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NetworkServer-Server-Setup.md

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-           In this document, We have used chirpstack NS as the source : https://www.chirpstack.io/network-server/overview/.
-           If you are using a different Software for NS, follow those Software specific details to set up the NS
+           Please follow the Pointer section below for further details if you are using a Software different 
+           from Chirpstack NS.

Installing and Configuring the Network Server (NS) using ChirpStack (Debian/Ubuntu)

In our set up, we have a dedicated NS Virtual Private Server which is accessible externally by distinct physical assress.

This page covers setting up the NS which is detailed in different sections as follows:

NS Setup

Prerequisites

  1. A VM or Physical instance installed with Debian or Ubuntu accessible via the Internet
  2. MQTT Broker (e.g. Mosquitto)
  3. Persistent Database (e.g. PostgreSQL)
  4. Non-persistent Database (e.g. Redis)

Installing the Prerequisites

sudo apt-get install mosquitto postgresql redis-server

Setting up the Prerequisites

Setup your PostgreSQL database for your ChirpStack NS

$ sudo -u postgres psql
> create role chirpstack_ns with login password 'dbnspassword';
> create database chirpstack_ns with owner chirpstack_ns;
> \q

Verify that you are able to connect to the PSQL database

$ psql -h localhost -U chirpstack_ns -W chirpstack_ns

Obtaining and Installing the ChirpStack NS

Download the binary for ChirpStack NS.

Setup the NS, either using the binary from the link above, or by using Debian package manager. To install from the package manager, you will also need apt-transport-https to connect to the repository.

$ sudo apt install apt-transport-https
$ sudo apt-get install dirmngr --install-recommends
$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver keyserver.ubuntu.com --recv-keys 1CE2AFD36DBCCA00
$ sudo echo "deb https://artifacts.chirpstack.io/packages/3.x/deb stable main" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/chirpstack.list
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install chirpstack-network-server

Configuration for the ChirpStack NS

The configuration file is located in the chirpstack-network-server folder in /etc. It is a “toml“ file.

$ /etc/chirpstack-network-server/chirpstack-network-server.toml

ChirpStack recommends checking to following sections and modifying the parameters (if required) in the above .toml file when setting up a ChirpStack NS:

postgresql section

Update the dsn parameter with the parameters you provided when setting up your own PostgreSQL database:

dsn="postgres://chirpstack_ns:dbnspassword@localhost/chirpstack_ns?sslmode=disable"

The following parameter in the default configuration file is “postgresql.automigrate” which is useful when upgrading ChirpStack. Set it as you wish :

automigrate=true

redis section

If you changed the default port for redis or if you host redis on a different machine, don’t forget to change the redis.url parameter

network_server section

One need a NetID to do passive roaming. You may set your LoRaWAN NetID (if you have one). The net_id parameter may be set to any 6 digits such as “000000” or “000001” for experimental network. In the case of testing with the "Open Roaming Platform", if you don't have the NetID from the LoRa alliance, then we will allocate a NetID for you.

net_id=123456

Also check out if your LoRaWAN transmission band is consistent with the regulation for the region you live in (As we are located in Europe and use the 868MHz band, we set it in the configuration (other possible values are indicated in the default configuration file)

[network_server]
.
.
   [network_server.band]
   .
   .
   name=”EU_863”

metrics section

You can use either local for the system local time zone or use settings such as “Europe/Paris”

Join-Server section

The Join Server configuration should point to the Join Server (JS) IP. In our set up the AS is the same as the JS

[join_server]

  [join_server.default]
  
  server="http://JS-IP:8003"

Starting the ChirpStack NS

To (re)start and stop ChirpStack NS depends on if your distribution uses “init.d” or “systemd”:

init.d

sudo /etc/init.d/chirpstack-network-server [start|stop|restart|status]

