ThingPark Wireless - Outdoor LRR Physical Installation Guidelines v1.5

ThingPark Outdoor LRR Physical Installation
Guidelines
Under NDA
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ThingPark Wireless_Outdoor LRR Physical Installation Guidelines v1.5.docx- 2
VERSIONS
Version Date Author Details

1.0 24/08/2018 P.DUFOUR Final version
1.1 05/12/2018 P.DUFOUR Corrections + Additions in “GPS antenna” and
“Surge protection” parts
1.3 11/11/2018 P.DUFOUR Minor corrections
1.4 10/05/2019 R.SOSS Clarification on PoE cable grounding in
presence of PoE surge protectors
1.5 14/05/2019 R.SOSS Precision of the recommended surge
protection reference (section 7.2)
REFERENCE DOCUMENTS
Documents Author
01 ThingPark Wireless BS-Commissioning User Guide Actility
02 ThingPark Antenna Coexistence guidelines Actility
03 ThingPark Wireless Network Survey User Guide Actility
04 ThingPark Wireless Radio Parameters User Guide Actility

TABLE OF CONTENTS
Notice ................................................................................................................ 2
Versions ............................................................................................................. 3
Reference Documents ........................................................................................ 3
Table of Contents ............................................................................................... 4
Table of Illustrations........................................................................................... 5
Acronyms and Definitions .................................................................................. 6
1 Scope ........................................................................................................... 9
2 ThingPark Solution Overview ..................................................................... 10
3 Gateway installation .................................................................................. 11
3.1 Gateway mounting .................................................................................................... 11
3.2 Ethernet cable ........................................................................................................... 13
3.3 Power over Ethernet (PoE) ........................................................................................ 14
4 Antenna selection and installation ............................................................ 16
4.1 Antenna selection ...................................................................................................... 16
4.2 Antenna height .......................................................................................................... 18
4.3 Antenna position ....................................................................................................... 18
4.4 Antenna mounting ..................................................................................................... 21
4.5 Wind Load .................................................................................................................. 22
4.6 Coaxial cabling ........................................................................................................... 22
5 Coexistence with other antennas .............................................................. 26
5.1 Cavity filter................................................................................................................. 27
6 GPS Antenna.............................................................................................. 32
7 Lightning / Surge Protection ...................................................................... 34
7.1 Standard framework .................................................................................................. 35
7.2 GW protection ........................................................................................................... 37
7.3 Grounding and PoE protection .................................................................................. 39
8 End-to-end Communication Test ............................................................... 41
About Actility ................................................................................................... 43

TABLE OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1. Example of gateway installation with a “U” shaped bracket (on top) ...................... 12
Figure 2. Ethernet cable example (shielded, UV resistant, cat6) ............................................. 13
Figure 3. PoE alimentation cable plugged in ............................................................................ 15
Figure 4. BTS DATA + LAN cable connected ............................................................................. 15
Figure 5. BTS DATA cable connected ....................................................................................... 15
Figure 6. Horizontal plane pattern examples ........................................................................... 17
Figure 7. Vertical plane pattern examples ............................................................................... 17
Figure 8. Arm extension installation on a pylon ...................................................................... 19
Figure 9. Example of a perfect rooftop site ............................................................................. 20
Figure 10. Panoramic picture of the rooftop ........................................................................... 21
Figure 11. Example of a rather obstructed rooftop ................................................................. 21
Figure 12. Example of antenna mouting .................................................................................. 21
Figure 13. Effect of extreme bending applied to a coaxial cable ............................................. 23
Figure 14. Example of a drip loop ............................................................................................ 23
Figure 15. BS Commissioning tool screenshot ......................................................................... 24
Figure 16. Recommended antenna spacing between LoRaWAN and cellular antennas ......... 26
Figure 17. Cavity filter installation between gateway and antenna ........................................ 28
Figure 18. Example of a cavity filter ......................................................................................... 29
Figure 19. EU868 cavity filter characteristics ........................................................................... 30
Figure 20. Clearance requirement for GPS antenna ................................................................ 32
Figure 21. GPS antenna example ............................................................................................. 33
Figure 22. GPS delay configuration in "Network Manager" .................................................... 33
Figure 23. Example of a surge compared to 50 Hz AC voltage (source: Weidmuller) ............. 35
Figure 24. Class definition in IEC 6100-4-5 ............................................................................... 36
Figure 25. Residual “Up” voltage when surge In current goes through the SPD ..................... 37
Figure 26. Lightning rod cone of protection ............................................................................ 38
Figure 27. Example of surge protectors installation ................................................................ 39
Figure 28. Simplified packet logger interface from BS Commissioning tool ............................ 41
Figure 29. Central red dot is the GW, blue dots are multiple measurement points at same
distance from the GW .............................................................................................................. 42
Figure 30. Device's installation on the roof of a car ................................................................ 42

