ChirpStack Concentratord

ChirpStack Concentratord is an open-source LoRa(WAN) concentrator daemon and is part of the ChirpStack project. It exposes a common ZeroMQ based api that can be used by LoRa Packet Forwarders for interacting with gateway hardware. By implementing the hardware specifics in a separate daemon, a LoRa Packet Forwarder will work with any supported gateway as long as the Concentratord protocol is implemented.

Note: This is an experimental project!

Events

Events are published by Concentratord and can be received by creating a ZeroMQ SUB socket. The first frame holds the event type (string), the second frame holds the event payload encoded using Protobuf (see protobuf/gw/gw.proto in chirpstack-api for the Protobuf message definitions).

up

Uplink received by the gateway (UplinkFrame Protobuf message).

stats

Gateway statistics (GatewayStats Protobuf message).

Commands

Commands can be sent to Concentratord using a ZeroMQ REQ socket. The first data-frame holds the command type (string), the second data-frame holds the command payload encoded using Protobuf.

gateway_id

Request the Gateway ID (the data-frame is empty). The response is the 8byte Gateway ID.

down

Request to enqueue the given frame for downlink (DownlinkFrame Protobuf message). A downlink command is responded by a DownlinkTXAck message.

config

Request to re-configure the channel-configuration (GatewayConfiguration Protobuf message). The response is empty.

Note: The re-configuration happens in-memory only. This means that when Concentratord is restarted, it will revert to the configuration as specified in the configuration file. This allows for restarting Concentratord in case of a re-configuration error (in which case the process will terminate) and reverting back to the original configuration.

Supported hardware

chirpstack-concentratord-sx1301

The chirpstack-concentratord-sx1301 implements the SX1301 HAL.

Vendor	Gateway / Shield	Model flags	Model
IMST	iC880A		imst_ic880a_eu868
Kerlink	iFemtoCell		kerlink_ifemtocell_eu868
Multitech	Multitech Conduit AP EU868		multitech_mtcap_lora_868_eu868
Multitech	Multitech Conduit AP US915		multitech_mtcap_lora_915_us915
Multitech	Multitech Conduit MTAC-LORA-H-868	AP1, AP2, GNSS	multitech_mtac_lora_h_868_eu868
Multitech	Multitech Conduit MTAC-LORA-H-915	AP1, AP2, GNSS	multitech_mtac_lora_h_915_us915
RAK	RAK2245 AS923	GNSS	rak_2245_as923
RAK	RAK2245 AU915	GNSS	rak_2245_au915
RAK	RAK2245 CN470	GNSS	rak_2245_cn470
RAK	RAK2245 EU433	GNSS	rak_2245_eu433
RAK	RAK2245 EU868	GNSS	rak_2245_eu868
RAK	RAK2245 IN865	GNSS	rak_2245_in865
RAK	RAK2245 KR920	GNSS	rak_2245_kr920
RAK	RAK2245 RU864	GNSS	rak_2245_ru864
RAK	RAK2245 US915	GNSS	rak_2245_us915
RAK	RAK2246 AS923	GNSS	rak_2246_as923
RAK	RAK2246 AU915	GNSS	rak_2246_au915
RAK	RAK2246 EU868	GNSS	rak_2246_eu868
RAK	RAK2246 IN865	GNSS	rak_2246_in865
RAK	RAK2246 KR920	GNSS	rak_2246_kr920
RAK	RAK2246 RU864	GNSS	rak_2246_ru864
RAK	RAK2246 US915	GNSS	rak_2246_us915
Sandbox	LoRaGo Port EU868		sandbox_lorago_port_eu868
Sandbox	LoRaGo Port US915		sandbox_lorago_port_us915
Wifx	LORIX One EU868		wifx_lorix_one_eu868

Configuration

Configuration example:

# Concentratord configuration.
[concentratord]

# Log level.
#
# Valid options are:
#   * TRACE
#   * DEBUG
#   * INFO
#   * WARN
#   * ERROR
#   * OFF
log_level="INFO"

# Log to syslog.
#
# When set to true, log messages are being written to syslog instead of stdout.
log_to_syslog=false

# Statistics interval.
stats_interval="30s"

  # Configuration for the (ZeroMQ based) API.
  [concentratord.api]

  # Event PUB socket bind.
  event_bind="ipc:///tmp/concentratord_event"

  # Command REP socket bind.
  command_bind="ipc:///tmp/concentratord_command"


# LoRa gateway configuration.
[gateway]

# Antenna gain (dB).
antenna_gain=0

# Public LoRaWAN network.
lorawan_public=true

# Gateway vendor / model.
#
# This configures various vendor and model specific settings like the min / max
# frequency and TX gain table.
model=""