systemd

sudo systemctl [start|stop|restart|status] chirpstack-network-server

Post Sanity Check for the ChirpStack NS

init.d

tail -f /var/log/chirpstack-network-server/chirpstack-network-server.log

systemd

journalctl -u chirpstack-network-server -f -n 50

A successful start of the NS will have the following Output in the log file

Jul 15 12:00:25 vps323914 systemd[1]: Started ChirpStack Network Server.
Jul 15 12:00:25 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[5420]: time="2020-07-15T12:00:25+02:00" level=info msg="starting ChirpStack Network Server" band=EU868 docs="https://www.chirpstack.io/" net_id=123456 version=3.9.0
Jul 15 12:00:25 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[5420]: time="2020-07-15T12:00:25+02:00" level=info msg="storage: setting up storage module"
Jul 15 12:00:25 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[5420]: time="2020-07-15T12:00:25+02:00" level=info msg="storage: setting up Redis client"
Jul 15 12:00:25 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[5420]: time="2020-07-15T12:00:25+02:00" level=info msg="storage: connecting to PostgreSQL"
Jul 15 12:00:25 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[5420]: time="2020-07-15T12:00:25+02:00" level=info msg="storage: applying PostgreSQL data migrations"
Jul 15 12:00:25 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[5420]: time="2020-07-15T12:00:25+02:00" level=info msg="storage: PostgreSQL data migrations applied" count=25
Jul 15 12:00:25 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[5420]: time="2020-07-15T12:00:25+02:00" level=info msg="gateway/mqtt: connecting to mqtt broker" server="tcp://localhost:1883"
...
...

For now, if you followed all the above indications. You should have a running ChirpStack stack Network Server

Post Sanity Check from RGW->NS Setup

The objective in this section is to verify the communication between the RGW->NS (2) as shown in the figure:

Verify whether the NS receives data from the RGW

Depending on your OS, one of the following commands will show you the logs:

journalctl -f -n 100 -u chirpstack-network-server
tail -f -n 100 /var/log/chirpstack-network-server/chirpstack-network-server.log
+ Expected log output
INFO[0163] backend/gateway: uplink frame received
INFO[0164] device gateway rx-info meta-data saved        dev_eui=0101010101010101
INFO[0164] device-session saved                          dev_addr=018f5aa9 dev_eui=0101010101010101
INFO[0164] finished client unary call                    grpc.code=OK grpc.method=HandleUplinkData grpc.service=as.ApplicationServerService grpc.time_ms=52.204 span.kind=client system=grpc
- But the NS logs gives an error
Jul 16 11:11:01 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[21156]: time="2020-07-16T11:11:01+02:00" level=info msg="gateway/mqtt: uplink frame received" gateway_id=00800000a0000825 uplink_id=634ac2e8-939f-4af8-8ac4-3407bae732ba
Jul 16 11:11:01 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[21156]: time="2020-07-16T11:11:01+02:00" level=info msg="uplink: frame(s) collected" ctx_id=b6a1e382-ae69-49b4-b3ff-20c5dacaee21 mtype=JoinRequest uplink_ids="[634ac2e8-939f-4af8-8ac4-3407bae732ba]"
Jul 16 11:11:01 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[21156]: time="2020-07-16T11:11:01+02:00" level=error msg="get gateway error" ctx_id=b6a1e382-ae69-49b4-b3ff-20c5dacaee21 error="get gateway error: object does not exist" gateway_id=00800000a0000825
Jul 16 11:11:01 vps323914 chirpstack-network-server[21156]: time="2020-07-16T11:11:01+02:00" level=error msg="uplink: processing uplink frame error" ctx_id=b6a1e382-ae69-49b4-b3ff-20c5dacaee21 error="get device error: object does not exist"

In this log, the NS has processed the uplink frame from the RGW, and emits an error message mentioning that the object (ED) is not part of the NS known objects (EDs)

To make sure that the NS understands the data from the ED, the ED should be activated to interface with the NS. As per the LoRaWAN Backend Specifications, there are two ways that the ED could be activated :

    1. Activation-by-Personalization (ABP) activated EDs
    1. Over-the-Air Activated (OTAA) EDs
+ Our focus will be on OTAA EDs

To activate the ED via OTAA, NS uses the Join Server (JS) as per the LoRaWAN Backend Specifications. To complete the verification of the RGW->NS interface one has to validate the AS Post Sanity Check (JS and AS are in the same machine) as per our set up. Hence the Pointer Section will help us to follow the next step.

Pointer Section

In the event of one using NS that is not Chirpstack, please make sure that you Verifying Communication between RGW->NS . Once verified, Next section to follow : AS_Setup

If you are using Chirpstack NS, Next section to follow : AS_Setup