ACRONYMS AND DEFINITIONS
Acronyms Definitions
ABP Activation By Personalization
ADR Adaptive Data Rate
AES Advanced Encryption Standard
AS Application Server
BPM Business Process Management
BSS Billing Support Systems
CSP Communication Service Provider
DC Duty Cycle
End Device A sensor or actuator
ESP Estimated Signal Power
ETSI European Telecommunications Standards Institute
HAN Home Area Network
HSM Hardware Security Module
IaaS Infrastructure As A Service
IEC International Electrotechnical Commission
IoT Internet of Things
ISM Industrial Scientific Medical
GSCL Gateway Service Capability Layer
GTM Go To Market
KPI Key Performance Indicator
LC Logical Channel
LoRaWAN LoRa Alliance specification to use over a LoRa™ physical layer
LPWAN Low Power Wide Area Network
LRC Long Range Controller
LRR Long Range Relay
MAC Media Access Control

M2M Machine-2-Machine
MTBF Mean Time Before Failure
NAT Network Address Translation
NW Network
NSCL Network Service Capability Layer. Also called RMS.
OBIX Open Building Information Exchange
OSS Operations Support Systems
OTA Over The Air
PER Packet Error Rate
PKI Public Key Infrastructure
POC Proof Of Concept
REST Representational State Transfer
RF Radio Frequency
RIT Receiver Initiated Transmit
RSSI Received Signal Strength Indicator
SaaS Software as a Service
SF Spreading Factor
SLRC Secured LRC (VPN Concentrator)
SMP System Management Platform
SMTP Simple Mail Transfer Protocol
SNMP Simple Network Management Protocol
SNR Signal to Noise Ratio
SSH Secure SHell
SSO Single Sign On
TLS Transport Layer Security
TWA ThingPark Wireless Application
UNB Ultra Narrow Band
VM Virtual Machine

VPN Virtual Private Network
WS Web Service

1 SCOPE
The scope of this document is to give guidelines for ThingPark LRR (LoRaWAN gateway)
installation in the field.
▪ Section 3 is about the installation of the gateway itself.

▪ Section 4 details the requirements to correctly install the LoRaWAN RF antenna.
▪ Section 6 and 7 provide engineering recommendations about the accessories that
could be used with the gateway: for instance, GPS antenna, cavity filter, surge
protection and how to install them.
▪ The last section presents a method to validate on-site the correct installation of the
gateway and make an end-to-end communication.

2 THINGPARK SOLUTION OVERVIEW
The ThingPark set consists of four main key components:

▪ ThingPark Wireless – Core network and OSS
▪ ThingPark OS
▪ ThingPark X
▪ ThingPark Enterprise
The ThingPark platform is a modular solution enabling Network Operators to:
▪ Deploy LPWANs based on LoRaWAN or LTE with ThingPark Wireless.
▪ Manage, activate and monetize IoT bundles (device, connectivity and application)
with ThingPark OS.
▪ Provide value-added data layer services, such as protocol drivers and storage with
ThingPark X.
ThingPark OSS acts as the central System Management Platform (SMP), enabling all other
ThingPark platform modules with base capabilities such as subscriber management,
centralized authentication and access rights, and workflow management.
ThingPark Enterprise is an Internet of Things (IoT) platform that manages private LoRa™
Networks. The ThingPark Enterprise edition is used by companies to support their specific
business.
Operator & Enterprise Application Servers

On-Line Shops
OSS & BSS Management
API Layer
ThingPark OS ThingPark Wireless Core NW & OSS ThingPark X

ThingPark Enterprise
User Portal Store (E-Shop) Operator Connectivity Address Usage Record Supervision, System OCP Edition SaaS Edition RMC
Manager Manager Manager Manager (UDR) Monitoring, Management
Alarms Platform (SMP)
BPM Engine Market
Drivers Connectors
Wireless Device Network

Logger Manager Manager LTE Security Geo-Location
Vendor Supplier Billing & EPC Server Server
Manager Charging ETSI M2M ETSI M2M
Manager Connectors
Net GSCL NSCL
Spectrum Network LoRaWANTM LoRaWANTM

Analysis Tool Survey Network Join Server ²
Local GW (GSCL)
Server
LoRaWANTM LRR (Gateway)

Any Device
Radio Network TPW Air Interface Message Broker Cluster Computing
Planning Tool Dimensioning Tool (Kafka) (Spark) LoRaWANTM /LTE Devices
Figure 1 – ThingPark Solution Architecture Description High Level Product Illustration
Please note that the modules above may be representing a physical server, a function, a service or a business support layer as part of the
overall ThingPark solution and not necessarily a physical HW server

3 GATEWAY INSTALLATION
The gateways have 3 kinds of ports:
▪ RF port for LoRaWAN: at least 1 port, usually 2 (for v2 design gateways). The usual
connector format is “N-female”
▪ RF port for GPS or cellular: valid for models with external GPS/cellular antenna. Note
that some gateway models offer internal GPS/cellular antennas.
▪ Ethernet port for data transmission and power supply (sometimes power can also be
supplied by a specific external connector and cable)
▪ Power supply (DC) port: if the power supply is not done by the Ethernet port with PoE
That means that an Ethernet cable must be installed between the gateway and the PoE
module and coaxial cable must be installed between RF port and LoRaWAN antenna).
More details are given in the following sections.
3.1 Gateway mounting
The gateway’s weight and dimensions vary from one supplier to another but usually the best
way to install it is to clamp it on a mast with the shipped fixation kit.
Please refer to the gateway’s user manual provided for each different model and/or
manufacturer.
An example is given below :

