Correct Class B periodicity setting in LoRa Server?

In the LoRa Server, on the Device-profiles->[profile]->CLASS-B tab, there is the setting “Class-B ping-slot periodicity” field. I’m unclear what I should set this to. I know that in Class B, the gateway broadcasts a periodic beacon every 128 seconds, and that as a device, I can specify how often I want to look for messages, but I’m unclear what this setting means in the context of the server, and what it actually affects. I’m actually unclear what the Class-B ping-slot periodicity, Class-B ping-slot data-rate, or Class-B ping-slot frequency fields affect when I’m using a gateway.

In my configuration, I’m running a Multitech MTCDT-247A (has GPS), I have beacon enabled, hopping enabled, and the beacon frequency set to 923.3MHz. This matches up with the STMicro LoRaWAN 1.2.2 stack I’m using for US-915, sub-band 0. If these are set by the gateway, what do the three fields above affect, should I set them, leave them all 0, or what?

I’m occasionally getting the beacon to lock on the device, but it always loses it :frowning: The device joins just fine under class A. Under class B it gets the join accept, starts hunting for the beacon, and then usually times out. So I’m getting closer.

These are the values which are pre-configured at the device side. Please note that beacons are sent by the gateway, ping-slots are the downlink opportunities that a Network Server has to send data to the device.

The beacon parameters are specified by the LoRaWAN Regional Parameters, the ping-slot parameters are up to you to define and configure.

Got it, they’re pre-configured on the device side. The beacon frequency is set in the Multitech gateway, based on it’s regional parameters. So what is the beacon frequency on this page used for? It’s not a parameter that’s passed in the Gateway-profile configuration. What is the implication if it is set incorrectly?

Do you mean this field Class-B ping-slot frequency (Hz)?

Yes. I know it’s intended to hold the frequency of the beacon (such as 903300000 for US-915), but does anything actually use it?

Ping slot != beacon!

The beacon is sent periodically by the gateways so that your devices can acquire a Class-B beacon lock. A ping-slot is a possible Class-B downlink opportunity for the Network Server to send a payload to your device.

The values set here are the initial values that will be used for your device, until these are changed using mac-commands to the values set in the configuration file.