Glossary
LoRaWAN glossary
50 terms you will meet when planning, buying or running a LoRaWAN network — explained in plain language, grouped by what you are trying to understand.
01 · 10 terms
Network architecture
The components of a LoRaWAN network and how data moves between them.
- Gateway
- A radio receiver that listens on several channels at once and forwards every packet it hears to the network server over Ethernet, Wi-Fi or cellular. It does not decrypt or interpret the data.
- Network Server (LNS)
- The core of the network. It authenticates devices, removes duplicate copies of uplinks, manages data rates and downlink scheduling, and routes payloads to the right application.
- Join Server
- Handles the Over-the-Air Activation handshake. It holds each device’s root keys and derives the session keys when a device joins, so the network server never needs the root key.
- Application Server
- Where payloads are decrypted and put to use — billing, dashboards, alerts or analytics. It receives decoded data from the network server rather than raw radio packets.
- Packet forwarder
- Software on a gateway that relays radio packets to the network server and returns downlinks. The legacy Semtech UDP packet forwarder is still widely deployed.
- LoRa Basics Station
- Gateway software that connects to the network server over a secured WebSocket, and supports remote gateway configuration and updates. Generally preferred over the UDP packet forwarder for new deployments.
- De-duplication
- When several gateways hear the same uplink, the network server keeps one copy — usually the one with the best signal — and discards the rest, so an application sees each message once.
- Roaming
- Letting a device be served by a network other than its home network. With passive roaming, the visited network forwards traffic to the home network, which keeps control of the device.
- Tenant
- An isolated customer or organisation on a multi-tenant platform. Each tenant has its own devices, gateways, applications and users, invisible to other tenants.
- LPWAN
- Low-Power Wide-Area Network. The family of radio technologies, including LoRaWAN and NB-IoT, designed to send small amounts of data over long distances on very little power.
02 · 13 terms
Radio & protocol
How the signal itself works, and the parameters that decide range and battery life.
- LoRa
- The radio modulation — the physical layer that carries a signal over long distances at very low power. LoRa is a registered trademark of Semtech Corporation.
- LoRaWAN
- The network protocol that runs on top of LoRa, specified by the LoRa Alliance. It defines how devices join, how messages are secured and routed, and how devices from different vendors interoperate.
- Chirp spread spectrum
- The modulation technique LoRa uses. Signals sweep across a frequency range, which makes them highly resistant to interference and decodable even below the noise floor.
- Spreading factor (SF)
- A setting from SF7 to SF12. Higher spreading factors reach further and are more robust, but send data more slowly and keep the radio on longer, using more battery.
- Adaptive Data Rate (ADR)
- The network server tuning each device’s spreading factor and transmit power based on its link quality. Devices close to a gateway speed up and save power; distant ones get a more robust setting.
- Airtime
- How long a single transmission occupies the radio channel. It grows sharply at higher spreading factors, and it drives both battery use and how many devices a gateway can serve.
- Duty cycle
- A regulatory limit on the share of time a device may transmit in a band. It caps how often a device can send, and a network server has to respect it when scheduling downlinks.
- ISM band
- Radio spectrum set aside for industrial, scientific and medical use, which can be used without a licence. LoRaWAN runs in ISM bands, so no spectrum licence is needed.
- IN865
- The LoRaWAN regional frequency plan for India, operating in the 865–867 MHz band.
- EU868
- The LoRaWAN regional frequency plan used across Europe, operating in the 863–870 MHz band.
- Regional parameters
- The LoRa Alliance specification defining each regional frequency plan — channels, data rates, power limits and duty cycle. Devices, gateways and the network server must all use the same plan.
- RSSI
- Received Signal Strength Indicator, in dBm. How strong a signal was when it reached the gateway; values closer to zero are stronger.
- SNR
- Signal-to-Noise Ratio, in dB. How far the signal stood above background noise. LoRa can decode signals with a negative SNR, which is part of why its range is so long.
03 · 11 terms
Devices & messaging
How devices behave on the network and how messages flow to and from them.
- Class A
- The default and most power-efficient device class. After each uplink the device opens two short receive windows, then sleeps. Almost all battery-powered meters are Class A.
- Class B
- Adds scheduled receive windows, synchronised to beacons broadcast by gateways, so the network can reach the device at predictable times without waiting for an uplink.
- Class C
- Listens almost continuously, except while transmitting. Downlinks arrive almost immediately, at the cost of much higher power draw, so it usually suits mains-powered devices.
- RX1 / RX2
- The two receive windows a Class A device opens after an uplink. A downlink must be sent inside one of them, or the device will not hear it until it next transmits.
- Uplink
- A message sent from a device to the network — a meter reading, sensor value or alarm. The large majority of LoRaWAN traffic is uplink.
- Downlink
- A message sent from the network to a device — a configuration change, command or acknowledgement. Downlinks are constrained by device class and duty cycle.
- Confirmed message
- A message that must be acknowledged by the receiver, and is retransmitted if it is not. It improves reliability but costs airtime and battery, so it is used sparingly.
- Device profile
- A shared configuration for a type of device — its class, regional plan, LoRaWAN version and capabilities — so an entire fleet of one model is set up consistently.
- FUOTA
- Firmware Update Over The Air. Delivering new firmware to devices in the field over the LoRaWAN network, usually to many devices at once, without a site visit.
- Multicast
- Sending a single downlink to a whole group of devices at once, rather than one by one. Commonly used for FUOTA and group commands on Class B or C devices.
- MAC commands
- Network-management messages between the network server and a device — adjusting data rate, power or channels — carried alongside or instead of application data.
04 · 11 terms
Identity & security
How devices are identified, admitted to the network and kept secure.
- OTAA
- Over-The-Air Activation. The device performs a join exchange with the join server, and fresh session keys are derived each time. The recommended activation method for production.
- ABP
- Activation By Personalisation. Session keys and the device address are programmed into the device in advance, so it can transmit immediately without joining. Simpler, but less secure than OTAA.
- DevEUI
- A globally unique 64-bit identifier for an individual device, similar in concept to a MAC address.
- JoinEUI
- A 64-bit identifier for the join server a device should use. Called AppEUI in earlier versions of the specification.
- DevAddr
- A 32-bit address assigned to a device for a session. The network uses it to identify the device in routine traffic.
- AppKey
- A device’s root key, used during OTAA to derive the session keys. It is never transmitted over the air.
- AppSKey
- Application Session Key. Encrypts the payload end to end between device and application, so the network operator routes the data without being able to read it.
- NwkSKey
- Network Session Key. Used by the network server to check message integrity and handle MAC commands. Later versions of LoRaWAN split it into several keys with narrower roles.
- Frame counter
- A number that increases with every message. The network server rejects any message with a counter it has already seen, which blocks replay attacks.
- MIC
- Message Integrity Code. A cryptographic check on every frame, proving it came from a known device and was not altered in transit.
- AES-128
- The encryption standard LoRaWAN uses at every security layer: for joining, for network integrity, and for end-to-end payload encryption.
05 · 5 terms
Data & integration
How device data leaves the network and reaches the systems that use it.
- Payload decoder
- A small function that turns a device’s raw bytes into named fields — volume, battery voltage, tamper flag — so downstream systems receive structured data instead of hex.
- MQTT
- A lightweight publish/subscribe messaging protocol, widely used to stream device data from a network server into applications and IoT platforms.
- Webhook
- An HTTP callback. The network server sends each message to a web address you specify, as soon as it arrives.
- REST API
- A programming interface for managing devices, gateways and applications, and for retrieving data, over standard HTTP requests.
- AMI / AMR
- Advanced Metering Infrastructure and Automated Meter Reading. AMR collects readings remotely; AMI adds two-way communication, such as remote configuration or valve control.
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