Figure 1. Example of gateway installation with a “U” shaped bracket (on top)

3.2 Ethernet cable
The Ethernet cable must be a category 5E at least.
If it is installed outdoor, Actility recommends installing a UV protected cable. A metallic

shielding in the envelope is also recommended to avoid any external interference.
The total cable length to the switch or router (meaning the length of both cables: the one
between the gateway and the PoE module and the one between the PoE and the network
access point) must not exceed 100 meters to avoid frame losses.
An example reference is given in figure 2:
Figure 2. Ethernet cable example (shielded, UV resistant, cat6)

3.3 Power over Ethernet (PoE)
Powering the LRR requires a connection to the PoE module.

That PoE module can be provided by Actility or purchased separately by the customer. In that
case, it is important that the specifications are identical to the one proposed by Actility.
Actility recommends using the PoE provided by the GW manufacturer to have an easier RMA
process
If the gateways are provided by Actility, then the LRR software is preconfigured by Actility
before shipment to the customer. Connect the PoE injector to the Ethernet switch of the local
network or DSL modem. You do not need to connect the PoE injector to an Ethernet switch if
the Base station has been configured to only use a 3G/4G cellular connection.
The typical power consumption from PoE depends on the traffic activity (impact on CPU load),
whether cellular 3G/4G backhaul is activated. The following table presents average power
consumption values using a test device emitting uplink confirmed frames every 10s. The PoE
used for the test has 48V and 0.35A output characteristics. This test was run for at least two
gateway models/manufacturers and showed quite consistent results among tested models:
Gateway configuration Mean power consumption (Watts)

8-channels, ethernet only 11 – 12.5 W
8-channels, cellular only 12 – 13.5 W
16-channels, ethernet only 13 – 14 W
16-channels, cellular only 13.5 – 14.5 W
NOTE: GPS receiver has limited impact on overall GW power consumption.
Even if those consumptions figures are low, please note that it is better to use the PoE shipped
with the gateway: some gateways may have boot up (or radio board startup) current higher
than others and require a more powerful PoE to work. In case you have any doubt, please
contact Actility.

DATA & POWER OUT output is dedicated to Base Station connection and DATA IN is the
output to set a LAN connection (optional if 3G/4G).
Figure 3. PoE alimentation cable plugged in
Figure 4. BTS DATA + LAN cable connected
Figure 5. BTS DATA cable connected

4 ANTENNA SELECTION AND INSTALLATION
The performance of a LoRaWAN gateway is mainly related to the way the antenna is installed.
There are some engineering rules to follow to ensure that this antenna is correctly installed
and offers the most optimum radio performance.
Choosing the right antenna is also crucial to get the expected LoRaWAN performance. In case
of any doubt or if the antenna used is not the one shipped with the gateway, please contact
Actility to confirm that it will work properly.
4.1 Antenna selection
In most deployment scenarios, omni-directional antennas are the best choice: cheaper and
easier to install. However, tri-sector antennas could be interesting in some specific
deployment scenarios:
▪ When ThingPark gateways are collocated with cellular base stations (BS) and the
operator wants to leverage the tri-sector antennas already in place. However, antenna
sharing implies that:
• The directional antennas must support the ISM band of the LoRaWAN
operation
• When cellular BS uses an adjacent 3GPP band to the ISM band, the port-to-port
isolation provided by the tri-sector antenna (or external diplexer/triplexer)
should be enough to avoid mutual interference (see more details in section 5).
▪ Deployments having a strong focus on TDOA/RSSI geolocation use cases: antenna
directionality improves the overall uplink noise floor while sectorization makes device
geolocation easier.
The antenna gain should not exceed 9dBi with the following recommendations:
▪ Optimal gain in coverage-driven deployments (e.g. rural environments) is in [6-9dBi]

range.
▪ Optimal gain in capacity-driven dense deployments (e.g. urban city center) is in [3-
6dBi] range.
It’s important to properly configure the antenna gain (and cable losses) in the
Network Manager of Thingpark Wireless to ensure that the local spectrum
regulation is respected.
Please refer to ThingPark Wireless Radio Parameters User guide to do so.

The horizontal plane should have a homogeneous radiation over 360° as explained below:
Figure 6. Horizontal plane pattern examples
On the vertical plane, the main guidelines are:
▪ Main lobe should offer at least 3dBi gain
▪ Antennas having very narrow beams are not recommended: Vertical half-power beam
width (HPBW) should be > 15°
▪ Avoid antennas with an up-tilted main vertical beam (i.e. pointing towards the sky) or
severely down-tilted (i.e. pointing towards the ground with α > 5°)
Figure 7. Vertical plane pattern examples
Moreover, the following factors impact the choice of the best antenna:
▪ Installation costs and mounting options

▪ Mechanical characteristics: weight, form factor, etc.
▪ Visual impact

4.2 Antenna height
The higher the antenna is installed, the better it is.
As a rule of thumb, in a rural environment with typical LoRaWAN installation assumptions,

lowering the antenna by 10 meters could make the cell range decrease by about 3 kilometers
(calculations based on Okumura-Hata model). It could even be worse in dense environment
where lowering the antenna means being exposed to more direct obstacles caused by
buildings in front of it.
Having a high antenna will then lead to a better coverage and a less masked antenna.
The recommended height for the different typical morphologies is:
▪ Dense Urban: ~30m

▪ Urban: ~25m
▪ Sub-urban: ~20m
▪ Rural: ~40m (assumption that the antenna is installed on a mast)
4.3 Antenna position
The antenna should be absolutely cleared from any surrounding obstacles (especially
metallic) in the near-field area. This area is 1-2 meters for frequencies around 900 MHz.
That means that an omni-directional antenna should not be installed against a wall.
When the antenna must be installed on a pylon or a mast, the following recommendations
apply:
▪ Put the LoRaWAN antenna as high as possible on the pylon, however please make sure
that a lightning protection system is put in place to avoid damaging the antenna or
gateway in case of direct/indirect lightning. For more details about lightning/surge
protection, please refer to section 7.
▪ Always put the LoRaWAN antenna above the other antennas (for instance cellular)
whenever possible.
▪ A horizontal extension of 1-2 meters is recommended; however, please be careful not
to put the LoRaWAN antenna in front of other antennas because of this extension.
An example is given below:

Figure 8. Arm extension installation on a pylon
When the antenna must be installed on a rooftop, it is also recommended to choose a site
where there are no higher buildings around (within a hundred meters radius).
A very good example is given below :

Figure 9. Example of a perfect rooftop site
In this case, we can see on the panoramic picture below that the coverage is optimal: there
are no buildings nearby that will block the propagation and reduce the cell range.

Figure 10. Panoramic picture of the rooftop
A less suitable rooftop is given below as an example. The antenna is surrounded by a lot of
buildings.
Figure 11. Example of a rather obstructed rooftop
4.4 Antenna mounting
The antenna should be fixed on a pole with mounting bracket made of non-corrosive
aluminum and using shipped U-bolts made of stainless steel. An example is given below:
Figure 12. Example of antenna mouting

It is strongly discouraged to install the antenna upside-down for 2 reasons:
▪ The waterproofness will probably not be ensured anymore (the main entry point for
water is usually the connector and it is generally protected and designed so that the
cable is connected from below)
▪ The radiation pattern (and then the coverage performance) could be modified.
4.5 Wind Load
Wind load is the antenna’s capacity to sustain heavy wind. The bigger surface an antenna has,
the most it will get pressure from the wind and could break.
It is generally not a problem for omni-directional antenna due to their narrow shape and small
exposed surface. They can sustain rather strong winds (up to 200 km/h), but it should be
checked against the datasheet.
For instance, a 120 cm and 5d Bi antenna can in general accept a 160 km/h wind load.
For directional/panel antenna, it is important to check that characteristic against the expected
wind speed on the gateway’s site to avoid any damage.
4.6 Coaxial cabling
When a jumper is used to connect the gateway to the RF antenna, Actility recommends no
more than 3 meters of jumper length to reduce the cable losses.
If the antenna should be installed more than 3 meters away from the gateway, a coaxial feeder
should be used. The feeder diameter depends on the required length to optimize the overall
cable insertion losses. For the typical 1/2" cable it is around 6.5 dB/100m (for 900 MHz
frequencies). Please refer to the cable specification for further information.
The recommendations to install coaxial cables are below:
▪ Respect the radius of curvature: coaxial cables must not be bent above a certain angle
or the interior will be broken leading to very high losses. The wider is the cable (e.g.
7.8” instead of ½”, the bigger the required radius will be)
▪ Use an adequate waterproofing tape to seal the connections between cable and
antenna and between cable and gateway
▪ Ground all metallic parts and regularly along the cable, see more details in the “Surge
Protection” section below.

Figure 13. Effect of extreme bending applied to a coaxial cable
If a longer distance must be put between the gateway and the antenna, a longer coaxial cable
must be installed. The recommendations are below:
▪ The length must be minimized to avoid too much losses, do not oversize the cable
length, it must be precisely computed.
▪ The cable should not be too short either or it will create tension on the gateway or
antenna connector. It could also lead to water entering the gateway or the antenna,
a “drip loop” must be created.
Figure 14. Example of a drip loop

▪ If the length is more than 20m, a 7/8’’ diameter cable should be used (the bigger
diameter will reduce the cable losses).
▪ RF connectors must be installed properly on each side of this new cable, following
precisely the recommendation from the manufacturer. Usually it is better to use same
brand for RF connector and coaxial cable. The connector type should be “N-male”
unless something different is used on the antenna or gateway side. Some examples
are given below.
The losses induced by the cable may be compensated by a higher transmitting power on the
gateway (and the gain of the antenna) for downlink packets (from the gateway to the device).
It can be compensated, to some extent, by the antenna gain for the uplink packets (from the
device to the gateway).
To be able to compensate those losses, the LRR must be aware of the cable losses and antenna
gain. It must be configured in Network Manager under the Administration panel > Antennas
section to allow the GW to compensate them and adapt its conducted TX power to meet the
target EIRP (radiated power). Eventually, this information can be set through BS
Commissioning tool (please refer to [1] further information).
Figure 15. BS Commissioning tool screenshot

