Multitech packet forwarder

ChirpStack Gateway Bridge
1

Hello everybody,

I’m looking for somebody who set up a connection between the Multitech Conduit gateway and Lora app server.
Shortly, I did all instructions from here(on gateway) LINK
I also added gateway to the LoRa server.(using web interface).

I’m not running LoRa Gateway Bridge. I think that it should work without it, right?

Please correct me, and tell me what configuration files(gateway configs) I need to post to recognize the problem.

Thank you.

2

You must use the LoRa Gateway Bridge as it converts the packet-forwarder data into JSON over MQTT that LoRa Server understands.

A guide explaining how to setup your Multitech gateway can be found at: https://docs.loraserver.io/lora-gateway-bridge/install/gateway/multitech/.

1 Like
3

Thank you for the fast response, brocaar!

So you’re saying that I won’t be able to see my gateway online on LoRa App Server Web Page until I install and configure LoRa Gateway Bridge?

4

Yes, that is correct.

5

Then, was does that connection means(on the picture)?
Because it was a bit confusing for me. I thought that setting up packet-forwarder will give me connection between gateway and LoRa server.

architecture
architecture.png740×653 58.4 KB

6

That is for the LoRa Gateway Config component (I’m renaming this to LoRa Channel Manager as the current name is confusing). It uses the gRPC api for getting the channel-plan configuration. This component is optional and not needed to get started. See also: https://docs.loraserver.io/lora-gateway-config/overview/.

7

Oh, I think I got it. There is no way to configure packet forwarder on the gateway send packets straight to the NS.
I perceive everything like it’s called. That’s my problem. “packet forwarder” - will forward LoRa frames to the configured NS :grinning:

Thank you for your patience and informative.

8

Hi Brocaar,

The document mentions that the Multitech Gateway has to be migrated from AEP to mlinux. But the later part of the document talks about package forwarder setups in AEP.
A normal AEP gateway does have the linux command options, is it necessary to wipe out the AEP then?

9

Hello,

for your information I have two AEP multitech gateway, both I have installed lora-gateway-bridge directly from the terminal and I have installed the packet forwarder from the web interface, it works perfectly.

I didn’t downgrade from AEP to mlinux.

10

My recommendation to start with a clean mLinux is because the Multitech packet-forwarder startup script is doing (or has been doing) some symlink magic under the hood when you are using the USB packet-forwarder.

I have seen situations where:

  • Config changes in the AEP web-interface were stored but were never applied
  • Config changes using SSH had no effect
  • Packet-forwarders that failed to start
  • …

These things are hard to document when the state of the Conduit is not known :slight_smile: Also, the reset to mLinux will start with a Conduit without any packet-forwarder installed. The packet-forwarder that I’m providing gives you the benefit of starting each module individually (which I’m using myself as lora-packet-forwarder-ap1 starts an EU868 forwarder and -ap2 an US915) and it will also copy the EU868 or US915 channel-plan based on the inserted module.

However, if things work fine using the AEP model, then great and there is no need to migrate to mLinux :slight_smile: