Gateways LoRaWAN: concentradores, arquitectura y montaje propio

Updated: 2026-05-24

Executive summary

• A LoRaWAN gateway (also called a concentrator) is the device that receives radio packets from LoRa nodes in the sub-GHz band (868 MHz EU, 915 MHz US) and forwards them to the Network Server (ChirpStackCTermChirpStackChirpStack is an open-source LoRaWAN Network Server to deploy and manage private end-to-end LoRaWAN networks.View profile, The Things Network, etc.) over Ethernet/Wi-Fi/4G, running a packet forwarder as the bridge.
• Standard-grade gateways use the Semtech SX1302 or SX1303 chipset (8 simultaneous receive channels), which replaced the SX1301 in 2020 with lower power draw and better performance.
• Main types: indoor (USB or PoE powered, no IP rating, for offices/warehouses) and outdoor (IP65–IP67, pole or wall mount, PoE or solar powered).
• The gateway does not process or decrypt application messages: it only acts as a radio receiver and UDP/TCP forwarder. AES-128 encryption is handled by the node and the Network Server.
• Building your own gateway with a Raspberry PiCompanyRaspberry PiSingle-board computers and RP2040/RP2350 microcontrollersView profile + SX1302 HAT costs around 100–150 USD and is the most common option for private smart cities projects or university campuses.
• Price reference: the TTIG (The Things Indoor Gateway) is ~80 USD, the RAK7244 ~150 USD, and a professional outdoor gateway such as the RAK7285/Dragino DLOS8 runs 250–400 USD.
• This piece is part of the IoT hardware section of the editorial hub.

What a LoRaWAN gateway actually does

In any IoT deployment using LPWANLTermLPWANLPWAN (Low-Power Wide-Area Network) is a category of long-range, low-power wireless networks for IoT. It includes LoRaWAN, NB-IoT and LTE-M.View profile radio, the gateway is the piece that closes the link between field nodes and the server. The LoRaWAN architecture has three distinct layers:

[LoRa node] --- sub-GHz radio ---> [Gateway / Concentrator]
                                          |
                               UDP/TCP IP (Ethernet, Wi-Fi, 4G)
                                          |
                               [Network Server (NS)]
                                          |
                               [Application Server (AS)]

The gateway is exclusively a physical-layer bridge: it receives the LoRa frame from the radio (an encrypted packet), wraps it in a JSON message with metadata (RSSI, SNR, timestamp, frequency, SF) and sends it to the Network Server using either the UDP Semtech packet forwarder protocol or Basic Station (a more modern TCP/TLS alternative).

What the gateway does not do:

• It does not decrypt the node payload (that is the AS's responsibility).
• It does not manage the LoRaWANProtocolLoRaWANOpen long-range, low-power LPWANView profile session (join, FCnt, downlinks) — that is the NS.
• It does not store data locally (on standard gateways; some have an offline mode).

A single radio packet may be received by multiple gateways at once — the NS deduplicates and keeps the best-quality copy. This redundancy is inherent to the LoRaWAN design and enables overlapping coverage with no coordination between gateways.

The concentrator chipset: SX1301, SX1302 and SX1303

The jump from the SX1301 to the SX1302/1303 cut power draw in half, improved performance in weak-signal environments and added support for the more modern libloragw library. Every newly manufactured gateway uses the SX1302 or SX1303.

The 8 simultaneous receive channels mean the gateway can listen to 8 frequencies/SFs in parallel without dropping packets. A node transmitting on SF7 channel 868.1 MHz and another on SF12 channel 868.5 MHz are received at the same time without collision at the gateway (they can collide on the air if transmitted simultaneously, but that is handled by the channel plan and duty cycle).

Indoor vs Outdoor: the differences that matter

Indoor gateways

Designed for the inside of buildings, offices, warehouses or labs. Typical characteristics:

• USB power (5V/1A) or PoE (IEEE 802.3af/at).
• No water-resistant enclosure (no IP rating, or IP30 at most).
• Internal antenna or SMA for an external antenna.
• Ethernet or Wi-Fi connectivity.
• Cost: 80–200 USD.

Examples: The Things Indoor Gateway (TTIG) from The Things Industries (Ethernet + Wi-Fi, Basic Station, ~80 USD), Dragino LPS8N (Ethernet + Wi-Fi, ~100 USD), RAK7258 (Ethernet, ~100 USD).

The TTIG is the easiest gateway to get up and running for TTNTTermThe Things Network (TTN)The Things Network is a community-driven, free LoRaWAN network with collaborative global coverage maintained by an open-source community.View profile: it connects to Wi-Fi, you register it in the TTN console, and it starts receiving packets in under 5 minutes. There is no need to configure a packet forwarder manually.

Outdoor gateways

For permanent outdoor deployments: streetlights, rooftops, towers, agricultural silos. Characteristics:

• IP65–IP67 enclosure (resistant to rain and dust).
• Operating temperature range of -40 °C to +70 °C.
• PoE or 12–48 VDC power (for solar panels).
• Omnidirectional 5–8 dBi pole-mounted antenna, or a sector antenna.
• Ethernet, Wi-Fi and often integrated 4G/LTE connectivity (for areas with no wired link).
• Cost: 200–600 USD.

Examples: RAK7285 (dual LoRa + 4G, IP67, ~300 USD), Dragino DLOS8N (outdoor, PoE, optional 4G, ~250 USD), Kerlink Wirnet iFemtoCell-Evolution (a more operator-oriented product, ~350 USD).