If a new, longer cable must be installed, the following characteristics should be checked:
▪ Attenuation: a good cable should not have more than 6.5 dB / 100m for a 1/2''
diameter (the bigger the diameter, the lower the losses)
As a side note, you should have less than 3 dB of attenuation. About 1 dB will be
created by the different connectors so cable losses < 2 dB = around 30 meters with a
good 1/2'' cable. If you need to have more than that, a 7/8'' should be used.
▪ Frequencies: some cables are not rated to be used for every frequency band. It is
advised to check that the 900 MHz band is included.
▪ Impedance should be 50 Ohm to avoid unwanted energy losses (the other typical
value is 75 Ohms for legacy CATV cables). Moreover, the VSWR should be < 2.0
▪ Bending radius: it shows how much the cable can be curved without being damaged.
It is important to respect that radius or the performance (attenuation and energy loss)
and lifetime will be greatly impacted, sometimes by invisible cracks. A
"corrugated" cable will be more resistant to curvature and easier to install. A typical
value is around 70 mm for a 1/2'' cable, the lower the better. Obviously, it will be
higher for a 7/8'' cable.
▪ Velocity of propagation: it shows how much the signal will be "slowed down" by
passing through the cable. It has an impact if you want to do geolocation. A typical
value is at least 85% (the signal will be slow down at 85% of the light speed in vacuum
so by 15%).
▪ Operation temperatures: usually at least -40 °C / +80 °C
▪ Environmental features: depending on where it will be installed (e.g. public venue)

and the local regulation, it may be needed to have flame retardant and halogen free
jacket

5 COEXISTENCE WITH OTHER ANTENNAS
On some installation site, LoRaWAN antennas may be collocated with antennas from other
cellular technologies (3G, 4G, …). The antenna coexistence guidelines may be different from
one ISM band to another (for instance, European 868MHz engineering recommendations are
different from Asian 923MHz recommendations); for detailed analysis of ThingPark
coexistence with cellular antennas in your region, please refer to [2].
Actility’s engineering recommendation is illustrated by the following figure. The requirement
is 1m vertical spacing between the LoRaWAN antenna + 1m horizontal spacing with the
LoRaWAN antenna set at the back-lobe of the cellular antenna.
Figure 16. Recommended antenna spacing between LoRaWAN and cellular antennas
This required isolation already includes the internal filtering of the gateway and must be
achieved by spatial separation. The table below gives some typical values of attenuation
following the distance:
Operating frequency band = 0.5m 1m 2m 3m 10m
868/915/923 MHz
Horizontal isolation 27 dB 30 dB 36 dB 38 dB 50 dB
(LoRaWAN Omni @ 90°)
Horizontal isolation 37 dB 40 dB 46 dB 48 dB 60 dB
(LoRaWAN Omni @ 180°)
Vertical isolation 50 dB 57 dB 59 dB 60 dB 60 dB

Those values are based on the ITU report ITU-R M.2244 “Isolation between antennas of IMT
base stations in the land mobile service” and the following assumptions:
▪ Cellular antenna gain (including cable losses) @ boresight = 15dBi, 20 & 30dB gain
reduction @ 90° & 180° from boresight respectively (meaning the LoRaWAN antenna
is besides or behind the cellular antenna, never in front of it).
▪ ThingPark BS has Omni-directional antenna with 3dBi gain
The requirements for a correct isolation are given below, by order of importance:
▪ 1 meter of vertical spacing is the recommended configuration.

▪ If vertical spacing is not achievable, then at least 10m horizontal spacing is required if
the LoRaWAN antenna is behind cellular antenna, i.e. at 180° from the cellular main
lobe.
▪ If none of the configurations indicated above can be achieved then a specific study
must be made by Actility based on antenna datasheets, layout and pictures from the
site etc...
That can be improved by using directional antennas for the LoRaWAN gateway.
If those requirements are not achievable, an external cavity filter could be needed between
the LRR and the antenna.
5.1 Cavity filter
An additional external filter may be needed if the isolation between antenna cannot be
achieved by spatial separation (e.g. if there is < 0.5m of vertical separation between antennas
or if they are on the same horizontal plane without enough spacing).
This filter must be installed between the gateway and the antenna as shown below. An
additional jumper will be needed.
As it is not a directive or active element, any port can be used to connect it to the GW side or
antenna side.

Figure 17. Cavity filter installation between gateway and antenna
The generic characteristics of the required cavity filter are given below for EU868 and AS923
bands.
In US915, there is generally no coexistence issues due to the structure of the ISM band and
the frequencies used by the other technologies.
For the EU868 band, the recommended filter characteristics are indicated below:
▪ Frequency band: 865 to 870 MHz

▪ Bandwidth: 5 MHz
▪ Insertion losses: < 3 dB
▪ Ripple: ~1.5 dB
▪ Out of band rejection: > 30 dB @862 MHz, > 50 dB @Fc +/- 5 MHz
▪ Number of cavities: 6 leading to the form factor shown below
▪ Size: 114x82x44 mm
▪ Max input power: 10 W
▪ Level of protection: IP67