# Gateway vendor / model flags.
#
# Flag can be used to configure additional vendor / model features. The
# following flags can be used:
#
#   Global flags:
#     GNSS - Enable GNSS / GPS support
#
#   Multitech:
#     AP1  - Module is in AP1 slot (default)
#     AP2  - Module is in AP2 slot
model_flags=[]

# Gateway ID.
gateway_id="0202030405060708"


  # LoRa concentrator configuration.
  [gateway.concentrator]

  # Multi spreading-factor channels (LoRa).
  multi_sf_channels=[
    868100000,
    868300000,
    868500000,
    867100000,
    867300000,
    867500000,
    867700000,
    867900000,
  ]

  # LoRa std channel (single spreading-factor).
  [gateway.concentrator.lora_std]
  frequency=868300000
  bandwidth=250000
  spreading_factor=7

  # FSK channel.
  [gateway.concentrator.fsk]
  frequency=868800000
  bandwidth=125000
  datarate=50000


  # Beacon configuration.
  #
  # This requires a gateway with GPS / GNSS.
  #
  # Please note that the beacon settings are region dependent. The correct
  # settings can be found in the LoRaWAN Regional Parameters specification.
  [gateway.beacon]

  # Compulsory RFU size.
  compulsory_rfu_size=2

  # Beacon frequency / frequencies (Hz).
  frequencies=[
  	869525000,
  ]

  # Bandwidth (Hz).
  bandwidth=125000

  # Spreading factor.
  spreading_factor=9

  # TX power.
  tx_power=14

chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302

The chirpstack-concentratord-sx1302 implements the SX1302 HAL.

Vendor	Gateway / Shield	Model flags	Model
Semtech	CoreCell EU868		semtech_sx1302c868gw1_eu868
Semtech	CoreCell US915		semtech_sx1302c915gw1_us915

Configuration

Configuration example:

# Concentratord configuration.
[concentratord]

# Log level.
#
# Valid options are:
#   * TRACE
#   * DEBUG
#   * INFO
#   * WARN
#   * ERROR
#   * OFF
log_level="DEBUG"

# Log to syslog.
#
# When set to true, log messages are being written to syslog instead of stdout.
log_to_syslog=false

# Statistics interval.
stats_interval="30s"

  # Configuration for the (ZeroMQ based) API.
  [concentratord.api]

  # Event PUB socket bind.
  event_bind="ipc:///tmp/concentratord_event"

  # Command REP socket bind.
  command_bind="ipc:///tmp/concentratord_command"


# LoRa gateway configuration.
[gateway]

# Antenna gain (dB).
antenna_gain=0

# Public LoRaWAN network.
lorawan_public=true

# Gateway vendor / model.
#
# This configures various vendor and model specific settings like the min / max
# frequency and TX gain table.
model=""

# Gateway vendor / model flags.
#
# Flag can be used to configure additional vendor / model features. The
# following flags can be used:
#
#   Global flags:
#     GNSS - Enable GNSS / GPS support
model_flags=[]


  # LoRa concentrator configuration.
  [gateway.concentrator]

  # Multi spreading-factor channels (LoRa).
  multi_sf_channels=[
    868100000,
    868300000,
    868500000,
    867100000,
    867300000,
    867500000,
    867700000,
    867900000,
  ]

  # LoRa std channel (single spreading-factor).
  [gateway.concentrator.lora_std]
  frequency=868300000
  bandwidth=250000
  spreading_factor=7

  # FSK channel.
  [gateway.concentrator.fsk]
  frequency=868800000
  bandwidth=125000
  datarate=50000

Building from source

You must have Docker and Docker Compose installed for these instructions.

# Compile ARMv5 binary
make build-armv5-release

# Compile ARMv7hf binary
make build-armv7hf-release

# Create .ipk for Kerlink iFemtoCell
make package-kerlink-ifemtocell

# Create .ipk for Multitech Conduit
make package-multitech-conduit

# Create .ipk for Multitech Conduit AP
make package-multitech-conduit-ap

• Binaries are located under target/{ARCHITECTURE}/release
• .ipk packages are located under dist/{VENDOR}/{MODEL}

Compile optimizations

The provided ...-release commands are using the default Rust release mode profile. Several options can be set to minimize the size of the final binary (usually at the cost of features or compile time). See https://github.com/johnthagen/min-sized-rust for more information.

License

ChirpStack Concentratord is distributed under the MIT license. See also LICENSE.