Hello,
I finally have managed to get Lora gateway, server and app server working, but where to go next ? I mean Lora app server is just for receiving the data, it doesn’t store it, or offer any functionality except setting up devices and gateways… right ? But where to go next for some widgets / graphs / buttons ? Something like ThingsBoard ( I’m looking for some, I think we can call it front end that I could install on my server and have for example weather station that sends me data over private Lora network to store the data, and dispaly it in some nice graphs for example… )
Any guidance would be much appreciated, thanks.
1 Like
I am also very much interested in this topic. I searched this forum for answers but I could not find much information on integrating end to end system. Please understand that not everyone on this forum is software developer.
For my home automation system I use Home Assistant open source system running on raspberry pi, sensors from different manufacturers, some zigbee some bluetooth some wifi, and there I am able to configure my web dashboard any way I want, with all buttons, graphs etc. I can setup any possible automation I could think of, simply by modifying configuration files and no coding involved.
Now I am working on a project where we have to build commercial security monitoring system based on lorawan sensors and alarm panels with siren and strobe lights. System has to support multiple sites and multiple users with different privileges. Some users will be able to deactivate alarm, some will not, different users will be presented with different live dashboards. In case of alarm, we have to send SMS alert to configured mobile number etc.
With so many big names in IoT game and so many open source systems we are still struggling trying to select end to end out of the box solution, preferably with no software development required.
I would greatly appreciate guidance, based on either commercial or open source system.
2 Likes
Hello,
here some example of connexion and how to use integration - api REST or grpc…
-
I’m using eclipse paho client (MQTT) which subscribe to different topic hosted by the mosquitto broker linked with the loraserver and then this client interacts with a website (html -css).
-
I’m using Http integration to push the datax (json) to the platform TagoIO, there I’m using a script parser which formats my datas as I want.
-
I’m using api REST to feed a smartphone application, after a http request I recover a json which will be parsed to reach the right parameters.
-
I’m using InfluxDB integration with grafana to manage different kind of application get percentage of battery, send an alert if the battery is too low so on…
-
I plan to use InfluxDB with machine learning (open source project LoudML)
To finish in my roadmap I plan to use grpc method to manage the loraserver as better as possible.
Example If I want store 100 devices in the loraserver the best practice is to use grpc instead web interface 
and in this post I didn’t mention the possibility through google cloud, AWS so on, one life is not enough
3 Likes
If I may chime in -
From LoRaWAN (the protocol…) LoRa App Server, which is a bit of a misleading denotation, is a ‘LoRaWAN Entity’ that has a few functions:
-
Decrypting the Payload from the End-Node with the App Session Key
-
Encode the Pay Load from a ‘meaningless’ stream-of-bits. It does it by knowing (for example) that the first 5 bytes are the Temperature, and the next two are the Humidity. A good a example for a coding/decoding is The Things Network’s Cayenne LPP https://www.thethingsnetwork.org/docs/devices/arduino/api/cayennelpp.html
-
Offer an API (REST, SOAP, or other) to allow external (out of the LoRaWAN) entities to fetch the data and consume it.
To your (very valid point), you will need to figure out a way to store it, preferable in a DB… and to allow way to do make inquiries and to pull/push data
In the big picture, the LoRaWAN App Server is part of the ‘trifecta’ LNS (LoRaWAN Network Server) JS (Join Server) and AS (App Server). Please note that the LNS, can route packets to more than one LoRaWAN App Server… Moreover, in a specific implementation you can have multiple AS. The separation meant to allow better security, whereas the Network Server cannot access (in terms of decryption) to the Pay Load
Best
Gil Simsic
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx I don’t know how delete my message 
Gil thank you, that was very enlightening and most valuable answer I was able to find on this forum. At least for beginner like myself. Denotation was indeed misleading for me. Does that make Lora (App) server more secure than TTN network server?
Now we have Lora (App) server installed and running on Google cloud, gateway is configured and some devices connected. We can see both uplink and downlink messages going through. Next we plan to install and integrate Thingsboard, then evaluate system end to end.
What would be Google IoT platform alternative to Thingsboard (dashboard with graphs, gauges, buttons…, multiple users, multiple privileges)? Tried hard googling the answer with no success 
What are other alternatives to Thingsboard, commercial or open source? I can see Cayenne is very popular, is there anything else worth evaluating? Preferably with mobile app support.
Hi guys, please provide guidance regarding end application server. Something equivalent to things board. It would be greatly appreciated. We are building commercial application and cost is not the issue, but features.
Did you manage to integrate your sensors into Home Assistant?
One easy question. For the battery levels you use API methods or in the end-device you run a code that send message with the level?