Figure 18. Example of a cavity filter

Figure 19. EU868 cavity filter characteristics

The requirements are higher for AS923 regions because of the presence of strong GSM/3G
signals very close to the LoRaWAN band (downlink starting at 925MHz in the EGSM band), the
characteristics are listed below:
▪ Frequency band: 919.5 to 923.5 MHz

▪ Bandwidth: 4 MHz
▪ Insertion losses: < 5 dB
▪ Ripple: ~1.5 dB
▪ Out of band rejection: > 50 dB @925 MHz, > 60 dB @Fc +/- 5 MHz
▪ Number of cavities: 8 leading to a bigger filter than for EU868
▪ Size: 195x107x52 mm
▪ Max input power: 10 W
▪ Level of protection: IP67

6 GPS ANTENNA
As for the LoRaWAN antenna, it is recommended to connect GPS with a jumper as short as
possible. GPS signals are very weak and the more coaxial cable there is, the more attenuated
the signal will be (and the risk is to not be able to have a GPS signal lock).
It is important that the GPS antenna has a clear view of the sky. The mounting location of the
antenna should be cleared from objects that could obstruct satellite visibility from straight
overhead to within 20 degrees of the horizon in all directions.
An illustration is given below:
Figure 20. Clearance requirement for GPS antenna
The GPS antenna must also be protected from surge in the same way as the LoRaWAN antenna
(cf paragraph “7. Lightning / Surge protection”)
A good GPS antenna will have the following characteristics:
▪ RF connector: N female
▪ VSWR: <2
▪ Gain (including active LNA if any): ~35 dB
▪ Noise figure: <2.5 dB
▪ Out of band rejection:
o 12 dB @30 MHz
o 35 dB @50 MHz
o 70 dB @100 MHz
▪ Horizontal beamwidth: 360°
▪ Vertical beamwidth: 105°
▪ Working temperature: -40~+75 °C
▪ Working humidity: 95%

Out-of-band rejection (also called “selectivity”) is particularly important to ensure that the
GPS signal will not be interfered by nearby wireless transmission (mainly cellular ones).
If the GPS antenna is installed away from the GW, the same recommendations as before for
coaxial cable installation apply. The precise cable length and GPS antenna exact position must
be provisioned in ThingPark to be correctly compensated in the geolocation algorithm, as
indicated by figure 21.
Figure 21. GPS antenna example
Figure 22. GPS delay configuration in "Network Manager"

7 LIGHTNING / SURGE PROTECTION
Actility cannot be held responsible for any damage caused by lightning strikes
or power surge from the network.
Recommendations are given for information only. Therefore, Actility hardware

replacement warranty does not cover destruction by lightning strikes nor unprotected
GW for power supply surge.
It is the responsibility of the installation company to:

▪ make sure the lightning and surge protection is carefully designed and executed,
for all RF and power supply connections
▪ check that all surge protection equipment is properly matched, i.e. maximum
surge output of a given equipment is always lower than maximum surge input of
the next equipment. Protection equipment must be in place to ensure that
maximum surge levels at RF and power connectors of base station are never
exceeded.
▪ check that cables are properly grounded at close intervals to avoid inductive loops
▪ provide written documentation for the design work and for installation rules
There are 3 possible kinds of surge:
▪ Voltage surge coming from the supply line because something happened in the power
network. The surge will come from the PoE port.
▪ Voltage surge because of a lightning strike: when a lightning strike hit the pole or the
rooftop where the GW is installed, it can lead to overcurrent or overvoltage coming
from the antenna port or the PoE port
▪ Electrostatic discharges (ESD): usually triggered by people manipulating the electronic
equipment. The surge is much lower and shorter than for a lightning strike and the
built-in protection is generally enough to protect the gateway. Moreover, those
discharges should not happen once the GW is installed in its definitive position but
only during shipping and manipulations.
A surge is defined by:
▪ Voltage value: the higher it is, the more destructive it will be because it will create a
high current going through the GW.
▪ Duration: the longer it is, the more destructive it will be. ESD have very short duration.

Figure 23. Example of a surge compared to 50 Hz AC voltage (source: Weidmuller)
This over-voltage can propagate through conductors (“galvanic” coupling) but it can also be
induced remotely by strong change in the electromagnetic field (“inductive” or less often
“capacitive” coupling) by a nearby lightning strike.
For a LoRaWAN gateway, the most probable overvoltage causes are:

▪ Surge from the power supply (galvanic coupling) coming from the PoE input because
of a problem in the power supply network
▪ Surge from a lightning strike (galvanic or inductive coupling) coming the RF port and
PoE input
In conclusion, both PoE port and RF ports must be protected with means recommended
below.
7.1 Standard framework
It is important to understand the different standards defining ESD and surge protection and
the different rating classes.
It is especially important to know the surge protector’s rating used for a given standard. Just
having the standard cited in a surge protector datasheet without the rating cannot
guarantee that the GW will be protected.

