Adding Gateways

Adding Gateways using the Console

In addition to the written instructions below, a video with instructions for adding a gateway is available on The Things Network youtube channel.

Go to Gateways in the top menu, and click + Add Gateway to reach the gateway registration page.

Fill the Gateway ID, Gateway EUI (if your gateway has an EUI) and Frequency Plan. The other fields are optional. Click Create Gateway to finish.

Your gateway will be created and you will be redirected to the gateway overview page of your newly created gateway.

You can now connect your gateway to The Things Stack.

Create Gateway API Key

Some gateways require an API Key with Link Gateway Rights to be able to connect to The Things Stack.

In order to do this, navigate to the API Keys menu of your gateway and select Add API Key.

Enter a name for your key, select the Link as Gateway to a Gateway Server for traffic exchange, i.e. write uplink and read downlink right and then press Create API Key.

You will see a screen that shows your newly created API Key. You now can copy it in your clipboard by pressing the copy button. After saving the key in a safe place, press I have copied the key. You will not be able to see this key again in the future, and if you lose it, you can create a new one to replace it in the gateway configuration.

Set Gateway Location

Once you have added your gateway to The Things Stack, you can also set its location to be displayed on a map widget by clicking Change location settings.

If you do not mind your gateway’s location to be publicly displayed, check the Publish location box.

The gateway location can be manually set by entering the Latitude, Longitude and Altitude values.

You can also check the Update from status messages box if you want to update the location based on the metadata from the incoming uplink gateway status messages. The location settings you manually entered will be overwritten by the updates from the gateway status messages.

Adding Gateways using the CLI

We define some user parameters that will be used below:

GTW_ID="gtw1" 
FREQUENCY_PLAN="EU_863_870"
GTW_EUI="00800000A00009EF"
USER_ID="admin"

Make sure to modify these according to your setup.

First, list the available frequency plans:

ttn-lw-cli gateways list-frequency-plans

Then, create the first gateway with the chosen frequency plan:

ttn-lw-cli gateways create $GTW_ID \
  --user-id $USER_ID \
  --frequency-plan-id $FREQUENCY_PLAN \
  --gateway-eui $GTW_EUI \
  --enforce-duty-cycle

This creates a gateway gtw1 with user admin as collaborator, frequency plan EU_863_870, EUI 00800000A00009EF and respecting duty-cycle limitations. You can now connect your gateway to The Things Stack.

Create Gateway API Key

Some gateways require an API Key with Link Gateway Rights to be able to connect to The Things Stack.

Create an API key for the gateway:

API_KEY_NAME="API key for connecting my gateway"
ttn-lw-cli gateways api-keys create \
  --name $API_KEY_NAME \
  --gateway-id $GTW_ID \
  --right-gateway-link

The CLI will return an API key such as NNSXS.VEEBURF3KR77ZR.... This API key has only link rights and can therefore only be used for linking this gateway. Make sure to copy the key and save it in a safe place. You will not be able to see this key again in the future, and if you lose it, you can create a new one to replace it in the gateway configuration.

Set Gateway Location

Once you have added your gateway to The Things Stack, you can also set the locations of the gateway antennas.

Add an antenna and set its location with:

LAT="43.84"
LONG="18.32"
ALT="500"
ttn-lw-cli gateways set $GTW_ID \
  --antenna.location.latitude $LAT \
  --antenna.location.longitude $LONG \
  --antenna.location.altitude $ALT \
  --antenna.add \

If you do not mind your gateway’s location to be publicly displayed, append the --location-public flag.

You can also set the gateway location to be updated from various sources with the --antenna.location.source flag. The source of the location data can be the registry, GPS data, results of the LoRa RSSI geolocation, etc.

Use ttn-lw-cli gateways set $GTW_ID --help command to see the full list of the available location sources and other relatable info. Keep in mind that if you set the alternative location source, the location settings you manually set will be overwritten by the automatic updates from that source.

The CLI will return something like:

{
  "ids": {
    "gateway_id": "gtw1"
  },
  "created_at": "2020-05-27T14:43:13.606Z",
  "version_ids": {
  },
  "auto_update": true,
  "antennas": [
    {
      "location": {
        "latitude": 43.84,
        "longitude": 18.32,
        "altitude": 500,
        "source": "SOURCE_REGISTRY"
      }
    }
  ],
  "location_public": true
}