Hello,
I know the frequency band cannot be changed via firmware (eg. cannot support US915 using the EU868 hardware), and I would like to ask if we are able to change the frequency plan using firmware (eg. using a US915 model concentrator in the KR920 region)?
The user guide seems to support this but there aren’t any specific instructions for this so I figured I would ask here.
It seems that Korea may have a listen-before-talk regulation.
If that is in fact the case, then you couldn’t legally use a basic model gateway there, but rather need one with extra hardware in the form of an additional radio able to check a channel for even non-LoRa energy before transmitting on it. As far as I know none of the RAK concentrator cards including the RAK2287 have that capability.
Otherwise, moving to a new bandplan within a supported frequency range is a matter of editing the channel creation elements of the global_conf.json. The actualy details of those are the same for the SX1302 type boards as for the SX1301 varieties, though the overall name of the entry is different.
I see. So even though RAK sells concentrators listed for KR920 region, these cannot be legally used if there is a listen-before-talk regulation in effect?
What the LoRaWan spec says is this:
The South Korea regulations allow the choice of using either a duty-cycle
limitation or a so-called Listen Before Talk Adaptive Frequency Agility (LBT AFA) transmissions management. The current LoRaWAN specification for the KR920-923 ISM band exclusively uses LBT channel access rule to maximize MACPayload size length and comply with the South Korea regulations.
Which would imply that if you want to implement standard LoRaWan vs. come up with something else that uses the other path to compliance, you’d need an LBT-capable gateway.
But ultimately on such an issue you should take advice only from someone familiar with the actual regulations applicable to your country.
Okay, that is good to know. To expand on my original question a bit, how many different hardware versions of the RAK2287 concentrator are there? From what I have gathered, the 2287 comes in US915 and EU868, and the 2287L comes in EU433 and CN470 for a total of 4 different hardware versions.
As an outside user I don’t know anything about RAK’s product roadmap, but those seem to be the options it would make sense for there to be, without adding the extra radio and parts for an LBT implementation.
Perfect. Thank you for the quick response!
Hi @georgewgt
Actually, as @cstratton mentioned you can use either duty-cycle or LBT in order to use the hardware that RAK provides legally in Korea according to LoRaWAN regional parameters v 1.0.3. So if you observe the duty-cycle you are legally using the hardware although it does not support LBT.
Also, RAK is working on concentrators with the LBT functionality and we expect them to be launched soon.
Best Regards
@Nikola is the LBT feature available now?
We have project in Japan and looking to use a mix of Wisgate Edge gateways.
Thanks
Hello @iiLaw,
Due to the chip shortage, we still can not provide LBT gateways, so this feature is still on hold.
This is a worldwide problem for a lot of industries as well as IoT, so I can not give you any estimated time.
Best Regards
Thanks for this update