Similarly to legacy (GWMP) packet forwarder, the Basic Station Packet Forwarder is a service running on a LoRa gateway. It forwards the LoRa packets emitted by end-devices and received by the gateway to a LoRa Network Server (LNS) and vice-versa, hence its name.
The Kerlink Basic Station Packet Forwarder (BSPF) is based on lorad daemon
Once installed and configured, it is able to connect to a “LNS” or a “CUPS” server and handle all associated services (Radio configuration, Forward uplink packets, schedule downlink packets, etc.).
It implements the same protocols and authentication methods than Semtech LoRa Basics™ Station reference implementation.
Main features of reference implementation are implemented in Kerlink Basic Station Packet Forwarder, including:
The features not supported are listed below:
The additional features:
Kerlink Basic station is not installed by default. To install it, do the command:
sudo apt update
sudo apt install basicstation
Additionnaly, there is other package installable that include a tool to connect easily to main available LNS in the market:
basicstation-ttnbasicstation-awsbasicstation-loriotbasicstation-actilitySee LoRa use cases for more details
Once installed, Kerlink Basic Station Packet Forwarder is disabled by default. It should first be configured for the wanted server (CUPS and/or LNS).
/etc/station/tc.uri config file.A tool handles these 2 steps. Run the following command:
sudo klk_bs_config --enable --lns-uri "ws://lns.local:3001"
For a LNS server named
lns.local
For a simple websocket, URI must start withws://(and notwss://)
Additionally to previous mode, a *.trust file should be provided to check server authenticity. (excepting for “Publicly known”/“Globally signed” certificates like “let's encrypt”, AWS, etc…)
Examples:
1 - With a LNS server named lns.local with a reference certificate named ca_cert
sudo cp ca_cert /etc/station/tc.trust
sudo klk_bs_config --enable --lns-uri "wss://lns.local:3001"
2 - With a CUPS server named cups.local with a reference certificate named ca_cert
sudo cp ca_cert /etc/station/cups.trust
sudo klk_bs_config --enable --cups-uri "https://cups.local"
Additionally to previous mode, *.key and *.crt files should be provided to authenticate client (gateway) on server.
Example with an AWS CUPS server:
After having registered your gateway on AWS IOT core, the following files should be available:
xxx.cert.pem: the (public) certificate of the gateway.xxx.private.key: private key of gateway.Additionally, the CUPS endpoint should be known. In this example https://XXX.cups.lorawan.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com will be used. The certificate of this server is globally signed so
.trustfile is not needed.
xxx.private.key and certificate xxx.cert.pem on gatewaysudo cp xxx.private.key /etc/station/cups.key
sudo cp xxx.cert.pem /etc/station/cups.crt
sudo klk_bs_config --enable --cups-uri "https://XXX.cups.lorawan.eu-west-1.amazonaws.com"
The same authentification mode can be used with TC instead of CUPS
Replace filescups.*bytc.*, and use the option--lns-uri
In this mode, only a file *.key should be provided to authenticate the client. The file *.key must contain one or more HTTP header fields that contain an authorization token such as
Authorization: AZ385fgheuyuslo3due
Example with an TTN CUPS server:
Register your gateway for required authentificated connection and generate an API key for CUPS
Once the gateway registered, download thecups.keyfile
cups.key on gatewaysudo cp cups.key /etc/station/cups.key
sudo klk_bs_config --enable --cups-uri "https://eu1.cloud.thethings.network:443"
The same authentification mode can be used with TC instead of CUPS
Replace filescups.*bytc.*, and use the option--lns-uri
By default, Kerlink Basic Station Packet Forwarder doesn't need any configuration files excepting those described above.
However, for advanced configuration, default settings can be modified by creating a configuration file named /etc/station/station.conf.
It allows to:
An example of this configuration file is provided in /usr/share/basicstation/station.conf.example.
For LNS which doesn't embed AS923-1 with LBT, it needs to be activated manually by using following commands:
# Disable current config
sudo klk_bs_config --disable
# Use "Japan" lorad configuration explicitly and prevent from reconfiguration from LNS
sudo klk_bs_config --enable --loradconf AS923-1-JP.json --ignore-reconf
In the case the LNS does not provide any NetID filter in the router_config message, it is possible to set local filters in order to only forward LoRa uplinks provided by a subset of devices.
To configure this feature, use the -f option of the klk_bs_config tool, and provide inclusive and/or exclusive filters to indicate the sets of DevAddr to be kept and/or rejected.
(see the page for more details about filters values)
Example:
sudo klk_bs_config -e -f "24abcdef/7" -f "!24abcdef/12"
will configure basic station to forward messages provided by devices with DevAddr between 0x24000000 and 0x249fffff , or between 0x24b00000 and 0x25ffffff.
The lead “0x” is not required before the base address of the filter.
Logs of basicstation are available with the command:
sudo journalctl -fu basicstation
You can activate debug logs by editing the file /etc/station/station.conf.
They can be set globally: locate the [DEFAULT]section and set log_level = DEBUG
or you can activate debug logs by section.