Packet Forwarder vs Basic Station

The gateway needs software that takes packets from the SX1302 radio and sends them to the Network Server. There are two approaches:

UDP Semtech Packet Forwarder (legacy)

Semtech's original protocol. The gateway sends UDP packets to the NS's IP/hostname on port 1700. No authentication, no encryption on the NS–GW link. Simple to configure, but insecure if the NS is reachable from the internet.

/* global_conf.json — packet forwarder */
{
  "gateway_conf": {
    "server_address": "chirpstack.local",
    "serv_port_up": 1700,
    "serv_port_down": 1700,
    "keepalive_interval": 10,
    "stat_interval": 30,
    "push_timeout_ms": 100
  }
}

Basic Station (modern, recommended)

A Semtech protocol over WebSocket (TLS). The NS acts as the server; the gateway connects and authenticates with a TLS certificate. It is more secure and supports remote gateway configuration from the NS. ChirpStack 4 and TTNv3 support it natively.

For new deployments, Basic Station is the right choice. The UDP packet forwarder only makes sense on closed private networks or when reusing older hardware.

Network Servers: ChirpStack and The Things Network

The gateway is useless without a Network Server to process the packets. The two main options in the open/semi-open market:

ChirpStack

The reference open-source LoRaWAN NS. Written in Go, it deploys on any Linux server, Raspberry Pi or Docker container. Components: chirpstack (unified NS+AS since v4) and chirpstack-gateway-bridge (translates the UDP packet forwarder to internal MQTTProtocolMQTTThe standard pub/sub protocol of IoTView profile).

# Install ChirpStack on a Raspberry Pi with Docker Compose
git clone https://github.com/chirpstack/chirpstack-docker.git
cd chirpstack-docker
docker compose up -d

# ChirpStack UI at http://raspberrypi.local:8080
# Default username/password: admin/admin

ChirpStack v4 supports the UDP packet forwarder (via chirpstack-gateway-bridge), Basic Station and LoRaWAN 1.0.x/1.1. The community is active and the documentation is well maintained.

The Things Network (TTN) / The Things Stack

The global community LoRaWAN network. The EU1 cluster of The Things Stack Community Edition is free with limits (1K activations/day, fair use). For production, use The Things Stack Cloud (paid) or self-hosted.

Gateways are registered in the TTN console with their Gateway EUI (a 64-bit MAC address). TTN supports both the UDP packet forwarder and Basic Station.

A TTN advantage: if the gateway has coverage in areas with other TTN gateways, nodes registered on TTN work without any infrastructure of your own.

How to build your own LoRaWAN gateway with a Raspberry Pi

The most common path for a private European gateway (868 MHz):

Hardware needed

• Raspberry Pi 4B or Pi Zero 2W (or any Pi with a 40-pin GPIO header)
• LoRa concentrator HAT: RAK2245 (SX1301, budget ~50 USD), RAK2287/RAK5146 (SX1302/SX1303, ~60–80 USD), or Dragino PG1302 (~60 USD)
• Omnidirectional 868 MHz 3–5 dBi antenna + RP-SMA cable
• 5V/3A power supply

Installing the packet forwarder (SX1302)

# On the Raspberry Pi running Raspberry Pi OS Lite
sudo apt update && sudo apt install -y git build-essential

# Clone Semtech's HAL for the SX1302
git clone https://github.com/Lora-net/sx1302_hal.git
cd sx1302_hal
make

# Configure the packet forwarder
cd packet_forwarder
cp global_conf.json.sx1250.EU868 global_conf.json

# Edit global_conf.json: set the IP/hostname of the Network Server
# "server_address": "eu1.cloud.thethings.network"

# Launch
sudo ./lora_pkt_fwd

Integrating with a local ChirpStack

If, instead of TTN, you want your own NS on the same Pi (an all-in-one architecture):

# ChirpStack in Docker on the same Pi
# chirpstack-gateway-bridge listens on UDP 1700 and publishes to internal MQTT
# chirpstack (NS+AS) subscribes to MQTT and processes the data

# In the packet forwarder's global_conf.json:
# "server_address": "localhost"
# "serv_port_up": 1700

# Result: gateway + local NS, with no cloud dependency

This is the most widely used architecture in university research projects, municipal smart citiesSIndustrySmart citiesView profile and private agricultural networks: the entire infrastructure runs on a Pi, with no data leaving for the internet except what the user chooses to export.

Reference commercial gateways (2026)

The RAK7244 is the most common choice for a lab or pilot: it is a Raspberry Pi 4B with a RAK2245 (SX1301) HAT already assembled and pre-flashed, ready in under 30 minutes. For a permanent outdoor deployment in a smart cities or precision agriculture project, the RAK7285 and the Dragino DLOS8N are the most widely installed in Europe.

When NOT to use a standard 8-channel gateway

• When the node count is very low (<5 nodes in a closed environment): a full 8-channel gateway is oversized. You can use a single-channel gateway (a single-channel packet forwarder on an ESP32HardwareESP32Dual-core WiFi + BT/BLE SoC at €-tier priceView profile or Pi) for testing — but beware: single-channel gateways are not compatible with the full LoRaWAN specification and must not be used in production.
• When TTN coverage already exists in the area: many European cities have community TTN gateways. Before building your own, check coverage on the The Things Network coverage map.
• When the network requires mobility: LoRaWAN gateways are fixed. For mobile nodes (vehicles, people) with variable coverage, complement with the Helium network or TTN + handover between gateways — do not build a mobile gateway.

Primary sources

• ChirpStack — Open-source LoRaWAN Network Server (accessed: 2026-05)
• The Things Network — Community LoRaWAN (accessed: 2026-05)
• Semtech — SX1302 Product Page (accessed: 2026-05)