The residual voltage (“Up” voltage) induced by the surge protector can still be too high and
damage it.
The main standards for the surge and lightning protection are:
▪ IEC 61000-4-2 and 4-5: IEC 61000 is the general standard for electromagnetic
compatibility. Part 4 concerns testing. 4-2 is about ESD and 4-5 is about the immunity
to surge. It defines typical surge profile that the equipment must support. It also
defines different classes for the equipment. It should be 4 or 5 for an outdoor PoE
surge protector for example.
It is necessary to specify the class an pulse profile when a standard is mentioned.
Figure 24. Class definition in IEC 6100-4-5
▪ IEC 62305 parts 1 to 4: this standard describes how to protect from lightning on a site.
It defines different risk levels and zones (depending on the if there is people having
access to the equipment or not) and the mean to protect equipment (e.g. installing a
lightning rod)
▪ EN301.489-1 and 3: this standard applies for European Community equipment and
details the test conditions of IEC 61000

A good surge protection device (SPD) should have the following behavior:
▪ Fast response behavior: in the order of magnitude of nanosecond

▪ High current-carrying capacity: it is the nominal current going through
▪ Low residual voltage: it is called “Up” voltage at SDP’s. This residual voltage will appear
during a surge and must be lower than the GW’s protection (< 1 kV)
▪ Good reactivation time once a surge has happened
Figure 25. Residual “Up” voltage when surge In current goes through the SPD
7.2 GW protection
Basic built-in surge protection is included in the gateway, as any electronic appliance, to
protect from power surge and ESD from the mains. But that is not enough to protect against
a lightning strike, especially because it can easily be conducted through the antenna and the
coaxial cable.
Actility recommendations are, by increasing order of complexity/cost:
1. Use of lightning rod

2. Coaxial surge protector on the antenna port based on quarter-wave technology
3. Surge protector + cavity filter is the best protection: the low-pass rejection of the
cavity filter offers additional protection eliminate high voltage spikes coming from the
antenna to the gateway.
To protect against such strike, gateway installers need to follow state-of-art RF coaxial
installation guidelines (these guidelines are not specific to LoRaWAN but to every wireless
technology equipment installation):

▪ Either it is protected by a lightning rod on the mast or the rooftop (and it is important
to check the protection rules, e.g. being in a 45° cone inside the rod to be protected).
▪ A RF surge protector is needed if it cannot be protected by a rod.
▪ Proper grounding of the equipment (antenna, coaxial cables and gateway and the
surge protector) remains essential.
The resistivity of the grounding system (e.g. copper braid) must be measured and
should be below 10 Ohms.
Figure 26. Lightning rod cone of protection
The recommended surge protector is Citel’s PRC822S (or similar), it is based on quarter-wave
technology with DC-block.
It is recommended to use surge protector having a low-band rejection and DC block (indeed
a lightning surge could have microseconds response time, which means a few MHz frequency
response).
As the antenna is not powered by the LRR Base station, the surge protector does not need to
pass DC current.
Therefore, the key characteristics of the recommended surge protector are:
▪ A 1/4 wave isolation technology: gas discharge does not give enough isolation due to
residual high voltage spike at output before gas discharge gets triggered.
▪ Same connector type as on the gateways and coaxial cable (N-type) to avoid the
installation of adapters and reduce insertion losses.

▪ The frequency of operation: The surge protector must be rated to have the lowest
possible insertion losses at the target ISM frequency range (868/915/923 MHz).
Figure 27. Example of surge protectors installation
7.3 Grounding and PoE protection
Special attention to the PoE and Ethernet cable protection must be given when:
▪ the LRR Base station is installed on a roof and the LRR antenna is the highest point in
the area (no lightning protection mast in place), and the PoE injector is installed in an
unprotected area of the building. In this situation, a lightning impact on the LRR base
station may propagate along the PoE cable and penetrate in the building.
▪ the LRR Base station is installed on a telecom pole or similar structure which is very
likely to attract a lightning impact. In this situation, even when the telecom pole is
equipped with a lightning protection mast, induction currents may cause voltage
spikes in any cable running along the telecom pole, i.e. the antenna cable or PoE cable.
When lightning strikes a Base Station or the pole where it is installed, most of the lightning
current is evacuated along the lowest impedance path: the metallic mast itself and the base
station metallic fixture.

That is why every base station’s metallic parts must be grounded (gateway casing, gateway
mounting kit, mast, coaxial cable, etc.) via an independent wire to a low impedance ground
connection.
The PoE cable shield layer should be grounded every 5 m to the metallic mast or low
impedance ground wire to avoid developing high potential difference between the cable
shield and the metallic mast due to induction during a lightning strike.
▪ The PoE cable connected to an outdoor gateway must be connected to any indoor
PoE injector via an Ethernet lightning surge protector. Such surge protection will
connect to the ground any PoE wire that has a voltage higher than about 150-180V,
within a few nanoseconds.
▪ The unprotected portion of the PoE cable which runs indoor, if any, should be
conducted through a metallic grounded pipe.
Note: it is not mandatory to ground the PoE cable every 5m if coaxial surge protectors are
installed on both ends of the ethernet cable, one on each end: i.e. close to the base station
PoE connector and close to the PoE injector itself.

