Can we think of your STM32WL as the "phone", which connects to the cell tower?

So the phone has some sensors in it, and can send their data to The Network

Then your additional sensors could connect to the phone - eg, via Bluetooth - and the phone can also send this data to The Network.

Is that the kind of thing you're thinking of?

[KYZ]

Yes, by “near” I meant “close enough for a connection to be established”. Thanks for clarifying with the phone analogy, I had understood myself, but I hadn't found the right words in my explanation.
Here's an explanatory diagram. I want to do some tracking. We have a single device that can move around and every so many times it communicates with the server (via the gateway(s) with which it's able to establish a connection).
If the device manages to establish a connection with 2 gateways, they must not send data at the same time to avoid collisions. What's more, when the server receives this data, it must be able to see that it's the same data, and so respond to only one gateway, for example.

I hope that's clearer now !!

[Andrew Neil]

Sorry, is this a new question?

I'm afraid I don't see how any of this relates to the preceding discussion.

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@KYZ wrote:

If the device manages to establish a connection with 2 gateways, they must not send data at the same time to avoid collisions. 

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This is inherent in the design of LoRaWAN:

https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/lorawan/architecture/#:~:text=Deduplicating%20uplink%20messages,routing%20downlink%20messages.

PS:

https://blog.semtech.com/understanding-the-lorawan-architecture#:~:text=The%20network%20server%20is,a%20given%20end%20device

https://lora-alliance.org/about-lorawan/ 

PPS:

LoRaWAN Geolocation:

https://www.thethingsindustries.com/docs/integrations/other-integrations/lora-cloud/geolocation-services/

https://tektelic.com/products/cloud-services/lorawan-geolocation-server/

https://resources.lora-alliance.org/whitepapers/lora-alliance-geolocation-whitepaper