What is our primary use case?
The centralization of the technological infrastructure is the main benefit, since with a gateway, we connect it to TTN and we also connect our LoRaWAN devices to this same platform. This makes everything easier in order to connect and to see the uplinks and downlinks.
For example, in a mining company, we installed a gateway via LoRaWAN to this platform and we built some devices that were going to pull data from flow meters that were in the desert. The device would request the data, do its uplink to the gateway, and then we could also send messages from the gateway to the devices through the platform so they could be restarted or to send commands in order to obtain information.
What is most valuable?
The best feature is the ability to manage all the devices, since you can go to the site or the project in which you register the devices, and you can review the uplinks and decode the data that they are sending. After I changed jobs, before I left, they were working on the FOTA topic. That really excited me because we also had to go out to the field a lot to update the firmware of our devices, and if this has been implemented or is going to be implemented, it would be a great feature to implement FOTA for massive firmware uploading via LoRaWAN.
The platform has simplified things a lot for me because if a client tells me that a device is not sending data, I can go to the platform, see what time it last sent something and what it last sent. Sometimes they send error codes, and all this diagnosis can be done remotely. It is not necessary to go to the field to see what happened to the device. These things save us time and allow us to do a more accurate diagnosis remotely.
When you are working in the desert, you have to send a person to check a totalizer or a measurement, and if you have to go see it every day, that is a fuel expense and the expense of an operator who has to go there. They are also exposed to risk because they could have a work accident. On the other hand, having a device in the desert that is sending data via uplinks every 30 minutes or even once a day is already very important because it greatly minimizes operating costs.
What needs improvement?
We used hexadecimal frames and there is a way to put decoders inside the same page. You can also use artificial intelligence to create some script in Java, like a decoder, and be able to make all this a bit easier. The ability to update the firmware via LoRaWAN, or what I just mentioned about FOTA, is the only thing that could be improved.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using The Things Stack AWS Launcher for LoRaWAN for approximately two and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I do not remember a time when it went down, and if it did, it was for a short time. It was very reliable and always available, at least when I needed it.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
This is the main virtue of The Things Stack AWS Launcher for LoRaWAN. We sometimes had 50 or 100 devices, and once we had to add 500 all at once, and there was no problem. Afterwards, we used up our quotas, since I think the first tier was about 1,000 and we had to move up to the next tier. Adding devices worked immediately and we never had a problem. Everything was very good in terms of scalability.
How are customer service and support?
I never had to request help from TTI's customer support. However, I used the documentation they provided and it was quite clear. It was never necessary to open a ticket or anything like that.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
When I arrived at the company, The Things Stack AWS Launcher for LoRaWAN was already in use. Before that, it seems they used another one, but I was not there, so I do not have any knowledge of that.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Regarding prices, the prices are relatively low, since by only acquiring the gateway and the devices, it is quite cheap. Although when we execute a project we have CAPEX, which can be the cost of the gateways, they are not that expensive either, and one with a long range might cost $1,000. Compared to the devices we are adding, which is very scalable, and the business model that the platform has of charging you for every 1,000 devices and then you move up to a new tier, it seems that all in all, it is a good experience with regard to prices and resource costs.
What other advice do I have?
The advice I give is to try to be very organized with your projects because sometimes you assign devices from many clients in the same place and that can be a bit chaotic. Also, remember to correctly register all the LoRaWAN credentials of all your devices because sometimes they get lost or sometimes there are misconfigurations, and you have to delete it and add it again. Since the device is in the field, you have to be especially careful with the databases of these devices: the DevEUI, the AppEUI. Those two are the most important ones I remember, but you have to be very organized with the management of the device credentials.
I want to thank the developers because The Things Stack AWS Launcher for LoRaWAN is quite useful for those of us who work in this IoT field, and I hope they can develop new features that allow us to further simplify the work, such as FOTA, which I have already mentioned several times. I am rating this product a 10.