8 END-TO-END COMMUNICATION TEST
Once a gateway is installed, it is important to test that it is working properly, especially if it is

installed in difficult to reach location.
The BS commissioning tool will help configure and test the gateway with a GUI that can easily
be used in the field (e.g. adapted for small screen devices and with only the functions needed
to provision, configure and test a gateway). Please refer to the tool’s user guide for more
information.
Figure 28. Simplified packet logger interface from BS Commissioning tool
Two kinds of test are recommended:
▪ A local test, just near the gateway to confirm that a complete end-to-end
communication is possible. It will help debug any problem related to:
o LRR configuration
o LRR provisioning on the LRC
o Network configuration
o Power problems
▪ A drive/walk test at some distance from the gateway to confirm that the gateway will
work properly. It will help debug problems that will not be seen with just a local test,
for example:
o Antenna performance
o Antenna installation (connector, coaxial cable etc…)
o Antenna connection on the correct port of the gateway
For that second test, it can be interesting to use the Network Survey tool after the installation
to have a clear view of the actual cell range and gateway’s performance. For more information
about this tool, please refer to [3].
A few recommendations are given below to ensure that the drive/walk test is done properly:

1. The LRR coordinates should be known to ThingPark,
either by manual provisioning or automatically
through GPS
2. Use a device configured :
▪ With a fixed data rate of SF12 (ADR deactivated

and SFMin = SFMax = SF12 in the Connectivity
Plan).
▪ With Confirmed Uplink (to test UL+DL with one
message and confirm limiting link, usually DL)
3. Use a test device with GPS: or the packets will not
be mapped in the Network Survey tool
Figure 29. Central red dot is the GW, blue
4. Make multiple measurements in different places at dots are multiple measurement points at
same distance from the GW
the same distance from the GW to cancel shadowing
effects (masks from big static obstacles)
5. Make at least 10 measurements on each location (e.g. if an uplink is sent every 5s, stay at
least 50s on each point) to cancel fast-fading (temporary) effects
6. Use only one device at a time to avoid inter-device collision and interference.
7. If in-car drive tests are done, try to estimate the attenuation of the car by making
measurement outside vs inside the car.
8. If device is installed outside of the car, the best position is on the middle of the metallic
roof.
Figure 30. Device's installation on the roof of a car

ABOUT ACTILITY
Actility is an industry leader in LPWAN (Low Power Wide Area) large scale infrastructure with
ThingPark™, the new generation standard-based M2M communication platform. Actility’s
ThingPark Wireless™ network provides long-range coverage for low-power sensors used in
SmartCity, SmartBuilding and SmartFactory applications. Actility also provides the ThingPark
X which provides big data storage for sensor data and exposes sensor function through an
open API allowing developers to provide vertical applications on top of rolled out sensors. To
help vendors transform their sensors, Actility provides the ThingPark IoT platform which
include embedded software solutions and cloud solutions to help devices connect to
innovative applications. Via the ThingPark Market, an online marketplace engine dedicated to
the IoT sensors, applications and network solutions, Actility enables the roll-out of new
innovative IoT services for sensor vendors and network solution vendors. Actility is a founding
member of the LoRa Alliance™: the largest, most powerful standards-based effort to enable
the Internet of Things (IoT). Visit www.actility.com.
LoRaWAN™, the LoRa Alliance™, and LoRa Alliance Certified™ are trademarks of Semtech
Corporation, used with permission under a sublicense granted to the LoRa Alliance™ and its
members.


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ThingPark Outdoor LRR Physical Installation

© 2019 ACTILITY SA. All rights reserved.

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Version Date Author Details

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▪ Section 3 is about the installation of the gateway itself.

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The ThingPark set consists of four main key components:

▪ Deploy LPWANs based on LoRaWAN or LTE with ThingPark Wireless.

Operator & Enterprise Application Servers

ThingPark OS ThingPark Wireless Core NW & OSS ThingPark X

Wireless Device Network

Spectrum Network LoRaWANTM LoRaWANTM

LoRaWANTM LRR (Gateway)

Figure 1 – ThingPark Solution Architecture Description High Level Product Illustration

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The gateways have 3 kinds of ports:

More details are given in the following sections.

3.1 Gateway mounting

An example is given below :

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The Ethernet cable must be a category 5E at least.

If it is installed outdoor, Actility recommends installing a UV protected cable. A metallic

An example reference is given in figure 2:

Figure 2. Ethernet cable example (shielded, UV resistant, cat6)

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Powering the LRR requires a connection to the PoE module.

Gateway configuration Mean power consumption (Watts)

NOTE: GPS receiver has limited impact on overall GW power consumption.

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Figure 3. PoE alimentation cable plugged in

Figure 4. BTS DATA + LAN cable connected

Figure 5. BTS DATA cable connected

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4.1 Antenna selection

▪ Optimal gain in coverage-driven deployments (e.g. rural environments) is in [6-9dBi]

Please refer to ThingPark Wireless Radio Parameters User guide to do so.

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Figure 6. Horizontal plane pattern examples

On the vertical plane, the main guidelines are:

▪ Main lobe should offer at least 3dBi gain

Figure 7. Vertical plane pattern examples

▪ Installation costs and mounting options

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The higher the antenna is installed, the better it is.

As a rule of thumb, in a rural environment with typical LoRaWAN installation assumptions,

The recommended height for the different typical morphologies is:

▪ Dense Urban: ~30m

4.3 Antenna position

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